The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins is officially on shelves in stores everywhere. To commemorate this amazing feat by the McElroys and Carey Pietsch, I wanted to submit unto the universe a love letter for the amazing story that is #TheZoneCast. Thank you for making me laugh…above everything else, The Adventure Zone: Balance is funny. I can’t…
Category: Books
Who is Vera Kelly?: the Cold War Lesbian Spy Novel We’ve Been Waiting For
Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht (Tin House Books, 2018) I’m not sure a book could be more appealing in its buzzwords: Cold War lesbian spy novel. Vera Kelly is a CIA tech undercover in Argentina trying to simultaneously gather information on the political leadership in the country, which is being threatened by a…
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus: “The Unarmed Middle Schooler’s Guide to Survival”
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling (Sterling Children’s Books, 2017) Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus is a middle grade novel for ages 8-12 about Aven, a 13 year old girl born without arms who just moved from Kansas to Arizona. Her parents take over managing Stagecoach Pass,…
The Genius Plague, or Why You Should Be Afraid of Fungus 101
The Genius Plague by David Walton (Pyr, 2017) We all know that the goal of a species is to not die out, a goal that can be achieved in many ways: living in mutually beneficial relationships with other organisms; spreading further geographically so if there are problems in one region, the other regions survive; killing…
5 Nonfiction Books on Race in America
There has been a flood of books in response to the growing national conversation about race and the lives of persons of color. I’ve recently read (or, perhaps more accurately, inhaled) several books that explore the past and present of race in the United States, particularly Black America. From personal memoirs to comprehensive histories, these books expose…
Book Review: Uprooted
Fantasy with a female lead in the adult (not YA) section? Sign me up. Fantasy with a non-bookworm, impulsive, and emotional female lead? Sign me up even harder. Fantasy that isn’t the beginning of a series and is actually a self-contained story that won’t leave me incredibly frustrated and waiting for years for the cliffhanger…
