ugh this book was SO GROSS on PRETTY MUCH EVERY LEVEL

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-41-geralds-game/

This book has been vaguely on my radar for a long time, but it wasn't really a priority for me to read it since it's an older backlist title and also ugh, football. But then I had to read a Sports Book for Reading Wildly book club so I picked this one and really enjoyed it! It even made me think football was maybe kind of interesting??

I just loved DJ's voice in this and thought the family dynamic depicted here was so loving and complicated and rang so true. Ahh! Just a really solid realistic YA story that is maybe a tiny bit dated now (due to cell phone issues and LGBTQ handling) but not so bad (due to circumstances of small town/poor characters). Would definitely still hand to a teen today--esp a girl looking for a book about a girl playing sports, but honestly there's plenty here for even a non-sports-enthusiast like myself.

This is such a powerful/inspiring/infuriating story, wow. I was on the verge of tears through most of it. The intense odds William Kamkwamba overcame--near starvation during a famine, being forced to drop out of school, having access to only an extremely minimal library of books that weren't even in his own language--to be able to build a working electrical windmill... and also a radio station... like, damn, son.

This is written in a pretty straightforward way, but careful to contextualize concepts that might be stumbling blocks for American/younger readers. I think it does a pretty good job also of contextualizing things like... even though in America you have pre-made toy cars and we make ours of out garbage, it doesn't mean we didn't have super fun childhoods also. IDK, it's a good tone. William is a good narrator of his own life--this book really captures a sense of curiosity and wonder that make all of his small discoveries along the way so exciting.

I think I might be giving this 5 stars because I want to give William Kamkwamba 5 stars as a human being? But it was a really great, inspiring read and I think he and his co-author Bryan Mealer did such a good job getting his story across... so, yeah, 5 stars.

I also think this would be so good for use in a classroom, maybe paired with a STEM activity... like have kids try to build their own windmills so they can see how impressive it is, LOL.

oh also, warning: THE DOG DIES AND IT'S HORRIBLE

I mostly read Marvel stuff and usually only pick up DC stuff when it's come highly recommended to me. I'd read some positive things about Grayson and I have a fondness for anything that can be described as "James Bond-y" so when it came in at my library, I picked it up, even though I haven't read much Nightwing or other Batman-y things.

So, I didn't really have most of the context for whatever started this, and also I really don't care. Dick Grayson is playing dead for some reason, fine, I get it, let's do SPY STUFF NOW!! And it was really fun spy stuff!!

Also I had sort of mentally filed this away in my head as an LGBTQ book and I guess I wasn't sure why?

Spoiler

idk if this is a spoiler but anyway the end of this arc includes Dick Grayson being ordered to pretend to be gay, which seems like... it could be interesting... or a trainwreck... and I can't actually remember what else I've read about it.

So, I guess I'll have to read [b:Grayson Vol. 2: We All Die at Dawn|28700658|Grayson Vol. 2 We All Die at Dawn|Tim Seeley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1453784598s/28700658.jpg|48911177] to follow up on that!

Oh also at the end of this is a one-shot (I guess?), GRAYSON: FUTURE’S END #1, which I thought was really cool and also confusing? It's told backwards... and also maybe in some kind of Soviet AU... or something... but I really liked it. I liked it enough to read it twice and do some light code-breaking even though often when books want me to do things like that I can't be bothered to follow through with it.

This was a great contemporary realistic book with a really strong voice. It's a realistic look at the progression of grief, without being too bleak.

TOO PRESH you guys, too presh. Plus: a super fun book featuring a mixed-race princess and warriors breaking down gender roles with an ~*adorable pony*~????? plus farting.

<3 Jessica <3

I love that Jessica's origin story is the last arc of the Alias series, that we got to see who Jessica is now before we see what was done to her. I love that really, so little is said about what the Purple Man did and so much is implied--it's a terribly upsetting story but it doesn't dwell in the prurient details. And I love that so much of the present-day storyline is about Jessica's relationships with women.

It is also interesting to think about the Netflix show, which handles this same storyline pretty differently. I think both are great for their respective media though.

In conclusion, <3 Jessica <3

When I read [b:The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up|22318578|The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up|Marie Kondō|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1418767178s/22318578.jpg|41711738], I was probably like 75% "that seems like a good idea" and 25% "I am definitely never doing that thing". This was probably more like... 60% things I'm not going to do. SORRY.

It really is a follow-up to the first book for people who had more questions or wanted diagrams of how to fold things. I felt like I personally got pretty much everything I wanted out of the first book (which I did enjoy and benefit from).

oh my gosh so many things HAPPENED in this book, just NONSTOP HAPPENINGS I need to lie down

overall very satisfying, a lot of good payoffs for things that had been building up throughout the series. I really like the overall themes of GIVING LADIES AGENCY and paying back favors given.

I am a little exhausted from following all of the various Magical Bloodline Sagas but overall very enjoyable, likely moreso for a reader who, in general, is more into high fantasy king and queen shit than I am.

what?! what? holy shit WHAT?! this story is BANANAS and I had NO IDEA about any of it. M. T. Anderson is SO GOOD at contextualizing all of this and making every chapter of a biography of a composer end on a cliffhanger. I could not put this down. I learned so much! I feel sick at all the things I didn't know! I want to listen to classical music now!

I think it's probably one that's best for high school +, it's got some seriously grim shit in it. I think it's one that would probably have to be hand-sold... but for real! It's so great! I figured it would be great, because M.T. Anderson is so great and I had heard such good things about it, but, just to add my own 2 cents: so great!