aus10england's Reviews (943)

A quick and enlightening read about an amazing individual! As someone who is queer and hard of hearing, I really felt a connection and understanding with the author and their experiences. Happy to have this little book in my collection!

Ugh, I didn’t feel strongly about this one way or another. 

I enjoyed that it took place in 90’s Portland, the vibes were cool. 

Otherwise, I found myself pretty bored? Like, I wasn’t compelled to care about what happened to any characters in the book. 

First five star fiction of the year! 

Wow, my least reached genres are for sure historical fiction and fantasy, but in this case it just WORKED for me. 

I found the main characters charming yet flawed, and their actions made sense with their character development.

I may be biased as a Seattleite, but I very much enjoyed being sent back to that time and learning some new history along the way. It was nice to have characters who were free to love in the 1910’s even though that would be very historically inaccurate for the time period obviously. 

Overall, a great read that I’ll be thinking about for the rest of the year!

Most poetry just isn’t for me, I’m sure this is amazing for poetry lovers, but just didn’t resonate enough for me to continue. 

Oh lord we thank you!

Tabitha Brown is an icon, plain and simple. I first heard of her through TikTok, and her words and smile spoke to me in so many ways, so I was excited to learn more about her spirit with this book. She managed to pack in SO much wisdom, inspiration, AND recipes! There were some passages where I had to pause and think about what was said because it hit me right where I needed to feel it. Not many memoirs/self help books can do that to me. I may not be religious myself, but she references her faith in a way that can’t help but make you love and appreciate her more than you already do. 

This was quite the read!

This book came out when I was in high school, so I'm now only reading it ten years later which made it fun to reflect on how far things have come as far as trans issues go. I found the story easy to follow, but had a hard time with the dated language used, as well as how the main character was treated. I l I don't tend to wish for books to be longer, but I think the story could have benefited for being a bit more flushed out and fully realized. For example, LOVED how radio played into the story, but I think they could have gone farther with it.

I wouldn't consider this "queer required reading", but I think it'll be interesting to look back on this book decades down the line to truly see how far we've come!

The author beautifully tells the tale of her childhood growing up in North Korea, in a way that is honest, raw, and at times very hard to read. You’ll come away from this book with a better understanding of those struggling to escape their homes and what limits they’ll go to to do so. 

I found the pacing really well done up until the end where it seems to wrap up really quickly, but I will happily read anything the author decides to write next!

Let’s just say, this book had a lot to live up to, as the author’s book “House on the Cerulean Sea” was my fave read of 2021, and it mostly lived up to it!

I found the cast of characters lovable, (especially the dog) and I was mostly engaged throughout. I don’t reach for fantasy but I didn’t mind the light fantasy elements, I thought that they added to the story beautifully. 

I didn’t really buy the character development of the MC, I felt like I had to suspend disbelief for me to enjoy the story, but the character arc for him was sweet. 

So many people would enjoy this book, and if you’re looking for a strong character development kind of book with light fantasy and a hint of romance, this is for you! 

What an informative read!

Going into this, I wasn’t sure how much I was going to get out of it. I do not personally know a lot about the food service industry, so I thought it might be a little unapproachable. The authors did a great job of telling their story, although at some point I was left wondering what narrative was being told? We were told pretty early on that the book was basically already written completely by one of the authors, and the other was added on after the fact, so that might have had something to do with it? I did think the dynamic between the two worked great in most instances. 

I would recommend this to any aspiring chefs/cooking enthusiasts/southern food lover, or those looking to understand another aspect of race relations in the US.