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 […]
4 Stars. I honestly expected to find more hard facts in the book than I did. But Dr. Hall addresses that. Even when she found records of revolts led by women, they rarely contained more than a first name. So she decided to make “measured use of historical imagination” and fill in the gaps. That’s fair enough, especially since […]
3 Stars. I enjoyed the second volume of this series but it didn’t quite grab me the same way the first one did. It’s been years since I read the first one so maybe the time lapse and/or my shifting tastes are to blame. I feel the creepy old photos are incorporated a bit more seamlessly than they were in the first book; however, […]
3 Stars. I’m still so upset that the last book ended the way it did. I tried to put that behind me, as Jacky herself does, but I’m a world-class grudge-holder. I was mostly able to enjoy this book for itself but I’m still rating it 3 stars instead of the 4 I would probably have given it if that nonsense from book 11 hadn’t […]
3 Stars. This was pretty good but it never fully grabbed my attention and I can’t say why. I liked the main characters well enough, though the secondary characters weren’t very distinct in my mind. Ana was a bit too stupidly headstrong for my taste but I mostly liked her well enough to overlook it. I’m always a fan of found […]
4 Stars. Once again, Ruta Sepetys has found a forgotten corner of history and written a gripping historical fiction novel about it. I’ve read a few books that touch on Germans at the end of WWII fleeing the vengeful Soviet army, but none of them were about Germans evacuating by boat. The history was fascinating and gut-wrenching […]
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 Stars. I really enjoyed this book, especially as a woman with a degree in biology and a background in clinical research. Ignotofsky obviously made an effort to include women from many countries and across many races, which is lovely. Considering that the entry for Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space […]
4 Stars. Kwame’s passion for cooking and feeding hungry people shines through these pages. When he decides to walk away from his life on the streets, he has to work impossibly hard to put himself through culinary school but he does it. His motto seems to be “Go big or go home” and that mostly works for him. If you don’t aim […]
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 […]
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 […]