A Taste for poison is information -dense and conversational in style. I really enjoyed the anecdotal examples given for the different poisons' historical uses both in medicine and with malicious intent. I didn't know that the Curies' daughter was a victim of their radiation experiments. Some of the more recent examples of misuse of these poisons were unexpectedly upsetting because the incidents were geographically near to where I live and happened in a time in which I was alive. I enjoyed the conversational tone of the book, but I don't feel like I retained as much as I wanted to with a single read through. The organization of the contents is better suited to a few further readings if this were something I wanted to use as a source in future research.

The Screaming Staircase is a really good read. It's an interesting concept to have these children be vital tools to defend the world. Their interactions with adults are really interesting because while they are still children, they're a lot more hardened than actual children would be. They're serious, prepared, and skilled, but instead of closing out a day's work with a drink after being almost murdered, they have a party with fancy doughnuts and soda. It gave the story an almost wholesome tone despite the gore throughout the rest of the book. Lucy constantly poking fun at George's weight and George constantly making boarder line misogynist comments about Lucy's psychic sensitivity get to be a little bit repetitive, but when they start working together and settling into their respective roles, they happen less often and become more like banter. There's there's a good deal of misogyny and the way the older generation treats Lucy. The adults they are working with and against deem her to be less of a threat than her male companions, but that often does work out in their favor. If this is meant to be set in a haunted version of our world, the social issues that are embedded in the banter and the inter-character relationships make sense.

I really thought it was going to be revealed that Annie was still alive when she was put into the wall. Her repeatedly saying how cold she was as a ghost and the scratching sound Lucy hears when she's around makes me think that she really may have been alive.

The more I read of this series, the more there is to love. I'm really enjoying watching Meg and Charles Wallace, and to a lesser extent, Sandy and Dennis grow up. In this novel, Meg is older than I am now, but reading how she still feels like a child and sometimes still sees herself as a child and she's in her parents home it's very relatable. This is the first novel I can remember reading that has a pregnant main character. Having her go with Charles Wallace on his adventures through their ability to connect to one another regardless of geographic and temporal distance, and introducing new pets that have abilities to assist with that connection is a unique and interesting method of story telling that worked really well. These novels do wonderful job humanizing these archetypal adults that played a villain roles in our protagonist' childhoods. They make them into round and interesting characters that readers not only can empathize with, but often come to love.

Madeleine L'Engle hit her groove with this sequel. At the beginning of the novel, I hated Mr Jenkins. He was a small town villain archetype.

By the end of it, the way the characters had come to know one another and know themselves made everyone far more three-dimensional and human. Mr. Jenkins being afraid, which in turn makes him an antagonist is a really interesting character choice. I really enjoyed that this novel picked up at the next school year. It feels like seeing friends again after a long summer, and seeing all the little ways they've changed. Calvin and Meg are constants in each other's lives, and the way their bond has deepened was really neat to read. Sandy and Dennis's shared scepticism in the face of their other siblings' fantastical adventures, as well as when faced with their parents' scientific advancements is simultaneous frustrating and endearing. They are both firmly planted in the idea of tangible reality, and I think it's a fun character trait to give to characters in a fantastical novel like this. I also like that they both easily give up trying to figure it out with the assumption that their family will tell them a consumable "truth" in due time.

Every time I read a book about events that occurred outside of the United States, I realize how isolated we are from the rest of the world. I know little to nothing about ancient and recent history in the Middle East, and this account of friendships formed in the middle of a war that devolved into inhumanity is a gut-wrenching and incredibly well written introduction. The world has a lot to learn from the revolutionaries and civilians of Daraya. I hope that if I ever face a world torn apart as they did, that I too react with empathy and a desire to strive for a better future.

The English translation of this book is immaculate, and was an overall enjoyable experience to read, though some of the content was hard to handle.

The foreword and narration by Hilton Als were some of the worst things I've consumed this year. The speaking was stilted in such a way, halting in the middle of phrases, that the content was hard to understand. A pet peeve of mine is forwards that spoil the content they're introducing, and this one did just that. I was very close to abandoning the audiobook when Didion's writing began and the narrator changed. I like Didion's writing style, and I'd like to read more of her works, but I think it would be more productive for me to read them slowly, one essay at a time, or to read her longer works. I'm starting to think I may just not like essay collections. Collecting all of this artfully sculpted nonfiction in such a way that it's funneled to the reader one after another, out of it's original context made them feel incomplete to me.

Lilla the Accidental Witch is an adorable novel. It shows ideas like unconditional love through a lens that's easily understandable for children. Lilla and Dani's sibling energy is really fun. They compliment each other well.
Young children feel big emotions, and Lilla's reactions to change and to learning more about herself feel accurate to the age she's written to be. I haven't read many books set in Italy. The illustrations in the novel are beautiful and transport the reader to Italy right alongside Lilla.

A Wrinkle in Time is truly a story that defies being defined by an intended audience. As someone who adores middle grade novels over modern young adult titles because of their focus on the adventure and a variety of loves over the young adult's focus on burgeoning romantic love, this novel sits solidly in the realm of my adoration. The possible young love that does occur makes sense in the plot and feels natural in the pacing, but my true adoration lies with Meg and her relationship with Charles and their mother. The first direct mention of God was slightly jarring when I got to that part of the audiobook. It then dawned on me that one of the characters is angelic and that Judeo-Christian mythology already exists in threads throughout the book. The mix of physics, mysticism, and Christianity is really interesting. I find it really refreshing, despite the fact that this novel has been around for longer than I have. I like that many concepts can coexist to create a more accurate picture of life than one belief system would allow. It's a thought process accurate to life as well as a novel. I've already downloaded the audiobook for the second book in the series.

The only thing I dislike about the story is the misogyny in the way that Meg's twin brothers reprimand her for fighting another student at their school and how they try to boss their mother around about where she can cook, etc. as the men of the house while their father is away. Both are such strong yet emotionally self aware characters, and they deserve better.

Alex Michaelides's writing style is eloquent, and the different voices the narrator uses brought the story and characters to life. I was drawn to keep listening to the audiobook, but I don't think this genre is something I'm going to reach for often in the future.
There was a lot of description about the physical attributes of different characters, but when describing the women, their weight seemed often to be tied to their moral alignment in the eyes of the narrator, which I found somewhat uncomfortable. I think the reader is meant to feel uncomfortable with Theo's perspective as the novel progresses, though, and those sections may be part of the push towards that discomfort. This book was definitely an interesting forey into a new genre.

And the Ocean Was Our Sky is a really interesting twist on Moby Dick.

The idea that there is a single source of evil that gathers more power the more harm, anguish, and death it creates is something that's explored in a lot of fantasy settings from Lord of the Rings to table top role play games, but I've never seen it done this way. Bathsheba's insistence on being the dissenter against the common beliefs of her community is an interesting inversion of YA tropes where the dissenter is proven right in the end. Demetrius and Bathsheba's interactions caused a fundamental fissure in her core beliefs about the natures of men and whales. It pushes her to questions whether fighting for the sake of tradition is fighting the monsters or turning themselves into monsters. I think the way this book deals with questioning sense of self and the idea of loyalty to tradition and rank will make it a modern classic.

I didn't love this book in the way I normally do to give a five star rating, but it was beautifully and lovingly crafted and the questions it poses are going to stick with me for quite a while.