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Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

February 21, 2019 Leave a Comment

I don’t always read nonfiction, but when I do it’s for the tea.

On the surface, Bad Blood is the sensational story of Elizabeth Holmes, a young ambitious college-dropout turned CEO who used her access to wealth, power, privilege and influence to cause the downfall of Theranos, a billion dollar company.

As someone who has worked in a lot of offices and seen tons of office politics gone awry, there is something fascinating about hearing someone else’s workplace gossip, drama and scandals; all while knowing those in power are eventually held accountable. I mean it’s maddening some of the things the employees of Theranos had to live with in silence.

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Damsel by Elana K. Arnold

December 28, 2018 Leave a Comment

unrated | 7 hrs. 42 min. | Balzer + Bray | YA Fantasy | Release Date: 10/2/2018

So about this book. I’m not really sure what to think of it. I like that it’s not trying to be what you expect in a YA fantasy. It’s not a story about rebellions, handsome princes, faithful sidekicks, and adventure–instead, it manages to be…I’m going to go ahead and say viscerally transgressive.

I can see Damsel being used to that introduce teens the concept of how to do a feminist reading of a text or apply feminist literary theory (which is totally a class I took in college, okay) It’s chock-full of allegory and symbolism in a way that is raw and at times a bit heavy handed but it’s the kind of strangeness and unease that you can’t look away from.

And whooo, boy…that ending. Like I get what Arnold was doing but I was not expecting that. . .

Check out the audiobook review on AudioFile !

Pride By Ibi Zoboi

December 28, 2018 Leave a Comment

Rating: unrated | 320 pages | Balzer + Bray| Contemporary | 9/18/18

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Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

November 12, 2018 Leave a Comment

Rating: unrated | Swoon Reads | Contemporary New Adult | Release Date: 1/23/2018

Let’s Talk About Love is an upbeat, modern romance-y novel that feels way more like millennial (Gen Z ?) women’s fiction than like a true romance.

Alice loves a pleasing aesthetic, her best friends and herself–asexuality and all. When she meets her new co-worker the sweet, generous and soon-to-be teacher Takumi she finds herself on a journey to balances her smoldering attraction with her identity as asexual.

I think I basically agree with Carrie’s review on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, this book has a lot of drama and angst that comes from characters not talking to each other but I also like following them around as they try to tackle this whole adulting thing.

Alice was recognizable as a young person today, she loves Tumblr, fandom, bingeing tv and making memories with her friends.

I personally had a hard time seeing this book as a romance because Takumi felt–to use a term Kat uses a lot–unknowable to me. Perhaps it’s because I’m used to romances where we get into the other characters but he never felt like a real person to me. He was just a little too perfect.

Tiffany Sly Lives Here by Dana L Davis

August 11, 2018 3 Comments

Rating: unrated | 334 pages | Harlequin Teen Inknyard Press ? | Contemporary | 05/01/2018

I was really excited to read this book after hearing about it on the Hey, YA podcast. I firmly remember actress Dana L. Davis in the 2000s for being “that black lady” who showed up on TV shows in the early 2000s. I was also interested in a book that deals with respectability politics and all the shades of the black experience.

Tiffany Sly has had it rough. After losing her mother to cancer this music-loving rocker girl is headed from Chicago to the mansions and private school of Simi Valley, California; to live with the wealthy and successful father she’s never met. Anthony Stone (get it ? Sly…Stone ? Get it ?)

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Relative Strangers by Paula Garner

July 11, 2018 Leave a Comment

Unrated | 368 pages | Candlewick Press | Contemporary | 04/10/2018

I am all for quiet YAs that have interesting premises and haven’t been put through the giant hype machine. Relative Strangers is about Jules, a teen girl, who has always felt like there was something missing from the humdrum life she leads with her emotionally distant mother. Jules has a vintage adventurer’s sensibility and wants more than what her small town can offer.

When she discovers she was in foster care she goes off to reconnect with the foster family that raised her for the first year of her life. She forms a relationship with her former foster-brother, now a handsome pianist who gives her the confidence she’s been looking for.

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