A- Reviews / B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended Readsboarding school / British Indian main character / class differences / competition / diversity / Fantasy / friendship / high school sweethearts / joint review / magical powers / magical school / Naomi-Novik / POC / prickly heroine / prophecy / students / survival / YA / YA fantasy30 Comments
Jennie: Janine, Sirius, and I reviewed the first book in the Scholomance series (originally slated as two books; now a trilogy). Sirius gave it a C- and said she wouldn’t be reading this sequel, but Janine and I, though we had some reservations, ended up liking A Deadly Education quite ... more >
B Reviews / Book ReviewsHolocaust / immigrant / Jewish characters / Jewish-faith / non-fiction / Poland / survival / World War II4 Comments
A gripping story of love, escape, and survival, from wartime Poland to a courtship in the Catskills In the summer of 1942, the Rabinowitz family narrowly escaped the Nazi ghetto in their Polish town by fleeing to the forbidding Bialowieza Forest. They miraculously survived two years in the woods—through brutal ... more >
B Reviews / B- Reviews / Book Reviews / C Reviewsaliens / astronaut / collaborations / First-Person / friendship / joint review / Sci-fi / Scientist / SF / space travel / spaceship / survival / tech15 Comments
Janine: Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir’s latest science fiction novel, opens when astronaut Ryland Grace wakes up aboard a spaceship named the Hail Mary with no memory of how he got there. He realizes quickly that his two crewmates died en route (they were all put in comas on the ... more >
A- Reviews / B+ Reviews / Book Reviews / C- Reviewsboarding school / British Indian main character / class differences / competition / diversity / Fantasy / friendship / joint review / magical powers / magical school / Naomi-Novik / prickly heroine / prophecy / students / survival / YA / YA fantasy13 Comments
Jennie, Sirius and I (along with Jayne), reviewed Naomi Novik’s last book, Spinning Silver, together. Our roundtable discussion was a lot of fun and the three of us decided to reunite for Novik’s recent release, the first book in her Scholomance series, A Deadly Education. –Janine. Janine: A Deadly Education ... more >
Book Reviews / C+ Reviewsautobiography / journalist / non-fiction / survivalNo Comments
As we have seen with the recent COVID-19 pandemic, disaster preparedness is not a luxury. Everyone from Louis Pasteur to the Girl Scouts has championed the motto “Be Prepared”—but what does that mean in today’s constantly changing world? In this age of anxiety, when reports of mass shootings, political unrest, ... more >
B- Reviews / C+ Reviewsastronaut / engineer / Mars / science / Science Fiction / survival29 Comments
Dear Mr. Weir, I picked up your first novel, The Martian, because some of my friends had read and recommended it. It sounded geeky enough to please my engineer husband, so I suggested to him that we read it together. The novel begins on the sixth sol, or Martian day, ... more >