“In the times of greatest darkness, the light always shines through, because there are people who stand up to do brave, decent things…it doesn't matter what you were born to be. It matters what you choose to become.” —Kristin Harmel, The Forest of Vanishing Stars
Is Rae talkin’ book besties? She’s forever mine. When it comes to the very best pages, she has yet to steer me wrong—Rae put the rock in rock-solid, folks. I can’t wait to get eyeballs on her latest recommendations. Love me the good stuff. Meanwhile, here are a few of my latest reads that qualify as “finger flippers.”
Lucy’s makin a name for herself
Sharee and I both pounced on this late-February release. I’ve never read a Lucy Foley novel, not one, so I thought I’d give her a try. She had me turning pages. And she had me guessing. How ‘bout we let a dedicated crime fiction blogger do the honors for this cloak-and-dagger novel? “The Paris Apartment reads like a cross between Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, Riley Sager’s novel Lock Every Door, and the game of Clue; this immersive mystery delights and thrills in equal measure, weaving an engrossing tale that will keep readers guessing whodunnit until the book’s final pages.” Me and Sharee agree—this little thriller warrants 4 stars for plot twists alone.
P.S. This probably isn’t well suited for your mom’s book-of-the-month selection; a somewhat steady stream of f-bombs get dropped in the chic Parisian apartment building where everyone’s a suspect.
Kwame’s got game
We’ve been accused of not reviewing enough children’s lit here at 2@27. Guilty as charged. Forgive me, and thank my 14-year-old boy, Jonah, who procrastinated his English assignment and had to read a book in less than 24. My first thought: You know I’m an English teacher, right? What I verbalized: Should we listen to The Crossover? Jonah was game. The main character Josh Bell, a twin brother and baller at heart, felt totally relatable to Mista Jones. We both loved Kwame’s “mad beats.” Poetry in forward motion. Here’s a fantastic snippet, an ode to Josh’s hair:
If my hair were a tree
I’d climb it.
I’d kneel down beneath
and enshrine it.
I’d treat it like gold
and then mine it.
Each day before school
I unwind it.
And right before games
I entwine it.
These locks on my head,
I designed it.
And one last thing if
you don’t mind it:
That bet you just made?
I DECLINE IT.
I think anyone who can get kids to love a book written entirely in free verse poetry deserves a medal—glad Newberry thought so too. Personally, I love the theme that even imperfect families are where it’s at.
Kristin does it again
Why do I feel like Kristin Harmel and I should be fast friends? Because we’re equally obsessed with Nazi Germany? Uniformly preoccupied with remarkable stories of survival against all odds that ultimately inspire hope and other glorious feelings? Really the only difference between us is she actually writes motivating stories and I just think about it. I find, like me, she is a teacher. In The Book of Lost Names, she taught me about the value of forgers for Jewish children trying to escape the evils of the Nazi regime. In The Forest of Vanishing Stars (also based on true events), I learned about courageous partisan fighters who risked their lives to hide Jewish refugees in the depths of the wild Naliboki Forest. To the British author who said this story will “touch, educate, transform, and uplift,” Ima holla back, Amen!