Review of “Behind You” by Jacqueline Woodson

When you read a book by Jacqueline Woodson, you are filled with questions: How can anyone fill so few pages with so much emotional depth and breadth? How can she switch so seamlessly between characters who are male and female, and white and black, and seem to get them all so right? Does Woodson own [...]

Review of “The Devil’s Eye” by Jack McDevitt

In the past I have liked SciFi author Jack McDevitt enough to keep on the alert for his new books, but this one was a disappointment. There are two main plots intertwining in this episode of what I call “The Amazing Adventures of the Renowned Antiquities Expert Alex Benedict and His Assistant, The Girl Wonder [...]

Women’s History Month – Review of the Children’s Book “Catching the Moon: The Story of A Young Girl’s Baseball Dream” by Crystal Hubbard and illustrated by Randy DuBurke

Who do you think took Hank Aaron’s place on the Negro League Indianapolis Clowns when Aaron moved to the Major Leagues? It was none other than a female: thirty-two year old Toni Stone (born Marcenia Lyle). She was the first female member of an (otherwise) all-male professional baseball team. She began her career as a [...]

Review of Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff

If you are in the mood for a tearjerker romance that is predicable and not too intellectually challenging, this book will suit you. (And I’m not casting aspersions, since obviously I read this, didn’t I?!!!) Lily Davis and her husband, Paul Woodward, were only married several weeks before he was called overseas to serve in [...]

Review of “The Way of the Jaguar” by Francisco X. Stork

This is a book that I never would have picked up had it not been written by the author of Marcelo in the Real World. It’s about a lawyer who ends up on death row after an unreal series of bad events that cascade into an avalanche of catastrophes. But this author, I believe, can [...]

Women’s History Month

March is Women’s History Month! In 1981, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) cosponsored the first Joint Congressional Resolution proclaiming a “Women’s History Week.” In 1987, the National Women’s History Project petitioned Congress to expand the celebration to the entire month of March. Since then, the National Women’s History Month Resolution has [...]