Here's Penelope Medina's "Lupe's Story." This was her Merit Badge presentation. Her mom, Mo, asked friends to help voice a few of the characters. I tried reading several, because it was frankly more fun than I was having on average in January, 2021. I even read in Batman's voice for one character. If you can figure out which ones are Me, feel free to leave a guess! I encourage all of you to support your little Girl Scout friends.

Comedian Jack Lively is skillfully managing his temptations while under house arrest, but starting with his anonymous confrontations on the local Open Mic Night, he's laughing his way over the edge. I posted about David Kempf's They Laughed at Me over on GoodReads. It was interesting to take some concepts i've been mulling over and see how they are refracted in this funny, titilating, and oft times, harrowing novel. I was pleased my observations immediately after finishing apparently made the author's day. You always hope people will read your book. It's great they should buy it, but it is something to know they read it. When you learn WHAT it made them think of, your art becomes a third creation: the one in the reader's head comes out to play. What comes out of Jack's head to play is intriguing. I comment on his moral center in the review, but you might ask yourself a few questions about why you both want to see the character come to his senses an...