I enjoyed the excerpt of Life Studies in this. I found it particularly well written. Not my favorite collection of poetry I’ve read however.

This is such an odd book. I really enjoyed it though. A very old stab at the post apocalyptic novel, it revolves around what’s become of the UK after some civilization ending event. Society has reverted back to largely feudal traditions and the main character is a very angsty nerd. Not even joking. He’s not a good knight, but he knows how to make contraptions no one can fathom and no one will give him the time of day. So he resolves to make his own way in the world.

This is a challenging rate because there are some racist sections of language in this collection of Western stories. It felt like your out of touch grandpa regaling you with tall tales. It was, in spite of that, a rollicking read. I’d never heard of John Slaughter, he was a badass.

Excellent book chronicling the life of a 12 year old girl during the Partition of India. Period of time I knew almost nothing about. As this is a middle grades / YA book, no previous knowledge is required. The author is very good about not info-dumping, pertinent information is deftly weaved into the narrative.

This is a really wonderful read. The characters are rich, lifelike, and the story has real conflict and a plausible resolution. Great descriptions of food if you like that sort of thing.

Newbery Honor Winner. I was so surprised this didn't win the award itself and looked back at the 2019 offerings. The 2019 winner was Merci Suarez Changes Gears. That was a charming book but I think I liked this better overall. But again, this is an adult's perspective.

It’s been a long time since I read a book in one sitting but this was so good I simply wouldn’t stop.

It is so reminiscent of Their Eyes Were Watching God. The characterization is just exquisite.

I read The Making of Biblical Womanhood last year, which dovetails with this book quite nicely. Both delve quite deeply into the philosophy of Complementarianism. It's so pernicious to me, and the stories and testimonials on how being raised in a household run on such beliefs warp young women were tough to read.

I found this graphic novel haunting and fascinating. It's a near realistic look at how men succumb to isolation. Many facets of it were really upsetting. Minor gripe: the characters are drawn too similar.

Really sweet Newbery winner about a Japanese-American family that moves from Iowa to Georgia during the 1950s. It's 20 years old now, but it holds up well, the themes are timeless.

Filterworld is a fascinating look at just how pervasive algorithms are in our digital consumption. From books we read, music we listen to, shows we watch, how we interact with our peers, it’s all nudged and shaped by a robotic, unfeeling hand.

The author is roughly the same age as me (elder millennial gang) so his Web 1.0 upbringing rang very true to me. As clunky as it was, I miss that old internet.

Like him, I have grown very wary of how much data I consume, what I’m doing with it, and perhaps most importantly, what it’s doing with me.

I found the chapters toward the end of the book on curation to be very soothing. I’d never thought I’d miss DJs, but I do. We all had our favorite DJs and knew what blocks they played on our favorite stations.

I’d recommend this if you are interested in discourse on media consumption. It meanders a bit but it didn’t really bother me.

The lamentations of the monster are really compelling. I enjoyed those chapters and the philosophical struggles explored in this book. The story in its entirety is quite different from how it’s portrayed in popular media.