Tag: book reviews

What I Read: July 2024

Can you tell they’ve been playing Hogwarts Legacy?

I’m writing this on the first day of school for my kids, which is about par for the course for summer as a mom of four. Of course, we had the Fourth of July and Pioneer Day here in Utah. We got to experience the negative side of the weeklong fireworks binge our neighborhood goes on since we were babysitting my in-laws’ dog, who is afraid of fireworks (unlike our dog). I’ll just say that he likes to sleep in my kid’s beds and we had to wash a lot of sheets.

July was also a social month, getting together with many friends and family members both local and out of town. I started teaching my oldest child to drive, which went better than expected but was still an absolutely disorienting experience. I finally finished building the Harry Potter reading room under the stairs that I’ve been thinking about for year (see pictures below!). My kids spent some time at FSY and various other camps, which let me complete some of the academic work I set for myself this summer. Speaking of which . . .

This month was the 2024 Association for Mormon Letters conference focusing on the theme of children’s and young adult literature. I was part of an amazing panel of presenters all talking about speculative YA books by Latter-day Saint authors. Emma Tueller Stone presented on the idea of soul mates, and Kjerste Christensen talked about the prevalence of fairy tale retellings among LDS authors. You can watch the whole panel on YouTube, or skip to this timestamp to watch my presentation on the influence of the idea of the premortal existence on LDS YA dystopias.

The biggest surprise of the conference was Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree winning the podcast award! As I said last month, there were so many good podcasts nominated, so I was shocked when we were informed that we were the winners. You can catch the award citation and our acceptance speeches here, and in case you missed it, I posted a celebratory list of our best episodes.

Continue reading “What I Read: July 2024”

What I Read: Oct-Dec 2023

I’ve had my October book reviews in my drafts folder since November, but again, grad school got the best of me. (I’m plotting how to do better at this next year.) So you’re getting a mega-three-month edition of book reviews.

Fortunately/unfortunately, I also had quite a few publications happen during these months, meaning they didn’t get nearly as much attention here as they ought to, but here they are in belated fashion. My essay “Turning the Corner” was published in the Fall 2023 print edition of Exponent II. You can’t find this one online, so you’ll have to track down a copy, but it’s about being sick at Christmas and moving to a new stage of parenting where your kids no longer need you to keep them alive from minute to minute.

My short genre confused piece “The Cost” was part of the 12th annual Mormon Lit Blitz. I was completely surprised when it won the judges’ choice award as well as fourth place in the audience choice because all of the pieces in the contest were really strong. I recommend reading them in order together because there’s a great theme of family and life stages that seems to naturally flow.

My creative nonfiction essay “Knit Together” was published in the latest issue of BYU Studies. It’s accompanied by some photographs of a few of the knitting projects that I mention in the essay. This essay was one I wrote over the course of about a week last year when I was still in the emotional throws of the events that happen at the end of the essay, so it’s a really vulnerable piece for me. I hope it can be helpful for others who struggle with family relationships.

I’m also experimenting with mirroring my blog over on Substack, so subscribe over there if you prefer to read on that platform.

Continue reading “What I Read: Oct-Dec 2023”

What I Read: Sept 2023

Graduate school has begun in earnest, and man, I’m sliding back into school like a fish into water. It’s so refreshing to be around people who are deep thinkers, great writers, and prolific readers all day long. Grad school is a blast! (Remind me of that in December when the paper deadlines hit.)

bundle of books on a library
Photo by Guilherme Rossi on Pexels.com

This weekend (Oct 13 & 14) I’ll be at the Latter-day Saints and Media Studies Symposium presenting my analysis of the portrayal of LDS characters in The Expanse and Stranger Things. Tickets are $30 for two days of interesting research about the interaction between the media and the church and its members. If you’re in the Las Vegas area, I’d love to say hello!

A short essay/fiction/something I wrote made the finalist list for the 12th Mormon Lit Blitz! The Lit Blitz will be starting on October 23rd with my piece being released on November 2nd. I’m also involved behind the scenes this time as I’ll be putting together a podcast version of the Lit Blitz to make it even easier to follow along and vote.

Over at Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree, we finished our Barbenheimer miniseries by talking about Barbie. I know there’s been a lot of LDS coverage of the film, but I think our discussion added a perspective that wasn’t as prevalent. I also really enjoyed our discussion of season two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. If you’re not already watching it, I highly recommend using your free trial of Paramount+ to do so (maybe over the holidays?).

Onward to book reviews!

Continue reading “What I Read: Sept 2023”

What I Read: Aug 2023

August was a back-to-school month for our family. We arrived back from the church history mega-road trip with only ten days to spare until school started for the kids. Once the dust settled from that, it was time for me to get ready to head back to school as well. This time, I get to be on both sides of the proverbial podium as I’m teaching first-year writing while starting my graduate school classes.

back to school flatlay
Photo by olia danilevich on Pexels.com

It’s going to be a challenge to keep my personal writing projects going while also managing school writing. My goal is to save at least 15 minutes in the morning to work on a personal project, but even that may get thrown out the window as we get further into the semester. But perhaps that doesn’t matter since I also want to polish up my academic writing skills–that’s the whole reason I’m in the program. Perhaps the right mindset is to just consider myself as shifting genres for a while, and maybe focus on flash fiction and flash essays for a while.

In other positive news, my piece for Exponent II fall issue was accepted! The issue was themed around ordinary things, and my essay “Turning the Corner” is about being sick at the holidays, something that happens far too often when you have kids. We’ve finished the editing process, and the issue launch party will be October 5th at 6 pm MT. Anyone can sign up to attend and listen to the authors read and talk about their work. I also proposed a half-scholarly half-creative nonfiction piece for Wayfare which was accepted, so I’m busily typing away at that.

Over on Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree, we started our Barbenheimer miniseries with an episode about Oppenheimer. I am in the midst of editing the Barbie episode which should come out tomorrow. What a good summer for movies, right?

Continue reading “What I Read: Aug 2023”

What I Read: July 2023

Family snapshot outside the Kirtland temple

July has been a good break month. My kids have gone to several fun camps, we’ve celebrated some holidays and family gatherings, and I’ve taken time to rest and recharge (and read lots of nonfiction, apparently, as you’ll see from my reviews below). Near the end of July, we took off on the big trip of the summer which I like to call the Church History Mega Road Trip. We drove from Utah to New York and back, over 5000 miles in total. It was my first time visiting Palmyra and Kirtland, and my kids’ first time at any of the sights. We’re back now and were thrown straight into back-to-school prep, so I’m glad I got in some restful days early.

As for writing, I did finish one short piece of creative nonfiction that I sent in to Exponent II for their fall issue. I also sent in a couple of class proposals to some local writing conferences. In general, I’ve been less productive than I wish I had been, but I’m trying to accept that I have the opposite cycle from many writers: where most people have less work in the summer, as a mom I actually have more work in the summer than during the school year. It’s always difficult to be happy in the season that you’re in, but I’m trying.

Continue reading “What I Read: July 2023”