book reviews

A Wannabe Discourse on Immigration and Empowerment Author: Angie Cruz In the 1960s Dominican Republic, fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion is content, despite the cloud that hangs over her in the form of the Ruiz brothers and her mother’s endless ambition. For years the brothers have visited the family, drinking and socializing, pouring out ominous attention on the young girls. And now, Ana is to wed one – the up-and-coming Juan. Ana’s future, her hopes and dreams, are to be traded by her family for the possibility of more land, more money, and an eventual ticket to America. No one cares what [...]

Mystery, Adventure, Love, and a Thing Called a Tesser Author: Madeleine L'Engle It was a dark and stormy night, and in a spooky loft a little girl is trying and failing to sleep through a storm. This girl is Meg and along with her five-year old, prodigy brother, Charles Wallace, she is about to undergo an adventure that will take her across space and time until she finds her missing father. On this journey, she’ll meet three curious old women (Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit), a charming new friend (Calvin), a thing called a tesser, and the power [...]

Close Friendships are the Dreams of Children Author: Tana French By the time readers reach the fourth book in Tana French’s loosely associated Dublin Murder Squad series, we are fully in love with the complexity and lyricism of French’s world. Here there are no heroes or villains, merely broken people and emotionally resonate timelines filled with regret, loneliness, yearning, and, of course, murder. This time, we’re at St. Kilda’s, an elaborate boarding school for privileged teenage girls. Its partner school for boys, Colms, butts up against the property and the interactions between the inmates of both places results in all [...]