Sarah Kurz

"When I saw those hundreds of journals, I felt for a long moment that I had become that old biologist after all.  That's how the madness of the world tries to colonize you: from the outside in, forcing you to live in its reality." Area X.  A section of the Southern Reach that has completely excluded itself form mankind.  A pristine wilderness with no trace of the human race.  No trace except the lighthouse and the mysterious, cavernous tower. For years the government has sent expeditions into Area X to study it.  The twelfth expedition is all female.  A biologist, an anthropologist, a surveyor, and a psychologist.  No names.  Just titles.  We are following the biologist, a woman who volunteered for Area X after her husband mysteriously returned home from the 11th expedition a completely different man.  Changed and yet the same until a cancer caused by Area X took his life.  The biologist is determined to discover all that she c...

"Our situations weren't the same, but for a moment, I thought I might understand what Silver meant.  I knew what it was like to want a parent to be there.  To  really  be there, instead of drifting in and out of the shadows the way Momma did all of the time." This week's book is The World from Up Here by Cecilia Galante.  My daughter received this book from a friend because he thought she'd like it, which she did.  And then she asked me to read it, which I did, because what better way to crawl into the minds of our children a little bit than to read a book that they enjoyed. 12-year-old Wren's life is turned upside down when her mother falls mentally ill and has to go away.  No longer in the care of her parents, Wren, and her younger brother, Russell, have moved in with their happy-go-lucky Aunt Marianne and their cousin Silver.  In Wren's eyes Silver is everything she is not. Beautiful, popular, and, most importantly to Wren, brave.  Wr...