Tag Archives: book

Dec23

wish I was here.

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What do you get when you mix young adult nerd romance, suspense, mystery, humor, sci-fi, and action? You get ‘Wish I Was Here’ the first book in author, Ilsa Rey’s series, The Wish Trilogy.

High school is a time when everyone tries to find themselves, but as you follow Ana and Isaac throughout the novel, they quite literally disappear, each in a different way. In this adventure, Ana, who has never had much confidence at all, has to muster all her courage to find a way to save Isaac before it’s too late. 

There are many ups and downs along the way, especially when an old flame enters the picture, along with their dysfunctional families, and things get even more complicated. The stakes get higher, there are secrets, hard decisions have to be made, and things get more dangerous. Who can be trusted? What to do next? Will Ana find her confidence and use her wit to outsmart everyone? Can things be solved in time? You’ll find yourself cheering her along, and even laughing at times, but there are no guarantees and everything is on the table. You won’t be able to put this down until the very end. It’s definitely a page-turner and a great escape!

Books go on sale today at the following locations:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Black Rose (Publisher) https://www.blackrosewriting.com/youngadult/p/wishiwashere

* About the Author: (blogging friend and martial arts master)

At age twenty-one, Ilsa Rey packed everything she owned into her little red Ford Focus and drove from Cleveland to California for good. She is now a recovering chicken owner and a martial artist with a black belt in Taekwondo and a blue belt in Jiu-Jitsu. Her favorite things are writing, training, and teaching self-defense to young women. She lives in southern California with her husband, four children, and the ghosts of chickens past.Find her online: X: @IlsaReyAuthor; Instagram: @Ilsa_Rey; Blog: IlsaRey.com

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“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
-Albert Einstein

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Wish I Was Here: Even When Invisible, There’s No Place to Hide

(Book 1 of The Wish Trilogy) for Teens and Young Adults

  • Publisher  :  Black Rose Writing
  • Publication date  :  December 23, 2025
Mar23

giving back.

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Set in modern-day Appalachia, Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Demon Copperhead” is a contemporary retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic novel, “David Copperfield.” Now, she’s using the royalties to help people in the region she depicts in the story, opening up a home for women in recovery. “I felt like, I am getting a novel from this place, and I’m going to give something back,” she said.
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“when you’re in a position to have gotten so much, the gift at this point is giving back.”
— paul stanley, american musician, kiss

 

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source/image credit: harper collins

Jan9

a series of choices.

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i recently wrote a post about

my dear friend and author, breeda kelly miller

who researched, wrote a play, performed, and presented

her family’s heritage story:

https://ididnthavemyglasseson.com/?s=kelly

she continues to perform the play on stage

had the play aired on pbs,

and presents her story all over the world.

above is the companion book she has written 

which includes more details, background, quotes, photos, and inside jokes

fully rounding out her family’s tale. 

this book was a lovely read

 it was a pleasure to follow along with the story

of the kelly family’s journey

from ireland to canada, and ultimately, the united states

their tale is told through the eyes of a daughter

with stories from the generations before her

sharing the true life eccentric characters and situations 

that carried all of them through life.

it’s a story of love, humor, grace, loss, and acceptance

the photographs make it easy to imagine the people she writes about 

their brave and challenging moments

along with their glories

as they made the best of situations presented to them

gained personal strength, learned as they went

finally finding their place in the world 

a place they came to call home. 

This book takes you through the ebbs and flows of their lives

while sometimes just treading water

but they make it through and inspire us to do the same.

What a beautiful legacy gift Breeda Kelly Miller has created for her family

and for all families

who can all imagine bits of themselves and their own stories in this book. 

every person, every family, every place, every choice, has a story.

looking back and learning about our past

how we came to be who we are, where we came from, bringing us to where we are now

helps us to understand and make sense of our lives.

I hope that you enjoy the Kelly family’s journey as much as I did. 

Sláinte! 

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“life, like a poem, is a series of choices.”

Dame Maggie Smith

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Mrs. Kelly’s Journey Home is now available for sale at the two sites listed below:

https://breedamiller.com/products/mkjh-book/

https://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Kellys-Journey-Home-American/dp/1956465235

 

Sep29

the monk of mokha.

