The Book Blog - Learning Resources at St. Johns River State College

Excuse me as I toss myself into the ocean. I need 9 to 10 business days to of floating face-down to wallow in my feelings.

At first glance, When the Tides Held the Moon is a romance. A gorgeous, magical, seafoam-stained, historical romance. Beneath that? It’s a story about home, and what it takes to find that not only in other people, but within yourself. It's about finding who you are when you’ve spent so long shapeshifting to survive, you've forgotten the real person beneath the mask. It’s about the terror and beauty of being seen--truly seen--and the wild, irrational, breathtaking joy of being loved anyway.

This takes place in New York City in the year 1911 on Coney Island. The setting is everything in this book and I felt like I was there experiencing it myself. The basic plot of this book is that there are multiple competing theme parks. The owner of one hunts down and captures a merman to headline his show. This choice sets off a series of events that will forever change the lives of everyone in the oddity show and beyond.

Benigno and Rio's romance is so unbearably sweet. It brought me back to my teen years when I'd lay in bed (after reading an embarrassing amount of fanfiction), and dream about some magic prince or princess coming to sweep me into their arms. Not that this book is childish, of course, or that the couple's love story is little more than a young kid's fantasies. I mean to say that what Benigno and Rio share across these pages is that kind of love that could appease those private corners of our hearts that still yearn for something so sweet. So tender. So drenched in longing. Makes you feel like the ache of wanting something extraordinary might not be such a terrible, impossible thing after all.

And--the side characters? God, I mourn them. I shall grieve their absence right alongside our MCs. They were the soul of the story, the warmth in the storm. They’re warm and messy and fiercely loyal, I find myself one again aching for that found family that I've yet to, well, find.
Did I mention the companion artwork scattered throughout the book, illustrated by the author herself? Absolutely stunning!

When the Tides Held the Moon didn’t just tell a story--it held me. Gently, like I was something worth loving. I'm not saying I'm about to flee my home and become one with the sea, but I'm also not not saying that. Maybe you'll see me tomorrow, crying over another book. Maybe you'll find me floating in a tidepool somewhere, wondering why I wasn't born a mermaid.

It’s a beautifully crafted, deeply engaging story from open to close, and I hope a lot of readers, like myself, pick this one up not knowing much about the wonders within, in order to have an extraordinary (unspoiled) experience. Truly, you won’t regret it.

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When the Tides Held the Moon - A Historical Romantasy

Excuse me as I toss myself into the ocean. I need 9 to 10 business days to of floating face-down to wallow in my feelings.At first glance, When the Tides Held the Moon is a romance. A gorgeous, magical, seafoam-stained, historical romance. Beneath that? It’s a story about home, and what it takes to find that not only in other people, but within yourself. It's about finding who you are when you’ve spent so long shapeshifting to survive, you've forgotten the real person beneath the mask. It’s about the terror and beauty of being seen--truly seen--and the wild, irrational, breathtaking joy of being loved anyway.This takes place in New York City in the year 1911 on Coney Island. The setting is everything in this book and I felt like I was there experiencing it myself. The basic plot of this book is that there are multiple competing theme parks. The owner of one hunts down and captures a merman to headline his show. This choice sets off a series of events that will forever change the lives of everyone in the oddity show and beyond.Benigno and Rio's romance is so unbearably sweet. It brought me back to my teen years when I'd lay in bed (after reading an embarrassing amount of fanfiction), and dream about some magic prince or princess coming to sweep me into their arms. Not that this book is childish, of course, or that the couple's love story is little more than a young kid's fantasies. I mean to say that what Benigno and Rio share across these pages is that kind of love that could appease those private corners of our hearts that still yearn for something so sweet. So tender. So drenched in longing. Makes you feel like the ache of wanting something extraordinary might not be such a terrible, impossible thing after all.And--the side characters? God, I mourn them. I shall grieve their absence right alongside our MCs. They were the soul of the story, the warmth in the storm. They’re warm and messy and fiercely loyal, I find myself one again aching for that found family that I've yet to, well, find.Did I mention the companion artwork scattered throughout the book, illustrated by the author herself? Absolutely stunning!When the Tides Held the Moon didn’t just tell a story--it held me. Gently, like I was something worth loving. I'm not saying I'm about to flee my home and become one with the sea, but I'm also not not saying that. Maybe you'll see me tomorrow, crying over another book. Maybe you'll find me floating in a tidepool somewhere, wondering why I wasn't born a mermaid.It’s a beautifully crafted, deeply engaging story from open to close, and I hope a lot of readers, like myself, pick this one up not knowing much about the wonders within, in order to have an extraordinary (unspoiled) experience. Truly, you won’t regret it. ...

