This young adult novel was a surprise delight.  I can't even really explain why I liked it.  The story of a high school trio of quirky, misfits in a small Southern town struggling with their teenage angst, real and imagined, I just like it.  Decent writing, good character development, nothing fancy, just good storytelling.

Recommend.

Written in an unusual first-person style, where the narrator is an Indian entrepreneur telling his life story to Chinese diplomats on tour in Bangalore, this book is entertaining and interesting. It kept my interest for sure, with a twist ending to boot.  However, the casual misogyny that permeated the story was hard to swallow and while there was significant commentary on the Indian class system, it seemed shallow unexamined, and like it was missed opportunity.

​Not recommended.

I absolutely love this book--which is a series of reflective essays that read more like extended poems.  Read by the author (something I usually do not like), the words are mesmerizing, the sentences beautiful.  Each chapter is a woven metaphor, a life lesson, but not in a trite way. Each story feels genuine. The author, a botanist, tells stories about plants and ecosystems that are equally about parenting, working, and friendship.  Being an indigenous woman scientist in an academic culture that does not value, let alone understand, what that could mean for science, she tells painful stories about this. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is, but the stories say something new, something different from the typical STEM isn't an inclusive place for women of color.  Her stories of indigenous heritage, too, feel genuine and I loved the complexity of how she didn't shy away from racism and oppression, but rather found ways to talk about this in the context of traditions and natural science.  And she seriously did this while writing in a poetic prose.  

I have so many favorite parts, but one example that I loved of how she melds science and not science (for lack of a better term) is when talking about gardening and how you can tend a garden with science (testing and changing the chemical balance of the soil, studying the seeds, and collecting data) or you can tend a garden with love (just tending things by watching and responding with your intuition). They are just lovely concepts, brilliantly written. I think this has been my favorite book all year.

Generally, when I read, I will pick up and put down a story without much thought to a breaking point.  Five minutes in the car on the way to work, 15 minutes while folding laundry, 3 minutes while I am waiting for someone...it doesn't bother me to stop or start in the middle of a sentence, let alone a chapter.  But, there was something about the way these stories were written that I really wanted to read to the end and then pause to think about it before moving on.  It was an unusual experience for me and quite delightful.
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Highly, highly recommend.

This  is an unexpectedly historical romance that is as charming as it is unusual.  Set in London in the 1880's,  it is a roller coaster of emotions with an engaging ploy,  even while the writing is somewhat mediocre.  There is something about the word selection that I found limited and distracting. It is thought provoking, which made up what it lacked in lyrical style.  I found myself wondering about the historical accuracy of the novel at various points, particularly about the acceptance of openly lesbian women in the socialist movement during that time period, but there was enough going on in the book that I could suspend some disbelief around that and just had fun with it.  The spoiler alert section below explains more detail about why I found the story line so intriguing and why I recommend it, but I really liked that I read the book without knowing this was going to be a theme so I have left it separate for those of you interested in reading it and wanting to let the story tell itself.

SPOILER ALERT: The main character, Nance, lives part of the time presenting as a man and part of the time presenting as a woman.  Because the concept of trans-ness was lacking at the time, there is no framework to determine if this is because Nan is trans or not and while the concept is not directly addressed, it lingered in the back of mind until it is more or less answered as the story unfolds.  

​Recommend.

Not quite a text book, but not quite an easy read, this microhistory book is interesting and information.  It focuses on ​what we do and don't know about the Americas before and just after Columbus arrived here.  There was a lot of interesting data on epidemics and contagious diseases, genetics and archaeology, geology and ecology.  Some of the topics I found more engaging than others, but I suspect others likely would find different ones worth of having been edited out.  Overall, a recommended, if dry in some places, read.

Recommend.

A quirky sci fi book, the story was sometimes interesting, but it lacked the kind of depth that I like my speculative fiction to have.  A lot of the subplot story lines were too reminiscent of other popular sci fi to the point where the book itself even referenced Star Trek just before launching into a segment that merged the Borg and  (the unfortunate Voyageur) Treshold episodes. Yes, that means it was a slug that assimilates...full stop.
​Not recommended.

I read this book at a strange time in history. On the one hand, I am thinking a lot about leadership in the context of work, where I am trying to manage a scary, chaotic, and stressful situation in a way that reflects my values. Trying to find the balance between sharing with staff how precarious things are while imparting a sense of I'veGotThis spirit is hard! So a lot of this book was right on point. Once you get past the corny self-helpy, rah-rah business language that I usually can't stand, there is a lot of really good content here that I felt was useful and relevant.  She is at her best when she is using data from the studies she has done and I really appreciated some of the stories from businesses that faced rough times.

At the same time, I was distracted from the book by the anti-racism protests going on locally and across the country. It was hard to focus on a book that really only gave a nod to issues of system oppression in American work places. There were so many missed opportunities to discuss that instead of just mention that speaking out on these issues is important to her.  

Recommend.