skeltzer's reviews
271 reviews

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

A memoir of the Challenger disaster in all of its horrific glory. Like a slow motion car crash that you know is coming ahead of time. It was interesting that the actual disaster didn't happen until so far into the book. This was a long audiobook but worth the listen.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Minor: Body horror

Spare by Prince Harry

reflective medium-paced

3.0

Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

What an interesting story. She's immensely talented and shrewed, clearly working hard to get where she is. It probably also didn't hurt to have as many resources as she did! Failure is less scary when you have a safety net.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse

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

challenging dark informative sad fast-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, 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.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, 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