Family stories are one of my favorite sub-genres in literature, from the classic family conversations in Pride and Prejudice to the contemporary trials of the families in Other People’s Houses. Whether it’s a family you’re born into or one you…
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During the hot, California summer, having run through my stack of library books, I’d climb up to the top floor of our house and grab one of the Robert B. Parker paperbacks my parents had stacked underneath an end table.…
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Summary In the years between the beginning of World War I and the postwar era of World War II, an unlikely group comes together in Chawton, England, each drawn by a connection to Jane Austen and her work. One hundred…
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While we don’t know what summer will be like this year, the draw of a summer reading list is still something to count on! Below, I’ve rounded up ten books I’ll be looking forward to reading over the next few…
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The Summary Cristina Caboni’s The Binder of Lost Stories is a combination of realistic and historical fiction that will appeal to fans of descriptive writing and mysteries that wind across centuries. At the center of the novel is Sofia Bauer,…
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Looking for a royally fascinating, distracting read? I find that sometimes diving into a different period of history for a while can help me take a break from current events by letting me learn about something new and the British…
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A couple weeks before everything turned upside down, I had requested Mary Oliver’s essay collection Upstream from the library and was lucky enough to have it on hand as we started our isolation. The slim volume is Oliver’s reflections on…
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Before I picked up Other People’s Houses, I wondered if I possibly needed to read yet another book about the secrets and personal lives of the occupants of a suburban neighborhood. It turns out that if it is written by…
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While I like to keep my “work books” (as a school librarian) and my “home books” (aka those written for adults) generally separate, I’ve found myself reading and enjoying several middle grade novels lately. If you’re looking for a whimsical…
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Recently I (Katie) found myself slogging through a book that I’d been looking forward to for months. I kept pushing through because it was an author I liked and the plot sounded intriguing, but I found myself thinking “hurry up…