BOOK REVIEW ROUND UP – VOLUME 3 ISSUE 12

My Monticello
Author: Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
Publication Date: October 2021
Genre: short stories, historical fiction
Method: audiobook via TPL

Ugh, it’s hard to rate a collection of stories. This collection starts out this a bang with Control Negro, performed live by LeVar Burton (yes, from Reading Rainbow). It was incredible, so gripping, eerie, and unsettling. The audio experience made for a very chilling and unnerving experience. The tone and intensity reminded me of Black Buck – which was fantastic in it’s entirety. I was nervous going into the collection but was so excited to continue after the first story was such a power house

Unfortunately, the rest of the collection fell flat for me. I found myself speeding through the back half of the book. I think this is just the case of ‘not every book is for every reader’, and that’s okay! I’d be more interested in a full length novel by this author. I think I’m learning that a collection of unrelated stories isn’t for me right now, much like The Office of Historical Corrections

This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work
Author: Tiffany Jewell, Aurelia Durand (Illustrations)
Publication Date: January 2020
Genre: nonfiction, race, young adult
Method: paperback borrowed from TPL

Accessible, beautiful, and informative. I set out to read at least 5 non-fictions text about race, racism, and the work of anti-racism, and it was a nice change of pace to throw in a book targeted towards a younger audience!

Upgrade
Author: Blake Crouch
Publication Date: July 2022
Genre: science fiction, thriller
Method: audiobook via TPL

The more that I’ve sat and reflected on this story, the more I want to open the book back up and reread it! Gene targeting and manipulation – what a fascinating premise and concept. Of the 3 Blake Crouch novels I’ve read, I had the easiest time following this story line specifically given it’s emphasis on genes, biology, and anatomy, versus his prior books centered around time and space. Let me tell you the ear to ear grin I had when the main character Logan references the brachial plexus, cricoid cartilage, rectus femoris, and the flexor pollicis brevis, because as a graduate student who literally dissected a human cadaver, I was squealing

Equally as exciting were the handful of references to our nation’s National Parks and diverse, beautiful landscape, many of which I have the honor of enjoying this time last year on our 3 month National Park road trip. Crouch makes a point to mention in his novel, Glacier National Park had no more glaciers, and the near reality of that is truly heart breaking to me, as it should be for you as well. However, can’t give it a perfect 5 star rating because I didn’t find it that thrilling, and maybe that’s due in part to listening to the audiobook versus reading my physical copy, 4.25 stars

Breathless
Author: Amy McCulloch
Publication Date: May 2022
Genre: thriller, mystery
Method: BOTM hardcover
I was so excited to dive into this after loving, loving, loving the snowy setting of Rock Paper Scissors. And while I was very intrigued for the first few chapters, given I know absolutely nothing about the world of alpine mountaineering, the story telling kind of just fell flat for me. For a thriller set on a literal mountain, I thought there would have been more snow related references. I mean, the main character definitely complained about being cold but I just had a hard time picturing in my mind the sherpas and the various campsites and the equipment, etc etc etc. And maybe that’s on me, like I could have googled Manaslu, Mountain in Nepal, a dozen times by the time I finished the novel, but never felt motivated enough to do just that. And the big reveal was so incredibly obvious to me. I didn’t guess all of the motives and connections that tied into the reveal but I wasn’t by any means shocked. All in all, it was fine, a standard 3 star thriller for me

Wash Day Diaries
Author: Jamila Rowser, Robyn Smith (illustrations)
Publication Date: July 2022
Genre: graphic novel, contemporary
Method: paperback borrowed from TPL

My first graphic novel, yay! And it was so beautiful, both in art and in story telling. I loved the sex positive and body positive messaging, both overt and suggestive. I loved learning about these four women, their friendship, and at the center of the stories, their hair