Two Bluestockings

               Reyna Favis plunges us into the mind of our narrator, Fia, as she flees from a seven-year-old ghost boy. Just as she is about to make her escape, the ghost boy grabs her hand. Trying not to cause alarm in the man with her—who can’t see the boy—Fia tries to shake him off. When the boy refuses to let go, she attempts to blast him with her mental powers. Enter Zackie, a psychopomp who has taken the shape of a search dog. (Don’t know what a psychopomp is? I didn’t either. It’s a mythical creature who ferries the dead to the next life.) **Spoiler alert, psychopomps don’t like it when you fight their babies.**             Favis is laying the groundwork for a series in this book. Her characters are fleshed out well, so you don’t feel like they’re lacking. However, there are allusions to pasts that aren’t fully revealed. Fia doesn’t know who her parents are, and her foster parents assumed her visions of ghosts were symptoms of schizophrenia. Cam, the British man who “handles” (I

I am not the self-help one in the group. I personally avoid my feelings and emotional self as often as I possibly can. My mother laughs at me because I hate being alone. The silence is loud. And silence is good for your mind to be like: "Hey. Let’s discuss all the things you have shoved in these boxes in the basement." (I hoard unpleasant things in my brain. I admit it! Jayna, don’t even try to psych me!) That being said, this book is a little similar to the relationship book He’s Just Not That Into You (yes, it is also a movie). That is the only self-help book I read because I wanted it, and I loved it. This book seemed like it would be well suited for a younger audience, late middle and high school ages. It has no sexual context to it, but is about the reader--written in a generic ‘she’ pronoun to correlate with the author’s gender/preferred pronoun--learning how to move on and let go of those relationships that many teenagers find themselves in. The vicious cycle of "

This book came to me during an incredibly busy week. I opened it up, scanned the first few pages, and said, "This is not for me." It had a lot of references to men feeling emasculated if their wives worked and women being fake to keep the peace. I almost put it down, but I'm glad I didn't. (First, you should know that my specialty is researching women's mental health, which is why I react so strongly to these implications.) Thankfully Lomazoff-Marron is also not a fan of such things either, because her women not only rose from the ashes of their lives, they came back stronger and more authentic. The book begins with Jonathan and Meredith Perkins. Jonathan is painted as the hard worker with "business acumen," whose business is booming. Meredith is the art history major turned housewife, who attempts to find contentment in decorating her house. Enter federal agents, who arrest Jonathan for fraud and embezzling. The Perkins' world crumbles, and Meredith

Summary:                André is the Best Big Brother is a story dealing with the transition of family growth. The book begins when André wakes up the morning his new baby sibling is coming home. At first he is excited, but when André begins to struggle with this new change, his parents must guide him through his confusing emotions. When his mother offers to let him hold the new baby, things change once again for André and he is able to find new ways in which they can interact as a family. In André is the Best Big Brother young readers will see André cope with the various emotions children often experience when a new sibling comes home. André can help guide children through the confusing emotions of jealousy and insecurity to the truth that when a family grows, so does love. Review:  As a librarian and a lover of children’s literature there are several things I look for when I pick up a children’s book. I am a firm believer that you shouldn’t talk down to children. I know that a child

No one prepares you to walk alongside your spouse as they suffer from any sort of long-term illness. You receive an overwhelming amount of information, the stress keeps you from sleeping, and somehow, you are supposed to continue doing the day-to-day activities like you are 100% fine. Enter Armored by Dawn F. Landry. This book is the memoir of Dawn’s journey alongside her husband, Daran, as he battled (and beat) cancer and as he recovered from a massive stroke. It is a testament to their faith, their passion to encourage others during their own trials, and their resilience. In this book, caregivers will find advice on how to advocate for those in their care—how to make sure that they are supported and encouraged during their illness. There are tips for setting boundaries and providing emotional support. Best of all, there are tips for organizing all the information from the various health professionals that they deal with. (Dawn even offers free printouts for y

Okay, so I have a confession. I love books like this. Not only are the titles confusing and fun, I make a movie up in my head of what the plot is before I start the book. I don’t even read the back of the book, I make my own Hallmark version in my mind, then dive in. For better or for worse. Because, let’s be honest for a minute, sometimes these books are train wrecks that you just have to look at because you are stuck in traffic, and you left the real book in your other bag. I can happily say that this book is not one of those. This book is cute and funny and more on the realistic side than other books in this category. (The only thing I will mention is the criminology aspect had some incorrect procedures, but I will leave my college education on the party killer side of my brain). I enjoyed the characters. They are all loveable, honest and reminded me of my own family. We are loud, we love each other to a fault, and we meddle by accident because most of us are fixers. So we fix. Whic

This is one of those things we all do. If you read a lot of books, you have come across a book you just could not finish. And let me tell you, I loathe this. I wish I was one of those people who could power through a book that doesn’t grab them, but I am not. These are five books that I could not finish, no matter how hard I tried. 1: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is the most recent I was unable to finish. And I tried, believe me. Jayna gave it high praise and Jane Eyre , by Emily's sister Charlotte, was great. So I gave it a go. I made it 10 pages in and HAD TO STOP. It felt like my brain was coming out of my nose, and I needed the feeling to cease and desist. I apologize to anyone who loves this book. Classics are just not for me. They are too formal. Why do you have to talk to me like I am your grandmother you only see on holidays because you want the inheritance? 2: Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King is one I hate to say. I love Mr. King’s book, but this book does not sou

