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Weekend Pick for December 29, 2023

12/29/2023

Weekend Pick for December 29, 2023

For this last pick of 2023, I wanted to share a powerhouse collaborative piece that is a wonderful exploration of love, forgiveness, and all the ways we come together to support each other in the small and big moments of our lives. Whiteout written by some of the YA genres favorites, Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, Nic Stone, and Nicola Yoon begs the question: what lengths do we go to for those we love?

Stuck in a snow-blanketed Atlanta, twelve different teens ban together to help a friend pull off an epic plan to win back the love of her life with an apology of a lifetime. With the snow shutting down malls, highways, and at times communications, these friends have to find ways to accomplish their separate missions, each facing their own romantic entanglements. Full of heart and humor, this story collection demonstrates the vulnerability and risk involved in telling someone how you feel, showing up as fully yourself, and asking for the one you love to take a chance on you, too.

As we end the year, what better way to celebrate all the ways bravery, forgiveness, love, friendship, and family have met us this year than to enjoy a beautiful story that involves a little winter snow magic! Wishing you all the best as we close 2023 and turn the page to a new year full of new adventures :)

Until next year, keep reading!
Cammie

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Weekend Pick for December 22, 2023

12/22/2023

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Weekend Pick for December 22, 2023

For this weekend pick, I wanted to choose a new holiday tale that you can cozy up with that brings all the bookworm and love story energy--Love in a Winter Wonderland by Abiola Bello. This novel set in a Black-owned bookstore during the holiday season weaves together elements of family, determination, and a hate-to-love journey that will surely provide a getaway for your weekend. It is the perfect mash up of You’ve Got Mail meeting The Sun Is Also a Star.

Working at his family owned bookstore Wonderland in London, Trey is both charming and handsome though under the surface he struggles to balance the pressures he feels to maintain his job and his popularity at school. Cue Ariel Spencer who is both creative and quirky and seeking to fill an open position at Wonderland in order to earn the much needed money towards tuition for a dream art program. Together Trey and Ariel face the reality that Wonderland is in trouble with a gentrifying neighborhood that threatens to put the beloved bookstore out of business. With the Christmas Eve deadline looming, Trey and Ariel use their collective gifts to stop Wonderland from closing.

This novel is both heartwarming and romantic. Love in a Winter Wonderland is the perfect read to get you in the holiday spirit or simply enjoy a good bookstore romance!
Until next week, keep reading!
Cammie

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Weekend Pick December 15, 2023

12/15/2023

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Weekend Pick December 15, 2023

For this week’s weekend pick, I’m excited to share a debut fantasy duology perfect for fans of sweeping magic and competitions-–Judy I. Lin’s A Magic Steeped in Poison and A Venom Dark and Sweet.

First, in A Magic Steeped in Poison, readers meet Ning, a tea maker who finds herself wracked with guilt knowing that she brewed the poison tea that killed her mother and threatens to kill her sister, too. However, when Ning hears about a competition to find the kingdom's greatest shennong-shi - masters of the ancient and magical art of tea-making–she decides to take the risk and travel to the city to compete herself and potentially earn a favor from the Princess that could save her sister’s life. Full of cunning competitors, politics, and a perplexing, handsome boy–the competition brings Ning to the realization that she may be in mortal danger.

The companion, A Venom Dark and Sweet continues Ning and the Princess’s story through journeys in and outside of the kingdom with threats of poisonings, warring politicians, and internal visions of war, danger, and bloodshed. Ning must face again the unexpected twists and turns her life continues to take while practicing her art of ancient magical tea making. Without saying too much that would spoil these two mysterious, propelling stories of political intrigue and swirling magic, I would recommend cozying up with your own mug of tea and diving into Judy I. Lin’s world this weekend. The pairing of winter cold and warming tea mixes perfectly with this duology!

Until next week, keep reading!
Cammie

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Weekend Pick for December 8, 2023

12/8/2023

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Weekend Pick for December 8, 2023

For this week’s weekend pick, I would like to celebrate #disabilitydecember by recommending one of my favorite recent reads Claire Forrest’s Where You See Yourself. This novel has so much truth, humor, and beauty to make you never want to put it down!

The story begins with our determined and delightful protagonist, Effie Galanos. As senior year begins, Effie already knows exactly what she wants–to pursue her dream of becoming a digital media professional who raises awareness and representation of the disabled community in mass media. As a wheelchair user with Cerebral Palsy, Effie has always wanted to see herself and other disabled young people represented in the magazines, shows, and digital landscape. She even has secretly researched a college in NYC with a Mass Media and Society major, and pictured a whole new life for herself outside of her hometown of Minneapolis. When she finds out her long time crush Wilder is applying there too, everything seems to be pointing Effie in the right direction. But it turns out the universe has so many surprises for Effie.

Navigating the process of admissions visits, Effie learns that she must not only find the right major, but the school that makes accessibility a priority. Through all the ups and downs of her senior year, Effie confronts internal and external ableism, friendships growing and changing, and potentially pushing herself to believe growing up means possibilities can exist and even surpass our own expectations. As Wilder and Effie grow closer, there may even be an unexpected turning point from friendship to first love…to know what happens you will have to read and find out!

