Fond of Fonts

This young adult novel is very well written and relatable to this day and age. Protagonist Norah Dean is a teenager who has a consistent relationship with her antagonist--an invisible illness. Norah suffers from anxiety, but its not that simple and has many forms to it. Norah's everyday routine of introverted seclusion in her home is interrupted by a new neighbor--Luke! A handsome young man who holds interest in a very special young woman. Clearly, this hints towards an eventful plot. This story holds a number of different dynamics: family life, romance, and above all--living and surviving with a mental illness. Louise Gornall introduces another take on a teen-romance novel that holds more than physical barriers between the potential lovers. Gornall's insight of living this herself gave validation for the tone and syntax with the story. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a romance story with non-traditional, but relatable qualities.

  If you're looking for poetry that not only puts your emotions on edge and thoughts in a spiral, but makes you want to tell your own story and experiences, these two are for you! Amanda Lovelace is a phenomenal poet--her words struck me with her first published collection The Princess saves Herself in this One . I found her ability to divulge her past and present experiences by using poetic diction to be so moving and relatable to my own thought process. I've been writing more poetry and Lovelace's first collection inspired me to do so (besides other poets). Her most recent collection came out earlier this month, the second collection The Witch doesn't Burn in this One . This collection holds even more past and present experiences, but also current emotions that I'm sure a number of female poets have expressed as well (along with women in general). I've found Lovelace's voice to be loud in her first collection, but even louder in her second one. I beli...

I walk by your old house and the door is moved from the neighbors drive to the front yard But there is a new path leading to new stairs and I stare and can’t see the old pool because its torn down I remember the feel of the stoned path to your back porch and my bare feet smacking against them. I remember your garage and that damn shed and the broken chain-link fence near it where we used to sneak and hide in the game I remember kick ball and the sensor light that came on at night telling me to go home and return the next day. Now there are foreign cars in the driveway and a woman I don’t recognize decides to sweep the back patio like there’s dirt surrounding it But it’s my memories my past your house your ghost. But you aren’t a ghost because you aren’t dead— just counties away at some school with other friends that aren’t me and we haven’t been friends for nine years since something happened between me and yo...

The Queen of Mystery is back at it again with another installment of the Hercule Poirot detective mystery series. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd  takes place in King's Abbot, which is located in Great Britain. Both Mrs. Ferrars' and Mr. Ackroyd's deaths happen simultaneously after one another--one by an overdose and one by a dagger. Narrator Dr. James Sheppard is a physician who not only oversaw Mrs. Ferrars' death, but also Mr. Ackroyd's. It was shortly discovered after both murders that Dr. Sheppard's mysterious neighbor was the infamous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot! After being incognito for a time, Flora Ackroyd was able to persuade him to investigate her late uncle's murder. This mystery novel introduces a number of different characters that all hold specific roles to the background of the village and the murder itself. When reading it, I found everyone seemed to have a suspicious factor about them, but Hercule Poirot was able to weave between the s...

The title is not far off as to what this novel is all about! Mark Haddon's national bestseller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is anything but the usual murder mystery novel.  Focused around the everyday activities of young Christopher John Francis Boone, this novel introduces adventures of detective work, family dynamics, and travel. As I'm sure you could infer, the typical murder mystery crime wasn't a murder of a human being, but that of a dog, which I'm sure pulls at the heart-strings of many readers (just wait till you find out who the killer is). I'm not spreading any spoilers of this novel, it's simply one that is just going to either catch you or not. I'm currently taking a Young Adult Literature course at my University and I found a major distinction that this book holds from other young adult novels (i.e. The Catcher in the Rye , The Outsiders , Thirteen Reasons Why , and many more) is that this novel does not typically follow a s...

Tommy Wallach's 370 page apocalyptic novel We All Looked Up  was a page turner from beginning to end. The story follows 4 different high school seniors who all lead very different lives. Peter, Andy, Anita, and Eliza all hold different backgrounds, families and hobbies, but one thing they all have in common, along with the millions of other human beings on the planet, is an asteroid by the name of Ardor, which has come to decide their fate for them, all within the matter of mere weeks. While reading Wallach's novel, I found it relatable in a sense that all 4 characters were attempting to find themselves in this short amount of time, which a number of people can relate to doing in the span of a longer lifetime. I'd have to label this a YA novel, because these 4 high school seniors are all going through common things that occur to most of us during that time, which shows the relation between these fictional characters and real-life people. The ending of this novel was defi...

A known crime fiction novel by millions, Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express  is not only intriguing, but initially a thrilling ride that keeps readers in tune and guessing up until the very last page (no pun intended on the "thrilling ride" comment). With the infamous protagonist Hercule Poirot taking charge on leading the investigation, the entire plot was based around a single man being murdered by a suspect (or suspects) on a train traveling throughout Europe. It was interesting being introduced to Hercule Poirot for the first time reading this, considering I've never read any Agatha Christie crime novels before. I find the steps that Poirot takes when solving a crime very strategical and can be recognized as a specific method used initially by him and him alone. This novel is structured into 3 parts: The Facts, The Evidence, and Hercule Poirot Sits Back and Thinks. I feel a majority of people are intimidated by the intellect a detective can hold when s...