Review: Rising From the Ashes: The Chronicles of Caymin (The Dragonmage Saga #1) by Caren J. Werlinger

Caren J. Werlinger. Corgyn Publishing, 2016. 295 pp.

Rating: Worthy + 🌙🌙🌙🌙🌙

Fantasy isn't my go to genre. Truthfully, it's never really been on my radar. Not because I despised it, but because I hadn't been introduced to it. Many times as I read blog posts or hear readers talk about beloved fantasy stories, I feel that I've missed out on many great books during my formative years. While others were discovering and feeding their love of fantasy in middle and junior high school, I was re-reading, for the umpteenth time, the books that adorned my bedroom bookshelf. It wasn't because I loved them so much, but because I simply didn't know what else to read.  Now with each fantasy novel I complete, the shovel drops another load filling in the hollow pit of my non-fantasy reading life. Soon though, this book hole shall be jam-packed!

Author Interview: Kisha Mitchell/Book Launch Party of Brown Girl, Brown Girl, What Do You See?

It's approaching one o'clock and Central Library, the Headquarters of the Atlanta Public Library System, is abuzz with activity. Finishing touches are being applied to display tables and people are quietly strolling in. Grinning joyously, Kisha Mitchell, commences the launch of her debut picture book, Brown Girl, Brown Girl, What Do You See? It was a pleasure to attend the book launch and have the opportunity to meet and interview Author Kisha Mitchell.

How did you develop your love of books, reading, and writing?

I didn't have a TV in my room until I was nineteen. As a kid, I read to pass the time. I read such series as Goosebumps, The Baby-Sitters Club, and many others.

Review: Brown Girl, Brown Girl, What Do You See? by Kisha Mitchell

Kisha Mitchell. Illustrator: Marie Pearson. Girls Inspired Inc., 2016. 24 pp.

Rating: Worthy + 🌙🌙🌙🌙🌙

Brown Girl, Brown Girl , What Do You See? is an ode to self-love. It's a testament that brown girls are indeed beautiful. It's about loving the skin that you are in, but it's even more than that. It's about accepting yourself as you are. More importantly, it's about getting acquainted with and loving the person within.

"As I gaze in the mirror loving the perfect imperfections of me; I see a confidence emerging that will not cease!"

Checking In

Hey guys and gals, it's been awhile and I've missed you all! Well, summer vacation has come and gone in my little corner of Georgia. By now, I thought I would be well over half past my reading goal of sixty books; however, I've just been toddling along. My fellow reading pals, might declare me in a midst of a reading slump, but it is not so. In a way, my summer reading has matched the Georgia weather—dry and hot. Most of my reading has been in spurts, like the five-minute rain showers that we've had all summer. These teasing bursts of precipitation turned up the humidity and the heat, but failed to drop enough water to quench the thirst of the parched ground, which is kind of how I've felt about my reading life this summer. I say hot because each of the six books I've read have impacted me, a few more than others, but each one made me think, remember, reflect, and feel. From one of my reads, I learned of an obscure folk artist whose work graces the Smithsonian Institute. In another, I annotated almost half of the book due to its relevancy to my present circumstances and the current social climate. And yet, another is nudging me toward more fantasy novels. So, that's the long and short of it or rather the hot and dry of it. :-)