cclift1114's reviews
1321 reviews

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

How does someone make a book that’s cozy while also contemplating what it is to be human, all in such a short work? I’m not sure, but Becky Chambers manages it here. I especially resonated with the discussion Dex and Mosscap have about purpose in life. 

This Ends in Embers by Kamilah Cole

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I feel similarly about this book as I did with the first one. I liked the messaging and the positive representation in the book. I do think it was pretty rushed and there wasn’t enough time to fully develop some of the magic systems or the world-building. I think the duology might have actually benefited from being a trilogy, with another book preceding the first one, in which we get to see the original war played out. I think then there would’ve been more time to do further world-building as well as develop the characters and their relationships more on the page. 

The Fall Risk by Abby Jimenez

challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This short story really had everything you hope for with an Abby Jimenez romance: 

-Cute, lovable main characters? ✅

-Cute, adorable side characters? ✅

-Cute, funny banter? ✅

-A bit of gravitas from the characters dealing with pretty serious issues, beyond their relationship? ✅

-Witty/funny/silly names for pets? ✅

I suppose the only issue was it really should have been a full length novel. 

Also, I want a whole novel about Izzy and Gabe now, too. 

The Anxious Generation: How The Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

While I think most people intuitively know a lot of the information that Haidt sets forth in this book, it is nice to have the data to back it up. I appreciate that he doesn’t just lay out the problems with phones and social media and video games for children and teenagers, but also lists a variety of different solutions at different levels that could help negate some of the negative effects that we are currently seeing. I also appreciated the structure of the book, with him clearly outlining what was going to be discussed and summoning up the most important points of each chapter at the end of it. I hope that parents, schools, and communities will work to implement some of the changes that he has proposed here. 

American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church by Andrew L. Whitehead

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

I would highly recommend this book for any Christian American, and even for those that are not Christian, in order to better understand how white Christian nationalism has come to be so dominant in America and how it undermines the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. I was surprised at how intersectional this book was in addressing how white Christian nationalism seeks to attack all kinds of minorities. I appreciated Whitehead’s treatment of this topic and how he can speak to these issues so well having been raised in American Christian Evangelicalism. One line in particular that really stuck with me on how white Christian nationalists operate was the idea of the inverted golden rule, in which you “expect from others what you would do unto them,” especially when working from a place of fear. 

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Incredibly well-researched, this book offers an in-depth analysis of the immigration crisis in the US, with a specific focus on those immigrants coming from Central America. Blitzer find a nice balance between the politics and the personal by including the heart-wrenching stories of several immigrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Anyone wishing to have a better understanding of how we got where we are with respect to immigration from Central America should read this book.

Los nin̋os detectives by Milton Blas Verano, Contee Seely, Pablo Ortega López

slow-paced

2.0

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Through a series of interviews and speeches, Davis shows the importance of intersectionality in the pursuit of freedom, and how seemingly disparate causes in different countries are all related. I particularly appreciated the emphasis on the collective and how we have this misunderstanding that these larger than life figures, such as Martin Luther King Jr. or Abraham Lincoln, were the major instigators of their movements, when in reality, it was very much a work of solidarity. 

Lights Out by Navessa Allen

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I stumbled upon this book at random from the library and didn’t have the highest hopes for it given what popular dark romance novels are often like right now. I was pleasantly surprised, however, based on the fact that the romance in it is not problematic or toxic in the way that many in the genre can be. I genuinely enjoyed the characters and seeing how they had to work through their own trauma, especially with Josh having to check himself to make sure he wasn’t following in the footsteps of his father. I actually laughed out loud at some of the humor in the book, and can see why others have drawn parallels between this one and Butcher & Blackbird (and not just for the accidental cannibalism). Finally, I am here for Fred the cat, and all of his antics. 

Oh, I almost forgot, this book immediately does a 180 to avoid the miscommunication trope, so it instantly got huge brownie points. We ain’t here for that. 

Ten Thousand Stitches by Olivia Atwater

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Having gone out of order and read this one after the third book, I enjoyed it in a similar way to how I enjoyed the first one. The story was simple, but I appreciated the messaging, especially around how anger can have a purpose and can be directed towards justice. I thought the romance was cute and enjoyed seeing how Lord Blackthorn was a very different faery from those that we saw in the first book, with his curiosity to learn about humans and his desire to actually grow and help them.