Inspired by Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop.

“I was born twice: first as a baby girl on a remarkably smogless day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petosky, Michigan in August of 1974.” That’s the first line of this fascinating and wonderful book, which relates the story of the intersex life of Calliope who becomes Cal. The story is interspersed with the tales of three generations of a Greek-American family. I highly recommend this book, unless you are uncomfortable with the subject matter, but it did give me more understanding of the LGBTQ community.

Major Ernest Pettigrew is part of a generation that still believes in decorum, respect to be earned and modesty. When his brother dies, Pakistani shopkeeper Mrs. Ali shows up at his door to see if he needs anything and an old-fashioned romance begins. I really enjoyed this book; set in a small village in the English countryside. The Major and Mrs. Ali have to deal with prejudice, there is the tenuous relationship between the Major and his son, and still there is some humor to the book. I highly recommend this!

Librarian Tori Sinclair is new to the town of Sweet Briar, South Carolina and finds it hard to fit in in a town where everyone knows everyone else. But when the town’s sweetheart is found murdered outside the library dumpster Tori becomes everyone’s number one suspect, including the police. Tori must clear her name before she finds herself taken into custody. I found this cozy mystery series (A Southern Sewing Circle) on Pinterest and at first decided not to read any more books in the series. But for some reason I couldn’t stop thinking of Tori and I got the second one in the series and found I liked it better. Tori is likable, there’s some romance and a great cast of supporting characters.

All of these reviews were taken from my goodreads profile and I hope you will friend me on there! Happy reading!