Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians by Anton Treuer: Book Review
4 Stars. I found this absolutely fascinating. It’s written in a simple question and answer format with an index and extensive bibliography. It’s easy to dip in and out of but I mostly read it straight through. He begins with my first question after reading the title, “What general terms are most appropriate for talking about […]
They Better Call Me Sugar by Sugar Rodgers: Book Review
4 Stars. I am not a sports fan. Oh, I have some idea how the Dolphins are doing in football because my husband is a loyal, if frustrated and heartbroken, fan, but I only know the biggest of the big names in sports. Unfortunately, those names are always male. Needless to say, I had never heard of Sugar Rodgers but she’s certainly a force […]
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis: Book Review
4 Stars. I’m ashamed to admit that my knowledge of Rosa Parks was limited to her refusal to move to the back of a segregated bus in the Jim Crow south. To quote Julian Bond in this book, I more or less bought the narrative that “Rosa sat down, Martin stood up, then the white folks saw the light and saved the day.” Yes, that’s an […]
The Black Friend by Frederick Joseph: Book Review
4 Stars. In The Black Friend, Frederick Joseph shares his own experiences with racism, his response in the moment, how he wishes he’d actually responded, and demonstrates ways to be anti-racist. I can’t imagine these stories were easy to share. Some of them were so egregious that my jaw dropped and I was like, “What?!? Someone said […]
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck: Book Review
4 Stars. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this book but I ultimately found it to be a surprisingly touching story of a boy on the cusp of manhood. Robert is fairly innocent in the ways of the world (he thinks that the tiny town of Rutledge, Vermont is almost as big as London). But he also has a practical knowledge of […]
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds: Book Review
5 Stars. Holy cow. Can I give this book all the stars? Because five doesn’t seem like enough. Written by a Black author and a White author, All American Boys covers all the nuances of a scene that’s shamefully familiar to the American public–a policeman beating and/or killing a Black man. Rashad shows signs of PTSD. His older […]
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger: Book Review
4 Stars. I’ll be honest–I fully expected to dislike this book. I only decided to read it to see why it’s always on lists of banned/challenged books. You can’t even begin to imagine my surprise when I immediately clicked with Holden. Is he young and judgmental? Yes. But he’s broken and feels the world deeply. He sees all the ways we hurt […]
The Giver by Lois Lowry: Book Review
4 Stars. This was published in 1993, when I was 15 years old, and I must have just barely missed having it as assigned reading in school. While it’s probably a classic to many of you, this was the first time I’ve read it. I was surprised by how unsettling it is. Jonas’s world seems almost perfect at first. Everyone apologizes […]
Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists by Mikki Kendall: Book Review
4 Stars. The framework for this graphic novel seems a bit odd at first. An artificial intelligence guides the girls through important times and places, beginning with Sumer in 3000 BCE. That framework does serve to tie everything together though. The “story” basically consists of brief biographical sketches of women from all over […]
The Pretenders by Charlaine Harris: Book Review
3 Stars. I expected something like The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which sets the bar awfully high. There’s a superficial similarity in the plot summary but that’s as far as any resemblance goes. There’s plenty of action to kick off this trilogy but it’s action that doesn’t seem to be relevant to the main story. I didn’t know […]
A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce: Book Review
3 Stars. I really liked the first half of the book. Charlotte is feisty, if a bit too practical, and she’s creative in addressing the mill’s myriad problems. I wondered how the author was going to weave Rumpelstiltskin into the tale but she did it beautifully. The village of Shearing, like any self-respecting small town, is full […]