Heidi

The first two heart stopper volumes are predominantly fluffy-romantic. Things start to get a little more serious in this volume as Nick starts to notice Charlie's disordered eating.

This was the first Ramona Quimby book I remember reading. I definitely have fond memories for Ramona learning “present” didn't necessarily mean gift, Beezus teasing Ramona about the “dawn's early light” from the Star Spangled Banner, and Ramona “quitting” school. I remember empathizing with Ramona's annoyance over how slow Howie and grown ups were (I often felt so much the same as a kid!). 

As an adult reading this in the 2020s, it's painfully obvious Ramona has ADHD - can't focus on her own work, isn't able to relate well to her peers, can't sit still, very imaginative, incredibly impulsive. I also completely get why her peers do not like her (though I did not pick up that nuance as a kid when I read this book).

The Ramona Quimby Series was one of my favorites growing up. As a kid, I identified and empathized so strongly with poor, neglected Ramona who no one gave any attention to/the time of day to. I honestly don't know that I have ever read the whole series. I certainly don't recall reading this first book.

In reading this book as an adult, I cannot help but empathize with Beatrice. She just wants peace and quiet, and she has a rambunctious, imaginative, loud, four year old sister! 

Let me start out by saying: This book is a mixed bag.

The Introduction for this book was written with a very “self-help” tone and self-help word choices. Choosing to be inclusive is to make the choice to accept “this isn't about me.”  Choosing to be inclusive is its own challenge that not everyone is ready to face (but at the same time, they are not ready to face “not being inclusive or trying to remain neutral to inclusivity is its own choice”).

The book only truly starts to feel genuine and authentic around chapter three. It's a good starting point for anyone who is in the very start of their inclusivity/diversity journey (the angry/defensive stage).

I wish I was mentoring someone younger at work. I would absolutely recommend this book to her.

I love the spin on the classic fairy tales!

The saddest part of any re-reading of this story is that it continues to be relevant today. 

Well, that was a wild ride.

I have always admired Laura Ingalls Wilder, since I was a little girl reading her historic fiction book series. Caroline Fraser does a fantastic job with this in-depth look at not only Laura, but also her daughter Rose Wilder Lane. Caroline goes into depth on the history that helped set the stage for Laura's life, and the history that helped set the stage for the whys and hows of Laura/Rose fictionalizing Laura's childhood.

The 1910s and 1920s were a bit of a slog to get through, but the rest of the book was great. If you only care about Laura, stop reading after Chapter 6 (the first chapter in part 2). Parts 2 & 3 have a lot to do with Rose Wilder Lane's mental health (she clearly struggled with at least bipolar disorder), and Rose's relationship to Laura. Rose was not a likeable person, which I found astonishing, given the lessons we know Laura took from Ma. In hindsight, perhaps this isn't terribly surprising, given that Laura likely had her hands full helping Almanzo keep up with the farm. Laura likely didn't have the energy/time to parent her young child, which could also explain all of the bitterness and resentment Rose felt towards her parents throughout her 81 years on this earth. 

Another review by aneidas mentions:

 It's interesting that Fraser seems to condemn Lane for her extreme political views but somewhat exonerates Wilder, who shared her daughter's libertarian beliefs... similar to the way Wilder excuses her father for his own poor decisions in her books. 

It was hard to get into this book at first, since the focus is very different from the other books in this series. Once I made it about 40% of the way through, I was hooked, though!

Pretty solid book for one written by a teenager. A fast read. I read it many years ago, and I was surprised to remember the plot twist. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series. I like the lore of the world Amelia has set up.

I started following This Trippy Hippie on TikTok on January of this year (2021). I do not have anyone in my life with Tourettes, nor do I know anyone with Tourettes, but I enjoy learning new things and hearing about other people's lived experiences. 

This book answers so many questions I was curious about, but did not want to ask for fear of being insensitive or rude (In the 90s, it was “Don't ask someone about their conditions!” in 2021, it's “If you're curious, look on Social Media, see if someone is sharing their experiences, watch and listen and learn!”). 

First of all, this book is definitely a biography of Evie, and it was awesome to learn so much about this happy, bubbly, smiley person we see a lot on TikTok! She has been through much more than I had realized, and it really gave background behind some of her videos from September where her body was ‘locking up,' and also gave additional insight into the seizures she has.

