Review—Malala’s Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai, Kerascoët {+Giveaway!}

I’m so excited to be a part of the blog tour for Malala’s Magic Pencil! See below for information about the book and author, and for my review!

Review—Night Shift by Debi Gliori

I’ll be honest. I was intrigued by Debi Gliori’s book Night Shift but also petrified to read and review it. See, in my family, there are certain things we don’t talk about with others, certain things we don’t admit. This is the first time I’ve talked about this publicly (or, as publicly as a book review can be).

Spotlight—Amy’s Story by Anna Lawton

I’m happy to be a part of the publicity for Amy’s Story by Anna Lawton. See below to read more about the book, and about Anna Lawton!

Review—Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

It’s no secret that I admire Roxane Gay for her ability to write (An Untamed State broke me, and Bad Feminist was at turns funny, raw, and made me be so reflective it hurt to think). Her new collection of short stories out today, Difficult Women, shares the story of women—women too strong for life, who keep secrets, who give too much of themselves or choose to keep enough of themselves sacred and untouchable. It tells the story of women as we are—not how other people wish we would be.

Review Giveaway—The Rift Uprising by Amy S. Foster

I’m excited to bring you another giveaway for Amy S. Foster’s The Rift Uprising!

Self-Care Summer

Twice in our end-of-year Language Arts circle in June, teachers said they were going to use the summer to figure out who they were. One said she was going to figure out who she was when she’s not here, because the last school year had hollowed her out. The other said she needed space to remember who she is again.

As I sat and listened (because I hardly ever share much of significance, being the private person I am), I thought of the quote from The Tumbling Turner Sisters, a book I was reading at the time: “There’s something to that…What you have when you’re just you.”

All Good Things (To My Students)…

Must come to an end.

Transitions and Two Roads

“She taught me this above all else: things which don’t shift and grow are dead things.”

“There are balances and harmonies always shifting, always necessary to maintain…It is a matter of transitions, you see; the changing, the becoming must be cared for closely.”

from Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony

“When Do You Write?”

My awesome friend Mary does my hair, and when we were talking about an upcoming publication of one of my poems, and another poem I’d just started about my daughter, she asked me, “Heather, when do you write, seriously?”

Review—The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young

In The Gates of Evangeline, Charlotte Cates puts her life back together after a divorce that left her a single mother, and after an unexpected tragedy that leaves her alone, apart from her aging grandmother that lives in an assisted living facility.