Jenika

A cozy story with mystery, friendship, and a lot of books.

Good bones, but a bit too much going on.

I had only ever seen the Disney movie, but this was delightful. Toad is such a ridiculous jerk.

Did I buy this at a thrift store because it had a funny name? Yes. But it was actually a pretty solid collection of children’s stories about animals and didn’t age too poorly.

Spooky (but not too spooky for weenies like me) and snappy writing. Finished in 24 hours- couldn’t put it down!

One might think that this focuses solely on the visions of Brown Bear, but the changing narrative focus shifts our attention: in seeing what others see, truly we see ourselves.

(if I have to read this literally every day, I get to count it toward my reading goal once)

This is one of the few instances where the movie outshines the book in my eyes, but that’s slightly unfair to the book in this case because the movie is a masterpiece. This was a very fun fantasy tale, and I’ll likely read more of her work now!

You might think from the image on the cover, or from the dedication to their daughter, that this book swaps genders in a way to help women be protagonists instead of victims. I love old fairy tales, but I was excited to have a more lady-positive perspective.

There are 12 stories in this book. With the gender swapping, 7 feature male protagonists, 4 feature female, and one (Gretel and Hansel) is pretty egalitarian. There are fewer female mains than in the original stories from the 1890s! In addition, the authors specify that all they did was swap the genders, no additional editing. While it makes for an interesting study, it makes for disjointed reading; the language between the different stories is inconsistent, and especially difficult if you're reading aloud. A bit of editing would have helped make it a more pleasant reading experience.

The illustrations are gorgeous. I wish they'd been in a better book.

Boy, that sure was a lot of abusive behavior marketed as romance.

All the incest and underage stuff sure hits harder when you know what Bradley did.

Rogers gives a phenomenally funny look at grad school, strained work relationships, and the overall creative process. I was incredibly excited to read this as a current PhD student, but I feel like the characters in the book will seem like familiar faces no matter your history with academia, writing, or the midwest. I loved the detail of introducing each character with an author blurb, including fictional publishing credentials (my favorite of which was “cornHOLE”).

I don't normally count the things I read for academic purposes on Goodreads, but I opened this book two days ago intending to briefly skim for a definition of “Eurostars” and then ended up devouring the whole thing. Incredibly interesting collection of tales of people who moved around Europe and their feelings on migration, integration, and laying down roots.

Sad, haunting, and beautiful.

If you've always wanted to read a Chuck Tingle book but don't care for explicit content, this is the book for you. Classic Choose Your Own Adventure style with a story and characters that are all Tingle. I devoured it in 2 hours. I highly recommend it, buckaroos.

What a beautiful end to Erica Henderson's run!

A fascinating new story with the feel of a classic fairy tale.

For some reason I was too embarrassed to actually check out this series from the library but NOT too embarrassed to review it on Goodreads.

Fun story, but lots of problematic items about race. The main character even dons blackface at one point.

Phenomenal.

I enjoyed Percy Jackson and The Kane Chronicles, but the Magnus Chase series blows them out of the water. The attention to diversity and kindness is exceptional, and the story is engaging throughout.

Man, Centipede is a d-bag in the book.

Even if you're not into the magical aspects of this, there are some very good tips about getting your things (and life) in order.

Gripping and emotional and wonderful.

At its best, it's full of laugh-out-loud moments and descriptions of the Outback that make you want to experience the natural wonders. At its worst, it's like listening to your elderly relative explain at length their disappointment with their economy hotel.