Ban The Books!

This is a great post regarding a bill in Missouri that proposes not only forming “parental library review boards” for public libraries, but also threatens to strip libraries of funding and to fine and imprison librarians!

In Saner Thought

Closing Thought–24Jan20

First I wish my mother a Happy Birthday…she would have been 99 today….I miss you Mom!

I was never told what I could read by my parents so I have a real problem with the government in any shade that wants to do what my parents never did.

I bring this up because of some ruling in Missouri…..

The bill was introduced earlier this month by Missouri state Rep. Ben Baker (R), who has argued that the measure is meant to protect children when they visit their public libraries.

“The main thing is I want to be able to take my kids to a library and make sure they’re in a safe environment, and that they’re not gonna be exposed to something that is objectionable material,” Baker told local news station KOAM. “Unfortunately, there are some libraries in the state of Missouri that have done this. And that’s…

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Girl At the Edge, by Karen Dietrich ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Psychological Suspense, Substance Abuse, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: March 3rd, 2020

368 Pages

Synopsis: A thrilling nature-vs-nurture psychological suspense novel about a daughter trying to deny her worst impulses and distance herself from her violent and dangerous father.

Not a single resident of St. Augustine, Florida can forget the day that Michael Joshua Hayes walked into a shopping mall and walked out the mass murder of eleven people.

He’s now spent over a decade on death row and his daughter Evelyn—who doesn’t remember a time when her father wasn’t an infamous killer—is determined to unravel the mystery and understand what drove her father to shoot those innocent victims.

Evelyn’s search brings her to a support group for children of incarcerated parents, where a fierce friendship develops with another young woman named Clarisse. Soon the girls are inseparable—and by the beginning of the summer, Evelyn is poised at the edge of her future and must make a life-defining choice: whether to believe that a parent’s legacy of violence is escapable or that history will keep repeating itself, whether we choose it or not.

Dark, creepy, and disturbing are the three adjectives that immediately spring to my mind after reading Girl At The Edge in one sitting last night. With some deeply unsettling scenes, this may not be a book for everyone, but I found it mesmerizing from the very first page and was unable to put it down until I came to the end. Dietrich’s writing is beautiful and quite visual which adds to the enjoyment. This isn’t an action-packed story but rather a thoughtful look at how two girls cope with living with the knowledge of their fathers’ monstrous actions. Whether nature or nurture forms the essence of who we are is an age old question, and I’m not sure if anything new is added to the debate here, but Evelyn’s battle with her own inner demons is fascinating and her story is perfect for book discussion groups with older teens. I highly recommend this with one caveat: don’t read this immediately before bed because I guarantee you’ll be up thinking about it for hours.