I thought about giving this book four stars, simply because I wanted more at the end. But I suppose that's the mark of a great book. This book was difficult to read. I had to set it down many times. In this story Dana, an African American woman, travels back to the early 1800s whenever a white boy named Rufus is in trouble. The mechanism for her ability to travel this way is not explained and it doesn't need to be. She only returns to her time when she fears for her life and is truly about to die. Time does not pass quickly in her former 1976 life, but it does in the early 1800s. As a black woman, Dana is made a slave, beaten, threatened with rape, and forced to witness terrible cruelties that no one can completely understand unless they experience them as a slave. Dana's husband, a white man named Kevin, also winds up in this antebellum landscape for a time. During that time Dana is better protected, but still essentially a slave. She watches Rufus grow up over the times that she is called to him. Four times Dana saves his life. She does what she can to influence Rufe to be a better man, but she can't take the slaveholder ideas out of his head. Dana eventually discovers that Rufus is her ancestor, as he raped one of his slaves.
This book deals with some very hard truths, ones that the reader cannot completely grasp. In all of my reading I've only ever read one other text that made slavery feel so real, and that was The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by a former slave. This speaks to Octavia Butler's ability to write and make Dana's feelings leap off of the page and also to Damian Duffy's ability to adapt this story into a graphic novel form. It did take some time for me to get used to the artist's style, but I did enjoy it. I thought it was an interesting choice that Dana's original timeline (1976) is in sepia, and the antebellum timeline is in full color.
This book has given me much to chew on, so to speak. I believe all white adults and young adults, high school age and older, should read this book, especially white adults. Octavia and Damian show how easy it is to slip into the mindset of oppression. We must avoid it all cost, even in our present day lives. Slavery may be gone, but racism, bigotry, and misogyny most certainly are not.

This was my third time reading Red Queen. I love it more each time I read it. Now that I know where the plot goes I can sit back and really enjoy how the characters unfold and unravel to get there. Red Queen takes Mare to some very difficult places where she has to make "trades" as she calls them to save the people she loves and try to achieve the world she wants. These "trades" make Mare a morally gray character, if not downright morally dark at times. This is what I adore about Red Queen. None of the characters are perfectly good and none are perfectly bad. The humanity is explored in each of them, as are each character's moral failings. This is my far my favorite dystopian series. I cannot wait for the release of War Storm. Until then, I'm certainly going to enjoy the journey again.

Sue Macy provides a brilliant look into Sally Ride's amazing journeys through education, space, and her later career. As Sally Ride was an intensely private person, this focuses mostly on her public achievements. I believe Sue Macy respects Sally's privacy while still providing quotes and detail to make the biography interesting and relatable. I'm very glad to have this in my library for my students and now want to take every single one of them to space camp. Anyone have a winning lottery ticket so I can do that?

I adore the characters in this book. They are flawed, broken, at times despicable, and absolutely real. I feel like I know them all, even the more minor characters.

This is not a book I would have chosen on my own. It was chosen for me by my seminary instructor. That said, I did actually enjoy this book and the ease of Day's prose gives voice to many truths. I feel like this particular selection of writings skims over Day's unhappy love affair, abortion, and her subsequent marriage to Berkeley Tobey. As Day was a very introspective woman, I would have appreciated more excerpts on this time of her life and how her perspective on that time changed after her conversion and as she grew into her life's work. I would have like to have seen more from The Eleventh Virgin, her earliest book, to get a more complete picture.

There are many quotes that I enjoyed in this book, but this one cautioned me and stuck with me the most, as I am a postulant to the priesthood with my own ministry ahead of me:

“But there was another question in my mind. Why was so much done in remedying the evil instead of avoiding it in the first place? Where were the saints to try to change the social order, not just to minister to the slaves, but to do away with slavery?
“Religion as it was practiced by those I encountered had no vitality. It had nothing to do with everyday life; it was a matter of Sunday praying.”

I alternated between the print and audiobook versions of this book. I was very saddened to find out that the audiobook has been edited and that certain portions are missing. Sometimes it's one paragraph (for brevity) and sometimes it's pages of material that are gone. I wish I had known this before starting because I'm sure there's some parts that I did miss. I adored the beginning of this book, with Barack's early childhood experiences, especially the years he spent in Indonesia. The middle dragged a bit for me, as community organizing isn't my area of interest. However, the awareness and discussion of race kept me reading. Finally, the end of the book was a treasure. When the audio recording played one of Barack's speeches as a Senator, I cried. I couldn't help but think how amazing it was that we had someone of such a unique background as our president. I think there's something in Barack's background that every single one of us can identify with.

This was not the book for me. In fact, it took me over a month to finish because it was just awful. I do like that it featured a larger character and was supposed to be all about positivity in your own body, but hated how she only bonded with her crush interest over junk food. It was raunchy, to me. It takes a lot for me to say that about a book, especially a YA book, but this one was so sex obsessed.
I don't even really want to review this one. That's how little I liked it.

Whew. This is a rough ride. It's amazing to see Jeannette's equally terrible and amazing childhood and her journey through life. I don't want to spoil any of it by discussing it in the review. I do recommend reading it for anyone high school (mature readers) and above.

On the third read of this wonderful book, I find it is still just as lovely and complex as the first read. I love the varied points of view and find Evangeline to be absolutely stunning and a fitting voice to complement Mare's.

Women power in this book. Smash the patriarchy!

This was rather sweet and the artwork was beautiful. Parts did feel rushed and a bit confusing, but I think that's because this was a graphic novel adaptation. I also wish the entire book would have been in color like the first few pages, or that it was all in black and white. I didn't like going a few pages in to have to switch gears. I'll definitely have to read the entire series now. I know my students will enjoy having access to this.