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Book Reviews for February 2018

March 1, 2018 By Talya Tate Boerner

Book Reviews for February 2018

Book Reviews for February 2018

I’ll start my February book reviews with a confession. I didn’t read as much as I’d hoped. I lost prime reading time to Olympic coverage. (For the most part I enjoy the Olympics, but I feel guilty if I don’t watch, like it’s my duty as an American to cheer USA athletes in sporting events I know nothing about.)

Also, let’s not forget, February is the shortest month for reading and everything else.

These are my excuses.

Other than having a stack of “to-read” books on my bookcase and a queue of audio downloads, I don’t much plan my book reading in advance. Somehow, the books I read this month shared similarities in tone and mood. While the protagonists were as varied as our February weather—an orphan, a student, a best friend, a mother, a shell of a man—they all struggled to survive or find something lost.

From Civil War Arkansas, to the Golden Age of Hollywood and present-day Mississippi Delta, here we go…Continue Reading

Book Reviews: January 2018

January 31, 2018 By Talya Tate Boerner

Book Reviews January 2018

Book Reviews January 2018:

Long, cold January is the perfect month for reading. I did quite a bit of it. As I began to look back on the books I read in January, I realized they all leaned heavily on the theme of relationship. Whether set in crowded Calcutta, the migrant farm fields of south Florida, or a New York insane asylum, interaction with family, neighbors, friends, home, and even complete strangers made for compelling storytelling. Stephen King calls books portable magic. Charles William Eliot referred to books as his quiet, constant companions.

My January books certainly provided quiet, constant companionship as they magically transported me to Iowa, Ohio, a front porch in Mississippi. I even made a few new friends.Continue Reading

October Book Reviews

October 31, 2017 By Talya Tate Boerner

October Book Reviews

Happy Halloween! Today marks the end of another month. Are you ready for my October Book Reviews?

Three of the books I read in October (Mariette in Ecstasy, The Namesake, and The Virgin Suicides) were part of a five-week Survey of Fiction class I attended through OLLI at University of Arkansas. Okiehomeland was my book club’s official October selection. I listened to Young Jane Young via Hoopla and chose it mainly because of the cover. (Sometimes my choices are as simple as that.)

These books take us to—a rural New York convent at the turn of the century; India as we immigrate to America; on a great Nebraska wheat harvest adventure; from a political campaign in Florida to a mayoral race in Maine; to the suburbs of Detroit and into the home of a family in rapid deterioration.

The books included in my October book reviews include some of the best I’ve read in a great while.

That’s saying something!Continue Reading

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Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (2022)

THE THIRD ACT OF THEO GRUENE (coming 2025)

Recent Ramblings:

  • Sunday Letter: 11.23.25
  • Maggie and Miss Ladybug: My New Children’s Nature Book
  • Sunday Letter: November 9, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: Oct 26, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: Oct 5, 2025

Novels:

Coloring Books:

Fiction-Themed Coloring Books

Backyard Phenology:

Children’s Nature Book:

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