OZZY

Hello everyone! For this blog, I will be writing about a book I have just recently finished called “I Am Ozzy” by the Prince of Darkness himself, with the help of author Chris Ayres. Before I begin writing about this book, I would just like to say a few things about Ozzy. I was a child in the 1980s, and around this time Ozzy was famous all over the world. Most notably he was more infamous for some of his stage antics, which included biting the heads off animals with wings. This was before the Internet, so when you heard things people did, there was no way you could fact check it yourself. So as a kid hearing many of these rumors, I really did believe that Ozzy WAS the Prince of Darkness, and I should probably stay away. And I did. Look up the album cover for his album No Rest for the Wicked and tell me I’m wrong. When Ozzy came out with an actual TV show in the late 1990s, it was huge and everywhere. It was also on MTV, which was on all the time in our college apartment. But he was a little older then and not as scary. Watching the show, it also became clear that he was hilarious, had more than one dimension, and seemed cool and nice? Ozzy??? Prince of Darkness??? When he passed, I decided to lay down all my prejudices and preconceptions and just listen to the music. What I discovered was an artist who yes, played to a schtick, but also put out great tunes. He barked at the moon, rallied the hounds of hell, and to my shock rocked to the highest degree on each album. Which now finally leads me to the book, lol. So yes, I started the book because now I had to know the story about this guy who I assumed was Satan but then lived a life I saw on TV as shockingly normal, even though it was TV so a “produced” life, but still. This book begins with Ozzy sharing stories of growing up in Birmingham, England. He was one of six children. His mother and father were both of the working class. England had just come out of the Second World War. Ozzy was dyslexic but did not know it back then. He dropped out of school. He did odd jobs. He worked in factories, slaughterhouses, and eventually began a life of crime to attempt to escape poverty. He put an ad in a local paper and music store searching for a band to front. Friends from the school he had gone to answered it, and they became Black Sabbath. I would recommend this book to rock lovers, but also to people who enjoy reading about an underdog. I also need to say that there were many, many times I had to set this book down to laugh hysterically. If you have ever seen a snippet of an interview with Ozzy, you will know he is an incredible storyteller. Here you will experience it with each turn of the page. He did have faults, he did have a lifetime of trouble with drugs and alcohol, but in the end, he was uniquely “Ozzy.” ...

Joyce Carol Oates' "Fox: A Novel" exposes sexual predators as they hide in plain sight

From Owen King's review of "Fox: A Novel" in the New York Times on June 17, 2025: "The nearly universal blindness of adults is one of Oates’s key themes."...

The Devil’s Music Master

Shirawaka, Sam H. The Devil’s Music Master: The Controversial Life and Career of Wilhelm Furtwängler. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.Sam H. Shirawaka’s The Devil’s Music Master is an overview of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s life and career as Germany’s lead musical conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1922 to 1945 and after the war from 1952 to 1954. A leading interpreter of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies and Richard Wagner’s operas, Furtwängler had international fame and renown, which made him a perfect pawn of the Nazi Party when Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933. As Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power, many artists and intellectuals fled Germany; however, Furtwängler decided to stay because he viewed his unique position as Germany’s foremost conductor as responsible for upholding Germany’s artistic and cultural heritage in the face of Nazi barbarism. In Furtwängler’s mind, art and politics were separate entities with no discernable relationship. However, the Nazis used Furtwängler’s reputation and status to legitimize themselves internationally and further solidify their control over Germany. In one instance, German photographers were positioned to catch Furtwängler bowing to the crowd after a performance with Hitler and the Nazi high command seated in the front row. This photo was used by the Nazis and later, the Americans during the Denazification trials after the war, to prove that Furtwängler was sympathetic to the Nazis and part of the party.Shirawaka provides an apologia of sorts by trying to paint Furtwängler as the victim of his own naiveté by believing that by remaining in Germany, he had the clout to influence Hitler, propagandist Joseph Goebbels, and Hermann Göring, who was placed in charge of the Prussian State Theaters, on cultural issues. However, the international community viewed Furtwängler’s refusal to leave Germany as acquiescing to Hitler and the Nazi Party, a belief which still hounds Furtwängler’s legacy today even though he never joined the Nazi Party.While Shirawaka’s claim about Furtwängler’s naivete is convincing, the assertion that Furtwängler was some sort of “leading figure in the resistance” to the Nazis is not.[1] It is true that he resisted the Nazi Party’s attempts to appoint him to prominent posts and that he used his position to help Jews who reached out to him out of the country. With all that said, Furtwängler’s primary motivation was his career and his position as Germany’s foremost conductor. He comes across as a pragmatic opportunist rather than an idealist willing to sacrifice everything to save Germany. While he helped those who sought him out, Furtwängler only did so within the context of his position as the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.Even with these criticisms, the book is a good read because it provides a comprehensive overview of Furtwängler’s musical career and explores the tension between art and politics; a tension that Furtwängler never fully resolved during his life. [1] Sam H. Shirawaka, The Devil’s Music Master: The Controversial Life and Career of Wilhelm Furtwängler (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), xi....

When the Tides Held the Moon - A Historical Romantasy

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