Amina Banana and the Formula for Friendship

Charming and inspiring, this middle grade book introduces readers to Amina, an immigrant from Syria who has just arrived to Indianapolis. Desperate to fit and try to make American friends, Amina decides to write a formula to help her make friends. Back in Syria she loved science and STEM and she is convinced that with the right formula, she'll be able to fit in. Relatable and cute; this is a great chapter book for kids in elementary school to learn about fitting in, making friends, and being open to those from other cultures. The illustrations are a nice touch as well. I definitely plan on getting the rest of the series for my daughter to read some day!  

Don't Bounce Back, Rebuild Forward

An absolutely inspiring read! This book blends personal experiences with actionable steps to help readers flip the script when life gets challenging. Andrea Gash is a speaker, facilitator, and career coach who helps people rebuild their lives after unexpected change or loss and I am lucky enough to call her my friend. In her debut book, Andrea discusses dealing with loss of both her biological and adopted parents, the loss of her in-laws, grief, infertility, and caregiving; and how she coped when the weight of it all caught up to her. Using her life experiences as examples, Andrea introduces the Momentum Method, a five-stage framework designed to help readers rebuild their identity, purpose, and direction after a major life change. Don’t Bounce Back — Rebuild Forward is perfect for readers who enjoy stories of reinvention and growth after loss. This book is full of tools that will help readers navigate grief, identity shifts, exhaustion, and burnout. It’s also a roadmap to rebuild confidence, clarity, and figure out what the next chapter has in store. I usually read self-help books in a day or two and then not do any of the action steps or really ingest what I've read. I took a good week to savor this book and really work on the steps and the guided questions at the end of each chapter. It made a big difference. This is definitely a book I plan to refer back to, to try and keep my life on track. Very inspiring and impactful!

The Thirteenth Crime

A young girl by the name of, Lillie Field was, brutally murdered in Otter Tail County, Minnesota in 1887. The author speculates that justice was being served, because prior to Lillie's murderer being punished for his crimes (by hanging) many others before had not served time for murder. In fact, the little county was getting a reputation for letting murderers walk free. The author sensationalizes the many instances (twelve to be exact) of murderers walking free in part one and then in part two she goes into the death of Lillie Fields and talks about how justice was finally served. I liked the concept of this book, but the execution left a lot to be desired. I loved that maps were included but I would have liked to have seen photos an newspaper clippings as well. My biggest beef was that nothing was cited; newspapers and dates were referenced but when the book ends there is no works cited. This could easily have read as fiction, especially since so much was embellished (mannerisms, dialogue, etc). A blurb on the back of the book touts "an insightful, creative and well researched account of crime and punishment in 19th century rural Minnesota..." It was creative all right! 

Beer and the Nobel Prize

This was a fun little book that had lots of interesting factoids about people who have won the Nobel prize or circumstances around receiving the award. As the title alludes to, there were a few that centered on beer; whether it be drinking beer when receiving the call, getting free beer for life because of the award, or winning the award because of something scientific discovered using beer as an element of the process. Curious tales about the award included animals that helped scientists win the award (including animals who were nominated for or won the award themselves), lost and stolen medals, items in the Nobel museum and more. There are also lots of pictures to go along with the stories, which is a nice addition. This slim little nonfiction book is only around 100 pages and not too bad for an independently published book.