freshlybrewedbookreviews

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There is a soft power in how you spend your time and money, how you look out for each other, how you roll up your sleeves and make change.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (What If We Get It Right?)

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Nature first. Community foremost. And with maximal swiftness.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (What If We Get It Right?)

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I am urban and smitten with wilderness.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (What If We Get It Right?)

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That feeling of awe that rushes through us when we get up close to the natural world is a signal. Like all strong feelings in the heart and gut, it is telling us something about what matters—about where we can find joy and connection, about what is valuable and sacred, about how to orient a moral compass in a decaying world.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (What If We Get It Right?)

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What If We Get It Right? by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

I needed this book. Maybe you need this read, too, if you're concerned about the world and the rapid progress of climate change, and constantly worry about what a future planet Earth looks like.

Johnson interviews people in all different fields: architects, Hollywood directors, lawyers, farmers, organizers, and the list goes on. She asks all of these people to talk about what they are seeing from their expert lens, and how their expertise lends itself to help them meet the challenge of an ever-warming planet. She asks them to lay out solutions, which shocked me: in every sector, these experts had concrete solutions for how we can slow climate change and shape a different, better world for ourselves. I had thought that we didn't have wide-scale solutions for climate change, which is why this problem is such an issue, but the truth is, solutions are there, but we need policies and laws to help enact them.

Another important point of this book is that the solution is WE, not I. Individuals can only do so much; we need community and collective endeavors to enact change, which also made me feel better. Sometimes it feels like the weight of the world is on my shoulders to reduce my carbon footprint, say no to all plastic, buy nothing new, go to marches, call my representatives, etc. Knowing that the bigger picture needs to be about how all of us have to work together to implement change at a higher level made me feel better.

I needed and appreciated the hope in which Johnson presents these interviews, and her vision (and others' visions) for what a more perfect world could look like. I'm not sure it'll happen in my lifetime, but I sure hope it'll start to be the future for the generations to come.

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His & Hers by Alice Feeney

This thriller moves at pretty breakneck speed, and has a lot of twists and turns, which made for a pretty quick read. I couldn't always predict where things were going, which made it fun. I will offer trigger warnings (and slight spoilers) for violence against women, rape, and child loss.

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My Murder by Katie Williams

This book wasn't what I was expecting when it came in from Libby, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It's a sci-fi with some mystery, though I'd thought it'd be the other way around (mystery/thriller with a hint of sci-fi), but that's mostly because I didn't read too much about the book before I requested it, just knew it was about a woman solving her own murder (I'd assumed flashback sort of framing, as a guess.) But it's fun and different and deals with themes of motherhood, grief, and relationships, too, which were all a bonus.

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That single, white-hot light at the center of the darkness of herself—that was the point of origin from which she birthed something new, from which all women do.

– Rachel Yoder (Nightbitch)

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Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

Although Nightbitch tells the story of a new mother and her struggle with this new role, I think any woman who has been in a relationship with a partner who maybe isn't the most helpful will understand the female rage that explodes through scenes in this book. I knew the fury that Nightbitch was talking about, even without having a child, through both listening to friends who are new mothers, and having the experience of being the person responsible for everything in a relationship, which does result in a lot of anger. It was a look at emotional labor, and the labor that women do every day that is unnoticed by men, which can just make someone furious; doing these day-to-day (sometimes difficult tasks) and then being criticized for not doing more, or not getting to something because you were taking care of everything else. Seeing that spark of fury channeled into the fire it bursts into in Nightbitch was a bit of catharsis of being seen.

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Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio

I really enjoyed this quick read. It's got snark, mystery, horror, and well-crafted characters. I was put in mind of T. Kingfisher's What Moves the Dead and "The Last of Us." If you like horror and/or you enjoyed If We Were Villains you'll enjoy this.

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The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab

This was a good spooky season read if you like witches but don't like them too spooky. This read like a good fantasy novel, and I'm glad Schwab was able to get it the recognition it deserved as her first novel. If you're a fan of her work, you'll like this one.

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The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson

This book was well-written, but I was disappointed that it didn't scratch the itch for a spooky season read. Yes, the group of kids and one adult calls themselves The Saturday Night Ghost Club, but it's my fault for not knowing more about the book before reading. This isn't a book about ghosts (well, not so much in the sense that I was anticipating, but more like memories), but a book about a man's nostalgic rememberings of his time as a young boy and some of the shenanigans he got up to. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I had read it in more of a fiction mindset than a horror one.

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I have always been one of those who rhapsodized about the book as a physical object, but having to pack and carry the boxes was enough to make me want to throw over physical books altogether and just live on an e-reader.

T. Kingfisher (The Hollow Places)

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The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

I'd waited literal years to read this book because I'm still scarred from The Twisted Ones, which I read four years ago. However, as someone on twitter once (correctly) told me, the horror of this book feels more contained than The Twisted Ones. While this book was scary, it felt removed enough from reality in a way that TWO didn't, and therefore the terror was held at bay (for the most part: there were a few sections that did scare me pretty awfully).

As I've said before, Kingfisher is one of my favorite authors, and I will read literally anything she writes, and she has yet to disappoint me. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this one for a creepy read.

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The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James

This was an enjoyable enough read for spooky season, though I'm glad it wasn't my first read from Simone St. James, because I'm not sure it would have resulted in me reading another book by her. I do think the other two books I've read by her are stronger, so if you're looking to read something from St. James, I'd start elsewhere, and maybe read this one when you've had a taste of some of her other work.

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The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons

This was a fun read for a dragon lover and fantasy lover like myself. I always enjoy a good heist, and this fit the bill!

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Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

I didn't realize when I started this book that the author, Jonathan Edward Durham, is responsible for a lot of funny, smart, and relatable tweets that I often see pop up on instagram. When I realized that, I felt equal parts of "that makes sense" and disappointment. Durham is still whipsmart in this novel, but he's also long-winded, which made me wish he'd written a book as tight as his tweets. It felt unnecessarily long, and every time the protagonist (spoiler!!!) was thisclose to death and had accepted it and was ready to go, he was saved at the last minute. This happened more than three times, and each fakeout made me care less and less about what happened to any of the characters.

I also had guessed a few events early on in the novel, so I didn't feel like this was anything particularly new. That said, I do think this would make for a pretty great movie, without having to read about all the mechanics of human and animal movement involved in the events that unfold.