Book Review: Ashley's War, The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

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Ashley's War:  The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a non-fiction book published in April 2015.  The story follows several women and their quest to become the first women to be in combat along the Green Berets and Army Rangers. This is a book that was selected in my workplace for discussion between women and/or veterans.  The book discussion was broken into three parts much like how the story was broken up.  It garnered great conversations. Some of the things that happened in the book didn't surprise me, such as how physically demanding the tryouts were to be part of the special operations.  It's a demanding job that requires people to be not only physically strong but mentally strong.     What did shock me was that it took the military so long to allow women to fight along men on the battlefield.  Another thing that astonished me were how accepting most of the men in the Army Rangers were of the women fight
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Book Review: Time of the Witch by Mary Downing Hahn

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mary downing hahnWhen I was a kid, I hated reading chapter books because I found most of them boring . . . that was until I discovered two series during the summer between 5th grade and 6th grade . . . Sweet Valley Twins by Francine Paschal and The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin. These two series made me an avid reader. Unfortunately, the middle school library didn't have these books in stock, so I started perusing the shelves for something to read when my English class visited the library.

I happened across a book titled The Time of the Witch written by Mary Downing Hahn. The synopsis of the book sounded intriguing, so I decided to check it out. I fell in love with the book, and it is what made me love fiction books about the paranormal . . . witches, vampires, daemons, etc. My love for the book made me check out many of her books from the school library. Unfortunately, they didn't have a lot of her books, and the public library by my house had none of her books, so I had to resort to buying them, which isn't a bad thing.

While in Charleston, South Carolina on vacation this past June, a crow flew by and perched on something (I can't remember what it was perching on now) and started squawking, which made me think of The Time of the Witch, which features a crow throughout the book. When I got home from vacation, I had to pull out my old copy of the book and reread it.

It still was just as magical to me as it was in middle school, and the writing still holds up as being well written. I think that even today's kids and tweens could relate to the book, even though there is no mention of more modern items in the book like cell phones. The scenes with the crow still creep me out to this day. This should definitely be on every child's reading list that are between the ages of eight and twelve. I gave The Time of the Witch 5 out of 5 stars.

Synopsis:  Laura and her brother are sent to live with their aunt in the country while their parents are in the process of getting a divorce. Desperately wanting her parents reconcile, Laura tells Maude of her wish, not realizing there could be dire consequences.


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