I am currently working on a creative project for school that is going to track my own personal human development through the books that were most important to me at different stages in my life. I have always been a voracious reader and books have both reflected my interests at any given time and also enhanced and influenced my interests. They have been a key part of my personal development.
The earliest books that I really remember reading are the Nancy Drew books. I read the entire series with my mom when I was a child. I could easily have read them on my own but it was something that we shared together. I remember sometimes going shopping for the books with her, instilling an early love of bookstores. I remember sitting in my bed while she read them to me.
There were books I loved before that, though, even though I was too little to remember them. When I asked my mom what Continue reading
by Karen FinneyFrock.
Please enjoy this guest post by Bella Andre, New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of the contemporary romance series, 
that she co-authored in 164 with Elvie Ten Hoor. It talks about how collage allows the artist to get a fresh perspective on mundane objects, including paper, and to turn that into new art. It gives tips, techniques and ideas for collage art including mixed media and found art collage – something I think many of us think of as a relatively new thing.
. Basically this is just a book about the history of sushi. It shares how sushi became so popular in recent times. But what I really like is that it gives a lot of insight into how sushi goes from tuna in the ocean to a delicacy on a plate through sharing the personal stories of individual people along the way in that process, such as the buyers of fish at auctions. By putting faces to the process it makes it really easy to understand the in-depth and detailed economics and culture of the sushi history. Fascinating.
. I’m a huge fan of 
. My dad works closely with the Amish when he is harvesting wood for sale back in Ohio so he’s always tuned in to stories related to the Amish. This one is a sad true story about an Amish man who strayed from the Amish ways for many complicated reasons, a man who likely murdered his wife and child. The man was abused, gay in an Amish community that obviously doesn’t accept homosexuality and likely had some serious mental illness. The story is sad, but compelling.
. Judd was a woman who was convicted of murder in the 1930′s after she was caught taking trunks with dismembered bodies in them on a train from Phoenix to Los Angeles. Judd spent most of her life in mental hospitals, which she frequently escaped from. She eventually escaped a final time as an old woman, changed her name and made a life for herself but eventually did get turned in and finally got released from her lifelong imprisonment after a fresh new trial. The book exposes how it is possible that Judd never committed the murders at all and says that if she did it was likely a self-defense situation that landed her such a harsh punishment because of AZ political circumstances involving various high-ranking officials in the area at the time.
. This isn’t a true crime book in the same way that the other two are but it does tell a true personal story and exposes a case of what could easily be called fraud so I figured I’d include it in this review roundup.