Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill: Book Review
What an absolute delight! I just texted my sister to recommend Greenteeth to her. I wrote, “It’s an old school fantasy/fairy tale. It felt a little retro in a time when fantasies are either urban fantasies or sprawling epics with 50,000 characters and entire magic/religion/political systems […]
What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Ayoama: Book Review
4.5 Stars. This was just the sort of soothing, hopeful book I needed right now. In a series of connected stories, the author explores different scenarios most of us can relate to. The young woman fresh out of college who feels stuck. The woman with an established career who finds herself struggling […]
March: Book Three by John Lewis: Book Review
4.5 Stars. I haven’t yet read Mr. Lewis’s more traditional autobiographies for comparison, but actually seeing the hate and the violence confronting people who just want to be treated like full citizens of their country with equal rights in these graphic memoirs is so powerful. What struck me most as I read […]
A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter: Book Review
4.5 Stars. This is a slim volume and much of it is taken up with Mrs. Ritter, her husband, and his friend Karl’s day-to-day survival in Svalbard (Formerly Spitsbergen). Fair warning, that survival isn’t really for those who are disturbed by hunting for food and for furs to sell. Just trying to keep wood […]
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna: Book Review
4.5 Stars. How can you not love a character named Mika Moon? And the found family that surrounds her new young charges is absolutely delightful. Quirky, caring, funny, interfering, determined, mischievous… I could go on but I won’t. I love stories of found families and what a family this one is […]
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree: Book Review
4.5 Stars. To me, the plot of this book took a back seat to the characters, but that’s why I liked it. I am a very character-driven reader and Legends & Lattes gave me a whole book in which to watch a group of diverse characters develop, become friends, build a supportive community, and cheer each […]
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson: Book Review
4.5 Stars. The inside flap of my copy of this book describes it as a “riveting tale that will appeal to fans of The Princess Bride.” I hesitated over that. I love The Princess Bride. So much. That description is setting some very high expectations and I don’t know if it’s possible to meet them.
Sanderson did […]
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë: Book Review
4.5 Stars. Oh my goodness. Why do we pay less attention to Anne Brontë than the other sisters? I liked this book infinitely more than Wuthering Heights! I’ll still give Jane Eyre the edge as my favorite book by a Brontë, but it’s a closer thing than I expected. Anne wrote both a captivating story and a searing indictment of “bad boys” and [..
Marbles by Ellen Forney: Book Review
4.5 Stars. I got behind on the monthly prompts for the Diversity Reading Challenge in August so I was looking for a short book about mental health or addiction when I stumbled on this title. It seemed like the perfect choice to help me catch up. But what started as a book I was reading simply to check a box quickly became a […]
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer: Book Review
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 […]
Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston: Book Review
4.5 Stars. Oh my goodness. This was so much fun! But it also had a lot of depth. And just look at that gorgeous cover!I loved Amari. She’s a fighter. Life is hard and unfair for her, largely because of things completely outside her control, but she keeps hanging in there. Cruel adults or mean girls, she meets each challenge the […]