This year I read two books at very different times, but in some ways inextricably paired: PEOPLE LOVE DEAD JEWS by Dara Horn in January and THE GOLEM OF BROOKLYN by Adam Mansbach in September/October. THE GOLEM OF BROOKLYN was screamingly funny; PEOPLE LOVE DEAD JEWS was bittersweetly nonfiction. Sometimes you walk around a problem […]
Andrew Joseph White had his second book out this year, and it was a BIG EVENT this summer when my roommate went to pick up my Booksweet preorder and came home with THE SPIRIT BARES ITS TEETH, White’s second YA book. Less gory but more visceral than HELL FOLLOWED WITH US, I devoured this book […]
This was heartbreaking and wild and intense and really slow at times and taking place in two different places and times and honestly, a lot going on. Great narration; I read this on audiobook. A lot of the writing feels very surreal or dreamlike, especially in the first half, but the second half feels more […]
Love this book about social media and the effects it has on middle graders; both the bad sides and the good sides! I found this a charming, quick read; it involves some wish fulfillment for middle-graders and also how sometimes that wish fulfillment isn’t all you thought it would be. Also, major plot hole: kids […]
This fantastic book for middle-graders examines traditions and how they are important and also important to break, Being Jewish and Also Not Jewish Enough, and how difficult family can be. I loved this book; it’s a good addition to any middle-grade library. Five stars.
You cannot read this as an ebook. You need to get a physical copy, because this book is stuffed with footnotes; footnotes about the time that it’s set in, footnotes to help you better understand the book. Instead of a historical fiction novel that takes place fully in the past, the author acknowledges that people […]
There is SUCH a wide variety of recipes in here, and I really appreciated all the different uses for matcha especially, and the wide variety of cheesecakes. The instructions are easy to follow and the book is formatted very well, so that ingredients and instructions don’t co-mingle on the page. I love the asides by […]
Look. This is the perfect holiday Hallmark queer love story your heart wants. It’s like AS SEEN ON TV but infinitely better because it’s two girls kissing and one of them is a lumberjack. Lumberjane? It’s heartwarming, sappy-sweet, and why did this come out in August? It’s because you need to buy it ahead of […]
The thing about requesting romance novels on NetGalley is that later you have to review them. Most of the time I feel so stupidly neutral about a straight romance that I feel like a zombie walking around going “I had fun! It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad!” I read this as an audiobook egalley […]
Hey. Hey, you. Did you know that “cozy” as a genre descriptor no longer applies to Just Mysteries? That’s right, we’ve got cozy romances now, we’ve got cozy fantasy, and even, incredibly, cozy sci-fi by the incredible and inimitable Becky Chambers. The only flaw about this book is that it’s so short, and also I […]