When someone hands me a book and says that it is one of the best books I will ever read I am often skeptical. There is no reason to be skeptical when it comes to Raybearer, the debut novel of Jordan Ifueko. From its first pages I was utterly enchanted by its protagonist, Tarsai, who […]
The Space Between Worlds takes place on an Earth utterly unlike our own and yet so eerily similar that I can conceptualize it with crystal clarity. That said, the world(s) our protagonist — who I will call Cara — walk through are ones that I would shudder to find myself within, and I count myself […]
I’ll admit it, I picked up this book because of the title. But beyond being provocative, the ways in which Sollée illuminates the connections between witchcraft, feminism, and sex within Witches, Sluts, Feminists are powerful and incredibly enlightening. I found this book to be an intriguing mix of things I knew, things I didn’t know, […]
Writing this review was a struggle, because Sorted was a very personal read for me. (I’m pretty sure I cried at least twice.) Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place is a memoir written by Jackson Bird about his experiences growing up that led directly to his inevitable transition from the gender he […]
I’ve been on a bit of a nonfiction kick lately but This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story brought me right back in to remembering why I love YA fiction just as much. There are many epic love stories that are threaded throughout this book, which is representative of so many kinds of love. […]
Living in the United States, it can sometimes feel as though there is a drought of information about people within other countries, particularly those who come from marginalized backgrounds. In light of this, one book that has provided me with a kind of water is Queerstories: Reflections on lives well lived from some of Australia’s […]
I have mixed feelings about The Municipalists by Seth Fried. On the one hand, the book was a brilliant balance of comedy and philosophy. On the other hand, it fell into some very problematic tropes that caused me to not think the comedy so funny and tainted the nuance of the philosophy. The main premise […]
I took a study break last night to watch Captain Marvel, and I was going to write a review, but there’s no time for that because I’ve only got a little over a week before my thesis is due. 😂 That said, I wholeheartedly agree with this review from one of my favorite blogs, The […]
Pride and Prejudice has been adapted over and over again, but I think I have found my new favorite in Ibi Zoboi’s Pride.[1] The book is narrated in the first person by Zuri Benitez, a seventeen year old girl living in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The story starts at the beginning of summer vacation, when two important […]
Even from just the first few pages of The Kindness of Enemies I knew that this was going to be a book that would stick with me for a long time. The novel is two stories in parallel, one taking place in the twenty-first century, and one in the 19th. The story starts with Natasha […]
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker is one of those books that I found almost impossible to stop reading. The 291 page tome took me precisely three sittings, with the interruptions being annoyingly mandatory. I make no secret of my fascination with myth, and thus when the opportunity to read about the Trojan […]
Happy Monday! I’m switching it up and posting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week instead of the normal Tuesday/Friday schedule. Why you may ask? Well because, what some of you may know, and others don’t, is that Word-for-Sense isn’t the only place that I publish book reviews. I also write occasional reviews for Three […]
Considering the fact that Sense8 as a series has already been completed, I am a little late to the game in writing a review of it. That said, I binge watched season one in lieu of reading a book this week, so this is what you get. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I suppose that it would be disingenuous […]
When I told my therapist that I was reading this book and what it was about she was thrilled because, according to her, I needed to adjust my own attitude toward death. Suffice to say Let’s Talk About Death Over Dinner certainly succeeded in this purpose. Despite the universal truth that we are all going […]
THIS is the book review that I’ve been excited to write for weeks. Not just because the author is one of my favorite professors (hi Steve!) but also because My Ex-Life is a genuinely fantastic book. I stumbled across it while waiting for my fiancée at one of our favorite book shops and just from […]