          I do not have the poet's soul that Aarika has, so I was quite nervous to read this book. Shiva contacted us via email, and he struck  me as an extremely warm individual, which also makes it difficult for this critic. Aarika says I have no soul--she has also not seen me ugly cry over Old Yeller .          Shadow: Unparalleled Waves of LIFE was intended to be part of a collective effort between Shiva Vangala and his cousin, Satheesh Kotoju. They wanted to write and publish with the pen name SanthuSnehama, however this dream ended when Satheesh died unexpectedly in 2019.           The book is very short, clocking in at 16 poems. It is beautifully illustrated, and each poem has its own black and white illustration that helps to convey its meaning.          When read with the knowledge that this was to be a collected effort, you can feel a spectrum of emotions. In some, Shiva captured his grief at his cousin's death. In others, you feel the confusion of a young man enterin

  Cory Cowley is on her way to great things. Even though her review fell to Aarika, and Aarika has had the majority of contact with her through her review process, I have found Cory to be a very interesting person. She seems to be such a queen of darkness on her Instagram, so I will admit that I chuckled to find that she is really a giant nerd. I don’t know what I expected. The Queen of the Night? Maleficent, the dark fairy from Sleeping Beauty ?  We reached out to her with some interview questions, because she is fast accumulating a cult following. She’s breaking into Amazon’s top 100 Horror books as well, which is no surprise if you read over the reviews, which reinforce Aarika’s glowing review. (My favorite: “Heaven and hell have similar addresses.”) Someday, I’ll write up a transcript of what Aarika said during the week we did this review. It looked a lot like: “Jayna. Jayna. JAYNA! OMG! THIS BOOK!”  With the introduction out of the way...I present to you the exclusive Two Bluestoc

When I opened Bending Reality by Cory Cowley, I was not sure what to expect. The cover of the book gives you heavy Clive Barker vibes, and the description of the book does as well. This book is brutal, poetic, and leaves you feeling like you are being covered in the proverbial slime and sulfur the book wants to expel. This book is one of those that will stay with you even when you close your page to go on about your day, making you come back again and again to find the next demon, the next leap into the unknown. This book does need to come with trigger warning for those who are easily impacted. There are descriptive scenes of torture, self-inflicted acts, violent sexual encounters, and sexual thoughts of the main character, as well as abusive relationships and drug use. This is right on par with Barker, so if you love his books, or read to fill that perverse curiosity, this book is for you. Ratings: Language: 5 out of 5. I would not be able to share a picture of this book without mul

                This post has to come with an advisory of sorts. I’m about to talk about my very private mental health, which is uncomfortable for me, but the year 2020 is helping me feel braver. I will be talking about postpartum depression. If you have it, please seek professional help. After you do that, come back here for some amazing books that can also help you. ……… After the birth of my second child, I went through a deep depression. I didn’t say a word about it for two years, even though there were at least six months that my brain felt like it was on fire and I wanted to die. I didn’t know what it was, and, because I didn’t know what it was, I internalized it as a fundamental flaw. I convinced myself that I was the problem. I drew up schedules, I prayed to be more organized, I cried over the messes…it wasn’t pretty. Turns out, I’m not the only one who internalizes that guilt. Freed, Chan, Boger, and Tompson (2012) noted that one of the most common barriers to receiving car

Welcome to the first installment of "Coffee Break Thoughts" with Aarika. During this coffee break, Aarika had to consider the following questions: Which character do you think should have survived his or her story? Which character would you kill off? The One Who Should Have Lived: Aarika Baxter Manager, Reader, Mom, Coffee Villain This one is for Queen Maas... Queen, I am coming for you! Bring back our Sam! He did not deserve the death he was given. He was a pure soul whose only crime was loving and adoring our super vain and egotistical Celaena. He showered her with love and attention, hopes and dreams, a future without death and blood, and you took that away from us. I understand why he needed to die. I do. I understand why you destroyed my heart and my commitment to the pure cinnamon rolls in your books. But Sam?! He is the reason the books happened. I get it. But it's still not fair. Give him back to us! We're not okay! You have caused us all to need therapy and w

Aarika and Jayna sent Maureen some questions to get to know her better. They are included here for your entertainment and in hopes that you will be further encouraged to check out Maureen's book Woven. The Two Bluestockings' review for that book can be found here !  Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want? I think writing is an art, and so I try to be true to myself when I write. I learned a lot about writing when working on Woven, my first novel. I learned about the difference between commercial fiction and literary fiction, after some well-meaning people tried to rework my book to make it fit a formula: intro characters, intro a problem, try to solve the problem and fail several times in spectacular fashion, solve the problem and live happily ever after. That did not work for this book and for a while I thought maybe I could not write a novel after all. But then I started to think about art and how an art dealer might have said to Picasso, “Yo