Latitude
“How did a centuries-old tale get from Ghana to you? In Ghana, stories were traditionally spoken aloud rather than written own. Because the same few stories were told lots of times, everyone knew them by heart. A written story can get lost or destroyed. A spoken story cannot. This is why tales of Anansi the Spider have lasted for so long.”
This is a picture book! The illustrations are colorful, and bright, and a little boy nicknamed Anansi learns the value of generosity and sharing gifts with your friends and family. Would recommend. In the back there's some non-fiction information about Ghana and more tales about Anansi the Spider. Weird to rate a picture book four stars, but ... four stars? These should probably be rated on an entirely different scale, due to the fact that I am (not yet) a children's librarian.
I received a copy of this book at no cost from NetGalley.
I actually looked into buying this book when I was looking for An Interesting Book to read for my Adult Self, Not For Reviewing, Just For Reading, For Fun, Remember When You Used to Have Fun Reading? (To be clear I also have a lot of fun reviewing, but I am also frequently very stressed about it.) Goodreads, however, had a lot of top reviewers pretty unimpressed with it, so I ended up buying IF WE WERE VILLAINS by M.L Rio. I am about ten pages into that book and really enjoyed those ten pages. Maybe this month I will read another ten pages. Anyhow, I was really intrigued by the fact that this book went BACK into NetGalley and is getting like, republished because it went viral?? “Now newly revised”? Because it was republished traditionally? I'm intrigued. But you know what, Chai of @proyearner (who is credited here as a “viral book reviewer”??) says that “The Atlas Six is a fantasy novel that understands that what the people want is more dark academia stories with flawless vibes and aesthetics and hot morally fraudulent characters who are constantly on the verge of either killing each other or fucking each other. I'm the people.” So I guess I am extremely here for it??? (Also there is a great recommendation from Chloe Gong). Honestly, blurbs have never really mattered to me at all, but both of these are incredible forces in The Book World and also, honestly, of my heart?
ANYHOW. This book. Honestly? I feel like it has good bones. I feel like I would write good fanfiction of this book. It starts and introduces all these interesting concepts and characters and ideas, and it doesn't really do anything with them? The stakes are kind unclear, and I would kill for like, a description every now and again and honestly I don't often say that. Erin L. on NetGalley writes that “it's mostly hot people being mean to each other”, which is honestly its strongest and most interesting feature. Plus it's set in a dark academia vibes world! And there's a sequel coming!
I was extremely into “The 100”, the CW television show, which is about hot people and good ideas being destroyed by the apocalypse, and honestly that is kind of what this book feels like? I'm really glad that it's gone viral and is apparently very popular on TikTok, because I'm hoping that means it WILL become a CW show and I can read really good fanfiction of it instead. Or maybe the sequel will be better!
I don't know! I have confusing thoughts about this book! I feel both frustrated and intrigued! Three and a half stars, rounded up to four for NetGalley!
Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook at no cost to me ahead of release time!
I read this book via audiobook, and the narrator was solidly mediocre — I'm certainly not an expert, but there's some weird pronunciation of Hebrew words in here. Perhaps a pronunciation guide would be helpful next time? (I also only learned from another reviewer that a character's name is actually Chaya, but the narrator pronounces it Kaya, which is Quite Incorrect.)
This book got a lot of flak before it was published (on Feb 1st, 2022) because it is about people going to Israel on a pseudo-Birthright trip. It's not Actually A Birthright Trip, which is made very clear in the novel, it's just a regular temple-sponsored trip to Israel. The main character isn't sure if she's Jewish Enough, which, Big Mood, All The Time. They talk about Birthright trips as well, and make it clear that these two trips are Separate Things. Which, suspension of disbelief aside, I believe this was originally written and marketed as a Birthright Trip Book until there was serious backlash online and it was hastily rewritten and there were some little “history” lessons dropped into it. It's not a book About Palestine/Israel, it just happens to be set in Palestine(Israel). Sure, Jan.
Still, I think it is kind of weird and unnerving to have a book set in Israel without acknowledging why there is conflict in Israel, just that there is. It's briefly mentioned that there Is Conflict and the general vibe is that it is so sad and so upsetting that Palestinians are so poor and so maligned. It's not really discussed why Israel is important to Jewish people or Judaism as a whole either, and I just think that maybe if you're going to write this book at all you could at least talk about it?
