Read moreCarlisle Martin dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer just like her mother, Isabel, a former Balanchine ballerina. Since they live in Ohio, she only gets to see her father Robert for a few precious weeks a year when she visits Greenwich Village, where he lives in an enchanting apartment on Bank Street with his partner, James.
Brilliant but troubled, James gives Carlisle an education in all that he holds dear in life–literature, music, and most of all, dance. Seduced by the heady pull of mentorship and the sophistication of their lives, Carlisle’s aspiration to become a dancer herself blooms, born of her desire to be asked to stay at Bank Street, to be included in Robert and James’ world even as AIDS brings devastation to their community. Instead, a passionate love affair creates a rift between them, with devastating consequences that reverberate for decades to come.
Nineteen years later, Carlisle receives a phone call which unravels the fateful events of her life, causing her to see with new eyes how her younger self has informed the woman she’s become. They’re Going to Love You is a gripping and gorgeously written novel of heartbreaking intensity. With psychological precision and a masterfully revealed secret at its heart, it asks what it takes to be an artist in America, and the price of forgiveness, of ambition, and of love.
Annotate with Me: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Part Two)
Hi y’all! I’m back with the second part of my Annotate with Me post for Little Women — you can read part one here. Volume two of Little Women, also known as Good Wives, takes place three years after the conclusion of part one, and the second half of the book really does have some of my favorite scenes in the entire book, so I’m really excited to share my thoughts with you all.
This time around, I wanted to focus on Meg and Beth, as I feel like they don’t get enough appreciation and I just adore them! So, get cozy, grab a cup of tea, and let’s talk about the less appreciated March sisters.
Read moreMini Reviews: Mary’s Hiatus Reading List
Hi, hello friends – long time no see! I’ve taken a good amount of time off of the blog due to various reasons, but I am so excited to be back talking to you all again. During my time off, my reading slump finally came to an end and I started reading frequently again. I read some really great books during hiatus, so I thought it would be fun to talk about some of them today! Without anything further, let’s get into the post!
Read moreReview: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
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As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules…with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos “pretending” to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.
But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.
As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn’t the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for….
Review: The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake
Read moreSix magicians were presented with the opportunity of a lifetime.
Five are now members of the Society.
Two paths lay before them.
All must pick a side.
Alliances will be tested, hearts will be broken, and The Society of Alexandrians will be revealed for what it is: a secret society with raw, world-changing power, headed by a man whose plans to change life as we know it are already under way.
Wrap Up: October 2022
Happy Halloween and end of the month, everyone! We hope that you’re all doing well and staying safe. As you know, with the end of the month comes our monthly wrap up! Check it out to see what we enjoyed this month!
This month Caitlyn read 13 books, and Cossette read 25 books.
Read moreBook Recommendations Based Off Of Your Favorite Song From Midnights
Happy Friday! I haven’t listened to anything but Taylor Swift’s Midnights since it came out — it truly is for the insomniac girlies like me. Since I couldn’t sleep the night it was released, I figured it’d be fun to do a book recs post based on your favorite songs on Midnights!
Read moreAnnotate with Me: Romeo and Juliet
Hi friends! Welcome back to another Annotate with Me post! As we know, I am a Shakespeare fan first and human second, so today’s post is focused on one of my most favorite Shakespeare plays — Romeo and Juliet.
Something that particularly motivated me to work on this post is that I see so many people say that the only reason why they don’t read Shakespeare is that they don’t really understand the language and that makes them feel inferior or unintelligent. That truly breaks my heart! I started reading Shakespeare when I was around fourteen, and I loved it but didn’t fully understand it. Then in college, as a theatre major, we had an entire class on Shakespeare, and my love kind of turned into an obsession because I was able to really understand and dissect his works. That is to say: no one is “not smart enough” to understand Shakespeare, you just need to spend a little more time learning how to read Shakespeare.
Shakespeare wrote for the masses, and I feel strongly that everyone should be exposed to his writing because he wrote about the spectrum of human emotion. I personally have learned so much through reading Shakespeare and that is thanks to the teachers I had who helped me understand him. While I am in no way a Shakespeare expert, I do think that I have a good grasp of his works and I would love to help others develop a love for him as well. And, to be 100% transparent I have SparkNotes and CliffsNotes open while I read as it usually helps me process my thoughts, and remember what happens in which scenes, since in the case of Romeo and Juliet, I’ve read it so many times that sometimes the minute details blend together.
So, all that being said, whether you love Shakespeare or not, I hope you enjoy hearing my thoughts, observations, and analysis on one of my all-time favorite stories, Romeo and Juliet.
Read moreTeaTimeReads: Babel Discussion Questions
Hi friends! We hope that you’ve been enjoying Babel — we sure did! We’re really excited to discuss this novel with you all and you can check out the discussion questions and our answers below!
Read moreReview: If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang
Alice Sun has always felt invisible at her elite Beijing international boarding school, where she’s the only scholarship student among China’s most rich and influential teens. But then she starts uncontrollably turning invisible—actually invisible.
When her parents drop the news that they can no longer afford her tuition, even with the scholarship, Alice hatches a plan to monetize her strange new power—she’ll discover the scandalous secrets her classmates want to know, for a price.
But as the tasks escalate from petty scandals to actual crimes, Alice must decide if it’s worth losing her conscience—or even her life.
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