The Witches of BlackBrook Trilogy by Tish Thawer

Earlier this month I bought a t-shirt with the quote "we are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn."  I decided to search for the origin of this quote.  It appears the original author is unknown, but the quote appears as the introductory hook to the first book in this trilogy The Witches of BlackBrook.  So I purchased it along with the two sequels, The Daughters of Maine and The Sisters of Salem, on the recommendation of Amazon.

The first novel alternates between the present day in a small town in upstate New York and the past, particularly Ipswich, Massachusetts in the 1600s.  Of course, we know that time period includes the Salem Witch Trials.  The main character, Trin, is a witch who was to be burned at the stake.  She performed a spell intended to transport herself and her sisters to a safe place.  Instead, all true witches present were sent to the future, dispersed among the Northeast.  Trin and her two sisters spend each lifetime searching for each other, but only two succeed each time until now.

I don't want to spoil too much in the plot, as this is a kinda whodunit.  And then there are two sequels which further develop the story.  In all honesty though, the 3 could have been one longer book instead of 3 overlapping ones.    

Greatest trilogy I've ever read?  No.  Terrible?  Also no.  A good series to get lost in when you need to escape to reality?  Yep.  I'll be donating the three to our collection and adding them once I have a working label printer again.

Remember all opinions expressed on this blog and the video version of it are solely those of Mrs. W. 

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

This is review #2 for today 9/7/21.

Full disclosure, I actually read this in 2019 for another purpose (one of my former side gigs), so I could not review it here.  This is the Teachers' Book Club selection for September 2021, and since I no longer have said side gig, I figure after two years I can review it here.  

I. Love. This. Book.  

And apparently so do many of you, because I can't keep it on the shelf.  Thus, once we decided to make this a selection, I bought it again to donate a second copy.  You KNOW a book has to be good for me to dedicate space to a 2nd!  I read this over this weekend to prepare.  I'm eagerly awaiting our club's meeting!

Kya is a small child, the youngest in a poor family living on the marshy coast of North Carolina.  Her older siblings and mother leave to escape her abusive alcoholic father, who eventually leaves her too.  Kya learns to survive on her own, harvesting mussels and smoking fish and tending a garden. A young man named Tate teaches her to read, but she is also pursued by Chase, the star quarterback (moreso as the wild Marsh Girl than actual love).  

in 1969, Chase is found murdered in the marsh, and Kya (poor, uneducated) is the primary suspect. 

I don't want to spoil any more.  You HAVE to read this, and you HAVE to keep reading until the very end.  I can tell you that Ms. Marcella jumped up off her couch accidentally flinging one of her cats she was so shocked.  I cried the first time and I cried again Sunday.  

I will be adding this to our collection as soon as my printer is fixed and I can make labels again.

Remember that all opinions expressed on this blog or the video version of it are solely those of Mrs. W. 

Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus

Good morning! First, a happy new year to our Jewish faculty, staff, and students! Today will be a two-fer of a book I didn't care for and a book I really loved! Let's start with the one I really didn't like.

I am usually a fan of the odd, weird, and strange.  So a coming of age story that blends with an alien abduction story sounded great, which I was I put this on last year's order.  Over the past few months, I've started, stopped, restarted, and tried again, but I simply could NOT get into this.  This weekend my son biked the Tour de Lyme (26 miles!), so I had a lot of time to kill.  This was one of the 2 books I brought.  I finally gave up for good about 1/2 of the way in.

Liv is a high school senior in a small town.  Her father was one of the school's English teachers and drama/theater advisor.  A few years ago he disappeared, then reappeared naked and crazed on the main road.  Claiming he had been abducted by aliens, he descends into madness in an effort to trap said aliens.  He is fired from his teaching job and then disappears again.

Another teen, Doug, whom I'd call a survivalist had been Liv's father's understudy in trying to trap the aliens, but Liv has had enough pretending to be nice and keep trying.  OF COURSE the day she decides to tell Doug off, they catch one.

I couldn't keep going. I honestly felt no sympathy for Liv, no empathy for Doug, no hope for her father.  

Now, what does not interest me enough to keep reading doesn't mean it won't interest you.  This will still be part of our collection and available to check out.

Stay tuned for the next review.

Remember that all opinions expressed on this blog and the video version of it, are solely those of Mrs. W.

The Poetry of r.h. Sin

Hello again.  This the 2nd review for today.

I have two "books" from New York based poet r.h. Sin to talk about today.  I use books in quotes because these poems first appeared as tweets, limited by the characters on Twitter then those that could fit in a frame on Instagram.  The ones I have here today are Whiskey, Words, and a Shovel I and Planting Gardens in Graves I.  There are several volumes in each series, and the series add together to be a blog of sorts of Sin's life, beginning the with the end of his previous relationship on to his marriage to his wife Samantha.  We have several of the volumes, requested by a former student. 

Sin (real name Reuben Holmes) has been labelled a Black Straight Male Urban Feminist.  I do not think he set out to be labelled as such, but alas the labels Human and Good Man got him treated poorly.  He wanted his previous girlfriend to see him as Good Man, but her education as a woman in the 2000s meant not so good men have hurt her in ways he, someone labelled a "male feminist" cannot get her to see beyond.

young woman

do not compromise yourself

for someone who refuses

to do right by you 

("inconsiderate", 117)

These poems hurt.  As a woman, to read how this man values women, hurts.  It hurts that so many men do not place value on certain traits, instead objectifying. Just today, a women's team is penalized for covering their legs.  In a month, will a female student be sent to the office for showing too much leg?  We can't win:

women are made 

to appear crazy

by the very men

who drive them

to the place of insanity 

("insanity driven", 45)

This is a personal journey, from the death of one relationship to the blossoming of another (shovel, bury, flowers...) and how both Sin and Samantha grow.  These poems are NOW as two Black Americans during a tumultuous time (2015-18): 

my brown skin

will not be a burden

my brown skin

will not be my enemy

I love me

regardless of their hate

("pride in brown", 108)

They, both the couple and the poems, are modern relationships with social media, instant communication, and never ending news getting in the way of being fully present with the other human sitting right next to you. I am guilty of this too.  I'll be sitting right next to my husband while we are both on our phones, instead of "being" together.

