ljthelibrarian's reviews
571 reviews

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual assault

Hopurangi - songcatcher: poems from the Maramataka by Robert Sullivan

inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe by Gideon Levy

challenging informative sad medium-paced

3.5

Gideon Levy is an award-winning Israeli journalist, weekly columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, and child of Holocaust survivors. The Killing of Gaza was difficult to both read and rate. It begins with reports from 2014 and ends in May 2024. It was painful reading the details in early 2025, knowing that destruction continued long past May 2024, and with a ceasefire only just being announced while I was reading this book. The Killing of Gaza felt like a desperate, impassioned, but fatigued plea to Levy’s fellow Israeli’s to see past the propaganda to the reality of the situation. He frequently critiques other Israeli news outlets for reporting in a nationalistic and public relations style way, accusing them of doing the work of creating propaganda for the Israeli government when they don’t have to. Prior to 2006 Levy frequently visited the Gaza Strip to report, but after his last visit in November 2006, Israeli journalists were prohibited from entering and he hasn’t been back since. He often wonders what has happened to many of the people he met during his time reporting in the strip. The reports are detailed and harrowing, I was only able to read a few pages at a time. This isn’t a story of a hope, but a single man making a record so that his fellow countrymen cannot one day say “but we didn’t know what was happening”. 

 

Thanks to Verso Books for the eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon

medium-paced

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

3.5

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

informative fast-paced

3.5

Lunchtime thoughts of a gallery attendant at the end of the world by Vaughan Gunson

funny reflective fast-paced

4.0

The Sad Ghost Club: A Hopeful Guide for Getting Through Bad Days by Lize Meddings

3.0

Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God by Kaitlin B. Curtice

hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0