Sondra Eklund
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Sondra Eklund
@sonderbooks.com
7K followers 8.7K following 1.8K posts
Librarian. Writer. Book Reviewer. Math geek. Knitter. Progressive Christian. She/her. No DMs from strangers.
More at https://sondraeklund.com
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sonderbooks.com
Hekate: The Witch, by Nikita Gill, read by the Author, is a beautifully told novel in verse about the coming-of-age of a lesser-known Greek goddess who grew up in the underworld and doesn't know her own powers or purpose.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/hekate...
Cover of Hekate: The Witch, by Nikita Gill. Picture on a black background shows a woman in Greek garb holding a torch with a dog by her side. Two identical women are behind her looking to either side. An owl is flying on each side, with a full moon behind her.
January 21, 2026 at 2:41 AM
sonderbooks.com
Read more here: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes...
Two ducks standing on a frozen but melting lake with their heads under their wings. Quotation: "Not only does God call Adam and Eve out of their shame, he also removes it altogether." -- Elizabeth Garn
January 20, 2026 at 1:29 AM
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Still celebrating #Sonderbooks25, I've got a new review of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke, read by Simon Prebble, my favorite adult book read in 2004, with unparalleled world-building in an alternate reality England with magic being revived.

www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/jona...
Cover of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. Only picture is a raven flying away.
January 19, 2026 at 10:01 PM
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Read more here: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes...
Photo of a duck walking on a frozen lake with melting ice and light on the ice. Quotation: "Hating people is always going to be the easier and more expedient path than loving them, because loving them means seeing them fully, hearing their story, stepping into their skin and shoes as best we can, and finding something worth embracing." -- John Pavlovitz
January 19, 2026 at 4:40 AM
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Read more here: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes...
A wall of bright white textured clouds next to blue sky over a lake with buildings on the other side. Quotation: "Maybe the same hand that made garments for a trembling Adam and Eve is doing everything he can that we might come a little closer. I pray his stitches hold." -- Cole Arthur Riley
January 18, 2026 at 3:58 AM
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In Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow, by Jessica Townsend, read by Gemma Whelan, we get the continued adventures of Morrigan in the Wundrous Society, but learn that her magical gift exactly matches that of the most evil wizard who ever lived.

www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fi...
Cover of Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow, by Jessica Townsend, read by Gemma Whelan. Picture shows a girl surrounded by sparkles of magic looking at multicolored bubbles containing various scenes such as a girl swimming and goats dressed up as professors.
January 17, 2026 at 10:29 PM
sonderbooks.com
One of last year's Mathical Honor Books, Rain Reign, by Ann M. Martin, is a powerful novel told from the perspective of an autistic girl who loves homonyms and loses her dog in a hurricane.

Read my review: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fi...
Cover of Rain Reign, by Ann M. Martin. Cover shows the silhouette of a girl and dog running in the rain with dark clouds overhead.
January 17, 2026 at 4:21 AM
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Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, by Virginia Roberts Guiffre, read by Thérèse Plummer and Gabra Zackman, is both very hard to listen to and very important. May the powerful people who prey on the vulnerable be called to account!
www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/n...
Cover of Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, by Virginia Roberts Guiffre. Picture is an old photo of a young girl with long blond hair, mostly faded out.
January 16, 2026 at 3:45 AM
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The quotation this is from is long, but it packs a punch: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes...
Gray winter sky with dark, bare tree branches. Quotation: "Are we to believe that God is praising the sheep for their enduring presence with those who are in prison, and at the same time, God withdraws God's own eternal presence from those whom God sends to prison?" -- Derek Ryan Kubilus
January 14, 2026 at 2:25 AM
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Under This Forgetful Sky, by Lauren Yero, set in future Chile after great destruction, features a teen from the Upper Cities venturing across the barren, dangerous landscape with a teen from the Lower Cities, each one not being completely honest with the other.

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/under_...
Cover of Under This Forgetful Sky, by Lauren Yero. Picture shows a brown-skinned girl and boy gazing at one another in the dark, with glowing leaves behind them.
January 14, 2026 at 1:52 AM
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Read more here: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes...
Photo of a lake before sunrise, dark, but with light beginning to glow. Shadowed bare trees in the foreground. Quotation says, "Life on the other side of loss is not only livable but may be better, richer, more meaningful." -- Maggie Smith
January 13, 2026 at 3:56 AM
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André: André Leon Talley - A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders, illus. by Lamont O'Neal, shines with the exuberance of a Black boy who dreamed of fashion and grew up to be editor of Vogue magazine.

