Keep Your Kids Reading During the Summer

by Donna Huber

Image by Виктория Бородинова from Pixabay

A local literacy organization that I support is committed to ending the "summer slide" by providing students in low-income areas with books that they take home at the end of the school year. Studies have shown that children can lose a grade-level or more in reading comprehension in what is known as "summer slide". However, reading every day can prevent this slide and can even improve a student's reading ability. (Learn more about Books for Keeps and how you can support them, too).

Good Buddy by Dori Ann Dupré ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

Jonathan “Buddy” Cordova is a small-time criminal defense lawyer living paycheck to paycheck and practicing law out of his house in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He likes to think of himself as a modern-day Atticus Finch, the kind of attorney who represents the poor, the indigent, the “probably guilty,” the kinds of clients who usually end up in jail. Shy, painfully awkward around pretty women, and carrying his own dark secret, Buddy falls for the daily jogger - Julie Saint, a part-time Kindergarten teacher and Army widow with a little girl named Molly.

Dear Scarlet: The Story of my Post Partum Depression by Teresa Wong ~ a Review

by MK French

Dear Scarlet is a memoir in graphic form, starting out as a letter to her daughter Scarlet. Teresa Wong outlined her thoughts and emotions with both words and pictures in this graphic novel, and we see glimpses into the reactions that her husband, mother, and friends all had in response to the depression, and then to finally getting a formal diagnosis of postpartum depression.

One Minute Later by Susan Lewis ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts
 
You think your life is perfect.
You think your secrets are safe.
You think it’ll always be this way.
But your life can change in a heartbeat.

Susan Lewis takes her readers on a roller coaster ride of a story about how life can change in just one minute. She always writes wonderful stories about families but I thought that this was her best novel yet.

The Favorite Daughter by Kaira Rouda ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

My prediction is that this will be the book everyone is talking about this year. It's one of the best psychological thrillers that I've ever read. I didn't know who to believe until the shocking ending. It was absolutely fantastic.

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones - a Review

by Alison DeLuca

Dreamland draws the reader in and won't let go until the last word. Sam Quinones has created a fascinating journey through time and the backroads of the Rust Belt in a thorough exploration of what happened when pain meds collided with black tar heroin. In the process, he's created a sad, frightening, and ultimately uplifting look at the crisis still going on in the United States.

The Hungry Ghost by Dalena Storm ~ a Review

by MK French

Sam was still being pulled into her alcoholic ex-husband's orbit even as Madeline is trying to forge a new relationship with her. A car accident leaves Sam in a coma, which leaves her body vulnerable to possession by a ghost that knows nothing but hunger, and her soul winds up being reborn as a cat. The ghost is willing to devour everything that Sam once loved in its quest to feel full again.

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

What if the person you thought you knew best turns out to be someone you never knew at all . . . ?

Caitlin's Song by John A. Heldt ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

You can always count on John A. Heldt for a sweet, light read full of heart. It was exactly the kind of book I needed for heading back to the stresses of the day job after my vacation. Caitlin's Song is the perfect story for sitting on the porch or swinging in the hammock on a beautiful summer evening.