First loved it when I started the book , then was unsure, then ended really enjoying the journey. Definitely not as predictable as it thought it would be.

It was a cool sneak peak at the end of the Captain Underpants book and it was in comic style and so cool because I just saw the movie recently. Now I want to read the full Dog Man book.

4.5 stars. Jack and Annie travel to the prairie and visit a dugout schoolhouse, write with chalk on slate and befriend pioneers. They encounter a twister and have to hide in a storm cellar. This is one of their more exciting and endearing adventures.

What a sweet and lovely read! So enjoyed the PNW setting!

I listened to this audiobook of short stories on Libby after it popped on my radar as a July Indie Next pick. This is a collection of 11 tales set in the south that cover a lot of content: pregnancy, violence, sex and intimacy, church, hair, Blackness and more. Nearly all of the vignettes felt forgettable and most seemed unresolved in my opinion. The narration was solid but the stories didn’t captivate me. My hands-down favorite from the bunch was “How Does Your Garden Grow?” which is a memorable and unique depiction of fibroids.

Not long enough

3.5 stars. This book kept popping up on my radar as an emotional romance that I ultimately listened to on audio via Libby. The strengths of this book are in FMC Nadia’s clear voice and the lupus representation. I struggled with the believability of Marco’s character. While I was interested in the time-limited romance of dating just for the month of May, the love story felt a bit too intense for the rather playful premise and came off as instalove at times.

It was a very good book for teens and older kids

At the insistence of her ex, writer Lucy Barton leaves NYC at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and moves with him to a seaside house in Maine. There they spend weeks in lockdown, visiting their children only sporadically. We see pandemic restrictions through their eyes: empty store shelves, masking, washing hands - and clothes after a trip to the grocery store - and distrust of outsiders. As weeks turn to months, each ponders their shared future, their past in NYC, and the complications and unhappy surprises as 2020 becomes 2021. Readers need not have read other Strout novels to enjoy this book, but those who have already met Lucy will appreciate this deep dive into her life.

I picked up this tiny book of poetry because I have immense fondness for Sharon Creech’s novel Walk Two Moons. I blazed through this in one sitting- reading a physical copy while listening to the audiobook aptly narrated by Scott Wolf. The youthful voice of an elementary boy shines through the simple poetic prose. It took me a bit to get into the narrative but a linear story unfolds that is both sweet and tugs at the heartstrings. Moments reminded me of Beverly Cleary’s Dear Mr. Henshaw. I recommend this quick read.