www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_No...
Cover of André: André Leon Talley - A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders, illustrated by Lamont O'Neal. Picture shows a black man smiling, wearing a tie and a voluminous orange coat.
January 13, 2026 at 3:43 AM
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Read the rest of this wonderful quotation here: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes... @mariannbudde.bsky.social
Snow in patterns on frozen lake. Quotation: "I wonder if God needs us to persevere in prayer simply because most of what we pray for will take a long time to realize." -- Mariann Edgar Budde
January 12, 2026 at 3:31 AM
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Read more here: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes...
Cardinal on a bare tree branch. Quotation reads: "Jesus invites us to joy." -- Gregory Boyle
January 11, 2026 at 3:40 AM
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A debut graphic novel I read in 2023, Two Tribes, by Emily Bowen Cohen, portrays a girl navigating between her Jewish and indigenous heritage and learning more about them both.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fi...
Cover of Two Tribes, by Emily Bowen Cohen. Picture shows a girl with brown skin and dark hair, wearing both a Native American beadwork necklace and a Star of David necklace.
January 11, 2026 at 1:35 AM
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We'll Prescribe You a Cat, by Syou Ishida, trans. by E. Madison Shimoda, read by Naruto Komatsu and Natsumi Kuroda, is another story from Japan about a magical place where people from disparate walks of life find healing - this time through cats.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/well...
Cover of We'll Prescribe You a Cat, by Syou Ishida. Picture shows a giant prescription bottle with a gray striped cat inside, looking out at the viewer with its front paws over the rim.
January 10, 2026 at 4:13 AM
sonderbooks.com
2024 National Book Award Winner, Kareem Between is a way too timely story of a Syrian American boy who just wants to play football while his mother gets stuck in Syria when she visits her parents during the first Trump administration.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fi...
Cover of Kareem Between, by Shifa Saltagi Safadi. Picture shows a brown-haired, brown-skinned boy wearing a jacket and t-shirt with 34 on it and carrying a football. He's standing in a hallway lined by lockers with four kids behind him, one of them a football player leaning against the lockers.
January 9, 2026 at 3:35 AM
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My #5 Sonderbooks Stand-out in Christian Nonfiction, Forgive Everyone Everything, takes previously published inspirational excerpts from Gregory Boyle's writings and pairs them with art by Fabian Debora - for inspirational stories to take you through your day.

www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/f...
Cover of Forgive Everyone Everything, by Gregory Boyle, Art by Fabian Debora. Cover is black, with paintings showing in the letters of the word FORGIVE.
January 8, 2026 at 3:45 AM
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My #6 Sonderbooks Stand-out in More Teen Fiction, Reasons We Break, by Jesmeen Kaur Deo, shows us the heart of a young adult pulled into a gang, along with the good girl who gets involved with the gang to try to save him.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/reason...
Cover of Reasons We Break, by Jesmeen Kaur Deo. Red cover shows a roaring lion breaking chains.
January 7, 2026 at 2:42 AM
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My #10 Sonderbooks Stand-out in Picture Books, Island Storm, written by Brian Floca, pictures by Sydney Smith, is an evocative story of a boy going together with his little sister to see all the things on the island affected by the coming storm.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Book...
Cover of Island Storm, by Brian Floca, pictures by Sydney Smith. Picture shows two kids holding hands and running over rocks with rain coming down from a gray sky and sea spray behind them.
January 6, 2026 at 3:13 AM
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My #3 Sonderbooks Stand-out in Children's Nonfiction, How Did You Count? is another brilliant book by Christopher Danielson with more than one right answer to questions that invite kids to explore mathematical thinking. @triangleman.bsky.social

Read my review: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_No...
Cover of How Did You Count? by Christopher Danielson, plus the Teacher's Guide. Both books show an arrangement of 36 balls in a diamond shape, the picture book blue and green balls, and the teacher's guide green and yellow balls.
January 4, 2026 at 2:37 AM
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My #4 Sonderbooks Stand-out in Miscellaneous Nonfiction, Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, envisions a future where Americans live in abundance - and then looks at how we might correct our course to get there.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/a...
Cover of Abundance, by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson, read by the authors. Picture shows the earth with the top removed, as if a spherical bowl, and on top are skyscrapers, a river, and lush plants and animals.
January 3, 2026 at 4:41 AM
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The Forbidden Book, by Sacha Lamb, is about a rebbe's daughter in medieval Eastern Europe, who dresses as a boy to escape her wedding day - and gets inhabited by the spirit of an actual boy - with people looking for him to kill him because he stole a magic book.

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/forbid...
December 31, 2025 at 8:55 PM
sonderbooks.com
Celebrating 25 years of writing Sonderbooks, I'm reading my old reviews. And there's no book I recommend wholeheartedly for writers than If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland. Read my 2004 review: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/i... #Sonderbooks25
December 31, 2025 at 2:29 AM
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Read more here: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes...
Picture of snow on a small lake with bare trees around it. Bright white clouds in a blue sky above. Quotation superimposed over the lake: "The God that existed before the beginning of time chose to walk among the people as one of their own." -- Trey Ferguson
December 31, 2025 at 1:58 AM