Nice girls don't wear cha-cha heels.

  I'm reviewing a textbook, and I don't even care. In the many, many long years I've been in college (no, I'm not Tommy Boy-ing it, I went for an associates in business [boooo] and then decided to go back and get a bachelor's in English/Writing [yaaaay]) I've had to read a lot of heinously expensive, dry and boring textbooks. This was one but not the other.  It was a very interesting book, and I feel like I learned a lot, but do I feel like I learned $175 worth of information from it that I absolutely couldn't have learned elsewhere (cuz I just looked at my order receipt, and that's how much I paid for it. ugggggggghhhhhhhh.)? Fuckin' nope.  When I originally reviewed this book on Goodreads, I gave it 4 stars. Now that I re-discovered the price I paid for it via my school's B&N bookstore, I want to burn everything. College is tantamount to highway robbery where the vagabonds teach you a few things before they rob you of every pen...

I love this cover. So faaaaahry. I hope they keep it!   Form Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review via Net Galley. They give me no money, nor do they in any way influence my thoughts. Those are 100% my own for better or worse.  Non-Form Disclaimer: I am still struggling to find the format I like most for this blog and my reviews, so sorry everything keeps changing. I'll settle on something someday, promise. Here is the feminist-ass publisher's description: THIS IS A WITCH HUNT. WE'RE WITCHES, AND WE'RE HUNTING YOU. From the moment powerful men started falling to the #MeToo movement, the lamentations began: this is feminism gone too far, this is injustice, this is a witch hunt. In The Witches Are Coming , firebrand author of the New York Times bestselling memoir and now critically acclaimed Hulu TV series Shrill , Lindy West, turns that refrain on its head. You think this is a witch hunt?...

First off: I received an ARC of this graphic novel through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own for better or worse, etc. On to my thoughts: This book is GORGEOUS. I can't wait for it to come out in January 2020, because I am absolutely going to buy it. I hoard graphic novels and comics, as well as science fiction and fantasy literature, so this will fit right in with what I've got going. Plus, I have an abiding love for the work of Octavia Butler. Soooo... yeah, it's going to be mine. The art, which was done by John Jennings is beautifully done. Although in this ARC it is incomplete, it still rocked my world. The completed pictures are lovely, but even the sketches show the promise of beautiful panels to come. And I have to say, the decision to show the journal entries as handwriting on bits of notebook paper was an artistically wonderful decision. As for story, well, it's Parable of the Sower . This adaptation doesn...

  Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review via Net Galley. They give me no money, nor do they in any way influence my thoughts. Those are 100% my own for better or worse.  Moving right along. All of the buzz I've heard about this book up until this point seems to be 100% correct. I absolutely loved this book.  But before I go into why I loved it, can we talk about that cover?? As of right now, I don't know that the cover has been finalized, but...can we just go ahead and do that? This wins. Full stop. It's beautiful! As soon as I saw the cover on Net Galley I knew I needed to try to get this book. And honestly, you guys...the story lives up to the promise I feel is made by a beautiful cover.  So, the synopsis given by the publisher is this: In the early 1900s, a young woman embarks on a fantastical journey of self-discovery after finding a mysterious book in this captivating and lyrical ...

On today's docket is Everfair  by Nisi Shawl. I read this for a one of my final college courses, but I'm not mad at it. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Although the beginning, which spans several decades during what would have been the Dutch occupation of central Africa under their King Leopold, was a bit of a slog for me, part two more than made up for it. I am honestly unsure how much of the trouble I had getting into the story at the start had to do with the fact that I usually do struggle a bit with assigned reading no matter how interested I may be in the assigned text. What can I say, I'm (a loner, Dottie;) a rebel. Anyway, this story has a lot going for it - the cast of main characters seems to be well fleshed out, and there were a few who really stood out to me: I loved Lisette, Lucy, Josina, and Fwendi. That list looks gender-imbalanced, and it is, but hear me out - the women in this story are honestly just a far cry more interesting than the men. But, no...

I loved this book. Like, I fell in love with it. If I could, I would probably marry it. I think that Nnedi Okorafor is an immensely talented author with a real talent for world building. Her description of Lagos makes me feel like I have seen it, although I most definitely have not. And her descriptions of the creatures and landscape of the lagoon at Bar Beach are so beautifully rendered that my mind was working overtime trying to picture each altered bit of life. Although I found myself strongly interested in each named character, the amount of respect that I felt for both Ayodele and Adaora was transcendent. Ayodele was so regal and wise, and Adaora so strong and brilliant that I felt my feminist-self shed a few tears a la my responses to the thigh jiggle in Wonder Woman (why does that have to be the thing that does me in??? In a movie about strong women, I am so much more concerned about the fact that a fit woman's body was allowed a momentary filmic jiggle ...

The story of the Fat Charlie, the son of a god, and his first invited, then uninvited brother,  Anansi Boys is typical Neil Gaiman fare: it's beautifully and occasionally hilariously written, fantastical and poignant. All the stuff he usually does. It is all over the map in the best way possible. I hope that none of this makes it sound like he just cranks these wild fantasies out, because I don't believe for a moment that is the case. It is more that I believe that this story, like every other story of Gaiman's that I have ever read (and there are many), contains a little bit of the heart and the soul of the author, and his heart and soul are still the same wonderful, fluffy, slippery little bits of magic that they always have been. I loved this book. I absolutely devoured it (metaphorically, of course). I don't know how he does it in story after story, book after book, but every word he writes is a joy to read. There's dimension-shifting, bird ladies (go...