Katie

This was okay? Not much new info that I hadn't read before. Though the whole social media is an intermittent reward was a lightbulb for me (obvious as it is in retrospect). He kind of weaved and bobbed his way through a lot of different topics, to the point where I definitely heard Michael and Peter from If Books Could Kill reading some passages out loud to critique... But there is worthwhile info in here, and it was a quick, engaging read.

I mostly listened to this, then read the end, so that probably dings it a bit for me (audiobooks usually aren't as good for me as reading). It was interesting, but also sort of meandering. I did appreciate meeting so many people who cared and were helpful, though I did wonder at people dedicating so much of their lives to the search for a perfect stranger or two.

Admittedly, any book with this many cute dog antics and massive dog licks to the face would get a high rating from me. But this was enjoyable, engaging, and interesting. A good companion for a week in the hospital with a sick family member.

I didn't like the characters all that much in the beginning of this book, but I really came to appreciate and care for them, with all their strengths and weaknesses. I loved how the power of story was so central to the book and the world-building. I'm looking forward eagerly to the next installment!

The cover was a real turn-off on this book, but I'm a sucker for the Secret Garden, and I thought it was well done–close enough to feel like the original, but new enough to be its own story. I love the idea that this series is taking classics and remaking them all with queer people of color as the main characters!

I definitely skimmed this book. I skipped all the animal profiles, or whatever the little bits were. I really did not like the photographic art, and would have preferred more pictures of the dogs being dogs. I was just here for the amazing dog-human conversational tidbits, which were there, but too few and far between for me. How Stella Learned to Talk was much more interesting and amazing, in my opinion.

This was as much about mental health as it was about sexual wellbeing. And it was amazing. Life changing. I wish every person would read it.

Oh, man, did I enjoy this. So much to think about and unpack. I read it in one day because I just wanted to lose myself in it. There was one thing that didn't really add up, but I didn't care all that much. Of course it's a total fantasy, but it's a fantasy I often have, so what could be better?

I know people love this book so much, but it didn't really do it for me. Maybe it's because I listened to it instead of reading it. But it just seemed so, so overly-detailed and wordy. Did it really need to be that long? The kids were fun and the story was more or less heartwarming but it took up way too much of my life.

This is one of those rare times when I really wish Goodreads had 10 star ratings. I read a lot of social justice books. This one is head and shoulders above so many of them because it's clear, direct, and hilarious. Kat is obviously an amazing person and we should all send her and a librarian and a park ranger to Mars. But I'm glad she's here on Earth still, working on this super important issue. Read this book!

I've loved the other books I've read by this author. This one was a little harder to love, and a little harder to get in to. At first it almost felt like a series of short stories about the same characters, but after a bit it started to come together. I liked the way nothing was black and white, you didn't know who to trust, and you were forced to revise your opinions of people and situations again and again.

If the idea of coming to prison abolition through the lens of architecture is interesting to you, you might enjoy this engaging book. It wasn't too long or in depth, but covered its topic well, and brought you along on the author's path to write the book, interview sources, etc. A quick read, enlightening, and educational.

This book was engaging despite its slightly academic tone. It certainly contains a lot of great information for all of us who work on how to make a more truly inclusive workspace.

Wow. This was strange and wonderful and amazing. And hilarious. I didn't understand it at all but individual sentences held so much truth and wisdom.

I went into this with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised that it offered a bit of food for thought, besides the romance fun. I liked the two moral dilemmas in the book, even if they weren't deeply explored and were pretty simply resolved. A welcome break from the very serious nonfiction I've been slogging through lately.

This is different from RC's other books, but it offers a wonderful peek inside her mind. Loved it.

First of all, I can't believe how horrific the events detailed in this book are. And that they happened so recently. It's like Trump through the looking glass, where he and his followers were allowed to do everything they dreamed of. As to the writing of this book, and the reading of it, I found it a little dramatic, which actually detracted from the impact of what happened, and a little repetitive (as the events were, but still). I had to switch off and read a happy silly book every 50 pages or so just to help me get through.

Before I was done with this book I had already texted multiple people to tell them they had to read it. This book is so brilliant, so well done. The way she weaves together stories from the Quran and stories from her life could easily have felt forced, but instead they just feel completely natural and insightful–giving deeper meaning to both.

This was really interesting in a meandering sort of way. Each chapter had a general theme that it eventually got around to talking about, but in between there were lots of stories about people you don't regularly meet and it was fun to hear about how they manage to survive in this desolate space. Also, there was a footnote to explain what a cattle guard is, and this made me laugh pretty hard.

This is an important book that clearly lays out the devastation of structural inequalities in healthcare.

This was pretty amazing, revelatory, mind-blowing. It has lots of exercises and really step-by-step instructions for implementing her process, though it seems daunting to do without some professional help.

This was a sweet little book. It's interesting to me how Japanese books focus so much more on career than American ones seem to. I'm all for books with an amazing main character, but this one tipped over into magical realism, which lessened its power for me.

3.5 ? I'm just not a huge fan of history, and even though this was supposedly and exciting tale, it still felt like history to me. It was pretty gruesome, too. The narrator on the audiobook was excellent.

Another 3.5. I had nothing really against this book, but it was sort of your conventional war-in-england-let's-empower-women kind of book. The disabled person as savant trope was a bit disturbing, too. Still, it was a well-told story that definitely drew me in.

This was maybe a 3.5 for me. I love Blythe Roberson, I love road trips, and I love nature, so I was thrilled to get this book. The parts where she talks about her trip are funny and interesting and great to read. I know she felt like she had to give the book “meaning” and so she added a lot of other stuff-some history, some climate change, etc. Those parts weren't as interesting to me and didn't really feel like her voice. They felt more like something she had to do to sell the book.