dckathleen's reviews
266 reviews

I read this with my 11 year old. It was great. Loved having a Black main character!

 It's like Harry Potter, but with a young Black girl as protagonist. Talks about a lot of real issues that kids face but in the setting of a magic school. I really liked it and so did my son. (Finished this a while ago, but logged as read in November). 

loosely based on the life of Margaret Meade, this is the story of three anthropologists in 1930s New Guinea. 

Several children have gone missing in medieval Cambridge and the townfolk have decided to blame their Jewish neighbors. The king is mad because keeping the Jewish community locked away in the castle is cutting into his income, so he hires a doctor through his cousin, the King of Sicily. The person who shows up is a female doctor, something that's basically considered witchcraft in England, and she is accompanied by a Muslim companion and a Jewish companion. Mind blowing. She's brilliant and is immediately leaping into action, while pretending she's not the doctor. She investigates and in the process we learn about the community and the politics. This was really good...with the slight caveat regarding the identity of the killer. 

CW: antisemitism and child death

Read my favorite restaurant review ever and decide for yourself whether this book is for you. It's brutal and hilarious and I'm glad it wasn't me eating there: https://medium.com/@everywhereist/bros-lecce-we-eat-at-the-worst-michelin-starred-restaurant-ever-3466c98cdbdf

This is a series of essays, including thoughts on motherhood, food, Mario Battali, and more. 

Piglet (unfortunate childhood nickname) is engaged to a perfect man, living in a beautiful home, and planning her impressive wedding. And then her perfect man makes a confession. They go forward with the wedding plans, but can you just pretend that things are perfect? This was cringey but good. 

Climate apocalypse with a slight supernatural element (which could have also just not been there). A girl is born during a hurricane in the tail end of "normal" and lives through the end of civilization as we know it in Florida. I wasn't sure how I would like this, but it was beautiful. 

CW: child death

First off: points deducted for the many many references to the lead female character's large breasts and large sized body. Male main character at one point imagined that she's never been called hot, and he patted himself on the back for repeatedly telling her she's hot. So generous. I actually double checked that this was not written by a 30 year old man. Was the author trying to imagine what the lead male character's inner monologue would be? Bleh. Also, the main character's landlord is Indian, and his voice is read with an Indian accent. 

Ordinarily the above would have resulted in a DNF...but the story was unique. Dude has a wormhole in his closet and takes money from music fans so they can see the show they missed.... everything from huge music festivals to some obscure show in a dive bar in 1986. 

Obviously this can't last. A mistake is made, and dude needs help...enter the hot astrophysics PhD candidate wearing a band T-shirt. 

Can you change the future? Can you live with the consequences? Might you be happier in a different time? 

I have no idea what happened in "You Dreamed of Empires," like I genuinely did not get it. The premise was cool enough that I finished it. 

Miracle Creek is about children with disabilities, parenting, immigrants and their struggles and dreams, and family relationships. So great. 

The Knockout Queen is just fantastic. Poor, gay kid lives next door to perfect, rich popular girl. Then an event changes both of their lives. Strong characters and great storytelling.