Rating: 4/5 | Miracle Creek was a great read. An intriguing whodunnit with so many layers to the crime and to the entire cast of characters, it kept me guessing — suspecting, but not knowing — all the way up until the end. And it also broke my heart and showed real humanity throughout. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | This. Collection. Is. Masterful. I cannot overstate. Lauren Groff is unbelievable, and she does so much with so little in each of these stories. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 3/5 | The Culture Code was one of the Next Big Idea Club's selections. It's one of those nonfiction business books that could be summed up much more succinctly, but the addition of a lot of colorful and interesting examples expanded it out. I enjoyed it, but I have read a lot of leadership books and didn't really learn anything new here. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4.25/5 | The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls was a beautiful novel about women, family, and the burdens we all carry. The characters were vivid, their experiences were important, and the story was transfixing. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 3.5/5 | This book was, like, fine. The world-building was good and kept me intrigued, and there was just enough good to keep me hooked and willing to read the next story (which has so far proved to be totally worth 1/3 of the way into book two), but there were also some things that made me go *le sigh, YA fantasy, amiright?* (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | I read Farsighted as part of my subscription to the Next Big Idea Club. It was fun to have it paired with Joyful, which was about the small things, because Farsighted is about the big things. Big, important decisions and the ways you can ensure that you're making the best choices possible. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | Y'all. This mystery is WILD. I'm not usually big on true crime, but I'm so glad I read this one. Cara Robertson has spent her life — literally, this started as a thesis paper — researching Lizzie Borden's story. She's able to paint a rich history of what we know about the crime, and about the trial. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4.5/5 | I'm not sure where they had me: "short stories," "speculative fiction," or "feminist lit." Because I love all of those things. And I was supremely ~not disappointed~. These were make-you-squint-and-think stories. I carried a pencil with me when I was reading it and underlined or circled a significant portion of the words on each page. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 3/5 | We Are Not Refugees was an important and very interesting book to read. Agus Morales is a journalist who has spent years traveling the globe, interviewing people who've had to flee their homes. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | This may have been the most personal memoir I have ever read. Laymon isn't just writing about his life; he's practically writing poetry about his soul. I kept being re-surprised, over and over, at just how many of his deepest, darkest, most private thoughts, feelings, and actions were put down into words for the world to read. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | All You Can Ever Know is Girls' Night In Club's February book pick, and I really enjoyed it. I listened to the audiobook, which was well narrated. Nicole Chung is a really great writer, and her storytelling sheds light on experiences that many people do not often see or understand. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | This book spent quite a while on my to-read list, and I'm so glad that I finally picked it up. As always, Jodi Picoult gives us a brave, thorough, empathetic, well-rounded story about one of the most controversial topics of our time. The book's unique format makes it even more interesting to read, and I felt it was just so well done. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 3.5/5 | I read Joyful as part of my subscription to the Next Big Idea Club, and it was really, really interesting. Ingrid Fetell Lee is a designer who's spent years researching the aesthetics of joyful things (like confetti and balloons and the Rockettes). Then she goes into how you can bring the same aesthetics into your own surroundings (short of throwing confetti around your home). (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | I was very excited to read Living on the Borderlines because I grew up in upstate New York, not far from where many of these stories take place. I know a lot of the small towns, highways, and landmarks referenced. That always makes for a fun reading experience. But beyond that, I loved the stories themselves. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | Such Good Work was really, really good. Lichtman's writing is introspectively profound and yet straightforward and simple. It made for a lot of underlined passages and a hard-hitting story. There's also some sort of story-ception going on here, which was a delightful surprise and still has me mulling this whole thing over. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | I. Love. This. Trilogy. Chakraborty has built an impressively intricate universe with a terrifying political climate, deep characters, a rich history, and a suspenseful storyline. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 5/5 | Wow. Wowowow. This is exactly the kind of exciting, beautiful, diverse, badass fantasy novel I want in my life. It kept me humming and hawing about what was going to happen, and the ending was so well done — the perfect amount of excitement, heartbreak, answers, and new mysteries. (Click the post to read more.)

Rating: 4/5 | The Gilded Wolves is an exciting, pull-off-an-impossible-heist-to-save-the-world story with multiple POVs. So, basically, if you liked Six of Crows, this is for you. (Click the post to read more.)