I read this all in one day! I got totally sucked into the Riva family saga and defo cried at the end

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it's not even really a sad ending I was just so moved that Nina was finally getting her due!! Ninaaaa

This was funny and moving, and the mixture of formats was really engaging. I think it would be helpful for someone looking to understand a loved one's experience with BPD (with the understanding of course that each person's experience is different), someone with BPD looking to connect, or just anyone who enjoys graphic memoirs.

WHEW, what can I say!! This is a devastating and important read, but Wilkerson is also such a strong communicator. Rly feels like this should be required reading for Americans.

LOVED this one, went from laugh-out-loud moments to feeling bits of overwhelming rage on Philippe's behalf back to appreciation at his exquisitely deployed pop culture references. I know his YA novels ([b:The Field Guide to the North American Teenager|36284785|The Field Guide to the North American Teenager|Ben Philippe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529945233l/36284785._SY75_.jpg|57947197], [b:Charming as a Verb|49867239|Charming as a Verb|Ben Philippe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582830300l/49867239._SX50_.jpg|74949254]) have been well-regarded but I hadn't gotten around to reading them yet--definitely bumping them up on my TBR now!!

I will add a CW for some talk about weight loss (and gain) that he acknowledges as being ~problematic as he writes it but then says also basically, it's his memoir and his feelings about his body caused by the society he grew up in and like, is he not supposed to write about it? And: fair. Just mentioning it for any who might find it triggering. (In addition to the discussion of racism, police brutality etc which also might be triggering but maybe more expected here.)

Ohhh soo my bad I thought this was going to be a more straightforward adaptation of the nonfiction [b:Superman Versus The Ku Klux Klan: The True Story of How the Iconic Superhero Battled the Men of Hate|11407829|Superman Versus The Ku Klux Klan The True Story of How the Iconic Superhero Battled the Men of Hate|Rick Bowers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1333580201l/11407829._SX50_.jpg|16340608], which I thought was really interesting, but instead it's a fictional story set in Metropolis about Superman like, literally smashing the Klan. Which I still enjoyed, and I liked the way it demonstrated how small acts of bravery or hate from kids can have big impacts, but also the true story is very interesting too!

Hmmm the cult part of this is my jam absolutely, and this was fast paced enough that I breezed through it in like 2 days. In retrospect I'm not sure the revelations about Saskia were totally earned?

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Like I get that she's an unreliable narrator but to get to the end and be like, "ah yes I too am a sociopath who killed my own brother because I was curious to see what happened" like it didn't really mesh with the woman who then became a traumatized homebody who wouldn't leave her house for 10 years because she was so afraid of hurting someone else? Like...doesn't seem like you just get cured of being a sociopath esp without seeming to have any therapy after your fucked-up childhood??

I kind of would have preferred if this were a multi-POV book from all of the Home teens? Anyway, I did enjoy the experience of reading it overall and it was a fast read. Would overall recommend if you're into cult shit.

aaaaaaaa
I loved Jeff Zentner's first book [b:The Serpent King|22752127|The Serpent King|Jeff Zentner|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1435673762l/22752127._SY75_.jpg|42298618], but then his 2nd book [b:Goodbye Days|30649795|Goodbye Days|Jeff Zentner|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1476384938l/30649795._SY75_.jpg|51192309] really didn't do it for me so I didn't pick up his 3rd book. But then I heard some raves about this one (his 4th) and saw it on NetGalley and decided to give it a chance and whew......the emotional devastation.....this book is so beautiful. I kept trying to read it on my lunch break at work and I'd get teary-eyed at every chapter--not even because it was explicitly sad always but it was just so poignant and moving.

Anyway I read the final 30% at home instead of work and I was just MESSY CRYING oh heck my emotions!!!

PS I was talking about this with a friend and she was like "I read that the one girl gets a scholarship to boarding school and asks for one for her best friend and they just give him one, is that a thing?" and I was like "ok.......in the specific context of the book it does seem plausible but I have no idea if it would ever happen like that in real life." So if you, too, are struggling with that premise I think that since Delaney is presented as such a genius student who's made this big discovery so schools are fighting over her, and she's making the case that if she's changing schools junior year and she won't know anyone there, and that Cash helped with her discovery and also has good grades, and also her specific scholarship is being funded by 1 specific donor who really wants her to go to that specific boarding school....like, sure, 2 scholarships, why not? Get over the logistics and get into your box of Kleenex.

I'd never read anything of Bourdain's before and really didn't know that much about him until after his death, and I decided to start with his first book, which in retrospect was maybe a mistake for me personally? I can see why this was so popular and influential but it didn't do a lot for me personally. Like, I never got into Bourdain's career because I'm not super into like celebrity chef stuff, and then after he died I realized "oh he was more of like a travel guy than a chef guy really!" but this book was like Peak Chef Guy.

It's also interesting to think about how kind of the culture has changed--how Bourdain became so beloved partly for being non-shitty about other cultures and feminism and stuff, and you can kind of see it here where he talks about valuing the labor of undocumented immigrants but it's also still like....pretty toxic masculinity bro-y (despite his occasional applause for the tiny percentage of women who are ~tough enough~ to hack it in the kitchen).

Also he wasn't the best audiobook reader tbh--and I know this was his first one and he probably got more comfortable as a public speaker (or whatever) as he went on but this has a weirdly flat affect to it overall. (Some fun accents though.)

Anyway I might try again later with one of his more travel-oriented books or something. I am open to recs.

PS I'm NOT just saying all this because I'm a vegetarian but his disdain for my kind is NOTED lol

I've been a fan of Danielle's writing online for years so I was excited to get my hands on her memoir, which did not disappoint. Despite the title and some of the awful shit she went through as a child, this memoir has a lot of funny moments with really precise descriptions. (I loved the little cameo of Action Park!) A moving story of a childhood that was clearly difficult but not without love.

This was a lot of fun! Reading it after reading Philippe's memoir made me notice little details borrowed from the author's life, but just in like a fun Easter egg way, not in the kind of way where you're like "oh I see the author has wedged their own obsession with Nirvana in here" (or whatever). Norris's voice is SO good--so teen with its blend of snark and vulnerability.

I loved too how genre-aware Norris is and yet how even as the book makes reference to how similar some things are to teen movies/TV shows, it also veers off and keeps things surprising.

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And I loved that Maddie didn't fully take him back at the end!