Jack and Anna were eating potatos for lunch. Then a hail storm hit. Next a very big dust devil came. Then they rush back to the tree house as fast as they can. Then they rushed back to the school to warn every won about the dust devil. then every won took cover.

Another great Verity Kent mystery. This time, Verity and Sidney head to Aunt's to solve the mystery of three murders and whether or not they are connected. A fun, Downton Abbey-esque read, albeit a little wordy in parts. Overall, an enjoyable book.

Told from the perspective of fifteen-year-old Libby during the 1980s, the story starts one night when Libby's younger sister, Ellen, annoys their mom so bad that she kicks Ellen out of the car and tells her to walk home. Ellen decides to hitchhike her way back, only to get into the car of a strange man who doesn't seem willing to let her out, resulting in her having to jump. I was expecting this to be more of a thriller or mystery, following what happened after the car ride and them finding the guy who did it. That's not really the story, though. This is less a mystery/thriller and more a coming of age story about a family who just happened to have a girl who was molested in a car. I found Libby to be really boring as a narrator, and the timeline itself was very confusing - you'd be reading something present tense and all of a sudden, within the same paragraph, they suddenly jump to an event that happened years ago. The premise was interesting, but I found the writing style to be disjointed and the summary didn't really match what the book was.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the way that the author used different chapters to take us to various different parts of the world and the United States to demonstrate how the history of the slave trade in America is represented and passed on either truthfully or not quite as truthfully. It is incredibly interesting, whilst at the same time exposing some horrific facts. Unfortunately I listed to this as an audiobook and did not feel that the author Clint Smith, despite being a poet, read it with much feeling or empathy. It was a relatively quick read but definitely leads me to want to do some more exploring of the information touched on in the book.

Jack and Annie saw wagons going to CA. They met a teacher that was 16 or 17 years old living in a dug out with a storm protector on it that she built. My favorite part of the book so far is that Jack is better at reading than everyone in his class. Can't wait to read more tomorrow.

The next book in the Maze Runner series has basically the same review as the Maze Runner. The stakes are higher, and it turns out that escaping the maze was only the beginning. I was gripped at some times, wanted to give up on the book at other times. Overall, the book was rather exciting and really had me thinking.

I'm clearly missing something with this book, because the entire time I read it all I kept thinking was "there is no way this author is an actual human being." The book takes place over the span of 11 years. In most chapters, we follow Kate and Meredith, two neighbors living in a town where a woman named Shelby has just gone missing. Meredith, a doula with two children named Delilah and Leo, has started receiving threatening text messages from an unknown number. Shortly after, her and her daughter disappear. The book centers around what was going on with Meredith prior to her disappearance, with Kate providing insight into what happened after she disappeared. Set eleven years later, there are also chapters from Leo's point of view, where we get to see what it's like to have your sister suddenly return after being gone for eleven years. There are just so many reasons why this book didn't work at all. The biggest of them all is that it is poorly written. As an example of what you can expect, this is how the author thinks someone would describe potentially seeing figures outside of a house a few weeks before the occupants went missing - "It was dark out," Cassandra says, "a moonless night. The streetlight outside has been out a month or two. My husband, Marty, called the city about it a while ago, but it still hasn't been fixed. Our tax dollars...hard at work. The only light came from whatever porch lights were left on overnight." Yeah. Because when my neighbor turns up missing and I think I may have seen some strange figures skulking about their house, I'm definitely going to be remembering that it was a moonless night. Everyone else in the book is just as poor at their job. The pathologist couldn't correctly figure out how someone died. The police openly lied about evidence and just sort of hoped no one would ever question them or figure it out. A woman running a daycare is completely unaware of the abuse happening there - and then the mother just doesn't even care?? Who finds out their kid is being abused and is just like "eh, I better send them back the next day or they'll get soft." Are there no other daycares?? The final thing I'll mention is that the ending is completely bonkers. I guess if you're going to commit murder, this is the town to do it in - apparently no one is ever around to watch people murder people and then drag their bodies into their cars.

This book is about a family in the Jim Crow south. It centers around the story of a mother and daughter and the generational trauma of slavery and how it is perpetuated. Mental illness, abuse, and racism are heavy themes. While the book is set in the 1950s in a different era, there are clear connections to the present day.

I really enjoyed this short, but intense, book! Summerwater presents a slice of life of several families vacationing at a remote Scottish lake: a variety of retirees and families, and a group that is labeled "foreign" by the others. The weather is terrible (even for Scotland!) and nerves are frayed. The chapters alternate point of view between the different characters and although it seems nothing much is happening, there is a sense of foreboding that propels you onward. I'd also recommend "Ghost Wall" by Moss, another slim, unsettling story.

I didn't love this book. I didn't really understand everything it was saying. I have been to the ride before where the Rolling Thunder is and I wanted to learn more about the ride and why it happens. Maybe when I'm older I will understand it more.