Evie writes openly about her own mental and physical health struggles with the goal of de-stigmatizing these issues, and helping other people to feel less isolated and alone. She is such a strong, beautiful woman (both inside and out!). She talks candidly about her severe anxiety, severe depression, and depersonalisation/derealization disorder (wherein the person does not feel like they themselves are real/they do not feel like the world/people around them are real), as well as her paranoia happening at the time (cameras in her teddy bears' eyes and in the bathroom vent. She gives advice on what to do to help people with these issues (remind them they are safe), and what not to do (don't tell them it is not real: their brains are tricking them, and it's not going to do anything good). 

If you are interested in learning more about someone's lived experience with Tourettes, non-epileptic seizures, social anxiety, depression, depersonalization/derealization disorder, and functional neurological disorder (or if you have these yourself, or know someone who does), this is definitely the book for you!

If you're looking for Lauren to talk about her work on Gilmore Girls, it's a single chapter in this book, that isn't terribly in depth. There is a bit more on Lauren's work for “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.” 

This is a light autobiography, and I got the sense Lauren is a private person in general. That being said, the book is a fast, easy, funny read, and it really shows how blurred the line between Lauren and Lorelai is.

I loved this book and had a hard time putting it down. It's a really great metaphor for rape culture and statescraft. 

I fell in love with the lore in this world, and found myself wanting to hear more about some of the supporting characters (the parents of Celeste, Marie's mother, the teachers on the Mountain, Julia, Miles). 

I will say: this is completely a dark fantasy/fiction book. There likely won't be explanations for how/why the moles, freckles & birthmarks change on women's bodies (there certainly was not in this book). If the lack of explanation is likely to bother you, I do not recommend this book to you, as it does require some suspension of belief.

I have not read the Handmaid's Tale yet, but I do understand this is the YA version of it. 

Rabindarnath is a fantastic poet. His poems are only 2 lines, which is perfect for anyone who likes the idea of being a person who enjoys poetry, but does not have the patience for reading poetry.

This is the first book on racial history that has absolutely left me enraged (ironic, given the title is “White Rage” and I am white).

I had no idea voter fraud was being touted during the Obama administration as a result of young voters (some who were POC and BlPOC) merely showing up to the polls and voting for their candidate. I had no idea the Jim Crow voter laws were coming back. 

This book also gave me a historical understanding on why the GOP would work to get Trump into office (even knowing he had close ties with Putin): There is a long history in the US of “I will happily allow a leopard to eat my face off, as long as they first go after ‘those people' over there.” 

The “After the Election: Imagining” section gave me goosebumps. After reading so much about the racist cycle in the US, reading about how citizens rose up to the challenge of preventing Trump from being able to rubber stamp policies through the branches of government (to the point of putting their money where their values lie and donating to the ACLU $24 mil over a weekend when the ACLU normally brings in $3-$4 mil a year) gives me so much hope for the future of our country to actively strive to stop allowing others to be disfranchised.

Carrie is the Holden Caulfield of the book. She reminds me a lot of me when I was a teenager. I found her really lovable because of that (she went through lessons in the book that I had to go through when I was her age), but I can also see why others would not care for her much.

I really found myself dragging through this book at times. Diana is fantastic at showing, rather than telling the plot, and there's just a ton of things going on/a ton of characters to keep track of. As such, I keep a OneNote going of everything I've read through in a previous chapter. I find this read took up a lot of brain space which is what caused me to drag through it at times.

As far as literature goes, the language used to write this book was fairly simple. It was a relatively easy read and rather enjoyable. 

For the very first time, I can honestly say: The TV show was better.

Dr. Rodriguez is a first generation Mexican American. His parents did not speak much English, and in the first essay in the book, Dr. Rodriguez talks about how in the 1950s, his parents were told to start speaking only English at home (due to Dr. Rodriguez's hesitance to speak English at school). 

As Dr. Rodriguez starts to learn more and more English, and starts to emulate his teachers at the school, he starts to feel separated from the culture at his own house (as he loses his ability to speak Spanish, to the point he has to re-take it later on, and as his parents lose the ability to talk to their children as their children's English grows by leaps and bounds). 

