4 Stars. There’s a lot going on here as John Lewis transitions his life story from March to Run. The Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act were finally passed at the end of March: Book Three but that doesn’t mean that the struggle is over. The book feels a little chaotic to me but it’s about a chaotic […]
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 […]
3 Stars. I adored Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, the first book in this series. Dash was just enough of a curmudgeon and Lily was a delight. They were quirky together, they had funny friends, and seeing their relationship develop against the backdrop of Christmas in New York was the stuff that holiday rom-coms […]
4 Stars. I’m not a huge romance reader and even less of a young adult romance reader but I’ve watched my share of rom-coms and this is a rom-com with the cutest of meet cutes. I adored it. And what reader could resist its charms? Dash and Lily’s paths cross when Lily leaves a red notebook with a dare hidden […]
4 Stars. Now, hang with me for a minute here. Flora is a difficult character. I struggled a bit with her, to be honest. She’s really prickly and she can get a little too self absorbed at times. I understand that she’s suffered an unimaginable loss but watching her repeatedly push away people who genuinely care for her got to be […]
4 Stars. Overall, I enjoyed this more than the first book. I missed her frequent conversations with God, but I found it easier to relate to troubled teenage Marjane than activist child Marjane. I was busy playing with Barbies when I was ten, not trying to figure out how I could sneak out to political rallies that frequently […]
4 Stars. I loved Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles so I eventually decided to read her take on a superhero story. I like superhero movies but that’s about as far as I go (no comics or other books), so this was a bit of a step outside my comfort zone. I really liked it. Sometimes superhero stories feel entirely too “good vs […]
4 Stars. Rex Ogle’s mother and stepfather physically and emotionally abused him when he was a child. In his second memoir, Punching Bag, he describes unimaginable incidents that are a terrible reality for far too many children. An alcoholic stepfather who continues the cycle of abuse that he experienced as a child himself […]
4 Stars. I find this review hard to write for some reason but I just found my notes so I’m going to basically just list my bullet point thoughts. The description of the beating death of Vincent Chin gave me nightmares. It felt too graphic (And as I write this I’m hip deep in my annual monthlong horror fest, so I’m not exactly a […]
4 Stars. I was fascinated to read Ms. Cherrix’s account of two opposing rocket engineers in the US/USSR space race and the ethical dilemmas surrounding them. I’m writing this from notes I just found a year after finishing the book so I’ll just list my bullet points. I found the contrast between the two engineers to be […]
4 Stars. Glenn Burke played in the 1977 World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also invented the high five that season. He wasn’t out to the public at that point, but he was also the first openly gay player in Major League Baseball. He was a man who lived his life out loud. When he was angry, everyone around him knew it […]