Browsed by
Author: Josie

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi

Comments 0 comment

It has been a while since I last read a book that took me as long to read as it took me to read Stamped from the Beginning – over two weeks! You can tell that Kendi put a lot of effort into researching and writing this book, so it is only fair that I took my time to read it, to really absorb the information in this book. I ended up re-reading certain passages, and I have underlined and flagged a lot of pages. I could write an essay about this book, but I am going to keep my review succinct because I think that you should read Stamped from the Beginning for yourself. It focuses on racism in America, but really it explains the racist behaviour of white people on a global scale, because, let’s face it, racism is about people of white European descent thinking they are better than everyone else on this planet.

…

Read More Read More

The Bone Code by Kathy Reichs

The Bone Code by Kathy Reichs

Comments 1 Comment

I have read every single Temperance Brennan novel written by Kathy Reichs, and I own most of them. I enjoy reading them; each novel ends up involving multiple, interesting mysteries and they are fast paced. Each chapter ends on a cliff-hanger to keep the momentum going, meaning I stay up way too late reading because it is hard to put these novels down. The character of Temperance Brennan has a dogged determination I cannot help but admire, and she is quick witted.

The Bone Code started out good; I was enjoying it as much as I have ever enjoyed a Temperance Brennan novel. Temperance is asked by a coroner in Charleston to examine two decomposing bodies found in a medical waste container that washed ashore after a hurricane. The bodies are wrapped in plastic sheeting and bound with electrical wire. This is similar to a case that Temperance was involved with 15 years earlier in Montreal. How likely is it that she would end up investigating in two similar cases in two different countries, and that the victims from both cases are related? Not likely, but buckle in for a wild ride and just go with it.

…

Read More Read More

Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad

Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad

Comments 0 comment

Every time I read a memoir, you are going to hear me say how inspiring it is. But it is true! I enjoy reading true-life stories about overcoming adversity. They restore what little faith I have in humanity, and they encourage me to live my own best life. I cannot say that I heard of Suleika Jaouad before reading Between Two Kingdoms. She wrote a column for the New York Times called “Life, Interrupted” and is a motivational speaker. I decided to read her memoir because it is currently number one on Indigo’s Best Books of 2021 list. It is an engrossing read that I absolutely recommend.

…

Read More Read More

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Comments 0 comment

You are either going to really like Catherine House or be like me and wonder, WTF did I just read?? Catherine House is a strange, fever dream of a novel with no clear-cut resolution. I am not even sure that I fully understand what was going on in the novel and what the purpose of the novel is.

In the novel, Catherine House is a college located deep in the Pennsylvania woods with an unusual liberal arts curriculum that somehow has produced some of the world’s best minds as its graduates, such as inventors, prize-winning scientists, Supreme Court justices and at least two presidents. The college is best known for its mysterious “new materials concentration” and the study of “plasm”. The students that attend Catherine House get free tuition and room and board, but the catch is that they must give Catherine House three years of their lives completely removed from the outside world. During these three years, they cannot contact their family and friends, they cannot watch television to keep up with the news and they cannot bring any personal possessions, including clothing, with them (the novel is set in the 1990s, but if it were set in the present, they definitely would not be allowed smart phones either).

…

Read More Read More

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Comments 0 comment

I read Lucy Foley’s last novel, The Hunting Party, and found it just difficult enough to figure out that I decided I would read whatever she publishes next. The Guest List is a huge disappointment. It is a mystery thriller that takes place the day before and the day of a wedding on a remote Irish island. It sounds interesting in theory, but in practice the characters, main and supporting, are all clichés and it does not take a lot of effort to figure out who the murder victim is, how all the suspects’ motives connect to the murder victim, and who the killer is. There are no surprises at all in this novel. The setting, the remote Irish island with a bog that is probably full of bodies and rumored to be haunted, is the most interesting part of the novel, but too bad it is underutilized; it is the perfect setting for a supernatural thriller. In any event, it would not take you very long to read The Guest List, but I do not suggest wasting your time on it.

The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker

The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker

Comments 0 comment

The Hidden Palace is the sequel to The Golem and the Jinni (which I reviewed back in February). The Hidden Palace is even more intricately plotted than its predecessor and is as incredibly immersive. It is no wonder that it took Helene Wecker seven years to write this novel. The plot spans decades and touches on major historical events such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the sinking of the Titanic and World War I. I found the tone of the novel to be on the pessimistic side, so I do not love it quite as much as The Golem and the Jinni, but it is definitely still worth reading.

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI YET.

…

Read More Read More

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Comments 0 comment

I have not read many of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels, and I really should rectify this because his novels are so engrossing and beautifully written. But I am also a little reluctant to read Ishiguro’s novels because the ones that I have read end up making me feel depressed. If you have read Never Let Me Go, you may know what I am talking about. I absolutely love that novel, but I do not think I could ever read it again because it is so heartbreaking. Klara and the Sun is much easier to read, but the ending still left me feeling sad for the sweet, little android at the heart of this novel.

…

Read More Read More

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Comments 0 comment

Meddling Kids is an adult homage to Scooby-Doo. Imagine Velma is a lesbian with a crush on Daphne and likes to beat up people; Daphne may or may not reciprocate Velma’s feelings and self medicates with alcohol; Fred is dead; Shaggy is in a mental institution and is either seeing his friend’s ghost or a hallucination; and Scooby-Doo is more of a Scrappy-Doo. In Meddling Kids, the four preteens, Andy, Kerri, Peter and Nate, and dog that solve mysteries call themselves the “Blyton Summer Detective Club”. In 1977, they solved their greatest, and last, mystery of the haunted Deboën Mansion and the “Sleepy Lake Creature”, which turned out to be a guy in an amphibian costume who was looking for gold supposedly hidden in the mansion.

…

Read More Read More

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Comments 0 comment

The Other Black Girl is currently being majorly hyped as the book to read this summer. Although I did enjoy reading this novel, for the most part, and it kept me up later than I should have been up on a work night because I did not want to put it down, I saw the ending coming a mile away, so I am on the fence if it is worth all the hype.

The premise of The Other Black Girl is very intriguing, especially when you learn that the author has based some of it on her own experience in the publishing industry: it is about an editorial assistant named Nella Rogers, who is the only Black girl that works at the prestigious Wagner Books (a fictional publishing company) in New York, until the other Black girl shows up, Hazel-May McCall. At first it seems like Nella may have finally found an ally in Hazel at the very white Wagner, but then things begin to happen and suddenly Hazel has become the office darling while everyone has turned against Nella. Then Nella finds a note on her desk that says, “LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.”

…

Read More Read More

Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson

Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson

Comments 1 Comment

Monkey Beach is the first novel by Indigenous writer Eden Robinson and was first published in 2000. It is set in Haisla territory on the British Columbia coast just north of Vancouver Island, where Robinson was born. Monkey Beach is an engrossing read, but the ending devastated me, and I actually woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it.

…

Read More Read More