alltheradreads's Reviews (1.9k)

Worth every ounce of the hype. Will be thinking about this one for a loooooong time. Powerful, relevant, necessary... wow.

I read this in one sitting-- it's a beautifully told story about two refugees seeking safety and a place to call home, with a slightly Narnia-ish vibe (stepping through "doors" into new worlds, etc). It's an extremely relevant story told in a lovely and moving way -- a must-read.

I hated this book from page one. Hated it. Couldn't handle how inappropriate, crude, and rough it was. Didn't even get through chapter one. Maybe it gets better, but I wasn't willing to stick around to find out.

So, I grabbed this one at the library recently, sat down to flip through it, and accidentally read the whole thing in one sitting. Oops. It was originally written in Italian (Lahiri is Indian-American, but on a quest to conquer Italian while living in Italy, which is just the coolest thing) and then translated by someone else (she says she wanted to keep her brain in Italian mode instead of switching back to English to translate it) so you get both side by side. I loved her thoughts on language and identity and the public perception of both, and found this SO interesting. I tweeted a few stellar quotes from this one and had lots of folks asking what book they were from -- if you're at all interested in writing, languages, and culture, this is a great one to grab!

I still haven't seen this movie (I know, I know) but knew I wanted to start with the book... and honestly, I didn't enjoy it. It was slow, seemed to jump all over the place between the different women, and was way too long to me. I said several times while reading that "this book is boring" which is never a good sign. Based on what I've heard about the movie, though, it sounds like they took what really is an interesting subject matter and fascinating women and made the story really come to life, which I think this book failed to do well.

I enjoyed this one (another pick from that Girls' of Summer library event -- so many great books were discussed there and it's been so fun to read outside my normal genres to enjoy some of them!) and thought it was a really relevant, genuine, well-written story about one African-American girl's growing up experience. I love that the topic of privilege was tackled here but not in a way that felt forced or too heavy, but still felt really real and honest while still being geared toward that younger YA audience. Really liked this one!

This book. Powerful. Relevant. Necessary. Heartbreaking. Moving. Important. Read it.

The Richmond Public Library hosted a "Girls of Summer" event where local authors, book reviewers, and librarians all shared books for girls of all ages that were perfect for summer reading, and since my mom works at that library, I went! It was SUCH a fun event and I wanted to read all of the books, even though most of them were for kids or young adults! This was one I grabbed because the author was there herself to share more about writing -- it was awesome to hear from her and to hear some young girls from the community interview her! This is a great book for young girls, and I'm so glad I read it, especially because of the strong African-American themes that I have been LOVING reading about lately.