skeltzer's reviews
268 reviews

Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara

challenging dark informative sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Slavery

Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines by Joy Buolamwini

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

We Do This 'til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariame Kaba

challenging hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In by Kate Kennedy

reflective fast-paced

3.0

Loved the first half and felt very seen. Around the second half the story veered toward memoir, and I love memoir, but I quickly lost interest at that point. The last third seemed to fall apart for me as the stories went all over the place and I grew tired of the wordplay.

I also listened to this as an audiobook and both the sound quality and narrative style left something to be desired - alternating between detached and on the verge of tears.

I'm sure her fans will love this book.

Ms. Adventure: My Wild Explorations in Science, Lava, and Life by Jess Phoenix

adventurous informative fast-paced

3.0

Quick superficial read. Felt more like a series of short stories about travel rather than a personal narrative. I didn't get the type of introspection I read memoirs for. Prose felt very cold. Included lots of details that didn't really help with understanding the story while leaving some stuff out. Like what happened after the many times she got injured? I wish the book had photos of the places and phenomena described in the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism and Death

Covert City: The Cold War and the Making of Miami by Eric Driggs, Vince Houghton

informative reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

Zaytinya: Delicious Mediterranean Dishes from Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon by José Andrés

hopeful informative inspiring

4.0

Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens by Andrea Wulf
Did not finish book. Stopped at 6%.

Boring

Antarctica by Claire Keegan

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Uneven stories. Some were great and others skippable. The American stories were less interesting than then Irish stories. Not entirely sure the highly disturbing language was called for.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, Suicide, Grief, and Pregnancy

Chasing Space: An Astronaut's Story of Grit, Grace, and Second Chances by Leland Melvin

hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.0