Book Review: 500 Words or Less by Juleah del Rosario

Rosario’s 500 Words or Less is a poignant, raw look into the heart of one young woman’s senior high school year. Told entirely through free verse poetry, Nic Chen’s story is one of unbearable loneliness and devastating loss. Two years ago, Nic and her best friend Ben became more than just friends. In one drunken […]

Book Review: Pause, Breathe, Smile by Gary Gach

Pause, Breathe, Smile by Gary Gach offers a simple, yet highly effective method for cultivating mindfulness wherever you may be and whatever you may be doing. It’s as simple as the title says, taking time to pause, breathe deep, and smile. This is a beneficial tool alone, and Gach teaches how to turn it into […]

Book Review: Worry Says What? by Allison Edwards

Worry Says What? by Allison Edwards is an adorable picture book for kids about anxiety and how to deal with it. Worry is a fluffy monster who lives in the mind, and Whispers fretful things like ‘you can’t do this’ or ‘people don’t like you’. The more you listen options worry, the bigger it gets. […]

Book Review: Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell

Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell is a collection of comics issues based on Hanna-Barbera characters, with a more realistic bent. This is a story about standing up for what is right, despite the consequences. It’s about the place of the arts in society, as a constant mirror to the absurdity of […]

Book Review: Fresh Ink edited by Lamar Giles

This collection, written by a diverse cast of authors, presents a variety of equally diverse stories featuring PoC main characters, a plethora of LGBTQ+ characters, and a slew of those with unusual mental/physical conditions. It was refreshing to me to step away from a mostly white story cast. I’m an anthropologist. Characters like the ones […]

Book Review: In the Name of the Children by Jeffrey Rinek & Marilee Strong

Rinek’s In the Name of the Children is a gritty walk on the dark side of humanity. For decades, Rinek worked as an FBI agent, devoted to bringing to justice some of the most depraved among the criminal element- those who would abuse and exploit children. Kidnapping, assault, sexual abuse, torture, murder, and more, Rinek […]

Book Review: Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton

Last of Crichton’s books, published nigh on a decade after his passing, Dragon Teeth follows William Johnson as he travels into the American West in the late 1800s. At first he was to accompany Othniel Marsh, but the paranoid paleontologist left Johnson behind, deciding he must be a spy of Marsh’s rival. Unable to return […]

Book Review: Someone I Used to Know by Patty Blount

***Trigger Warning: deals with rape and especially its aftermath and recovery Two years ago Ashley Lawrence was raped. The trial against the boy who raped her played it down, convicting him of sexual assault, which carries a lesser sentence. Now he’s getting out of prison earlier than expected. For two years, Ashley’s had to try […]

Crystal Healing and Sacred Pleasure by Vanessa Cuccia

Crystal Healing and Sacred Pleasure by Vanessa Cuccia introduces a new way to heal yourself, utilising one of nature’s greatest tools- crystals. This healing form focuses on using them to heal the chakras and combining that energy with your own sexual energy. After the author opened herself to admitting that she had suffered a sexual […]