Book #342 of 2021: Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology by Deirdre Cooper Owens An incredibly heavy yet informative read on how the modern field of gynecology was created in the age of American slavery, with enslaved black women its unwilling participants. They were involved as patients for experimental techniques, of …
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Book Review: Towards Zero by Agatha Christie
Book #341 of 2021: Towards Zero by Agatha Christie (Superintendent Battle #5) A delightfully twisty Agatha Christie piece, and a de facto end to her Superintendent Battle series. That investigator is more present here than he often is for his novels, but he still doesn’t dominate with an oversized personality as Poirot or Miss Marple …
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Book Review: Search for Senna by K. A. Applegate
Book #340 of 2021: Search for Senna by K. A. Applegate (Everworld #1) [I read and reviewed this title at a Patreon donor’s request. Want to nominate your own books for me to read and review (or otherwise support my writing)? Sign up for a small monthly donation today at https://patreon.com/lesserjoke !] I’m a bigger …
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Book Review: Defending Elysium by Brandon Sanderson
Book #339 of 2021: Defending Elysium by Brandon Sanderson [Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with this author.] This novella from 2008 is one of author Brandon Sanderson’s earliest published works, still freely available on his website although now re-released for purchase as an official tie-in to his later Skyward / Cytoverse series. Set centuries beforehand, …
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Book Review: Terciel and Elinor by Garth Nix
Book #338 of 2021: Terciel and Elinor by Garth Nix (The Old Kingdom #6) It’s always a pleasure to return to the Old Kingdom, that snowy landscape of necromancy and Charter Magic where the hereditary line of Abhorsens wield their seven enchanted bells to put the dead back to rest. Nevertheless, author Garth Nix has …
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Book Review: The Sickness by K. A. Applegate
Book #337 of 2021: The Sickness by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #29) I’m not ordinarily a fan of unrelated subplots coincidentally happening at the same time, and so I rolled my eyes a bit at the start of this novel, when two crises crash down upon the Animorphs at once. At a school dance — …
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Book Review: The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer
Book #336 of 2021: The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer Let me start with what I like about this title, as that will be a shorter list. It is #ownvoices for both Judaism and chronic fatigue, and while I can’t speak to the authentic portrayal of the latter, seeing the former means an awful lot …
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Book Review: The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto by Charles M. Blow
Book #335 of 2021: The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto by Charles M. Blow This 2021 title is split between analysis and an ensuing call to action, and although I’m more struck by the former element — a comparison of racism in the U.S. North and South — I should acknowledge that I …
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Book Review: Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards
Book #334 of 2021: Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards Parts of this road-trip thriller are certainly effective, but I think it’s ultimately trying to do too much. The initial premise: when an oncoming blizzard grounds all flights on Christmas Eve, stranding the protagonist at the airport ahead of her canceled connection, she accepts …
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Book Review: Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
Book #333 of 2021: Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell I have a mixed reaction to this anthropological sci-fi gay romance. The cultural worldbuilding is neat, especially in its treatment of gender as performed / communicated primarily via jewelry, where the particular style denotes its wearer as either male, female, or nonbinary with no apparent biological …
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