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Sheine Lende Review

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This is the prequel to Elatsoe , which I read and reviewed last year. You can read that review here . Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger is about the maternal grandmother of Ellie from the first book, named Shane (well, her name is Sheine Lende meaning sunflower in the Lipan language, but everyone usually just calls her Shane). Set in the 1970s mostly in Texas, Shane and her mother Lorenza have a search-and-rescue business along with their three dogs (well, two live dogs and a ghost dog) Neal, Nealy, and Nellie. They usually search for people in their community that go missing.  But one day as they are trying to investigate the disappearance of Bobby, the younger brother of their neighbor named Donnie, Lorenza mysteriously goes missing, too! Shane, her brother Marcos, and their Grandpa Louis team up with Donnie and her grandparents to find both people. They end up going on a road trip involving all sorts of things from eccentric scientists, otherworldly creatures, and invasive m...
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June Wrap Up!

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  Copied and pasted from my Instagram page...  
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Summer of Salt Review

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So I gave this book a second chance and read it the whole way through! What did I think of it? Summer of Salt by Katrino Leno is a YA contemporary fiction novel set on a small island called By-the-Sea. The MC Georgina comes from the Fernweh family, where all the women are witches with supernatural powers, but she hasn't discovered her powers yet. Her twin sister, Mary, can fly (actually float), and their mother can make potions (actually regular drinks like teas and coffees with healing herbs in them). The family owns an inn on the island that is popular with bird enthusiasts, because everyone who visits the island come to see a redbird named Annabella lay her eggs every year. Annabella is rumored to be a Fernweh woman who turned herself into a bird for mysterious reasons.  One of these visitors is a girl named Prue and her older brother, Harrison. Georgina and Prue end up becoming close and even become girlfriends, but their joy is ruined when someone mysterious kills Annabella. E...
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Akata Witch Review

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  I finally read this whole book!  Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor is a YA urban fantasy book set in Nigeria. Sunny is a Nigerian-American albino girl who has always been ostracized by her community, but after befriending two other kids named Orlu and Chichi, she gets sucked into a secret society of people who are different like her. As it turns out, Sunny, Orlu, Chichi, and a fourth guy named Sasha are all "Leopard" people. These people are very spiritually attuned and can perform magic. This is what separates them from Lambs (ordinary people).  The four friends also get summoned to stop the ultimate plan of a serial killer named Black Hat Otokoto. If it isn't stopped, the whole world will literally end. This book was very magical and very atmospheric! It was so fun to read about Sunny stepping into her powers and finding a community of people like her. Very heartwarming.  I did give it 4.5 stars , but that's because of the more heavier elements that are present thro...
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Favorite Magical Girl Anime!

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  Kind of a spiritual successor to My Favorite Anime Series (you can look at this page and that list under the Navigation Page above).   
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Midyear Freakout Tag. 2026 Edition

  I do this tag every year sometime in June.  Check out my answers for the previous years on the Navigation page! 1. Best book you read so far this year? I've got two: The Witch Who Chases the Sun by Dawn Chen and Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura   2. Best sequel you read so far this year? Amari and the Metalwork Menace  by BB Alston and Under All the Lights by Maya Ameyaw.   3. New release you haven't read yet, but want to.  Smash or Pass by Birdie Schae 4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year. This is actually a revised edition of a book originally published in 2009, but The Diaries of Emily the Strange: The Lost Days is coming out in September 2026.   Another one is the second book of the Kiki's Delivery Service series (yes, it's a whole series) titled Kiki and the New Magic . The author is Eiko Kadono.  The book was originally published in Japanese back in 1993 and getting an English release i...
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The Best We Could Do Review

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The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui  is a graphic novel memoir about the author and her family and their story of being refugees during the Vietnam War, and how they came to live in the US. The author tells her story with the framing device of becoming a new mom, and her trying to understand her own parents and why they acted the way they did with her growing up. So it doubles as a surviving war story and a generational trauma story.  This was really great, heartfelt, and very informative! The author has some really gorgeous artwork.  I gave it 5 stars . Considering what this story is about, it has a lot of trigger warnings. Please read with caution. 
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