This Time Tommorrow Review

I had mixed feelings about Emma Straub’s novel. At first I found it incredibly depressing. A young woman, Alice, approaches her fortieth birthday amidst the backdrop of her ailing father. She has a boyfriend that she seems to barely tolerate and while expecting him to propose also dreads the encounter. She seems to be a woman who has never grasped at all that life can offer. A woman who has settled for less. Less love. Less adventure. Less success.
At one hundred pages with still no time travel, I almost gave up on the novel. I wanted some action. Finally, on her fortieth birthday she wakes up back in 1996 and is in her teenaged body reliving her sixteenth birthday. Even though she sees her greatest crush at her party, it is the vision of her healthy father that truly moves her. What ensues is a series of time jumps where she seeks to rewrite the past, and hopefully keep her father from getting ill.
My favorite scenes were those with her best friend, Sam, when they were sixteen again. Straub does a wonderful job of building a teen’s world with all of the cultural fads of the day.
Yes, there were moments when I got choked up. Since I recently lost my mother, the bond Alice has with her father moved me to tears.
This Time Tomorrow, a book about familial love.

About Laurie: The author of Forests Secrets and Finding Joy as well as The Pharaoh’s Cry, Portal Rift, Persistence of Memory, Kidnapped Smile, and Dragon Sky of the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles, Laurie Woodward is also a screenwriter who co-authored Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy. Her poetry has been published in multiple journals and anthologies and she was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is an award-winning peace consultant, poet, and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes on the Central Coast of California. More about her work can be found at Author Laurie Woodward — Next Chapter ia.net

A Brief History of Time Review

I recently finished reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking and found it to be a wondrous introduction into cosmological physics. Hawking takes difficult concepts and theories and makes them accessible. Having never taken a physics course, I did have to go slow, but still the ideas that giants have theorized since the days of antiquity fascinated me. From the days of Aristotle who found evidence that the world was a sphere to Ptolemy who proposed that the Earth was the center of the universe, Hawking describes the history of man’s understanding well.
Ptolemy’s view of course was adopted as truth by the Christian church leading to the persecution of scientists such as Galileo for introducing a heliocentric view. How strange to imagine great minds like Galileo or Copernicus fearing imprisonment simply for stating that the sun is in the center of our solar system.
Hawking’s explanation of space and time intrigued me. To realize that time does not exist as a constant but is relative clarified my understanding of Einstein’s theory of relativity. Furthermore, reading how movement or forces affect the curvature of space time led to great imaginings of time travel.
Hawking also explains such huge ideas such as the expanding universe, wormholes, and the Uncertainty Principle concisely yet poetically. All in all an excellent read.

About Laurie: The author of Forests Secrets and Finding Joy as well as The Pharaoh’s Cry, Portal Rift, Persistence of Memory, Kidnapped Smile, and Dragon Sky of the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles, Laurie Woodward is also a screenwriter who co-authored Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy. Her poetry has been published in multiple journals and anthologies and she was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant, poet, and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes on the Central Coast of California. More about her work can be found at Author Laurie Woodward — Next Chapter ia.net

Artemis: A Review

An impressive imaginary view of what a lunar colony might be like, Andy Weir’s Artemis takes us inside contraband smuggler, Jasmine Bashara’s criminal exploits. Smart, snarky, but not always likable, Jasmine has never lived up to her potential. Even though she excelled in school she chose a career path that disappointed her father. However, her porter job is perfect for smuggling in things that moon residents most desire. And if she makes a little extra on the side, why not?
When she agrees to be part of the biggest criminal caper of her career, Jasmine finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy that could decide who controls her home’s future. This leads to a gripping tech-savvy thrill ride that is hard to put down.

About Laurie: The author of Forests Secrets and Finding Joy as well as The Pharaoh’s Cry, Portal Rift, Persistence of Memory, Kidnapped Smile, and Dragon Sky of the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles, Laurie Woodward is also a screenwriter who co-authored Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy. Her poetry has been published in multiple journals and anthologies and she was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant, poet, and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes on the Central Coast of California. More about her work can be found at Author Laurie Woodward — Next Chapter ia.net

The Nomad of Time Review

This early 1970’s steampunk is a triptych of novels that follow the adventures of a British officer, Captain Bastable who gets caught in a time travel stream while in charge of a detachment of troops in British India. He is then flung from one version of the 20th century to another where airships fly and wars have been won by alternative leaders.

The prose is definitely in a style that is no longer popular with long descriptive sentences that made it a more challenging read than many of today’s works. Also, there are dated cultural and ideological references about people of color that made me realize how much the world has changed for the better in the last fifty years. Still, Moorcock, shows multiple dystopian timelines that illustrate the horrors of war and the evil turns humanity takes act as a warning.

