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A Dream like Magic, A World Like Poetry: the Strange the Dreamer Duology
Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmare are two titles in a brilliant, poetic, and intriguing duology by Laini Taylor featuring a lost city, a librarian with a dream, and the half-human children of gods. This is the kind of book that haunts you...in every perfect way.
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The Weight of Ink: A Feminist and Jewish Masterpiece
The Weight of Ink whisks you from the present to the past, and guides you on a path (paved by strong, intelligent women) through Jewish history and faith.
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The Wolf and the Woodsman: Why Medieval History Lovers Must Read this Book
Inspired by Hungarian history and Jewish mythology, this novel reads like a mythical adventure that bleeds truth. The world itself is richly imagined with detailed settings, a whole cast of peoples, religions, and beliefs, and tangled politics that reflect the complexities of the middle ages--such as the treatment of Jews, the intricacies of cultural identity, the acquiring and claiming of pagan stories/myths by Christianity, and the political power of the Catholic Church.
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Camp des Milles: What France once Tried to Erase
Camp des Milles is located in the old tile factory in the town of Les Milles. In fact, the roof of one of my school’s buildings is tiled with tiles from this factory. But that’s not why we we’re here. From the beginning of World War Two in September, 1939 until June, 1940, the French government (the Third Republic), interned Germans and Austrians who had fled from Germany in the 1930s, and other foreigners who were considered a potential threat. In reality, most of these people were anti-Nazi or had been living in France for years. The internees were given straw and told to sleep on the floor near the…
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To Breach the Walls of Troy
1000 ships. 10 years. 1 hollow horse. Luckily, I only had to wait in line for 10 minutes to breach the walls of Troy. I grew up on myths. I remember reading a child-friendly version of The Iliad in the fourth grade. As a school project, I created a home video of the Twelve Labors of Heracles, including putting a tan, fuzzy blanket on my dog and making my brother run after her and “stab her” to simulate the killing of the Nemean Lion. By the time I was halfway through middle school, my favorite movies were Troy and Gladiator (and The Lord of the Rings). And, like everyone in…