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celebrate national coffee day with a your favorite cup of coffee and this wonderful book

it’s the incredible but true story of a young man, Mokhtar Alkhanshali,

a beverage, a history, a mix of cultures, and pure perseverance

the unlikely and winding journey he took

from here to there and back again

 keeps you wondering

will his dream come alive?

with a refusal to give up

a survival instinct

and lots of thinking on this feet

you’ll follow along

with this poignant, suspenseful, moving, and often funny story

as Mokhtar struggles to keep his balance

and not abandon his people

both near and far.

written by award-winning author, Dave Eggers

you can’t help but cheer him on

and you might even learn something along the way.

 

Mokhtar Alkhanshali and company

 

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“Al-Shadhili became known as the Monk of Mokha, and Mokha became the primary point of departure for all the coffee grown in Yemen and destined for faraway markets.”

-dave eggers, the monk of mokha

 

 

 

 

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credits: Dave Eggers, 2018, NYT bestseller, Knopf Publishing

Jul10

burnt toast.

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this book dedication popped up in my feed, and i’d love to know the story.

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‘remember, behind every great person is a cat ignoring them’.

-author unknown

 

Apr9

dipped in words and art.

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a beautiful, beautiful book

 what is a poem, really, and what exactly is its use?

Every once in a while, you stumble upon something so lovely, so unpretentiously beautiful and quietly profound, that you feel like the lungs of your soul have been pumped with a mighty gasp of Alpine air. This is a Poem That Heals Fish  is one such vitalizing gasp of loveliness — a lyrical picture-book that offers a playful and penetrating answer to the question of what a poem is and what it does. And as it does that, it shines a sidewise gleam on the larger question of what we most hunger for in life and how we give shape to those deepest longings.

Written by the French poet, novelist, and dramatist Jean-Pierre Simeón, translated into English by Enchabnted Lion Books founder Claudia Zoe Bedrick (the feat of translation which the Nobel-winning Polish poet Wislawa Syymborska had in mind when she spoke of “that rare miracle when a translation stops being a translation and becomes … a second original”), and illustrated by the inimitable Olivier Tallec, this poetic and philosophical tale follows young Arthur as he tries to salve his beloved red fish Leon’s affliction of boredom.

i read the above review by maria popova, and simply had to find it

i read it three times and looked closely at the details

i so agree with her.

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in honor of national poetry month

and every day of every month

read a poem. 

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“great children’s books are wisdom dipped in words and art.”

-peter h. reynolds

 

 

‘

 

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credits: maria popova, marginalian, enchanted lion books

Mar4

the whole world gets bigger.

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“oh how I love to read, she thought. ihe whole world gets bigger.”

— Louise Fitzhugh, Harriet The Spy (1964)

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i always was interested in detectives and spies, and books were a way for me to feel a part of it.

without any real danger, but just enough suspense…

on international book day

Dec5

sloth.

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is it just me,

or is a ‘sloth activity’ book

an oxymoron

and probably incredibly slow and boring?

 

 

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“the kindest word to describe my performance in school was sloth.”

-harrison ford, american actor

Jul11

anxious people.

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what a funny, sweet, sad, moving book –

 a brilliant story of  the enduring power

of human connection, forgiveness, and hope.  

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“we have all of this in common, yet most of us remain strangers, we never know what we do to each other, how your life is affected by mine. perhaps we hurried past each other in a crowd today, and neither of us noticed, and the fibers of your coat brushed against mine for a single moment and then we were gone. i don’t know who you are. but when you get home this evening, when this day is over and the night takes us, allow yourself a deep breath. because we made it through this day as well. there’ll be another one along tomorrow.”

-fredrik backman (anxious people)

Mar7

a rude awakening.

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what a wonderful way to relax

ending a long day with a beautiful book

all about finding your comfort

settling in at last

not a care in the world

tucked into my warm cocoon

until

the book’s spell

works a little too well on me

and i am very suddenly and very rudely awakened

right out of my comfort zone

after falling asleep and dropping the book on my face

hard.

it should come with a warning.

 

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“littera scripta manet – ‘the written word will remain’. that’s true, but it won’t be that much comfort to me.’

-christopher hitchens