About Laurie: The author of Forests Secrets and Finding Joy as well as The Pharaoh’s Cry, Portal Rift, Persistence of Memory, Kidnapped Smile, and Dragon Sky of the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles, Laurie Woodward is also a screenwriter who co-authored Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy. Her poetry has been published in multiple journals and anthologies and she was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant, poet, and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes on the Central Coast of California. More about her work can be found at Author Laurie Woodward — Next Chapter ia.net

Review of The City of Dreaming Books

This book by Walter Moers is wonderful combination of fantasy and ridiculous farce. Probably the most imaginative book I’ve ever read with absolutely unique settings, characters, and symbolism. It is told in first person by an author-wannabe-dinosaur named Optimus Yarnspinner. He begins his tale in Lindworm Castle at the deathbed of his authorial godfather, Dancelot Wordwright. Wordwright gives him a manuscript, which he claims to be the greatest piece of writing ever. Upon reading the manuscript, Yarnspinner is so blown away that he feels he has to go to the City of Dreaming Books to find its author. There, Yarnspinner meets the shark grub Pfistomel Smyke, who offers to help find the author. Unfortunately, Smyke is not who he seems; he poisons Yarnspinner with a hazardous book, and maroons him in the city’s catacombs. Here he must watch out for bookhunters, harpies, the fearsome booklings, and the legendary Shadow King.

Will he ever find his way out to become the writer he has heretofore only dreamed of? Read this amazing tale and find out!

About Laurie: The author of the recently released Finding Joy as well as The Pharaoh’s Cry, Portal Shift, Kidnapped Smile, and Dragon Sky of the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles, and Forests Secrets. Laurie Woodward is also a screenwriter who co-authored Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy. Her poetry has been published in multiple journals and anthologies and she was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant, poet, and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes on the Central Coast of California. More about her work can be found at Author Laurie Woodward — Next Chapter ia.net

The Tombs of Atuan Review

This book reads like a myth. I felt like I was one of many villagers sitting around a fire centuries ago our ears cocked in rapt attention as we listened to the storyteller reveal her tale. It all began long ago in a poor but loving household where a toddler rushes into her mother’s arms. Father cautions Mother from getting too attached as this girl-child is not theirs and soon will be taken to fulfill her destiny. Since she was born at the same hour of the High Priestess’s death all believe her to be the guardian of the tombs reborn. Taken at just five years old, she is then raised as has been done for countless generations. She tries to accept her role as Arha,she who is eaten but then when she is in her teens a stranger appears who makes her question everything she has ever been taught.

Furyborn: A Review

I recently was looking for a new book to read so went onto Goodreads to find some recommendations. One group was reading Furyborn by Claire Legrand and it sounded interesting so I decided to give it a try. What were my thoughts?

The first chapter pulls you right in with, “The queen stopped screaming just after midnight.” Then you meet a boy given an impossible task and start to root for him, only to change POV and time to years before. This made it challenging for me to continue because I didn’t like Queen Rielle at first and couldn’t relate to her. But I had committed to read the book in a Goodreads group who encouraged me to keep on. I’m glad I did! As the chapters unfold we get to know, Rielle and Eliana, two women struggling to find their way in two different worlds. For years Rielle has hidden the fact that she has all seven of the prophesied powers. When she uses them to save her best friend Prince Audric, Rielle finds herself participating in trials to find out if she truly is the queen of legend. Eliana, on the other hand, is a reluctant assassin. She is doing anything she can to protect her brother and find her kidnapped mother and finds herself waged in a war that is centuries old. She is hiding an important part of herself from the world for fear of how it will be used and who it could hurt. Both women are on separate journeys, but connected in ways they couldn’t imagine. In the end one of these women will save the world and one will doom it. A good start to a new fantasy series!

Review of Shadowshaper

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sierra Santiago, a Brooklyn teen who loves making art, wants to have a fun summer. But all of that is interrupted when a corpse crashes the first summer party. As she races to escape one macabre creature after another, Sierra discovers shadowshaping magic that blends spirits and art. She is perplexed at first but determined to unravel the family’s secrets to keep shadowshaping alive for generations to come.

She Gets Me! Thrilled by Recent Review

Recently The Online Book Club posted an official review of of Dragon Sky which got me all choked up. This reviewer, kandscreeley, not only understood the message of Artania, but she also likened it to Harry Potter.

Feeling such gratitude I could hug everyone!

Her post is here. Official Review

Laurie Woodward is the author of The Pharaoh’s Cry, Kidnapped Smile, and Dragon Sky from the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles, as well as the middle-grade Forest Secrets. She co-wrote Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy and was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant, poet, and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes on the Central Coast of California.

Review of Number the Stars

Do people stand up to fascism? Who can find hope when their people are disappearing right and left? How does a single child survive a human-made holocaust? These are the types of questions Danes had to deal with during World War II. And their answer is found in Lois Lowry’s poignant novel, Number the Stars.

Number the Stars is the story of two 10 year old friends, AnneMarie and Ellen, who live in Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1943. The story is told by the Christian, girl AnneMarie, as she watches what happens to her Jewish friend, Ellen, when the Nazis gain power. The events seem innocuous until one day some friends of the family disappear, and their business is shut down, as the Nazi “relocation” of the Danish Jews gets underway. What ensues is a heroic adventure that reminds us all of the best and the worst in humanity.

Not only moving, but educational, Lowry’s book is based on real events of the evacuation of Danish Jews from Copenhagen during WWII. It is heartening to hear that when the Nazis threatened to relocate all the Jews in Denmark, the Danish people came to their aid and smuggled almost the entire Jewish population, nearly 7,000 people, to the safety of Sweden.

If only all peoples could band together like this. Just imagine.

Highly recommended.

A teacher, Laurie Woodward is the author of several novels including Forest Secrets, and the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles. She also cowrote Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy and was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes her novels on the Central Coast of California.