Every year I put a lot of Women’s Prize nominees on my TBR list. Early in the calendar year, the Women’s Prize announces its longlist of 16 books. These are books written by women and published in the previous year. They must be written in English but they can be from any part of the…
You may know I’m not a huge fan of mini-reviews. All three of these books deserve a full review. But given limited time, all three were really great reads so I wanted to share my thoughts. The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich I loved this book, which tells the story about the Turtle Mountain tribe…
This book about a Palestinian family in Chicago, Illinois begins with a school shooting. Afaf, the principal of a school for Muslim girls, is praying when the gunman opens fire. Then the book goes back to Afaf’s childhood. Afaf is raised in Chicago in the 1970s with her not very religious parents, her older sister,…
I found this a really interesting read about what it’s like to be an undocumented immigrant in Australia. Adiga tells the story through the eyes of Danny, who has fled his native Sri Lanka after torture. He comes to Australia through a school program, applies for refugee status but is denied, and then stays on…
This is a book I think most of us should read, though it’s definitely not an easy read. In 2015, Chanel Miller went to a party at Stanford. Two guys found her unconscious on the ground near a dumpster, with a guy on top of her. When they yelled the guy ran, so they tackled…
I’ve been recommending this book a lot lately, especially to my friends with daughters. There aren’t that many books out there that feel fresh and original, and this one did. First, a major disclaimer: I am NOT the target audience for this book. It’s a bit hard to fairly review a book written by a…
I have a list of recent Austen adaptations I want to read, like Ayesha at Last, Unmarriageable, and Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors. I’d seen great reviews of Pride by Idi Zoboi and was happy to find the audiobook narrated by Elizabeth Acevedo. I thought her reading was terrific and I really appreciated Zoboi’s fresh look at…
Regardless of whether you like Star Trek, whether you’re Japanese, or whether you read graphic novels, you should pick up this book. George Takei never fails to impress me with his humor, his knowledge, and his passion for telling a story. He brings all of those things to this graphic depiction of his childhood experiences…
I haven’t made much progress yet on this year’s Read Harder Challenge, but I’ve read quite a few books in other years that meet the categories. If you’re new to Read Harder, Book Riot makes suggestions for each category, and there’s a discussion group on Goodreads that’s really helpful. I thought I’d post some recommendations, in case…
I had to think this year about how many challenges to take on. Too many and you make reading too stressful. And yet there are so many I’d like to participate in. My husband “challenged” me to limit myself to three, which I’m not going to do — but I have streamlined a bit. As…
I wasn’t sure I’d like this book at first. I don’t love science fiction that focuses too much on technology at the expense of character development, and this book features a high-tech robot as a main character. I read it because I needed a winner of a Lambda Literary Award for the Reading Women challenge,…
I read this book for the Read Harder 2019 Challenge. I needed an #ownvoices book set in Oceania: the #ownvoices part means by an indigenous author, and Oceania is Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific islands. The Things She’s Seen is by brother and sister Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina, from the Palyku people of…
The Book Stop 