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As a reader who loves both fantasy and character-driven literary fiction, Robin Hobb’s books are a special kind of reading experience. I liked Royal Assassin even more than the first book.
A bold statement: I think Playground is my favorite Richard Powers so far. I know he won the Pulitzer for The Overstory (which I definitely enjoyed!), but I said what I said.
Democracy in Retrograde is a fun, short, super accessible guide to becoming more civically engaged. It’s easy to digest in bite sizes and offers some useful tools for thinking about the ways you might derive the most satisfaction from getting involved and presents an excellent case for why you should.
Great Big Beautiful Life is Book Lovers meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in the best way imaginable, and y’all aren’t ready. Emily Henry has done it again.
I’m a sucker for literary fiction with speculative elements, so when I heard about Black Woods Blue Sky, which blends the dreaminess and darkness of fairy tales with the beauty and danger of the Alaskan wilderness, I knew it was going to be exactly my kind of book. And I was not wrong!
This Strange Eventful History was longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. Parts of it were more engaging for me than others, but overall, I enjoyed it. Audio is definitely the way to go here, IMO!
Upon a Starlit Tide bills itself as The Little Mermaid mixed with Cinderella into a dark historical fantasy — and it delivers excellently. Kell Woods clearly knows and loves her fairytales and folklore. I had so much fun reading it.
This is a meticulously researched and excellently written examination of history that everyone who has a child, works in education, or cares about education should read.
I feel genuinely better prepared to decide what kinds of things are personally worth my effort (and my guilt). The time I spent listening to this audiobook was time extremely well spent.
I’m on a mission to deepen my critical reading skills this year. Only a few months into that journey, it became clear that Playing in the Dark was a foundational piece of criticism that I needed to read ASAP if I was going to do the thing right.
I’m glad that I decided not to skip the supplementary novellas in this series. Like The Pale Dreamer (#1.5), this one was fast, short, fun, and felt like a fully worthwhile into a few key characters and relationships.
These books have a lot of promise, but the execution is just not as good as I want it to be. Still, they are fast paced and short, so I’ll probably keep going.
This book is not only hopeful and optimistic, but also instructive and motivational in terms of what kinds of policies and proposals are worth fighting for here in the US.
This book is not what I had naively expected — my brain ignored the “essays” part of the title in favor of the “how to” part — but it is, without a doubt, excellent.
I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again before this series is over, but man, books like these are why we read fantasy. Onward!
Trust Imani Perry to rewrite the rules on what it means to tell the history of an entire people. If this isn’t nominated for the National Book Award for Nonfiction, I will riot.
Unsurprisingly after all that hype, this genre-bender not only delivers but also hits differently than anything else Okorafor has written.
Just like Iron Flame, this book is fun, but fine — Fourth Wing is the strongest in the series so far. I had a good time with Onyx Storm, and if the fourth book was out now, I’d pick it up right away. But the execution is just not there.
This book was a bit of a miss for me. It has emotional impact and fantastic characters, but the execution felt old-fashioned and strangely out of touch. It’s short, though, so you still might enjoy this heartwarming little story.
