This book catered to three of my interests: a.inspirational story about an underdog sports team with basketball plays and strategies included, b. an analysis of the educational hurdles to supporting kids of color, and c. an insight into living on a reservation and the Native culture. If you like these three things, I highly recommend this book!

Fantastic collection of essays on racism and sexism. Intellectual and humorous, Cottom uses her voice to make excellent points. Well written and thoughtful; each essay was equally as good as the next. Highly recommend!

Good novel about a Vietnamese family separated and emigrating to the US. Each character has good development. The ending is a little rushed (or I just read it fast because I wanted to know how everything ended…very plausible). Overall, good book and worth a read!

I liked the plot of Matrix and appreciate the feminism in a patriarchal world. However, I never found myself caring about the characters until the very end. I finished it, and am glad I did, but I considered dropping it multiple times in this short book.

Well written novel about a Japanese mother, reflecting on her path to where she is now, coupled with her wondering if this is truly what she wants. Funny and reflective, Itsmi‘s debut novel is really, really good.

Elizabeth Strout is one of my favorite authors. This is another installment of the mind and life of Lucy Barton. In this novel, Lucy reconnects with her ex-husband and processes their current relationship and their past. I love Strout‘s slow boil of writing- as if you are in Lucy‘s mind as she happens upon her revelations of her life. I‘d like Lucy Barton to be friends with Eleanor Oliphant some way, some how.

Carney‘s attempts to be a bridge- be both straight and crooked in Harlem is so engaging. I loved every minute of this novel. It‘s a mystery…not that it‘s a whodunnit, but if he will actually pull off being a fence. Colson Whitehead is so talented- characters are vibrant and the pace perfect.

I love Sadaris and would love to have him over for dinner. His observations of daily life and hilarious interactions with others are enjoyable. My favorite entries include anything with Amy or Hugh. This one was quite long and needed more editing as some dragged on a bit. I prefer his essays as his ability to build a situation to deliver a fantastic comedic ending is fantastic, and this collection only has a few of those moments.

With multiple POVs and time periods, this long novel is creatively intertwined with a Greek story. I was engaged throughout the 622 pages, and each POV was interesting. Ambitious and clever, the novel is well written and enjoyable.

Though I‘ve read quite a number of climate change books, this book‘s tactic of analyzing animals‘ and plants‘ adaptive response to climate change was a different take. Interesting anecdotes describing different species‘ abilities to adjust quickly was interesting. The quotes starting each chapter were well placed and perfect!

This was one of the darkest and best books I‘ve read in awhile. It‘s a descent into a violent madness, but so beautifully written. The violence isn‘t gratuitous, and only serves the purpose of offsetting the eloquence of the author‘s ability to describe the main character‘s grip of reality. It‘s good, but it‘s so dark.

This book starts so strong: bears, lions, elephants, macaques…gore, interesting factoids, and humor. For me, it fizzled in the bird, rodent and tree section. Usually I love every chapter of Roach‘s books and devour them…this one has a few “meh” moments. (I still love her style of writing, her unique observations, and will read her next one.) I highly recommend the first half, and skim the second!

I‘ll read everything by Qian Wang. That was a well written, loving, hear breaking memoir of her childhood as a Chinese immigrant in NYC and the fear of having an undocumented status. Highly, highly recommend. I loved every minute of it. And, I loved the repeated adoration of reading and public libraries❤️

This book tells history through water. From Egypt, Rome, Greece, China, India, Panama, Europe, Americas, etc, the author connects political and societal decisions with water management. Some parts are a little dry (ha,ha), but overall this book is fascinating and thought provoking. It was interesting reading about wars, conflicts and collaboration told through a resource and how those events impacted now.

This collection of short stories were well written. I especially enjoyed when characters resurfaced in another story to add depth to the collection. My complaint is that the plot lines felt a little repetitive with the relationships in each story. Overall, good reas if you enjoy short stories.

This book revolves around 2 couples who are trying to figure out what they want, how to communicate and their past. Although I definitely wanted to find out how the drama ended and I enjoyed the writing style, I had a hard time connecting with the flawed characters causing me to give this a so-so rating.

Beautiful phrasing and creative story telling? Yes. I didn‘t like Theo and I couldn‘t get over it to like the book. I finished it because I wanted to see if my prediction of the ending held (it did). I really liked The Overstory by Powers, but didn‘t enjoy many aspects of the plot line and character development.

This is a monster of a book: three generations of well researched, expertly told in narrative nonfiction as only Keefe can. Showing how the intertwining companies set up the Sackler fortunes in OxyContin, the family dynamics, and pharmaceuticals, Keefe kept all of these topics moving. It‘s disturbing as only insatiable greed can be.

