Fiona

Not a fan of ghost stuff but this was very twee, and the artwork is cute. The story gets progressively absurd over the course of the book, to the point where the resolution literally made me laugh. Weird lack of aboriginal ghosts though, given its set in Northern California.

I found this very relatable.

It was entertaining enough to warrant a 4th star but there's no historical note and I consider that bad form. Ultimately didn't live up to the hype, imho, but that applies to most things in life.

Very thorough and detailed account of the Black Panther Party, although it's 400 pages so it had to be to. The history and culture is chronicled, as well as plenty of context that younger readers will appreciate and would be an ideal reference for somebody doing a school project. My only significant complaint is that there is so little primary source material; it wouldn't usually bug me so much but in the epilogue, the author recounts meeting Bobby Seale and, apparently she didn't ask him for an interview or a quote or ANYTHING! when she was already deep into research for this book.

A philosophical treatise on the heart, which is basically a cardiac surgeon learning to see things more holistically and how that makes him a better doctor. It's kind of boring honestly; the fact that this guy was not in touch with his emotions and needed to learn about empathy as an adult strikes me as sad, although I guess it was meant to be inspirational. But it's not badly written and the medical stuff is compelling.

I received this book free from the publisher for review.

Clear, concise, well-balanced.

I am a big fan of Philippe's writing so my enjoyment of this is predicated on that. This is more of a memoir than a book about race relations, which is the impression given by the cover art and subtitle. It's funny and very relatable; his discourse on “the one that got away” which addresses the things which shape us that have nothing to do with how we look, really struck a chord with me.

Mediocre. I would have thought there would be an attempt to order the tales historically or something but nope, just stick ‘em in a book as though nobody's ever compiled Irish traditional tales before. Scott's half-assed approach to this project reinforces my not wasting time on his fiction in the future, despite the publisher's blatant attempt to drive sales of his Alchemyst series by printing the first chapter at the end of this book.

So I think Bechdel's ability to narrate through comics shows improvement since Fun Home but I feel like her life isn't actually interesting enough to propel said narrative, and there isn't enough historical content to warrant my reading when I have so many other books soon due back at the library.

Quite thorough, if tedious, and not tainted by any kind of obvious political bias. However any book about misinformation ought to have proper citations and not just a list of “further reading” at the end.

I'm disappointed in the lack of unifying thread or theme to the retelling of these traditional tales; Scott just recants without elevating.

Weirdly judge-y. Author seems to think that social media companies ought to be prioritizing disadvantaged people as though she's never heard of capitalism and it is quite clear she has no experience or training in objective journalism. This probably would have worked better as a memoir so that the writer could insert herself even more than she does.

Clear and concise examination of the legality of dealing with lies and the pitfalls involved in making people stop lying, particularly on social media platforms. Much more lawyer-y than the cover art would suggest, which belies its pedigree as an Oxford University Press product.

DNF because there are too many unread books in the world. Despite being separated by several generations, the MCs sounded so alike that I can't keep track of who's narrating.

All the useful or informative bits of this book could be easily covered in a 10 page essay; Norman rabbits on needlessly about things like his teaching experiences or the history of medical immunology to bring his subject to book-length. The overall tone reads as though the anticipated audience is slack-jawed undergrads who smoke a lot of weed, with unnecessary repetitions and a charmingly condescending warning about the “difficulty” of the concept he is about to introduce. He also seems to be laboring under the delusion that he has developed a revolutionary concept; if he has, nobody would know since his thesis is so mired in unnecessary verbiage.

Mostly an autobiography. The writer has a new theoretical treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and details her quest to come up with it. The book will be of interest to RA patients but, as somebody with a so-called autoimmune disease, I find little of interest here. The REAL puzzle of autoimmunity is why doctors accept the premise so willingly, instead of admitting they don't understand what is happening, and in the process, demonize the patient's immune response.

Saw a couple episodes of the TV show adaptation (pretty meh, imo) and was curious to read the original. The only good thing about this feeble graphic novel is that it is short so I didn't waste a lot of time reading this plotless, poorly-illustrated book. It's like the author wasn't even trying.

Such a wonderful sense of time and place, and I do love how Ibbotson delivers such a pretty ending for all but the most beautiful thing about this book is the narrator's connections to other human beings. This is historical fiction that captures the time and doesn't project modern mores on the characters.

A bit vague ultimately; like all treatments promising solutions to a wide array of issues, there's lots of obvious advice about eating right and sleeping well. The actual advice on vagal nerve stimulation was depressingly short.

This book is way longer than it needed to be based on the amount of information that is being presented. Much repetition of concepts and arguments, like readers aren't going to get it when it's really quite simple, particularly when you bear in mind that money is an artificial construct and only works because (or when) enough people believe it has value. It's value is ultimately tied to the body (usually a government) that issued it.

DNF. Too many characters and too much amorphous telling. Also I would not classify this as YA.

Bryant plods through the U.S. presidents from Regan, pointing out the slowly eroding dignity of the office. I like the fact that this Brit has no bias for either side but the writing is dull and the structure boring.

I love how this was structured; a great read overall but I'm generally a sucker for Our National Treasure's works anyway. I am smitten with the idea that evil never wins permanently and glad to see it sort of played out.

Cute story, great pacing, decent sense of place if slightly lacking in Britishisms.

Clear, concise and very relatable although I don't feel like I learned anything new, being well-read on neurology and behavioural psychology already. Honestly, I think its lovely that someone who is kind of a hot mess wrote a self-help book and is so honest about himself.