This week was just the week where I felt incredibly conflicted about books. I read So Sad Today on my lunch breaks. I was so excited about it. A book about a woman navigating the world and dealing with depression and other anxiety issues? Yes please! Sadly, what I encountered was a series of essays that felt …
I have been incredibly conflicted about this book. It has gotten starred reviews everywhere and everyone I have heard talking about this book absolutely love it. It honestly wasn’t a book that really spoke to me when I was reading the back of it but I read it because I was invited to a dinner …
I have to admit that I picked this book because of its cover. There are some really awesome book jacket designs right now. I feel like this book didn’t live up to its own hype. So many times throughout the book, the narrator would say things that would set up intrigue and a sense of …
In my attempts to expand my reading life, I have decided that I will be reading more short stories this year. And this collection was a great place to start. I met Lesley at Heartland Fall Forum in October where she was a speaker at the Adult Author Dinner and I was lucky enough to …
I am not usually a non-fiction reader but I tend to enjoy reading books about history when I actually sit down and read them. I do find, though, that I tend to read these books really slowly. I have a hard time reading more than a chapter at a time which means that I spend …
Being seventeen is hard. It’s even harder, though, if you can’t remember anything since you were ten-years-old. So it is for Flora Banks. That is, until she experiences her first kiss and suddenly has a new memory. Flora is the teenager I wish I could have been; brave, adventurous, and filled with wonder. I laughed …
Alright. This was the first book I read in 2017! So many books ask the question “What is a family?” but none of that tackle it in as interesting or entertaining a fashion as Kevin Wilson in Perfect Little World. Filled with thought-provoking questions and interesting ideas, I had a hard time putting this book down. …
This book is AMAZING. Alice is a 12-year-old girl who wants nothing more than an adventure. Little did she know that he adventures would take her to many interesting places (such as a town made of paper and a city that only appears at night). Perfect for fans of The Phantom Tollbooth. Mafi’s writing is fantastic and …
This book is rare for so many reasons. First of all, rarely does a book come along that has something for everyone. Secondly, it is rare that a book of this length would read so incredibly quickly. I loved each and every character in this book, including the absolutely horrible ones. Nathan Hill has a …
OK, so technically I read this a year and a half ago but it only came out last January so it counts as one of my favorite books of last year. Beautifully blending reality and a fascinating look at purgatory and the dream world, Eleanor makes you think about the world beyond what we can see. Gurley …
When one-hit-wonder author M.M. Banning needs to write her second book, she has her publishers send her an assistant which is how Alice finds herself caring for Frank, Banning’s eccentric 9-year-old son who loves old movies and wearing morning suits. Frank is one of the best characters I have read in a long time. This …
Hello all! My name is Portia and I am a bookseller at The Book Cellar in Chicago. I love to read and read way too much. In the past I tried to have a blog that talked about my reading and had reviews but it fell apart. So I am starting over fresh! My …
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