julieannrea's reviews
27 reviews

The MANIAC by Benjamín Labatut

adventurous challenging dark informative tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies by bell hooks

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Three pretty amazing novellas about middle aged women resisting the heartaches of later life (work is rejected, children go awry, husband has affair with younger woman)

The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture by Tricia Romano

challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

A most excellent oral history of that greatest of alt papers, the Village Voice

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

challenging dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

This is the best book I"ve read so far this year. A tale of a family attempting to survive Hurricane Katrina.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

informative sad medium-paced

4.5

An excellent use of rhetoric and history to support the thesis that American maintains its racial caste system through the racist enforcement of criminal law

Abandon Me: Memoirs by Melissa Febos

dark emotional funny medium-paced

4.0

Febos's exploration of an emotionally devastating romantic relationship is wonderfully penetrating. Her investigation of her Native American ancestry raises similar questions of identity, the sense of lacking a home