All opinions expressed on this blog and the video version of it are solely those of Mrs. W. 

The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King

Good Last Thursday of July!  This summer is really flying by!

This review is the first of two today, in case you are reading or watching in any sort of order.

Now, before you go hitting the back button or the pause button depending on how you view these simply because it's Stephen King, let me stop you.  This isn't horror.  It's not even really thriller.  This is medieval fantasy (as an aside, King's horror fans initially hated it; this reaction became the basis for his next book about an author, Misery). There's kings and queens and princes, the poor riff raff of the kingdom, an evil wizard/sorcerer/magician, true love, revenge, escape...actually I'm sounding a lot like the Grandpa in The Princess Bride trying to convince the sick kid to listen to the book!  Which, if you'll permit me, is kinda how I found this.

I have read this probably a dozen or more times.  I first read it in 1994, when I was a freshman myself (point here: my son will be a freshman in a month's time).  My Dad had grabbed the paperback on sale at Walden (the book store that used to be in the mall) on a whim.  After he read it, knowing I loved The Princess Bride, he handed it over.  I fell in total love with it.

So why read a book over and over?  This book is like a comfort.  I can safely escape to the Kingdom of Delain when I don't need to be fully present.  Thus, Friday, facing the aforementioned son's 3+ hour 3rd Degree Black Belt test (and screaming younger siblings and awkward parents attempting small-talk), this was my "please don't bother me, I'm reading" excuse.  

Roland is an aging King, a widower who lost his beloved wife Sasha in childbirth of their second son Thomas.  Roland dies of poison, and his oldest son Peter is convicted and sentenced to life in prison.  The reader knows very early on the King's advisor (magician, wizard, etc.) Flagg is really to blame.  That's all I'm giving on the plot.  You just have to trust me you will NOT want to put this down.  If you are a true Stephen King follower, you recognize our villain--he appears in The Stand and The Dark Tower.

And, Stephen King certainly leaves the door open to a sequel, but there hasn't been one...yet.  Oh, and the rights to the movie where optioned in 2019...

All opinions expressed on this blog and the video version of it are solely those of Mrs. W. 

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Hello! My family and I are back from our vacation and staycation.  We postponed our West Coast trip AGAIN! This was the book I took with us to read during down time. 

This was recommended by a colleague, another teacher at WHHS.  

My feelings about it are mixed.  First, it's VERY long.  There are 3 distinct parts within the story, and honestly each portion could have been a much shorter novella that might've made chunking it out easier.  Second, I found the two leads', Loreda (a teen) and her mother Elsa, relationship way too cliche and predictable.  

So, those 3 parts: 

A. Elsa is the ugly duckling among her high society parents' daughters.  Doomed to a life of spinsterhood, she has a passing fling with an Italian (which is scandalous in 1921 Texas), resulting in pregnancy.  Shunned, Elsa moves in with her new husband Rafe's parents and does everything possible to become the perfect daughter-in-law.  But Rafe is never happy with their lives as poor farmers and disappears in the middle of the night.

B. Fast forward to 1934.  The Depression, combined with a Great Drought, have decimated the farm.  Elsa, her parents-in-law, and her two children live in poverty, barely alive.  Elsa makes the choice to migrate to California, where are jobs are supposed to be plenty.

C. Elsa and her kids Loreda and Tony are at the mercy of farm and camp owners, stuck in a vicious cycle of debt, work, credit and become involved in the workers' rights movement.  Lucky to have even survived living in a tent, they face discrimination as poor migrants.

This is most definitely NOT a happy story, although I did smile at the ending.  Also, as all libraries look to build inclusive, diverse, and equitable collections, I think this novel is a qualified addition in speaking to the experiences of migrant farm workers, poor and immigrant but white families, working women of the 20s and 30s, and union activism.

I will be donating this when we return.

A reminder all opinions expressed on this blog or a video version of it, are solely mine. 

Sadie by Courtney Summers

 What would you do to protect your siblings or child?  

How far would you go to get revenge on someone who hurt your sibling or child?

For me, my sisters are 7 and 10 years younger than me.  They are my babies.  I would do anything to protect them.  I am a mother too of my own child.  

Sadie and Mattie were raised in a trailer park in the boondocks of Colorado.  Their mother Claire would disappear for days and even weeks, suffering from mental illness and an addict, with a string of useless boyfriends, some kinder than others.  The girls were in essence raised by the trailer park owner, a grandmotherly figure named May Beth.  

When she is 13, Mattie is brutally murdered.  Sadie is convinced their mother's ex Keith is who killed Mattie.  It also becomes clear Keith had been sexually abusing at least Sadie, who may have taken more abuse in a deal to leave Mattie alone.

Sadie sets out on a mission to kill Keith, but her belongings and car are found with no trace of Sadie.

That is where a reporter picks up her story in a serialized podcast.

I don't want to spoil too much, but this story will not let you put it down.  I HAD to finish it and know if Sadie gets her revenge.  This isn't an "easy" read, and I was angry to the point of shaking at some of the vignettes of flashback Sadie has as memories with her abuser. 

Find this on display when we go back in August.

All opinions expressed on this blog and the video version of it are solely mine.