Jason Reynolds Love

I have LOTS of love for Jason Reynolds who has become one of my favorite authors in a short time.  The Boy in the Black Suit was excellent.  Very real and powerful and sorrowful and hopeful and joyful.  After hearing Reynolds on that podcast I fell in love with him and was not surprised at all by the bravery and honesty of his characters.  Once I had the honor of officiating at a funeral like one of Love's grandmother.  And it is something I will remember always and it is something that taught me a great deal and really makes me understand the whole "death where is thy victory" deal.  Because death, you ain't nothin'!

Might be the Last One for Me...and it was a good one!

I Don't Want to Have to Kill You is the third in the John Cleaver series, but it might be the last one I will read, or maybe at least for awhile.  I really did like this one!  I thought it added some special creepiness, but I started the fourth one and I just can't seem to get into it, at least for now.
Hmm..now that I went to add the links, I see that there is a 3.5 in the series...maybe I do need to read that one and try the fourth again because one of my problems with the fourth was that I felt it made too big of a jump.  It also was super sad and full of despair.  But that isn't necessarily a deal-breaker for me, I just think right now, it needed to be!  Okay so put a hold on the ebook!  I don't know how often it happens that a series gets better as we go along, but this one has for me!

The Same, but Different!

I remember when I read the first book in the John Cleaver series, I am Not a Serial Killer, I thought it was too Dexter-ish. And it is VERY Dexter-ish, but Mr. Monster was quiet good so that it was easy to overlook thatm, and while it does deal with a guy trying to use his psychopathy for good and not evil, like Dexter, it has a supernatural aspect to it that does make it different.  Plus it is from a teen POV. So I am now on the third because I liked Mr. Monster a lot!

"If you can love the whole person

the body, heart and soul, you can be a good mortician." page 44 of Putting Makeup on Dead People, a wonderful, refreshing book by Pittsburgh native Jen Violi. Ms. Violi attended the University of Dayton where my friend Nick is a sophomore. The book is set in Dayton and the main character is Donna, who is a senior in high school when the book begins. Donna is still hurting from the loss of her father to cancer at age 14. She hasn't been able to get over his death, which is quite understandable. She has kind of frozen over and isolated herself.

She has been accepted to UD but then decides that maybe she has another calling, a calling to mortuary school. Something I myself have considered. She talks to the funeral directors who hire her part-time.

Donna has a lot to work out. She has questions about God, herself, life, death, her relationships.

This book is just so well done and doesn't fall into any stereotype traps. Wonderful book. Looking forward to more from Ms. Violi.