by Laura DeNooyer | Nov 7, 2023 | Book Reviews
Some of my favorite middle school memories are bicycling to the baseball diamond and keeping score for my cousin’s team. It was a boy’s team, of course. It was the 1970s. No option for girls to play in my small Michigan town. But this was the closest I could get to...
by Laura DeNooyer | Oct 24, 2023 | Book Reviews
During the last few days of my mother’s life, she was in a hospice facility which proved to be the best possible place she could have been for receiving care, comfort, and compassion. My sister and I stayed with her—even overnight—for four days straight. We...
by Laura DeNooyer | Oct 18, 2023 | Book Reviews
I appreciate authors who tackle difficult topics. Amanda Wen is one of those. In The Songs That Could Have Been, she takes on three issues: bulimia, alcoholism, and a mixed race romance. Each occurs in separate timelines of a split-time novel. A few facts about...
by Laura DeNooyer | Sep 26, 2023 | Book Reviews
Writing a novel is challenging enough. But tackling issues that nobody likes to talk about can take that challenge to a whole new level. Especially when an author wants to give those topics a sensitive treatment, incurring empathy for the protagonist while conveying...
by Laura DeNooyer | Sep 12, 2023 | Book Reviews
Who doesn’t love a castle setting for a novel? Especially in the British countryside. Reading The Lost Manuscript by Mollie Rushmeyer gave me the opportunity for a little armchair travel to a spectacular castle in Northumberland in northeastern England. It’s...
by Laura DeNooyer | Aug 29, 2023 | Book Reviews
How has your life been touched by mental illness? Do you know someone who struggles from depression, anxiety, OCD, ODD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD, or eating disorders? Maybe that person is in your own family. But if not, you don’t have to look far. ...
