bookreviewswithkb's reviews
592 reviews

i am actually really sad to say i am not finishing this book. i think it is well written and i feel moved and compelled by the language. but i can’t see past the clear disregard of the history of the u.s.’s enslavement of Black people by basing this in a future of a 2nd american civil war between the south and the north and not one mention of slavery of Black people or white people’s interests of maintaining supremacy being a component of the south’s rebellion against the north 

i have no idea how i found this book and i don’t remember why i bought it but i imagine my eyes skimmed the description, saw “Morocco” and i was like bet. PSA to myself to not do that 🙄

this read very quickly. i literally read it in one day. it moves along in a way that feels like someone telling a story without taking a breath. and i found myself intrigued and really invested in the mysterious aspects of the story, all for it to end up being the most predictable circumstances and all the depth i thought there was in the story was actually kind of flat, unless i just don’t understand it? 

anyway. let me also say THERE ARE NO CHAPTERS 

probably skip this if you’re like me and were hoping for a book set in Morocco written by a Moroccan author because it is most definitely not that

thank you @astrahouse for the review copy! 

don’t be fooled - this is not a self-help book about being happy but is instead a book about a character ironically named Happy, who searches for a chance at a life he thinks will allow for his dreams to be fulfilled. a character who is unaware of the ways that immigrants are taken advantage of, mistreated, exploited, and abused all for the profits of an industry, of a country. this book is written in an interesting manner using satire, poetry, and a lot of social commentary. it feels light even though the content is heavy 

reads more like middle grade than YA. felt very simplistic 

thank you @simonbooks for the review copy!

i have been waiting to love a book this hard for awhile!!! this book moved me to my CORE. Sinclair is a phenomenal writer, a beautiful poet. her writing is lyrical and haunting, her heart bleeds onto each page. the way she forms words and sentences allowed me to not only read, but to feel and feel deeply and that is what i want every time i open a book. i got lost in not only the pain and the hurt, but in the healing, in the forgiveness, in the wading through the waves of sorrow and joy and love and redemption. i truly cannot recommend this memoir enough 

“there was more than one way to be lost. more than one way to be saved. while my mother had saved me from the waves and gave me breath, my father had tried to save me only by suffocation. with ever increasing strictures, with incense smoke, with fire. both had wanted better for me, but only one of them would protect me in the end.”

this book is both an indictment of healthcare in the united states and an exploration of a hospital [Ben Taub in Houston] that prioritizes patients and quality healthcare services over money. Dr. Nuila offers readers insight into the lives of the individual people who suffer as a result of receiving improper healthcare through our current system due to being uninsured or underinsured - how this leads to unnecessary illness, suffering and even death. it provides a decent balance between statistics and policy, and the human impacts, the real implications of our current system 

i really loved this essay collection, the exploration of indigenous identity, familial and interpersonal relationships, and the power of community. the writing is beautiful and thoughtful and overall uplifts survival, healing and connecting with the truest parts of ourselves. highly recommend this! 

thank you to @netgalley and @atria for the review copy! 

i can’t even begin to describe how distraught and disturbed this book made me feel. i had to stop reading it right before going to sleep. the way the united states is able to exploit and abuse workers is infuriating and should be unacceptable. unfortunately, the few checks and balances that exist are ineffective and insufficient, allowing for a major company like Tyson to exert control over most, if not all, of the aspects of their workers lives including even their healthcare, determining when and how they can receive care knowing Tyson’s interests lie in their employees’ productivity rather than their health or quality of life. seriously boycott Tyson immediately

i don’t know how to rate it because it’s important and i want people to read it AND there are some editing issues [i hate being that person but it’s true] that made it feel disorganized and repetitive sometimes 

this is a really moving coming of age story about a sister and brother shuffled between a small Massachusetts town and Puerto Rico, stuck in the crosshairs of their mother and father who are both trying to make a way for their children, trying to find their way through unbearable and oppressive circumstances, trying to figure out how to create the lives for their children that they have always dreamed of for themselves. but they are so limited by the choices they can make, by the pull of home and the pull of making a new home, by the fears of horrible things happening as evidenced by their own experiences, by the desire to be free

another book @makealongstorycount convinced me i needed to read and she was not wrong!

thank you so much to @goodreads and @bookmarked for the early review copy! this is out september 10th

this is a story about how grief unroots us from everything that was holding us into place, how that untethering eventually becomes seeking, and that seeking can lead us to a truer version of ourselves than we ever thought possible. how sometimes it’s the coming undone that actually saves us

this story drew me in right away. i love love love a story about a main character feeling unsettled who ends up seeking a deeper connection to their ancestors in order to find a sense of settling and that’s exactly what this novel is about. the magical realism aspects are light and beautiful