random_shoes's Reviews (1.03k)

I very much enjoyed this - it was the right amount of information about the trail and everything around it with how she felt when backpacking it and everything with her. I loved the people she met on the trail and also the times that she was alone on the trail. 

I'm not big into books about prom and the, what I think of as, overly fairytale like aspect of it. I did enjoy this book, the characters are wonderful and the writing is very well done. It's just not 100% my cup of tea.
Definitely a wonderfully queer book and something I know people who would love it as they do love books like these.

It's nice to come back to The Cat Who books for a nice relaxing mystery in the fun Moose County and to once again read about Koko's mysteries and Yum Yum's antics. 

I very much enjoyed this - it wasn't the kind of memoir I'm used to, it has more information in it? It has many reflections and memories, but also have a lot of current and past information on the lives black people now, and also when he was growing up.
Parts of it were hard to get through because of the subject matter but I find these stories to be the ones I need to hear the most being white. Being connected through queerness but being able to see that struggle as well as the struggle of being black in a white-centric world was, and continues to be, eye opening.

A "growing up" book - interesting and a bit crazy but very well written. I was kind of thinking there was like a non-natural secret but it was a natural one - a horrible one. 
It's a story about growing up, about learning that people are different, some are like you, some are not, some are kind and want to help others, and some are not. It's about learning who you want to be, and also who you want the people around you to be.
Uplifting at the end, but at times very sad. 

This was such a great ending for a duology. It took a bit of time to get into it and I think it was more because of the heft of the book rather than the content. Some days I just didn't want to physically pick it up. lol
But the characters continue to grow, and change, and become more than what they were at the beginning of We Hunt the Flame and that is one of the things that makes these books so amazing.
There were times were I was genuinely worried about how things would turn out which, of course, resulted in me continuing to turn the pages.
All in all, I loved these books and I feel like I loved this one more purely because we got to see so much more of the world, and understand so much more of it than the first book. By the end I was feeling all of the feelings for all of the characters and hating and loving it all at the same time.

While a book about a large library fire doesn't sound like it would be very relaxing, her descriptions of the library as it was born, and moved, and of other libraries is. The main focus is the fire in 1986 of the Los Angeles Public Library the book is also about the library itself, its history, and its future. 
I love the optimism Susan Orlean leaves us with, about how far the libraries have come in this information and digital age, and where they are planning on going - and where they could ultimately go.
This left me smiling at times, horrified at others (all those books), but as a whole it was heartwarming and uplifting.