This wasn‘t what I was expecting; I‘m grateful I gave it a chance. Wide ranging collection of essays that were each short enough to hold interest and long enough to have depth, humor and insight. I like his YA books, but loved this. Excellent.

I haven‘t read any of the previous series. For me, while I liked a lot of Penny‘s style, I felt the plot forced and more drawn out than it needed to be. I liked the moral questions posed, but it felt as though it was “shocking” or an attempt to create an illusion of complication in the mystery. Just ok, but still enjoyable.

I believe O‘Keane is a poet who happens to be a psychiatrist. Through her stories and her patients, she maps our brains and how memories work- that we know so far. She admits her limitations and her failures with patients, and what she learned from hard cases. In the same paragraph of explaining dendrites mapping, quotes Proust and various movies. Her range of connections between science and art to explain the brain is reason enough to read this!

Well written narrative fiction detailing the German resistance to Hitler. Though you know that the resistance were caught on the second page, it doesn‘t diminish the build up of the saga. I liked that the author articulated what happened to so many who passively or actively resisted. If you like this one, I‘d recommend Agent Sonya for more details on spying techniques or The Light of Days for a wider view of resistance in neighboring countries.

Interesting book that analyzes how you breathe, the speed of your inhales/exhales, and how much CO2 your body holds and it‘s impact on your health. I‘m a little hesitant to cite some of the author‘s claims because of anecdotal or extremely small sample size studies that he uses as evidence. (Seems like correlation not causation). However, the book did make me focus on slower, nose only inhales to reduce heart rate and stress😁

This is more memoir, and exercise as shown to process Bechdel‘s life. Detailed drawings that were enjoyable to read. Made me think about how my own journey of exercise mirrors my own process of life events. I thought this would be more about exercise, but it‘s really more of a themed memoir.

There‘s a lot to like in this novel. Jumping countries, time travel, and romance. This was a fun read, and with the pace that I read it, I can‘t give it less than a 4 but there are some flaws. The ending missed the mark for me- I felt as though the author used a stereotypical ending to finish a very well written book. However, it is a fun, escapism read😁

I didn‘t know much about Texas history, but had heard the myths of the Alamo. This novel was interesting, in that, all the things I heard weren‘t based on fact. It was a really interesting history lesson of how Texas became a state, the battle of the Alamo and how media (Disney, etc) took the story and manipulated it into something else.

This novel was quietly very good. Using a narrator who serves as an interpreter for The Hague and an excellent observer of people, the plot meanders through a few months of a trial and her personal relationships. A slim novel, but so well written that I slowly read portions as it was quite lovely to read.

The discovery of how trees communicate with each other (like our brain sends signals), cooperate to send nutrients, warn of pathogens, and use fungi to transport carbon/ water to assist saplings is pretty fascinating. If you like science, enjoy following experiments and reading about women researchers, this book is a good pick. Lab Girl and Braiding Sweetgrass edge this one for me, but it‘s good!

This collection of short stories are set mostly in China. Short stories are one of my favorite genre to read, yet these stories were interesting but lacked the tight character development that other collections include. Some stories were well done, and I was invested in the characters, while others didn‘t hold my attention. This is a debut, and I anticipate her next collection will be really good as you can see glimmers of a very talented writer.

Compact, concise book of essays weaving Texas history and personal accounts of life in Texas. Heartfelt and informative, part memoir and part re-teaching of portions of American history. Well done and well written.

Reminiscent of Its a Wonderful Life, readers and Nora explore alternate lives Nora could have lived with different choices. Slightly predictable, Haig does deliver a well written, grateful focused message of living life and moving past regrets. Enjoyable, quick, and inspiring, it‘s a good book and perfect for a relaxing weekend.

For some reason, I thought this sack was a family heirloom and I would read a memoir about multi-generations. This is a historical tracing of the sack, the items in the sack, and life during slavery and after. Informative and interesting, it was a little slow moving in parts. If you love history, specifically items that tell how people lived, this would be a great book.

This might be more of a 3.5/5, but Pollan‘s writing is so calming, I rounded up. This book is like a memoir about poppies, caffeine and mescaline with random information thrown in. It wasn‘t at all what I was expecting, and the caffeine portion was good. I‘m not considering taking psychedelics, but I was impressed that Pollan could take them and have the wherewithal to record the experience for those us who kind of wonder what‘s it‘s like.

