Hey y’all! For maybe the first time ever, I actually DID fully review most of the books I read last month! And in the same month that I read them! That’s a habit I’ve been working to better, so I’m proud to show that it’s finally coming together. 😁 Then again, I’m posting my mini-reviews when it’s almost halfway through July already, so a bit of a give and take there. 😂
Last month’s completed reviews are linked below! As for the remaining four books I read last month, they’re this month’s batch of mini reviews.
Fully reviewed books
- Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- Review: The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
- Review: K-Pop Idol Diaries by Go Futa!
- Review: The Kinder Poison by Natalie Mae
- Review: The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones by Daven McQueen
- Review: The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso
- Review: Beach Read by Emily Henry
Mini reviewed books below
All book covers link to the Goodreads page for the book with the blurb & additional info!
- Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
- Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
- White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
- City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson
2 Sentence Summary
Mira tries to answer her son’s questions about being black when his dad is white. It’s not easy with cops killing black people on the daily and a racist president.
Frankly, this one didn’t get a review because it was just so hard for me to capture all that I would want to say about it. It was enlightening and painful and offers no resolution for the pain, because no one really has one yet. This was an original style of graphic novel done in a collage and conversation format. I absolutely loved both elements and would be thrilled to see more like this.
2 Sentence Summary
Minday Kaling talks some more about her life with her signature humour. This is a mixture of anecdotes from her professional and personal life.
Mindy Kaling is someone I could probably only hang out with for a little while at a time, because she can feel very over-the-top in her emotions sometimes. I listened to this as an audibook (shocking!) and that worked really well to convey her personality.
Overall I enjoyed it quite a lot, but there were times I felt like skipping a bit, like the Harvard speech. The back-and-forth fiction in email format was not enjoyable in audio, but the content was entertaining.
2 Sentence Summary
Mandatory reading for white people. Understand your issues without being offended and figure out how to fix them.
I didn’t do a straight review, but I did do a 4-part series with what I learned from this book. Yes, four parts, because there was a lot. I was particularly impressed with how DiAngelo is able to clearly unravel the fear of being labeled racist to identify the change of mind needed to make that an approachable issue — and in doing so, making it a fixable issue.
2 Sentence Summary
Tina joined a street gang after her mother was murdered, because it’s not like she could continue living with the man who murdered her mother. She’s determine to uncover what really happened that night and take her vengeance no matter it costs.
I was impressed with the balance of this book in sectioning parts of the story — at the house, the trip to Congo, the wild resolution. It felt like so much happened, and all with attention to detail and build. I was impressed, and I loved seeing some shades of Kenya and the Congo.
That’s all for now!
It’s already almost halfway through July (whoops!) and I’m reading a lot more than I expected now, too. I’m working hard to keep up the good habit of reviewing things when I actually read them. 😊
My Book Joy 