bamboobones_rory's reviews
438 reviews

The Spectral Wilderness by Oliver Bendorf

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emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Connecting gender & body to nature & natural geologic processes. big trans grief feelings around family rejection. big trans belonging feelings around nature & earth & history & transformation. 
It Wasn't Your Fault: Freeing Yourself from the Shame of Childhood Abuse with the Power of Self-Compassion by Beverly Engel

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challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

This is an incredibly challenging read because it requires a lot of emotional work to engage with. While I think the title sounds silly and corny, this book is both difficult and tender to the reader. It approaches healing through compassion instead of shame or "pulling up by the bootstraps". It includes exercises for reflection, questions and activities. Sometimes I had to stop not because it was intellectually challenging, but because it was emotionally challenging or brought up things I needed more time to process. It also provides insight for why abusive people may act the way they do - this is not an excuse but personally this insight is helpful for understanding that child abuse is absolutely nothing a child could have done or caused. 
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Really great YA book about mental health, bullying, living between cultures & connecting with family culture (Iran), and familial relationships that are tense. I liked how it focuses on a teen's struggles with depression and that is difficult for others to understand that a teenager could be suicidal and very depressed without a major events such as war or death- and that even more common mental illnesses are not well understood. Some tension between Darius and his father about a taboo of bringing up depression, based on his father's guilt with passing on mental illness to a child. It explores barriers in communication through language, culture, age, and distance, as well as terminal illness, between Darius and his mother and his grandfather. All of the characters are realistic in their longing to connect as a family (or as friends) but struggle with the barriers of different life experiences or distance. (Also love Darius's love of Star Trek and its use as a bonding tool) 
The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle MonĂ¡e

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

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emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

I'm So Glad You're Here: A Memoir by Pamela Gay

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informative reflective sad slow-paced

2.5

There Is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart: Mending the World as Jewish Anarchists by

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.25