Tally herself is Very Extremely Eighteen and Very Sheltered and also very protective of her brother Max, which, like, trauma, sure. But it's kind of exhausting to deal with over the course of the book, and also Max seems to be doing Okay. It's very voice-y — lots of comparisons have been made to Becky Albertalli etc, and I wouldn't say that those comparisons are incorrect. I just think that like, Becky Albertalli is better at it. It reads really young, to the point where this feels like a middle grade novel over a YA, which doesn't match the age of the characters. (Which is fine! It just is not marketed as a middle grade).
I'm normally very into pop culture references, but Broadway never hits for me because I'm just not that into it. So that's a big miss on my end.
There's lesbian, gay, and asexual representation, which is very? Whatever? to me? Representation matters, for sure, but also the main content of a book matters as well. It's no longer 2015 and I am not reading books exclusively for a background character who is hinted at maybe being gay. The main character is demisexual, and I feel.... unimpressed about it. It's handled well, in a vacuum of Just Demisexuality, which is fine, but again — representation matters, and this is representation of a Jewish demisexual person who does not educate herself about Palestine while in Palestine, actively benefiting from Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Looking for good asexual rep? I would recommend Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman, or Six Angry Girls by Adrienne Kisner instead. I've also heard very good things about Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger.
For other Jewish books that I've enjoyed or am looking forward to, there's Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler, You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman, and The Two Wrong Halves of Ruby Taylor by Amanda Panitch. Also a book of short stories that I own but have not read, It's a Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes, and Other Jewish Stories edited by Katherine Locke.
Confused about Israeli/Palestinian conflict? Here's an article from Jewish Voice for Peace as a primer.
I am rating this audiobook one star for its representation of demisexuality and secular Jewish representation. I want to be clear that these were positive aspects of the book; everything else about the book would have otherwise brought it down to half a star or less.
Have you ever wished that An Absolutely Remarkable Thing was more like Snow Crash or Neuromancer, or that it was entirely drenched in pink and sparkles? If you have, BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES is for you. I would die for Scotto Moore. Five stars. I also read this on audiobook, and the narrator was great. (Five stars for her also.)
This is like a coffee table book but for some reason it was turned into an audiobook. I imagine this would be incredible to have on your coffee table to flip through sometimes. As an audiobook, it's kind of a mess. Honestly, I picked this book up because I thought it was an adaption of the podcast What's Your Sign? Which is the only astrology podcast I listen to and which I once gave a three-star review on Facebook to because it was “too gendered”. (It gets less gendered!) I thought that reading and reviewing this audiobook would be my redemption arc! But it is not put out by the double Tauruses of What's Your Sign, it is put out by Sanctuary Astrology, which is an app with the ugliest icon I've ever seen. Anyhow, after reading this book, I know way too much about astrology, and I know more about houses but have retained none of the information about how houses relate to my chart. Three stars. No redemption arc. (Fantastic audiobook narrator. 5 stars, but I've enjoyed her work more on novels.)
This is a book of surrealist short stories, and they are all unusual and very Gender. I poked through a couple other reviews, and many misgender the protagonists — from my perspective, as a trans person frequently around other trans people, both online and off, I think I correctly gendered the protagonists. But it's not explicitly explained to the reader What Exactly is going on, which is something I really like but might not be your cup of tea. This book gets five stars from me — the first short story, The Lightning Man, is my favorite. I think I'd like to actually buy this to keep on my shelf. (Thanks to NetGalley for this early edition - find more of these reviews on my blog, geographreads.com)
This is a slice of life graphic novel about four different best friends! The theme connecting theme of the stories, hair care, is woven into each story. The art style is both cozy and expressive, with each woman having her own color scheme. These stories take place mostly during the summer, and it really feels like a summery story! Unfortunately over the course of the story, one friend tells another that she shouldn't get antidepressants and gives her a crystal instead, and we see the depressed friend simply crawl back into bed afterwards. While this story is slice of life and we don't really follow up on any of their individual stories, this was the least cozy story that I wish had a better ending, and knocks the rating down a quarter star. 4.75 stars. Find this review and more at my blog, geographreads.com!
This is a contemporary light science fiction novel, and when I say “light” I mean really light - it feels like it has barely any substance. The pacing of this book is exhausting; it feels at various points like it's going too slow or too fast, but you know what? The gay scene deserves some mediocre mildly sci-fi YA romances too. Also, the characters in this book are 16, but I would recommend the age range as being 13+ — perfectly acceptable for middle-graders as well as young adults. It's fine! I wouldn't write home about it! Three stars. Read this review and more over at my blog, geographreads.com!
