The Ardent Reader

While I was working through my mental health challenges in the past few years, I found some books that allowed me to heal from the trauma I...

For the past four years or so, my personal life really took a hit.  I've been a bit stuck in my writing as I sorted out some things.  Bu...

I just finished this book. It was 277 pages and I read it in a few hours while recovering from a stomach bug.  Truth be told, I loved the To...

This short story knocked my socks off. Levar Burton chose "You Perfect, Broken Thing" for the 106th episode of his "Levar Bur...

  This book made me laugh out loud. At the present moment, books that make me laugh out loud are something I appreciate.  Don's life is ...

Yes. I'm sorry.  I have been reading a lot of very specific, emotionally charged books that have been pertinent to the current state of ...

Jack London is best known for his exploration of the unknown. Today, he'd be known as an "immersion experience junkie." I came...

Let's talk science fiction. If you've read this blog for any length of time, you probably know I don't read many science ficti...

Dear readers, if you know anything about me, you know I love dynamic characters! Oliver Clock is a sweet, gentle, middle-aged man with a...

Before I begin this review, let me say that I have multiple family members who are (or have been) in the military. Some of them would like E...

I like books about healthcare. I work in healthcare in a non-clinical capacity and I absolutely love what I do. I always wanted to help ot...

I will remember this book forever, for two reasons: I felt so close to the character in his bumbling yet determined exploration of the w...

Good morning/afternoon/evening, whenever you are reading this! An odd coincidence got me thinking that it's time to get started agai...

I LOVE MIRNA VALERIO. She is the bomb. For my 200th book, I'm featuring A Beautiful Work in Progress, a book about a woman that does...

This is one of those books that SCREAMS for your attention long after you've finished reading its pages. On August 6, 1945, the Unit...

I'm no expert on the Holocaust, but I have read quite a few books and consider myself relatively knowledgeable on the topic. I was qui...

Mark Kurlansky has written exhaustive books on everything from the history of the American oyster to the story of Clarence Birdseye and fr...

Celia Fremlin wrote this book before she died. Her publisher, Faber & Faber, reached out to me to read the book and write a review of ...

Last week, I mentioned this book to my boss and told him I thought it was one of Michael Crichton's last books written before he died....

Well, this was one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. I'm not sure what your political views are, but I have been clo...

There are only so many short books that are as memorable as this one. The life of Frederick Douglass narrated by himself is a crushing, fa...

Damn, this book was funny... and also, not so funny. So many people died because of the insane cures that were detailed in this book. Qu...

The movie was beautiful, poignant, and well made, but the book had more of an impact on me. I was happy to have it as company on a really ...

I am so-o-o-o lucky to have a coworker who is happy to share her advanced listener's copies of audio books. That's how I got my ha...

The author of The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons wrote this book last year and it was heralded by everyone who read it as amazing. I...

Well now that I've got my blog back, I thought I'd review one of the five or six books I've read during the month of May. 😉  ...

When Esther kindly invited me to contribute to her inspirational and successful blog, I wasn’t sure what to write about.  Perhaps I shou...

As an 18 y.o., first-year, university student, I took some of my poems to my Humanities professor. I knew I was supposed to be thinking ab...

You say I live in the past That I retell stories of what was You offer me a future A golden brick path Cool, deep rivers of safety Wi...

Your job. The relationship that’s a dead end. That boss who seems to delight in your suffering. Stepping on the scale and seeing the n...

The politics of color. Sure, the first thing that comes to mind is black and white referencing our nation’s great racial divide, or maybe...