Dr. Rodriguez makes an interesting point about the downsides of how education can cause people to change and grow in a way that can separate them from their loved ones in their lives. He is anti-affirmative action because he correctly denotes affirmative action only looks at skin tone, and not income level of the parents. He also points out the reason for the lack of diversity in the colleges during the 1960s/1970s has to do with the quality (or lack thereof) of education at the lower levels. 

Dr. Rodriguez's own parents spent money they could not afford to ensure Dr. Rodriquez and his siblings all went to a private Catholic college, to ensure they got the best education that could be offered.

Dr. Rodriguez himself did not like the idea of bilingual education, as he personally felt like Spanish was a language for “at home” and English was a language for “the public.” He himself also did not like being considered a “minority student,” as it was yet another way he felt like he was different from everyone else. 

The version I read was copy written in 1982, and some parts of that show. Dr. Rodriguez is unsure how he'd be more “qualified” to mentor minority students than the white teachers/professors who educated him are. Dr. Rodriguez does not see how having diversity in leadership does anything for the next generation.

I would be interested in reading what Dr. Rodriguez's views are today, now that we talk much more about how important representation is. I'd be interested to know if his views of bilingual education or affirmative action have changed. I would also be interested to know if he still feels “othered,” much the way he had throughout most of his boyhood, based on the writing of this book.

All in all, this was a very good read and gave me food for thought about education that I had not considered before. I had not considered someone may not want to become educated because it could mean losing the ties they have to loved ones who are unable to journey with them on their path towards knowledge.

Wow. This book was incredibly powerful and informative about the American History of Racism. 

When reading through some of the history, it was like I was reading about the Black Lives Matters movements, and the 2020 Protests. 

I was appalled and horrified to learn gynecological studies started on female slaves, and worse - they were not granted anesthesia. 

There are so many ways this book proves that while history does not repeat itself, history does rhyme. While the history of American Racism is rage-inducing, saddening, and fraught, I found myself hopeful for real change by the end of the book.

Note: This book ends with Obama's administration, but since then, we have seen underrepresented representation for women and POC in America's Federal Government. I remain hopeful we are unable to fully go back to an all white, all male Federal Government, and I remain hopeful we will be able to turn back racist policies from the past. I do not think the latter will happen in my lifetime, but I am hopeful it will happen. 

A well-written biography told from Malala's perspective about her life pre and post Taliban.

Very informative about how her country works and how they view the US, and very informative about the “other side” of the story post 9/11 & the Iraq war/the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

At one point, Malala was criticized for being an “American Sympathizer” by the Taliban because she admires Barack Obama due to Barack's background of being a first-generation immigrant who was able to rise to the presidency of the US thanks to education. That gave me a bit of pause, because we hear similar things like this in the US if we dare to admire any of our “enemies” as well. 

This book definitely outlines the cost of war & political corruption to civilian life. 

I read this after watching the Netflix special. The book is so much like the special, and it's definitely become a fast favourite of mine. I can see myself reading this book over and over and over. It's really well written, and the Netflix series is also incredibly close to the book (with a bit of added backstory).

I recently saw the musical “Gypsy” for the first time, and I was curious about the life Gypsy Rose Lee led. The book definitely doesn't disappoint, though to be honest, having seen “Gypsy,” I pretty much came into the book knowing what took place.

I was kind of hoping for more information on her later years in life, and her relationship with her sister, but the book doesn't really delve much into that.

   Representation is so important. The main character is aromantic/asexual.

Within the first 8 pages of this book, I found myself saying “It's me! The main character is me!” 

Georgia is at her high school after prom party. It's her last chance to kiss someone to complete the “normal” high school experience she is told by everyone in society is important. Yet, she can't seem to do it. She suddenly realises she has been faking a crush for 7 years. 

Georgia is going off to University/College, once again determined to have the “normal” university experience everyone else has. She enrolls the help of her roommate, and along the way, she becomes best friends with a seemingly unlikely person while discovering what being aromantic asexual (aro ace) means for her, and what “normal” is going to look like for her.

This was the book I needed when I was in high school.