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

09/29/2025

Brenda Hoffman

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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."

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Jennette McCurdy's "I'm Glad my Mom Died" Struck a Chord with Me

Kendyll Cobb, SJRState student on the St. Augustine campus, is this week's guest blogger. Here is a little bit about Kendyll! If you want, please feel free to leave a comment at the end of her blog. And don't forget to subscribe, so you don't miss out on the weekly book blog! Genres I like to read: Fiction, Non-FictionFavorite books: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Perks of Being a WallflowerLeast favorite books: I love all books.Authors I enjoy: Kathryn GlasgowWhere, how, and why I like to read: I love to read physical books outside! I like reading, because it takes my mind off real-world things.I’m excited to write for SJRState’s book blog! Today’s blog is about a recent read of mine called I'm Glad my Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. Growing up watching Jennette on “ICarly” and then discovering the horrors she hid so well was an eye-opening experience. I was recommended this book by Brenda Hoffman due to my own complex relationship with my mom; seeing someone else go from suffering in silence to healing and enjoying life was comforting in a way.Jennette was a middle to lower class girl living with her mom, Dad, three brothers, Grandma and Grandpa. Her mom was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer when Jennette was young, but her passing didn't happen until much later in Jennette's life. Jennette never wanted to be an actress; it was her mom’s dream to be an actress, but she never had the chance. She projected her dreams of showbiz onto Jennette. During Jennette's childhood, her mom inflicted many forms of physical and psychological abuse, from intense dieting to showering with her older brother when they were teens. Throughout the memoir, we see how Jennette deals with the abuse and the aftermath of it. She reveals an eating disorder, substance abuse, and toxic relationships, most of which lead back to the root cause: her mother.This book evoked lots of emotions for me: it's funny as well as gut wrenching. McCurdy’s sad story made me feel new emotions along with familiar ones. I have had numerous people throughout my life say that I reminded them of Jennette's character, Sam, from “ICarly,” who's characterized by her funny, aggressive, personality. After reading this book, I find I see myself more in Jennette, while others see the front both she and I put up as Sam. McCurdy’s memoir not only changed my perspective of the glamour of Hollywood, but more importantly it shined a light on the fact that people's lives are full of invisible struggles that, thankfully, they can overcome through admitting there’s a problem, guidance from trusted friends and family, and therapy.Good news! I'm Glad My Mom Died is available to borrow from St. Johns River State College Library and on our LIBBY App. If you haven't downloaded LIBBY yet, come into the library and the staff at the circulation desk will guide you through the process. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy ISBN: 9781982185824Publication Date: 2022-08-09* #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * MORE THAN 2 MILLION COPIES SOLD! A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor--including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother--and how she retook control of her life. Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother's dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called "calorie restriction," eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, "Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn't tint hers?" She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income. In I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail--just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi ("Hi Gale!"), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants. Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I'm Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair....

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."...