I really enjoyed reading the legends of Latin America. As I‘m slowly learning Spanish, these legends were accessible but not corny, and the English translation was on the left page, Spanish on the right. Not too difficult of vocabulary, and a good variety of verb tenses. 16 short stories were a great length to develop the plot but not overwhelming. Recommend for those who are learning and don‘t want to read about people shopping or traveling.

Good chronicle of the women Kurd fighters against ISIS. Most of the book explains specific battles of cities that the women led the resistance to drive ISIS out of Syria. Also explains complications of alliances between groups and nations in dealing with ISIS and Assad. I‘m not super into battle books, but war told from a women‘s perspective was interesting.

I loved Garcia‘s writing style, the short chapters hopping across generations to form background on each character, and the characters were flawed, yet easy to like and root for. My only complaint with the book is that I wanted it longer! She packed in a lot in 240 pages, and I wanted another chapter on each character. Great book!

The beginning of this book was wonderful- short stories as an introduction to each character. Then, the middle intertwines the characters. Though interesting, it was a bit long in the development of the final event. The end was interesting again and engaging. (The book did make me want to plant more trees.) As the message is similar, I preferred Braiding Sweetgrass as the book to drive home conservation.

McGhee‘s ability to present data in a very readable and engaging manner was impressive. This book walks the reader through aspects of our society, providing a brief history or racist policies, identifies “arguments” as to how so many white people supported such policies, then provides a road map of how to do it better. Really interesting observations and very well written. Highly recommend!

3.5 stars, rounded up. I read this in 48 hours- page turning, fun, engaging. Perfect escapism reading. I have some critiques, but decided I‘d prefer to give them to her over a cup of coffee after I gushed for 30 minutes about how she is an American hero.

Weir delivers on a engaging science fiction, with sound science for the nerds and witty sarcastic interactions for everyone else. Not as tight as The Martian but much better than Artemis, Hail Mary was fun, creative, and humorous. (I think Weir would be really fun to have a drink or teach middle school engineering with.) Another fun summer read!

I‘m out of the target market for this as my children are 14 and 12, but it does give practical, calm, good advice. I thought this would be more about the cultures of the Mayan, Inuit, and Tanzanian but it really just skirts over them to prove the point that kids need to be included, respected and help contribute to families as early as possible. I just wanted more cultural anecdotes (and more inclusion of fathers and sons).

I really, really liked this book! Genova‘s easy to read manner about neuroscience felt less like a nonfiction lecture and more like a great, logical, interesting conversation. Including entertaining anecdotes, she gives peace of mind of why we forget things, strategies of how to keep your memory strong, and explanation of how your brain learns/retrieves info. Highly recommend!

I feel as though this was 2 books in one. There‘s switching of POVs, years, events that make it hard to really get attached to a character. Because of trauma, there are a lot of hard characters and they are difficult to root for. Coster has good story lines and writing style, but it didn‘t settle down enough for me.

This novel chronicles several Polish Jewish women resistance fighters. The women would escape the ghetto (moving information, arms, and supplies), organize education and supplies, and fight. Unlike other WWII books, there‘s no glorification of heroes nor little to be left to the imagination of torture and execution. I don‘t recommend reading it before bed, but I do recommend reading it!

3.5 stars, rounded up, good pool/beach thriller. Told from 3 points of view, the tension in the first half is reminiscent of Gone Girl (it‘s not really GG). Wasn‘t super thrilled with the ending, some predicable moments, but it was completely enjoyable to relax with a summer, fun read!

Engaging? Yes. Beautiful descriptions of Rome? Yes. Tragic love story? Yes? WWII everyday heroes? Yes. Plot twists to keep interest? Yes. For me? Kind of….but of a stretch of events here and there that cause this one to get an “ok, but enjoyable” rating from me.

I know it‘s a great book, when I turn the page and when I see “Epilogue”, I yell, “No!” Fascinating tours of a variety of monuments, events, NYC, and museums that show the wide education/discussion about slavery and history. I learned a lot and Smith‘s writing, observations and interviews are a master class in journalism. Excellent.

Whereas I enjoy reading about the expanse of space, the laws that govern it, and data that supports this, i know it‘s not for everyone. Wilczek does a good job of explaining the extremely large and small in manageable sections. (My complaint is it needs graphics.) My focus waned during the small, but I could‘ve read about space all day.

This was so good! Short, with multiple perspectives from time and locations, this novel about a family in Colombia and the US. Beautiful writing, inclusion of Columbia‘s folklore, and exposing of the undocumented struggles, combine to create a great read.

I love short stories and this collection is a perfect example of why. Concise, compact and moving, each story develops character and moves the plot in a quick and impactful manner. Wonderful, powerful writing.