Not my favorite book of the series but still enjoyable. Glad I have book 8 lined up!

I‘m really feeling this right now: “Trust your instincts…And not making decisions can prove to be the worst decision of all.” You are so right, talking fox guy.

This book was phenomenal and an excellent read. Maybe I need to read his one on genes next? Highly recommend this if you‘re in the right mood and circumstances. Glad I finally finished it! Now I just need to return it and pay my overdue fine… couldn‘t finish on time!

Amazing. Just amazing.

I vaguely knew this would intersect with early HIV but now I obviously need to read more about this. Should I just start with And the Band Played On? That‘s the only title that comes to mind on early AIDS/HIV activism and research. Any other recommendations??? Add them if you have them!

10% in and I‘m already attached to the main character. Great! Except too many good things have happened so now bad stuff has to happen because … life isn‘t all rainbows and kittens??? Or maybe this will just be rainbows and kittens 🤞🏽 I‘ll keep you posted!!!

Overall a fun read. I do have to admit their Mom strikes me as surprisingly naïve but I guess you need someone to move certain plot points along…

“The relationship between smoking and lung cancer, the committee found, was one of the strongest in the history of cancer epidemiology- remarkably significant, remarkably conserved between diverse populations, remarkably durable over time, and remarkably reproducible in trial after trial.” Holy *#%!!!

These are watercolors! I can‘t believe it. Loved this beautiful story of travel between the US and Japan.

On finding the grave of a 4 year-old: “Those are the worlds that end in our day-to-day lives, these stopped children, these annihilating losses…” This made me think of Ukraine and Buffalo and Uvalde… and so many other places in the world 💔

Well. I don‘t know what to make of this one. I was at least 150 pages in before things started to come together and then… I‘m still not sure but it was interesting ride! Huh. Worth a try I‘d say.

This has been on my list forever so I‘m glad I finally read it. It‘s excellent and I highly recommend it!

So good I‘m on to book 2 right away and already plotting how I‘ll get the rest!

Not sure this picture will do it justice but wow, the art in this is amazing!

Really enjoyed this. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about (parts of) the German system as Zaske experienced it while living in Berlin with her young family.

I enjoyed this and found it thought-provoking. I definitely felt the most moved by Wonna but Ara was a close second. I would read anything else Cha publishes.

Very interesting and a good read overall. I did feel a little sad though that her experience is still so rare. She found many (mostly good) challenges to tackle, all while staying with the same company with people who respected and valued her contribution. Wish it were that way for everyone.

“In 2015, when nearly a million refugees arrived in Germany, thousands of citizens came out to greet arriving trainloads of asylum seekers.”

I know it doesn‘t fix everything, but I think it‘s good to keep this kind of image in mind sometimes. People can and do help others in need 💗

Book Riot has a cool infographic and article about which US states are the most and least popular for book settings. Interesting read! https://www.google.com/amp/s/bookriot.com/book-settings-by-state/amp/

Huh. I finished this but *just barely*. I got the audio before the infamous slap and was looking forward to it. I don‘t think my feelings about his attack on Chris Rock actually affected my reading of this. Instead I think it just needed a lot of editing that it didn‘t get. Way too long. I would have rather read a biography of Jazzy Jeff. Oh well.

I finished this on audio and am finally posting about it 🤦🏻‍♀️. It is full of information that will either confirm your worst fears or enlighten you about how much women have been judged over many centuries. A worthwhile (even though it is also a frustrating) read.

Throughly enjoyed this 🤩 and am really, really looking forward to book 3!

A short and moving read.

I read/skimmed this and that‘s exactly what I‘d recommend - in addition to borrowing a copy so you can have the satisfaction of returning it! It‘s helpful to get acquainted with the ideas in it so you can try them out on yourself. I‘m working on that bit now… 😅

I feel a little torn about this one. I didn‘t love the beginning and found the style very bland and too spare at various points. I guess I‘d say this one was intriguing enough for me to finish it but ultimately unsatisfying.

