Sondra Eklund
LightNews LightNews
banner
sonderbooks.com
Sondra Eklund
@sonderbooks.com
6.7K followers 8.6K following 1.7K posts
Librarian. Writer. Book Reviewer. Math geek. Knitter. Progressive Christian. She/her. No DMs from strangers.
More at https://sondraeklund.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
sonderbooks.com
When We Ride, by Rex Ogle, read by Ramón de Ocampo, is a tough YA novel about two friends - with such a strong bond, the one who knows better lets the other lead him into danger.

Read my review: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/when_w...
Cover of the audiobook When We Ride: A Novel, by Rex Ogle, narrated by Ramón de Ocampo. There's a brown background with a car, a gun, and an open, downward facing book stacked behind the words.
November 27, 2025 at 2:52 AM
sonderbooks.com
Read more here: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes...
Shows morning clouds dark but tinged with light on a light blue sky. Some bare branches in the foreground. Quotation says: "Healthy religion is always about love. All we can do is get out of the way." -- Richard Rohr
November 25, 2025 at 3:22 AM
sonderbooks.com
Making Light Bloom: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Lamps, written by Sandra Nickel, illustrated by Julie Paschkis, is a picture book biography of the woman who actually designed the famous lamps for Louis Tiffany's company.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_No...
Cover of Making Light Bloom: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Lamps, written by Sandra Nickel, illustrated by Julie Paschkis. Picture shows a woman making a Tiffany lampshade, with flowers in a pattern behind her. Style is the same as on Tiffany lamps.
November 25, 2025 at 3:05 AM
sonderbooks.com
A Thanksgiving psalm: sonderbooks.com/sonderjourne...
A great blue heron with a lake behind it. The heron is looking up to the right and has one foot out of the water, as if posing.
November 24, 2025 at 3:39 AM
sonderbooks.com
Read more here: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes...
A small lake and fountain with a heron and geese in the foreground. Bright clouds above it. Quotation in the clouds: "The Way of Jesus... welcomes instead of rejecting, integrates instead of segregating, and loves instead of fearing." --Paul Hoard and Billie Hoard
November 23, 2025 at 4:16 AM
sonderbooks.com
Happy Land, by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, is a novel about an actual kingdom that existed in America in the late 1800s, formed by freed people who wanted a place of their own - and about a modern-day descendant of the queen of that kingdom.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/happ...
November 23, 2025 at 2:43 AM
sonderbooks.com
Read more here: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes...
Picture overlooking an Autumn valley with a river down the middle. The sky is blue with white fluffy clouds. Quote in the foreground says: "Take a look again at the world and see it, this time, the way you were meant to see it." -- Richard Beck
November 21, 2025 at 3:44 AM
sonderbooks.com
The Davenports, by Krystal Marquis, read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt, is a Jane Austen style novel about trying to marry off sisters (and a brother) - except this one features a wealthy Black family in 1910 Chicago.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/davenp...
Cover of The Davenports, by Krystal Marquis. Picture has a yellow background with a closeup of a Black couple walking, each wearing a fancy hat and fine clothes (old-fashioned). Behind them are three women in long dresses and a city skyline.
November 21, 2025 at 3:09 AM
sonderbooks.com
The Polar Bear and the Ballerina, by Eric Velasquez, is a wonderful wordless picture book about a ballerina who visits a polar bear in his tank, makes a connection - and then the polar bear visits the ballerina at her performance.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Book...
Cover of the book The Polar Bear and the Ballerina, by Eric Velasquez. Picture shows a black girl ballerina standing on her toes with one leg straight behind her in a graceful pose with a red scarf streaming out behind her. Behind her is a giant polar bear swimming in a tank. There's a spotlight on them both.
November 20, 2025 at 3:53 AM
sonderbooks.com
The Bluest Sky, by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, is a historical children's novel about a family trying to leave Cuba in 1980 during the time of the Mariel boatlift.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fi...
Cover of The Bluest Sky, by Christina Diaz Gonzalez. Picture shows a blue sky with water at the bottom. There are white paper boats in the water and in the sky. The black silhouette of a boy is sitting on one of the boats in the water. He's looking up at the sky.
November 19, 2025 at 4:35 AM
sonderbooks.com
The Lord's Prayer: The Meaning and Power of the Prayer Jesus Taught, by Adam Hamilton, opens your eyes to the riches found in the prayer Jesus gave us.

