Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush

The sheer beauty of this book took my breath away, especially given its subject matter: climate change, and the destruction it is wrecking on coastal communities, both human and non-human, throughout the US. In a series of connected essays, Rush explores rising sea level and its effect on tidal salt marshes, migratory birds, and the...

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay

This is a brutal, visceral, powerful collection of essays about rape culture. It was hard to read--not only because of the subject matter--but because of the way it lays bare how prevalent rape, sexual assault, and misogyny are in every facet of American (and global) life. The #metoo movement has already made this abundantly clear, but...

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper

In the past few years, I've been reading a lot of books about race, and something I've noticed is that, for me, it's usually the books that aren't aimed at white audiences that are the most powerful. I enjoyed So You Want to Talk About Race (which isn't necessarily written for white people, but certainly...

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes

The Princess Bride was such an integral part of my childhood that I can't really imagine what being a kid would have been like without it. There aren't many films I feel this way about--Star Wars is the only other one that comes to mind. Given how beloved The Princess Bride is to me, it's...

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby

These essays, for me, were a mixed bag--mostly excellent, occasionally uninspiring. I loved Irby's unapologetic and no-bullshit attitude. I loved her directness, her dry wit, and her honesty. I loved the way she refused to glorify or romanticize her life and her experiences, while at the same time affirming that her life matters, that she...

And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready by Meaghan O’Connell

I don't even know where to start with this book. I loved it so much. I couldn't put it down. Now that I've finished it and returned it to the library, I find myself thinking about it constantly. I was blown away by O'Connell's raw honesty, beautiful prose, and cultural insight. But what surprised me...

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

I am a hyper-organized and super neat person, and I definitely went through a phase as a kid where I was obsessed with storage solutions (there was a store near where I grew up called Placewares that I absolutely loved). So this book has been on my radar for a while. I knew the basic...

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo breaks down a whole lot of complicated issues surrounding race in America into accessible pieces. I found it to be a quick read, mostly because of how beautifully clear and direct it was. With chapter titles like "What is the school-to-prison pipeline?", "What are microaggressions?" and...

Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings

This is a tough one to review. Jazz Jennings was fifteen when she wrote it, and I want to say things like "this is a book written by a teenage girl, so take it with a grain of salt", but there's something about that that feels icky and dismissive of teenagers. Teenagers are as complicated...

Nonstop Metropolis edited by Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro

It is impossible to capture a city on paper, but Nonstop Metropolis comes close. In this collection of twenty-six brilliant, layered, informative and imaginative maps, accompanied by essays written by a diverse group of writers and residents of the city, Nonstop Metropolis manages to translate a little bit of the essence of a city into art,...