In Real Life – ★★★

In Real Life
by Cory Doctorow & Jen Wang

Good art and message but definitely aimed at a younger audience. The in game stuff and parts about labor movements and about not making assumptions about people in other situations/cultures was solid despite its shallowness but the IRL parts of Anda’s life were the weakest.

Rating: 3 stars

The Tusks of Extinction – ★★★★

Tusks of Extinction

So do they ever explain why ivory is so valuable in the future?

Really enjoyed this animal conservation/climate change story and went along easily with the science fictiony parts, but was regularly distracted by the premise that in the near future ivory would become seemingly the most important substance on earth. One note about it being needed for future iPhones or something would have helped.

Between this and The Mountain in the Sea I’m now very interested in catching up to Nayler’s short stories and will definitely be excited for whatever he writes next. Great book covers too.

Rating: 4 stars

Crossposted on Goodreads
Buy The Tusks of Extinction on Bookshop

Still Life With Crows – ★★★

A Psalm for the Wild-BuiltStill Life With Crows
by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

So do the plot of these ever stop hinging on the world’s most moronic cops doing moronic things for moronic reasons to try to thwart Pendergast because they’re morons?

Rating: 3 stars

Mean Girls (2024) – ★★★

Mean Girls 2024

Worse than the original and the stage musical in every possible way but still pretty decent. I have same opinion of this as I seem to of all stage to screen adaptations, the big, unrealistic, fun stage-style numbers are great and every other song is ruined.

The last third is solid and Auli’i Cravalho is pretty fantastic as Janis. She deserves to be a star but of course I’m biased because I have a pre-Moana photo of her holding my infant in Hawaii.

I like Renee Rapp’s music but she was kinda just ok in this. World Burn is her best number in this.

Rating: 3 stars

Crossposted on Letterboxd
Watch Mean Girls on Paramount+

All the Light We Cannot See – ★★★★★

All the Light We Cannot See

I started and quit this book on Audible back in 2014, but after seeing me read Cloud Cuckoo Land by Doerr last year my 6th grader bought me the All the Light We Cannot See paperback for Christmas. Not 100% sure why I bounced off it so quickly in 2014 (it’s been 10 years and I’m old) but glad her urging made me finally pick it up and read it now because it was a great read that I enjoyed quite a bit.

Considering how recently I read Cloud Cuckoo Land it’s hard not to compare the two. In All the Light We Cannot See Doerr employs some of the same tricks (not meant pejoratively) of telling an interweaving story from multiple perspectives and timelines he would eventually expand on in Cloud Cuckoo. This story is much more grounded in World War II and the historical fiction genre though and lacks the science fiction elements and genre bending that made me really enjoy that made me like that book so much.

Still the fantastic writing and heart and characters (particularly Marie-Laure my goodness) made this a remarkably engaging and occasionally heartbreaking read. While I didn’t like it quite as much as Cloud Cuckoo Land, it was still one of my favorite recent reads and one that will stay with me for a while.

(I have thoughts/questions on how Doerr spent an entire book getting you to sympathize with some young Nazis and then eventually wrapped up that plot line but those are a bit too spoilery for this space.)

Rating: 5 stars

Crossposted on Goodreads
Buy All the Light We Cannot See on Bookshop

Enough Said – ★★★½

Enough Said

This is super well written and super funny and super sweet, but I had to fast forward through probably 15% of it due to the awkward moments because holy crap they get into my bones.

Very, very highly recommended despite my 3.5 rating if you aren’t like me and don’t have an unhealthy fear of slightly awkward situations even in fiction.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Crossposted on Letterboxd
Watch Enough Said on Paramount+

Twilight of the Aesir – ★★★½

Twilight of the AesirTwilight of the Æsir
by Dan Carlin, Hardcore History

I think it’s mostly on me, but I just don’t enjoy these like I used to in the old days. I used to devour them the second they come out and now they barely come out once per year and it takes me like 6 months to finally make time to listen to them.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Cloud Cuckoo Land – ★★★★★

Cloud Cuckoo Land

The storyline that takes place in the library made me take forever to read this. I’d get to those chapters and just not be able to continue because they made me so anxious.

STILL I gave this 5 stars now that I’ve finally finished it all this time later and it was interesting, heartwarming, sad, unpredictable, and I just generally was quite taken with the way the vastly different settings and time periods were woven together. Super glad my kid was able to finally bully me into finishing it.

Rating: 5 stars