This book is an amazing story that certainly lived up to its reputation! The novel follows a 15-year-old slave named Cora as she escapes north via a literal network of underground tracks and trains (yes, in the book, the underground railroad is a real train). Whitehead said that he had avoided writing a book like this for a long time because it was hard for him to face something that scared him so much. I too was afraid to read it for the same reasons. But I dove in, and I couldn’t put it down! … [Read more...] about The Underground Railroad

“There is beauty calling to us everyday, every hour, but we are rarely in a position to listen....If we don’t silence ourselves--if our mind, our body, are full of noise--then we can’t hear beauty’s call.” So begins this remarkable and accessible book about how to really live the moments that are given to us. If you’re like me, you have an internal radio that never shuts off, and it’s not healthy--to keep consuming our own thoughts like a cow chewing its own cud. According to the author, … [Read more...] about Silence

I HEART this book.  You know those books that as you read them you have to pause and look up to process the beauty or poignancy of what you've just read?  This is such a book.  It's filled with her essays on how nature and books saved her life, her admiration of Whitman, Wordsworth, and Poe, and her beautiful observations of everyday experiences told in breathtaking beauty and insight. … [Read more...] about Upstream

I read this almost in a day.  Definitely a mind-blowing, page-turning thriller.  It explores the idea of how one decision, one thought, one act can change the trajectory of one's life.  What if you could go back in time and reverse your destiny? … [Read more...] about Dark Matter