This was an engaging memoir. It's something that I think would be a great read for the kind of people who are mad about welfare moms, but those people probably won't ever read this, so whatever. But Land's memoir perfectly demonstrates the razor edge that a lot of Americans in poverty live, where the slightest extra expense or piece of bad fortune can send a whole house of cards toppling down. (And that's even with her white privilege, a factor she doesn't really engage with, but it bears keeping in mind as a reader--it seems almost impossible for Land to have accomplished what she did, so how does someone else pull this off if the deck is stacked even higher against them?)

Anyway. I was moved by her observations about her daughter, as well as the empathy and insight she shows toward those whose houses she cleaned.

This would be a good one for a lot of book clubs.

Octavian is such an incredible narrator, and I truly respect MT Anderson's eye for historical detail and sharp attention to systemic oppression. These books are just so, so cutting. The conceit and language are a little hard to get into but once you're in it.......dangg.

mmmm yes this is extremely my jam

ugh I LOVE this series so much!! This is another really compelling fantasy world with its own specific rules, and I loved seeing Lundy struggle with the rules of her own American society compared to those of the Goblin Market. There's just so much depth packed into each novella in this series--they rely so smartly on the reader bringing their own knowledge of fairytale tropes to the reading experience but then use that as a diving board to get on in to the deep end.

ughhhhhhhhhhh

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-116-how-the-secret-changed-my-life/

This is a beautifully complex memoir. There are big questions with no easy answers, but moving prose along the way.

5 stars to Marvel for finally reprinting this in a library-friendly volume instead of those terrible manga-size volumes that were glued together with air!

Also 5 stars to Runaways for still being totally delightful obviously.

This book has SUCH A BAD COVER. I know, there's a whole aphorism about not judging based on that, and yet...it just looks so boring. This was recommended to me earlier and I was like "idk looks boring tho"

And then it won a Printz Honor and I was like FINE I'LL READ IT

And I loved it, it's super dark and funny, kind of a Veronica Mars/Frankie Landau Banks vibe...which I love.

This is suuuper not the kind of thing I would normally pick up, except it was for the podcast and except it's by Our Lady Nora Roberts. I still really didn't like the plague (I'm sorry, I mean "The Doom") parts, or the post-apocalyptic violent looting parts. And I don't know that the magical worldbuilding super...holds up to scrutiny? Although it's book 1 of a trilogy so maybe the next 2 books will explain how/why a virus turned people into fairies and elves, which seems like they should be unrelated species.

Anyway. Since it's Nora Roberts, what I DID like were the characters and their relationships.

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-117-year-one/

This was fine. I'm generally kind of whatever about the X-Men's space adventures.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