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Nicola Yoon's The Sun is Also a Star
I did not expect to love Nicola Yoon's The Sun is Also a Star. But I did. I feel like tons of people are giving this book glowing reviews right now, so I'm not sure that I have a lot to add to the...
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2016: The Year in Review
It's pretty depressing reading my 2015 year in review. I said that 2015 was a tough year and hoped very much that 2016 would be better. 2016 was not better. It's a true fact (not a false news story)...
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Things to see and hear: Podcast and TV/Movie Round-Up
Hello, 2017! One of my unofficial resolutions for this year is to become more informed about local, national, and international news. Another resolution is just to learn more about other cultures and...
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Intisar Khanani's Memories of Ash
I was lucky enough to get an early copy of Intisar Khanani's Memories of Ash back in May when it was first released. I really love Khanani's work, and I fully intended to sit down and read the book...
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The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson
I took advantage of having a big chunk of free time off work between Christmas and New Year's to tackle a big, meaty book. I saw Isabel Wilkerson speak during the Chicago Humanities Festival after...
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Review-itas: Books that confused me
Guys, Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee confused me so much that I cannot even explain the cover of this book to you. Does it fit with the story? I don't know. I mean, the story takes place in space,...
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Dispatches from Dystopia, by Kate Brown
I heard about Kate Brown's Dispatches from Dystopia: Histories of Places Not Yet Forgotten on NPR's book concierge. It's a series of essays about "the very human and sometimes very fraught ways we...
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The One Hundred Nights of Hero, by Isabel Greenberg
I adored Isabel Greenberg's The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, so as soon as I heard about her new book The One Hundred Nights of Hero, I put it on hold at the library. And this book was just what I...
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The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
I read Kij Johnson's The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe with my feminist science fiction book club, and it's the first book I've read that made me really love being in a book club. I'm not very good at...
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Detroit: An American Autopsy
Charlie LeDuff's Detroit: An American Autopsy is a book I've had on my list to read for a while, I think since I finished grad school. As is typical for me, I bought the book on Kindle and then...
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The Association of Small Bombs
Karan Mahajan's The Association of Small Bombsis one of those books that is very popular with critics. It's also one of those books that you read and know that is it incredibly well-written and has a...
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Women Culture and Politics
Women Culture and Politics is the first Angela Y Davis book I've ever read. For those of you who may not know, Angela Davis is a hugely influential feminist communist activist. She was very active in...
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Whatever happened to interracial love?
I heard about Kathleen Collins and her collection of short stories, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?, in the New York Times Book Review, where I get many of my reading recommendations (and which...
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Rolling Blackouts, by Sarah Glidden
I heard about Sarah Glidden's Rolling Blackouts: Displatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq on NPR's Book Concierge. Glidden traveled to the Middle East with some friends who work as independent...
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Trevor Noah's Born a Crime
I don't watch The Daily Show very often, mostly because I don't watch TV all that often. I didn't know much at all about Trevor Noah when he took over after Jon Stewart left. I have only watched a...
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A Closed and Common Orbit
Last year, I dipped my toes into (feminist, multicultural) science fiction at the behest of a very close friend, and this year, I am jumping straight in. One of my favorite sci fi novels of 2016 was...
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Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
I read Sam Quinones'Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic for a new book club I'm joining. I have had it on my radar since it came out, but I admit that I was wary of reading it....
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Rita Williams-Garcia's One Crazy Summer
I first heard about the book One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia, on Ana's blog in 2014. Me being me, I read the book in 2017. So I'm a little late to the party, but the party is still...
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Testosterone Rex, by Cordelia Fine
There are a few times in her book Testosterone Rex in which Cordelia Fine self-deprecatingly talks about how, when she introduces herself to people, she is always saddened by the fact that she is not...
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The Death and Life of the Great Lakes
I have lived my whole life by the Great Lakes, specifically Lake Michigan. I love the vastness of these waters, like interior freshwater oceans. I grew up visiting the beaches and now walk along the...
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