www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/l...
Cover of The Lord's Prayer: The Meaning and Power of The Prayer Jesus Taught. The design is a white background with gold letters and a decoration featuring a cross beneath the words.
November 18, 2025 at 4:07 AM
sonderbooks.com
If Looks Could Kill, by Julie Berry, read by Jayne Entwistle, features Medusas vs. Jack the Ripper in 1888, with sweet Salvation Army girls caught in the middle. This book features rich historical research in a tale of the vulnerable fighting against the powerful.
www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/if_loo...
Cover of If Looks Could Kill, by Julie Berry, read by Jayne Entwistle. Picture is in red and blue of a girl in an old-fashioned fancy dress with her hair swirling around her and the whites of her eyes colored white, giving her an intense stare.
November 15, 2025 at 11:41 PM
sonderbooks.com
The Book of Candles: Eight Poems for Hanukkah, written by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Leanne Hatch, is a picture book about a family celebrating Hanukkah, with a poem and a thought for each candle.
Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Children.../...
Cover of The Book of Candles, written by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Leanne Hatch. Picture shows a small child and a cat on either side of a lit menorah, gazing at it.
November 15, 2025 at 4:28 AM
sonderbooks.com
Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, is about a Tokyo café where visitors who sit in a certain seat can time travel - as long as they return before the coffee gets cold. A feel-good story about what's important in life.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/befo...
Cover of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Picture shows a cafe table with two cups of coffee, a small lamp, and two chairs. There's a black cat under the table.
November 14, 2025 at 4:39 AM
sonderbooks.com
Read more here: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes...
Photo shows a lake reflecting white clouds in the morning light, with mostly bare tree branches in front of it. Quotation reads: "Unity insists that we have something to learn from each other, and that our gifts can complement each other." -- Hanna Reichel
November 12, 2025 at 1:54 AM
sonderbooks.com
The Alchemy of Moonlight, by David Ferraro, read by Will Watt, is a gay retelling of The Mysteries of Udolpho in all its gothic glory.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/alchem...
Cover of The Alchemy of Moonlight, by David Ferraro. Picture shows a pale man in black with blond hair facing the reader. A full moon is behind him, and two gentlemen in tails, one light-skinned and one dark-skinned. There are small howling wolves pictured in the lower corners of the picture.
November 11, 2025 at 11:22 PM
sonderbooks.com
The Poisoned King, by Katherine Rundell, is another amazing adventure in the magical world of Impossible Creatures. In this one the Princess of Dousha wants to set things right after her grandfather the king is poisoned and her father is framed for his murder.

www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fi...
Review of Impossible Creatures Book 2: The Poisoned King, by Katherine Rundell. Picture shows a girl and a boy with swords, a creature with a scorpion tale, a winged lion, and the shadow of a castle.
November 11, 2025 at 3:32 AM
sonderbooks.com
The Myth of Good Christian Parenting, by Marissa Franks Burt and Kelsey Kramer McGinnis, analyzes the Christian parenting advice empire, uncovers hurtful myths, and provides guidance on evaluating whether resources are helpful or not.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/m...
Cover of The Myth of Good Christian Parenting: How False Promises Betrayed a Generation of Evangelical Families, by Marissa Franks Burt and Kelsey Kramer McGinnis. Picture shows a large two-story home with pillars in front.
November 9, 2025 at 4:27 AM
sonderbooks.com
Sequel to The Dagger and the Flame, The Rebel and the Rose, by Catherine Doyle, has Seraphine trying to figure out the new power of Lightfire - not only how to wield it, but for which side. And how can she and her assassin lover have any future together?

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/rebel_...
Cover of The Rebel and the Rose, by Catherine Doyle, read by Freddy Carter & Emily Carey. Picture shows a man and a woman facing each other in silhouette, holding a rose between them, with roses flying up around them on either side. He has a sword behind his back and she has a dagger behind her back.
November 8, 2025 at 4:20 AM
sonderbooks.com
The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape, by Amy Alznauer, illustrated by Anna Bron, is a picture book biography of a citizen scientist who made the mathematical discovery of more pentagon shapes that tile a plane.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_No...
Cover of the book The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape, by Amy Alznauer, illustrated by Anna Bron. Picture shows a housewife across from a cat sitting on a basket of laundry. She's looking up at a pentagon holding the title. It's got flowers and butterflies and octopus arms bursting out of it.
November 7, 2025 at 3:29 AM
sonderbooks.com
The Cassatt Sisters: A Novel of Love and Art, by Lisa Groen, pulls you into Paris in the 1870s, as Mary Cassatt, inspired by her sister Lydia, works to make a place for herself in the world of art, teaming up with the outsiders dubbed the Impressionists.

www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/cass...
Cover of The Cassatt Sisters: A Novel of Love and Art, by Lisa Groen. Picture is an impressionist painting of two women sitting together at some kind of performance. One woman is holding an eyepiece of some kind to her eyes with a gloved hand.
November 6, 2025 at 4:04 AM
sonderbooks.com
Read more here: sonderbooks.com/sonderquotes...
Pink and white flowers with the quote: "The gospel - the good news - is that you are already fully loved and accepted." - Brian Recker
November 5, 2025 at 2:57 AM
sonderbooks.com
Set among Shakespeare's own acting troupe, That Self-Same Metal, by Brittany N. Williams, read by Patricia Allison, adds a paranormal twist as it turns out A Midsummer Night's Dream is based on actual Fae - with their pact not to harm humans recently broken.

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/that_s...
Cover of That Self-Same Metal, by Brittany N. Williams. Picture shows a Black girl in Elizabethan dress holding a sword - but the blade is swirling in a circle of molten metal.
November 5, 2025 at 2:12 AM
sonderbooks.com
Creaky Acres, by Calista Brill and Nilah Magruder, is a sweet graphic novel about moving - with a horse. Nora's new barn isn't what she's used to, but we watch her learn that different isn't always worse.

Read my review:
www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fi...
Cover of the graphic novel Creaky Acres, by Calista Brill & Nilah Magruder. Picture shows a black girl in proper riding gear on a brown horse with a barn behind her.
November 4, 2025 at 2:03 AM
sonderbooks.com
Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love, by Brian Recker, explains the biblical support for Universalism & shows how the belief that God truly loves and accepts everyone leads to a more loving and healing spirituality.

www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/h...
Cover of Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love, by Brian Recker. Words are in a gothic font on a yellow background with a drawing of flames at the bottom.
November 2, 2025 at 4:22 AM