4 Stars. Confession: I didn’t know who Issa Rae is when I picked this up. I’m only vaguely aware of pop culture at the best of times and influencers or even show writers and producers are just not on my radar. I don’t remember why I added this to my list but I’m glad I did because it was so funny!
I’m […]
4 Stars. I’ve always liked Ari Shapiro on NPR so I was excited to read his memoir when I saw it. I was listening to a very long audiobook at the time so I decided to read The Best Strangers in the World in print, but I would hazard to guess that the audio is even better. I truly enjoyed reading […]
4 Stars. This is one of the most realistic commencement addresses I’ve ever read or heard. These things are usually full of high flown language about changing the world and chasing your dreams. That’s all very inspirational. But how do you actually get to that point? You work and you work some more. Sometimes you get lucky […]
4.5 Stars. If you look at all six of the genres I’ve placed this book in, you can tell that it defies description. The title sounds boring to me. I had to take a plant taxonomy class in college. While I enjoyed learning the names of things, I didn’t like learning about the plants themselves. Photosynthesis, xylem and phloem, or […]
4 stars. I know this book probably won’t have much appeal to a broad audience but it was so engaging, I felt that I needed to review it. When my husband and I first arrived in Oregon in April of 2020 for his work assignment at a hospital outside Portland, my aunt put me in touch with one of her friends who owns a summer home on […]
I adore Neil Gaiman’s work, so I jumped at the chance to review this new collection of his nonfiction. I’ve read bits and pieces of his graduation speeches and stuff like that and it always makes me stand up and cheer, “Yes! This! This man gets it!” And that should probably tell you where my expectations were. The collection […]
In a collection of short essays, men and women from all walks of life share their defining beliefs. I listen to NPR in between audiobook downloads but I seem to only be in the car for the news and Marketplace, so I’ve never heard any of these essays. I enjoyed them immensely. Ranging from funny […]
I’m not an NPR listener but something about this title caught my eye. I downloaded it at the end of the year when I was trying to squeeze in one last nonfiction book to complete a reading challenge. Only about two hours long, I knew I could listen to it in just a couple of […]
Editor Leah Wilson has collected a series of thirteen essays from various young adult authors, each addressing a different aspect of The Hunger Games trilogy. How do I put this? I’m not really a huge analyzer of books. Sure, I write plenty of reviews, but in those I just write what I liked (or not) […]
I tried, but I give up. The first story, “Santa Land Diaries,” was great. Sedaris’s tale of working as a Macy’s department store elf is hilarious! Those people who inevitably make the news every Black Friday by pepper spraying and punching their fellow shoppers? I think they all go to Macy’s at Christmas. Sedaris writes […]
A co-worker insisted on lending me this book. It doesn’t sound like my kind of thing, but I didn’t know how to tell her I wasn’t interested. We’ll see how this goes… Written in a format that leaves me wondering whether to classify this as fiction or non-fiction, The Richest Man in Babylon uses the […]