Rating: 4.5/5 | I chose this book as my December 2017 Book of the Month pick, and I'm so glad I did! (That was a tough choice, though.) I was looking for something that would hook me from the beginning and allow me to rip through it quickly. That's exactly what this book did. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 3.75/5 | Well, if you had told me when I finished Streaks of Blue (#1) how this trilogy was going to end, I would have looked at you like you had two heads. I still can't believe how much the story evolved and changed course! I never would have predicted that Nikki, whose focus was on averting a mass school shooting in book 1, would be in the place she is on the last page of book 3. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | If you’re looking to be inspired, learn something, and maybe also kind of sob like a baby, please read this book (or listen to Joe read it himself as an audiobook, like I did). I loved Joe Biden before this book, but now that gut feeling has been affirmed. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 3/5 | Wow. This book was so, so different from Streaks of Blue (#1), which told the story of Nicole Janicek as she befriended an outcast boy to try to stop him from committing a mass shooting at her high school. In that story, Nikki is a poised, self-confident, meritorious young woman who does the right thing because she knows it is right. In Nikki Blue, three years later, she is no longer that girl. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | What Happened is an honest, straightforward, passionate retelling of Hillary Rodham Clinton's experiences leading up to the 2016 election. She tells us why she always loved working in public service, how and why she decided to run for President, the way it felt to have Donald Trump "loom" over her onstage, and her frustration when the media focused on one thing—emails—rather than any of the policy-related things she said or believed. I am glad that I listened to the audiobook version, as she read it herself. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | There is little I can say about this one that the rest of the world hasn't already said, and that speaks to how great it was. It absolutely lived up to the expectations set by Six of Crows, which was a tall order! Even though I knew twists and turns in the plot were coming, I never could have predicted what they would be. It kept me on the edge of my seat and guessing the entire time. That ending!!! (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | When I finished this book on my way to work one morning, all I could think was, "UGH UGH UGH MY HEART UGH." I then started my workday as a blubbering ball of pure emotion. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | Wow. This is the book I didn't know I was waiting for. In this book, Ellen tells the story of how she was repeatedly promised the world and given the gutter at the behemoth venture capital firm where she worked. Then, she spent hundreds of thousands—if not a million—dollars of her own money to challenge the firm in court. She was eventually out-gunned by the firm's greater financial and legal resources, and she lost, but it was close. She had many, many opportunities to settle the case for a significant sum, but chose to surrender her money in order to be able to write this book and tell her story. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | To no one's surprise, Dan Brown has done it again. All his books follow exactly the same formula, but it's a formula that works and is entertaining every time. I sat down on Friday night intending to spend my weekend on a wild goose hunt with Robert Langdon, with some plot twists, some cryptic codes, a bunch of art history, and a heart-racing ending. And that's exactly what I got! I'm not going to pretend that the predictable formula made the journey any less enjoyable. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | I am always looking for ways to learn new things, especially as it helps me get closer to accomplishing my professional goals. As a result, I've read a lot of books in this "self-help-for-business" genre. At this point, I sometimes feel like I've read all the advice before. This book pleasantly surprised me; all of it was engaging and entertaining as well as educational and thought-provoking. I learned something new and related the lessons back to my experiences with every turn of the page. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 3.75/5 | This is a very quick read that makes a quick impact. It almost reminds me of the style in which The Shack is written. The best part about this style is that you can read it quickly; I got through this book in one sitting on a Saturday evening. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 3/5 | My overall impression is that this book has a classic but compelling fantasy plot, but I wish everything had been more fully developed. There wasn't much world-building in the beginning and the characters are not very complex, but I can feel their potential. I hope that the second and third books in the series add to the world's depth more effectively and make the characters nice and round. However, the book's simplicity does make it a quick read. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | I picked up this book because it contains one of my favorite quotes. In fact, I even chose it as a reading at my wedding (with a few omissions). I had high hopes that the rest of the book would contain passages as beautiful as this one, and I was not disappointed. Louis de Bernieres is a language artist. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4.5/5 | This book was exactly the YA fantasy adventure I was looking for. It was exciting and fast-paced, with a captivating universe. The world-building did move quickly in the first chapter or two, but I know there are other books in this universe that chronologically precede Six of Crows, and I have not read them. I caught on fast enough, though. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | As a general rule, I don't critique classics. I will, however, gladly offer commentary on my experiences reading them. I hadn't read anything by Kafka before, including "The Metamorphosis." Needless to say, Kafka is weird. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | This book was not really comfortable, but it was important. In the story, which was developed after Picoult conducted extensive interviews with both Black people as well as former white supremacists, a white supremacist father goes after a Black nurse over the death of his baby. And the world lets him. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | Wow. I am unsurprised that this collection of poems has received so much acclaim. What a heartbreaking and uplifting journey. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | I adore this series so far. Of course I have loved every book out of the Percy Jackson universe, but The Trials of Apollo is proving especially delightful. It has the same energetic, youthful adventure as the others, and it always manages to teach me something new about mythology. But it is also absolutely hilarious. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | This was an engaging, fast-paced book that kept me not quite on the edge of my seat, but certainly far from resting comfortably back in it. There weren't really any slow moments, and I was always eager to see what would happen next. It was a quick read without feeling shallow, and I truly enjoyed it. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 3/5 | Surprisingly, this was my first time reading Mark Twain; I somehow never crossed paths with him while I was in school. Going into the book, the only story I knew was the famous tale about Tom tricking his neighborhood friends into painting the fence for him—profitably. (Click the post to read more.)