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rachelelizabeth's Reviews (1.21k)
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I review books on my website, Rachel's Reading. Check it out for hundreds more like this!
Brandy Colbert's first book, "Pointe" was my favorite book of that year. It was beyond phenomenal and beautiful and I kind of fell in love with her writing style. This is her sophomore book, and it's wonderful and groundbreaking again. We meet Suzette who is home from boarding school and her stepbrother, Lionel. Suzette is dealing with questioning her sexuality, while Lionel is dealing with his bipolar disorder. Both of these come to a head when Lionel and Suzette fall for the same girl.
I really loved this book. It was beautifully written and really dealt with issues of mental health and sexuality in a very realistic and kind way. The main characters are both POC, making this an own voices novel and Colbert excels at it. I loved discovering all the layers to her characters, seeing how their Jewish faith impacts their lives, and seeing parents who seem realistic. So often in YA books parents are over-involved or underinvolved, but I found in this book that wasn't the case. I found the book a quick read, and very moving and touching. Colbert knocks out another wonderful book that I cannot wait to get on the bookshelf for my future students.
"Lionel said as much to me once, how so many of the same people who are quick to empathize with physical disabilities don’t understand why someone with depression can’t just get up and get on with their day like the rest of the world. It’s like they need a receipt that proves someone is actually going through some shit before they can care about them."
Brandy Colbert's first book, "Pointe" was my favorite book of that year. It was beyond phenomenal and beautiful and I kind of fell in love with her writing style. This is her sophomore book, and it's wonderful and groundbreaking again. We meet Suzette who is home from boarding school and her stepbrother, Lionel. Suzette is dealing with questioning her sexuality, while Lionel is dealing with his bipolar disorder. Both of these come to a head when Lionel and Suzette fall for the same girl.
I really loved this book. It was beautifully written and really dealt with issues of mental health and sexuality in a very realistic and kind way. The main characters are both POC, making this an own voices novel and Colbert excels at it. I loved discovering all the layers to her characters, seeing how their Jewish faith impacts their lives, and seeing parents who seem realistic. So often in YA books parents are over-involved or underinvolved, but I found in this book that wasn't the case. I found the book a quick read, and very moving and touching. Colbert knocks out another wonderful book that I cannot wait to get on the bookshelf for my future students.
"Lionel said as much to me once, how so many of the same people who are quick to empathize with physical disabilities don’t understand why someone with depression can’t just get up and get on with their day like the rest of the world. It’s like they need a receipt that proves someone is actually going through some shit before they can care about them."
This series was the most soap opera series, but that's what made it great.
I read and review books on my blog, Rachel's Reading. For 100's more like this, check it out!
This was originally billed as a future-esq Gossip Girl and while that isn't wrong it's also not entirely right. There is a giant tower that is over 1000 stories high. The higher floor you on, shows your status. You want to be higher up on the floors. The world building was pretty fun with this book, and it begins with a cliffhanger. Someone is dead. You spend the rest of the book trying to figure out who is dead and why.
I enjoyed this book, it kept me reading and I felt invested in the characters. There is some LGBT representation and it didn't feel like a plot line, I actually really enjoyed it. The characters were diverse enough that I could tell them apart, and they didn't all run together which when it comes to stories like this is fairly easy to do. This isn't some intense book where your life will be forever changed, but as a nice breather page-turner? I would highly recommend.
This was originally billed as a future-esq Gossip Girl and while that isn't wrong it's also not entirely right. There is a giant tower that is over 1000 stories high. The higher floor you on, shows your status. You want to be higher up on the floors. The world building was pretty fun with this book, and it begins with a cliffhanger. Someone is dead. You spend the rest of the book trying to figure out who is dead and why.
I enjoyed this book, it kept me reading and I felt invested in the characters. There is some LGBT representation and it didn't feel like a plot line, I actually really enjoyed it. The characters were diverse enough that I could tell them apart, and they didn't all run together which when it comes to stories like this is fairly easy to do. This isn't some intense book where your life will be forever changed, but as a nice breather page-turner? I would highly recommend.
I review books on my website Rachel's Reading. For hundreds more like this, check it out!
I was recommended this book since I'm participating in Rachel Hollis's Last 90 Days challenge and we did a whole week on habits. This was the second book recommended to us, and I was excited to get my hands on it. In this book, Burchard outlines six habits that can increase your performance in both work and life, and provides detailed ways to implement them in your life, as well as many free resources to assist you on your journey.
This book was extremely interesting to me. I had the audiobook and really enjoyed listening to the author read, and found it really thorough considering you're missing out on the visuals. The author does a fantastic job of describing them so you don't have to see the charts or the graphics but they make complete sense (at least to me as an auditory learner). He did a fantastic job of laying out each of the six High-Performance Habits and three specific things under each habit to impart the habit. He also provides a free test on his website and multiple other ways to interact with the text even if you're just using the audiobook which I really enjoyed. The information was presented extremely well, although it was a lot to take in and process so I had to read it much slower than other books I've read lately. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone trying to be their best self, but as always with Personal Development books, it isn't one size fits all. Some people need the type of motivation Burchard provides, and others it won't work for them, and that's okay too.
I was recommended this book since I'm participating in Rachel Hollis's Last 90 Days challenge and we did a whole week on habits. This was the second book recommended to us, and I was excited to get my hands on it. In this book, Burchard outlines six habits that can increase your performance in both work and life, and provides detailed ways to implement them in your life, as well as many free resources to assist you on your journey.
This book was extremely interesting to me. I had the audiobook and really enjoyed listening to the author read, and found it really thorough considering you're missing out on the visuals. The author does a fantastic job of describing them so you don't have to see the charts or the graphics but they make complete sense (at least to me as an auditory learner). He did a fantastic job of laying out each of the six High-Performance Habits and three specific things under each habit to impart the habit. He also provides a free test on his website and multiple other ways to interact with the text even if you're just using the audiobook which I really enjoyed. The information was presented extremely well, although it was a lot to take in and process so I had to read it much slower than other books I've read lately. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone trying to be their best self, but as always with Personal Development books, it isn't one size fits all. Some people need the type of motivation Burchard provides, and others it won't work for them, and that's okay too.
