brittmariasbooks's Reviews (1.45k)

A cute seasonal graphic novel

Thank you to Netgalley and Boom! Studios for the ARC I received. All opinions in this review are my own.

Bear is an adorable graphic novel by Ben Queen (Disney Pixar's Cars 2 and Cars 3). Bear is a guide dog who would do anything for his owner Patrick. But when Bear suddenly loses his own eyesight he worries he might lose his job/identity as a guide dog. Bear goes on a journey to regain his eyesight and meets new friends along the way.

I loved this graphic novel! Bear is the best boy and I love him. The illustrations are so imaginative that I was swept away into Bear's adventure. I really recommend this book if you are looking for a cute graphic novel that will leave you with a feel-good feeling.

This is a nice audiobook, although I think that Fantastic Beasts is more fun to read a book with pictures. The audiobook does provide sounds effects of the different beasts manages.
I did really like it though that the audiobook was narrated by Eddie Redmayne aka Newt Scamander in the films.

Thank you to Jessica Kingsley Publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

How to Be Ace: A Memoir of Growing Up Asexual is a nice, informative graphic novel about the author's, Rebecca Burgess, asexual life. Personally, I know the basics about asexuality but I have yet to consume a story with an asexual main character. Stories with asexual characters are still not as present as is knowledge about asexuality. So I hope that this graphic novel will spread the word about asexuality so that those who feel as excluded as Burgess did may finally come to terms with themselves. Burgess also struggles with OCD and anxiety which is also featured in this memoir. Mainly, Burgess shows her humanity. She asks important questions like: Why is one's life only complete after finding a partner? Overall, Burgess shows how one life with asexuality could be. I hope many more will follow afterwards.

I quite enjoyed the first half of The Hazel Wood, however, I lost interest have way through (although it went up a little again by the end). The creepy fairy tales were nice to read in this spooky season even though creepy stories are not really up my alley. I don't think I will pick up the sequel but I might one day pick up the book Melissa Albert is writing with all The Tales of Hinterland.

In de Geschiedenis van het Amsterdamse studentenleven wordt in 51 pagina's verteld hoe het studentenleven en vooral in verband met studentenverenigingen, het Corps en disputen in Amsterdam is ontstaan. Dit was niet heel representatief voor mijn eigen studentenleven maar was wel leuk om even over te lezen. Het deed me denken aan de A Very Short Introduction serie van Oxford University Press.

African American Poetry encompasses 250 years of poetry from 1770-2020. I am glad I persevered finishing this poetry beast of 1170 pages. The book starts with an in-depth introduction explaining all the parts and highlighting some poets. I thought of giving up sometimes but the poetry collection includes many, many poets that I would find gems and continue. My gems - highlighted sometimes in my page updates - will probably be different than the gems you will find in this poetry collection. Personally, it took me longer to read the older poems since English is not my first language. However, since I read the book 'normally' it became easier for me as I read more poems.

The collection spreads the 250 years over 8 parts:
1. Bury Me in A Free Land 1770-1899
2. Lift Every Voice 1900-1918
3. The Dark Tower 1919-1936
4. Ballads of Remembrance 1936-1959
5. Ideas of Ancestry 1960-1975
6. Blue Light Sutras 1976-1989
7. Praise Songs for the Day 1990-2008
8. After the Hurricane 2009-2020

I would definitely recommend this poetry collection to any poetry lover and advice them to read it how they want to. Start in the middle, skip to the end. However, you like it.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Button Poetry for this eARC

I love Rudy Francisco's poems. I loved his poetry collection Helium. I recommend watching some of his videos where he performs the spoken word poems. Regardless, they are a great read. What I loved especially of this poetry collection is that Francisco introduces words that do not currently exist in the English language, but should. He gives a definition but also provides poems that explain the words are well. In my opinion, these words that do not currently exist in the English language, should exist and with this poetry collection they do.

The Battle of the Labyrinth is an interesting case in my 2020 reread/buddy read of the series. Whereas I expected to love it as much as the other books, in reality, I did not feel as much nostalgia for TBotL as I did in the first three books. I still think it is a solid book in the series and I quite enjoyed it. However, I had a higher expectation that it did not meet, especially for the last battle I thought it would be bigger. I think it has to do with my first experience reading this book and series overall. Percy Jackson and the Olympians were the first books that I read for fun and started off my reading life back in 2013. So maybe in my first experience, the battle of the labyrinth was really the first battle I really got to read and therefore amazing - and again, it still is. I just do not have the same standard anymore 7 years later. So for now until my next reread I will give TBotL 4 well-deserved stars.

As someone who loves ethics and philosophical theories on morality, Memento was a joy to read. I enjoyed seeing AIDAN again and the nice explanation of his reasoning throughout the Illuminae Files