Love this epigraph but don‘t know how I feel about the book so far…

Audio may be the way to go here. I think I missed a bunch of jokes since my American internal narrator (in other words, — me!) just didn‘t pick up on all the funny bits. However, I loved this and am looking forward to reading book 2. Only thing is: I‘m worried my favorite characters will die in future books and I won‘t be able to deal? I guess that‘s a risk we all face!

To be honest, I couldn‘t finish this. So this is more of a DNF than anything else. I usually enjoy Seth Rogen but this had way too much about his childhood and general drug use, the latter of which I found deeply BORING. So I‘m giving up, oh well 🤷🏻‍♀️ This was just not for me.

My only issue is that this started slow for me. I was almost 100 pages in before I really started to feel attached. After that, I could not have enjoyed it more. Definitely lived up to the hype and I would happily read more from her whenever she has time to write it! Also really love the cover 💗

So this looks good and possibly upsetting too 😳🤷🏻‍♀️

Huh, I‘m surprised that I have mixed feelings. Some phrases were repeated too much as other readers have noted and I guess I thought the brutality was overdone to some extent. The second half of it was more interesting than the first half for me. A pick but I won‘t be rushing out to press this into anyone else‘s hands.

I‘m not a big foodie and I don‘t really love Italian pasta (I know, it‘s weird, what can I say?) but I LOVED this. The only way I could have loved this more is if I‘d listened to it. 💗💗💗

Not sure how much that is but yeah that sounds great 😂

I‘m loving the footnotes. I don‘t even like lamb that much but I‘m looking forward to hearing why the best he has ever had was in…Iceland???

This woman just asked her fiancé to tell her something that‘s not normal about her… and this is what he comes back with? He‘s clearly not the right partner for her! ????‍♀️ Ok, fine it turns out he was kidding, whew! ?

Hmm let‘s see how this is. I thought I read this before but as far as I can tell … that‘s just something I made up 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don‘t recognize this so I‘m looking forward to actually reading it!

Ok so not really book related but there is a QUEER EYE GERMANY???! 🤩🤩🤩 but also there are only 5 episodes??? 😢 WHY ONLY 5??? That‘s all. Just needed to share that…

I‘ve finished… and still don‘t know how I feel about it exactly. Some parts I was completely engrossed by and some not so much. Very curious to see how the TV adaptation turns out!

Huh. I‘m half way through and still have somewhat mixed feelings. Let‘s see how it ends…

Finished reading this ages ago and forgot to post a review. It‘s really good and even though I‘m not the target audience, I‘m still really glad it exists and hope many more people will read it.

I enjoyed this a lot but not quite as much as Augustown. I think both are good reads, but if I had to choose just one it would be Augustown over this one to be honest.

Practical advice for anyone leaving academia and delivered with a reasonable tone. I appreciate that he states the facts but doesn‘t dwell too much on the crappiness of it. Highly recommended. I may need to read this again as I haven‘t worked through the points yet, but glad to have finished it so I could see the big picture so to speak.

Really, really good. Highly recommended!

This book is really excellent. I saw it recommended somewhere but now I can‘t remember where anymore. So glad I got to read it recently!

This was ok but that‘s mostly because I want to read the series, not because it was crazy good. So fun enough to finish but not one that you absolutely have to get. Now on to book 3!

This was practical and (mostly in a good way) spiritual. Kingma has very helpful things to say about loss and the potential for growth that accompanies it. She also has moving stories interspersed throughout of people who have made great change after or during times of immense pain. Definitely recommend it even though you can tell she‘s from California before she tells you (no offense to my lovely friends & family from there 😂).

“Who you are now is who you‘ve always been. You didn‘t wake up today as someone else. You are a single, talented, rare, unrepeatable human being.” 💕

I‘ve just started reading this and so far it‘s good and constructive.

Oh that was a slog. I guess you could read this if you don‘t know anything about North Korea, but the author is so incredibly dense that I could barely finish. It took him forever to realize that the people around him were hungry and at the mercy of their leaders. He just came off as a real a-hole.

Hmm, this seems like a heavy-handed opening but I‘m curious to see what this is like.