I could say: -The character arcs are pitch-perfect, -Or the emotional beats are spot on, -Or the themes are authentic and beautifully presented, -Or the dialogue is scintillating and age-appropriate -Or the writing is near perfect -Or I could just tell you to go out and read the damn book. P.S. This is not Middle Grade, this is Middle Grade to Infinity. There's a difference. Lisa Graff <thumbs up><thumbs up> 4.7/5 stars

If you are a fan of Chris Bohjalian, then you are familiar with his penchant for writing in the first person from the point of view of a young female main character ( Midwives; The Double Bind; Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands), and that is exactly what you get in The Amateur . And like those first two books listed, this is a true bildungsroman; it covers the evolution of the main character from adolescence to maturity and even old age. How that is accomplished in The Amateur is

The storyline of We Fell Apart revolves around a fiercely independent eighteen-year-old gamer girl, Matilda, who was not only abandoned by her father before birth but has also recently been abandoned by her mother (two years prior) and her boyfriend (days prior). While deep in a funk over these setbacks, she receives a tantalizing email from the father she has never seen or corresponded with. He is inviting her to meet at his isolated and remote artist-colony-like wooden cas

I am occasionally delighted by a discovery in the little free library down the road (and grateful for the crowd-sourced curation of this...