gillyreads's reviews
1036 reviews

Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?: Police Violence and Resistance in the United States by Maya Schenwar

informative medium-paced

Comprehensive and important look at how state violence functions, including a expansive view beyond just the us police force. 

If one sees policing for what it is—a set of practices sanctioned by the state to enforce law and maintain social control and cultural hegemony through the use of force—one may more easily recognize that perhaps the goal should not be to improve how policing functions but to reduce its role in our lives.”

Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder

hopeful informative inspiring

Utterly delightful. This book is incredibly easy to read aloud, and each page filled with vibrant illustrations that provide a joyful celebration of many variations of the human body. Plus bodies ARE cool.

Bedtime Sorted! by Jimmy Rees

I love the illustrations for this book, very clever and really add extra storytelling layers plus some amusement for the parents. 

Yoga Babies by Sheena Dempsey, Fearne Cotton

A fun story to read aloud, the book goes through a group of toddlers each doing a different pose. Sometimes with a family member and sometimes alone. Each pose is straight forward enough that small readers can follow along.

Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko

emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

Melissa Lucashenko is a very skilled writer, her work is deeply funny, incisive and enthralling.
She manages the two timelines in this story masterfully, and I thought pulled the end together perfectly 

How To Spell Catastrophe by Fiona Wood

emotional funny hopeful informative medium-paced

Fantastic middle grade, full of emotions and exploring the fraughtness of life and change when you’re twelve. Good anxiety representation 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

emotional fast-paced

Incredible 

Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith

emotional informative reflective

Great as an audiobook. Definitely something every parent should read. 

Koori Princess by Anita Heiss

Cute

Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams

This is a significant improvement on the first two books, much more drawn out emotional stuff, Noah’s family stuff was done really well (although the hacker to it security specialist millionaire I dont like but could mostly ignore). I liked Alexis and the parts of her story about dealing with the fall out of coming forward and other supporting other survivors, I thought that part of her story should have played a bigger role. The book club parts were great, loved the friendship bonding and crying.
Personally I hated the entire surprise family kidney donation aspect of the book, I thought it didn’t need to be there and was badly down.
The other thing I disliked was the very end with

Noah telling his mum to forgive Marsh, that didn’t fit at all and I think was pretty irresponsible.