I liked the plot of it but it had very technical writing about how volcanos worked and so I didn’t understand a lot of what was happening. I enjoyed it but found it to be a dense read.

I like this book because it was really fascinating and good. This book has a lot of adventure and I like fantasy books.

Predictable, but a fun read. I didn't really love the way the point of view was done in the book, but I still enjoyed the characters.

It was fine, though not this author’s best. The characters never cohered, but the climactic moments were exciting.

Interesting points on various elements of work. Fascinating bits on various coaches and players by the author.

Once again a book about Gabriel Allon who is a daredevil Israeli spy and assassin. He is married now for a second time. An enjoyable book.

I got to meet the author of the Penderwick series and I got to ask questions like do you speak Latin because there was Latin in the Penderwicks? She said it was fun the add different languages into it but she doesn’t speak Latin. It was so cool to meet my favorite author in the world everyone should read her books and she has a new book The Library of Unruly Treasures

I have mixed impressions of and feelings about this novel. I found the plot intriguing, and enjoyed Serafina's narrative voice in her alternating chapters, as compared to Sara's, which disappointingly tended to fall more often into cliché turns of phrase. I understand the need to set the characters' "voices" apart and distinguish the eras in which they are living, but wonder if this could have been done with a bit more finesse for Sara's chapters. Some plot revelations were telegraphed and therefore more predictable, while others felt more satisfyingly surprising. At times, the events and interactions themselves seemed to draw on stereotypes, though I appreciate that the author appears to have researched the book quite thoroughly. There were also some unexpectedly graphic passages in the book, so readers who are especially sensitive to intimate and/or violent imagery may wish to be aware of this before reading. Overall, though it would be missing a meaningful modern dimension, I think I might have preferred this as a purely historical fiction novel, set entirely in Serafina's time period. All that said, I would still be interested to read other novels by this same author, in the hopes that they are more of the quality of Serafina's chapters than Sara's.

Mentally stimulating poems. I wish there was an audiobook version read by the author. I loved his self narrated book something in the woods loves you. My favorite poem from this collection was “orcas”

Interesting multigenerational historical fiction inspired by a community of the formerly-enslaved, situated in the mountains of Western NC/SC. Nikki (a DC real estate agent) goes to visit her grandmother, Mother Rita, hoping to ease the estrangement between mother and daughter. But instead Rita tells her a story of the land—how her great-great-great grandmother Luella was the queen of a kingdom on the very land Rita is fighting to keep. Touching and interesting, it's a tale of perseverance and hope.