I liked but didn’t love this book. Parts were lovely and descriptive and emotionally resonant while other parts felt clipped and underdeveloped. That said, I throughly loved learning about tea making and the Akha people.

This book is a delightful gift. I learned so much, and the writing is rich and reverent. I’ll be reflecting on it for a long time.

I enjoyed this story and thought it was a unique concept. My favorite bits of writing were the characters’ internal monologues and the “outsider” descriptions of American sites. Parts of the story were a little trite and I was somewhat unsatisfied with the ending.

This book is immensely powerful and very brave. Rachael’s commitment to justice and compassion are palpable in her writing. I think everyone would benefit from reading this.

This book will rock your world. It is well-researched and deeply important. I learned a lot and will be permanently affected by it. Some of the most important topics were the myth of redemptive violence, the conflation and history of White Supremacy with Christiandom, and the thorough review of native mistreatment in the US.

I have such a soft spot for Inspector Gamache! While this was my least favorite of the series so far, it was still highly enjoyable and the mystery revealed expertly.

I loved this memoir! Camas’s story is fascinating and she tells it with immense integrity and commitment to the grappling that comes with a question of ethics. I particularly loved the part in France, getting a glimpse of the truly thoughtful food culture of Gascony.

This novel alternates between present day (2015) and a near-future (2051) dystopia after a dramatic shift in American culture due to something called “The Spill.” The main characters are all public figure influencers in some way, and the story climbs towards the confluence of their timelines. 

I’ll start by saying that I didn’t dislike this book, but I couldn’t give it more than three stars for a few reasons: I have a big pet peeve around timeline discrepancies in stories, particularly dystopia/sci-fi, and this had a couple glaring ones. For instance, Aston’s rise to fame was based on YouTube videos but was set prior to 2005... Secondly, I was very unsatisfied with the ending. Loose ends were tied up, but lots of it felt out of character or underdeveloped, which is a shame because one of the things I did like about the book was the dimensional characters. I also guessed the twist before I was even halfway through which was disappointing. Finally, when we finally learn about “The Spill” I was underwhelmed and unconvinced that it would have been as devastating as described. 

All that said, I was enthralled by the world-building and the character dynamics. I read this quickly and was invested in learning what happened. The concept was super intriguing and parts were eerily prescient (e.g. full time streaming of someone’s life... I give it five years max before Twitch teams up with Big Brother/The Bachelor to make that a thing). Overall, I don’t regret reading it but don’t know that I’d recommend it.