Claire Forrest writes in her acknowledgements to disabled readers, “...it is my sincerest hope that you found comfort, escape, and maybe even some joy in these pages. May you never forget that you, too, can be the hero of your own story, and that we deserve to be seen–and celebrated–just as we are, in all spaces, always.” I can truly say that reading Where You See Yourself made me feel all of those things–especially joy. I hope that you will grab a copy of Effie’s story because you will find a new friend to relate to and celebrate with as she takes you on her journey. Also, I highly recommend following Claire Forrest and her work as well as the #disabilitydecember celebration on Instagram for more disability reads to add to your TBR.

Until next week, keep reading!

Cammie

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Weekend Pick for December 1, 2023

12/1/2023

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Weekend Pick for December 1, 2023

Are you looking for something to read?
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For the picks from 2022 click here
For the picks from 2021 click here
For the picks from 2020 click here.
For older picks click from 2019 click here.
For the even older picks click here.

As we start off the month of December, we have a guest curator for this week, Dr. Susan Densmore- James better known as The Book Dealer. A big thank you to Susan for sharing her novel choice to start our December Weekend Picks!

Fault Lines
By Nora Shalaway Carpenter

I feel safe in saying that any avid reader can share the experience of having the “just right” book come along at just the right time. This happened to me this past week when I was fortunate enough to be gifted an advanced copy of Fault Lines by Nora Shalaway Carpenter. Carpenter is the author of the book The Edge of Anything and two marvelous anthologies (one of which I reviewed previously entitled Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories that Smash Mental Health Stereotypes, a book she edited with the amazing author Rocky Callen. This young author is quickly becoming one of favorites!

As a university professor, I spend a lot of time on zoom with my students, and I also have a 19-year-old daughter whose friends spend a lot of time at our home: I am literally surrounded by young people daily. Since COVID, there has been a drastic change in the conversations I have with our youth. Dialogue consists of their extensive laundry lists of concerns: concerns that mirror what the CDC is reporting about our youth related to stress, anxiety, and depression (CDC, 2023). Although I cannot speak for all adults, I think the vast majority of us have had the same concerns over the past three years. With issues with the economy, loss of our usual lifestyle and even loss of life due to COVID, obvious signs of global warming and environmental issues due to our lifestyle choices, and the surge of divisive political rhetoric on social media (probably exacerbated by media of all kinds), there is a lot on our minds.

Books are more important than ever, as they are powerful tools to help process, understand, and navigate the big feelings that have seemed to overwhelm the best of us since 2020. Nora Shalaway Carpenter has created a book that examines and offers guidance on so much of what is on the minds of our youth.

The story starts with a female protagonist named Vivian Spry (Viv). Carpenter’s strong creation of setting places readers in the beautiful forest near Viv’s West Virginian home-–a place she spends a lot of time hunting for food and convening with nature. The tree stand in this forest is the one spot Viv feels is her safe place–a mystical place that has helped her in dealing with the grief of the death of her mother and, most recently, experiencing the loss of her dear Aunt Elle. Viv and her father are left to endure the loss together, but even her father has become emotionally distant and her one remaining friend, Maeve, is spending more and more time with the theater clique at school. The forest also provides a hideout for Viv from the rumors being told by her ex-boyfriend—rumors which have her schoolmates falsely judging her. When her hiding place is suddenly being threatened by fracking and gas pipelines, Viv will do anything she can to protect the land she loves. The one thing she did not count on was for a new young man at her local high school to get in her way.

Senior Dex Mathews has just moved to Viv’s little town due to his mother’s job with the gas pipeline that may finally provide them a stable life. After graduation, Dex is determined to join the Army in order to be able to later attend college and become a lawyer. He knows this is the only way to ensure he and his mother will escape poverty.

As Twisted Pines is a small rural town, inevitably, the paths of Viv and Dex cross, and they are on the way to becoming friends. Viv’s pain from her ex-boyfriend’s lies have made her gun-shy in the love department, but something is different about Dex. As they get to know one another, they realize they are on opposite sides of the pipeline debate, and each of them will fight with all of their strength as they struggle to stay true to themselves and protect their families.

In addition to painting a vivid picture of setting, Carpenter’s expertise at character development has the reader falling in love with both Dex and Viv and rooting for their love story to begin and thrive! I was especially impressed with this author’s knowledge of fracking and environment issues, while at the same time realistically portraying the two sides to a very complex issue. Carpenter truly makes the reader consider both sides by writing a riveting and powerful story. I loved Viv as a strong, female character who is not afraid to do what is right, and Dex is a young man who possesses the admirable traits of loyalty, kindness, and maturity. In addition to authentic characters, Carpenter' choice in painting a rural community gives readers like myself who have never experienced life in living in a rural setting a window into a different way of life. I also found her writing enlightening regarding the debate over fracking and the health of the forests in West Virginia. The reader is left with considering the important topics of socio- economic status, the ethics of nurturing our earth, and the power of one person to make change.

Recommended by: Dr. Susan Densmore- James
The Book Dealer

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Weekend Pick for December 29, 2023

Weekend Pick for December 29, 2023

Weekend Pick for December 22, 2023

Weekend Pick for December 22, 2023

Weekend Pick December 15, 2023

Weekend Pick December 15, 2023

Weekend Pick for December 8, 2023

Weekend Pick for December 8, 2023

Weekend Pick for December 1, 2023

Weekend Pick for December 1, 2023

​Fault LinesBy Nora Shalaway Carpenter

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Fault Lines
By Nora Shalaway Carpenter