Scan barcode
sallysimply's reviews
1420 reviews
The Upgrade: How the Female Brain Remakes Itself in the Second Half of Life by Louann Brizendine
3.5
The concept is great and there is a lot of valuable info here, though it’s not always super realistic, depending on your socioeconomic status, lifestyle, work schedule, accessibility needs, etc.
Interesting Facts about Space by Emily Austin
5.0
It seems Emily Austin is one of my favorite authors!
We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin
5.0
I did not plan on reading that in one sitting, but here we are. Absolutely no regrets - could not have picked a better first book for 2025.
Model Home by Rivers Solomon
4.0
I'll start by saying the Sorrowland is one of my favorite books of all time, and I also really love The Deep (though I know that is not just Solomon's work). And because I'm a fan of horror, Model Home was one of my most anticipated books of the year.
I started the audiobook and had to pause about 20% in because I was desperate to annotate a physical copy of it. The writing is simply sublime. That pause ended up lasting a couple of months, because it took me a while to be in the headspace again to dive into a dark story about the things that haunt us.
Model Home is creepy, unsettling, devastating. It is also somewhat predictable and a bit heavy-handed. My mental health is grateful for that pause I took, but I am not sure if I would have enjoyed this more or less if I had just kept going the first time I picked it up, because I do think that the pause is part of what made it so predictable to me. And because I had a sense of where we might be going, some of the tension dissipated and part of me was simply eager to get to the end.
I can absolutely see why this book doesn't work for a lot of people, and I can also see why many have it as one of their favorites of the year. I seem to have had both of those sides warring within me, so I get it!
It's also hard to recommend this book without spoiling it, which is a bummer. Absolutely seek out content warnings for this one, and I'll go ahead and call out sexual assault of a minor as a big one.
I have sat with my thoughts on this book for a couple of weeks now, and I think time is making me appreciate this more than I did when I first finished. I was probably at a 3 or 3.5 when I finished, but between the writing, the general eeriness, and the way this book is still swirling around in my head, I am firmly at a 4 now. A re-read might bump that up or back down.
I started the audiobook and had to pause about 20% in because I was desperate to annotate a physical copy of it. The writing is simply sublime. That pause ended up lasting a couple of months, because it took me a while to be in the headspace again to dive into a dark story about the things that haunt us.
Model Home is creepy, unsettling, devastating. It is also somewhat predictable and a bit heavy-handed. My mental health is grateful for that pause I took, but I am not sure if I would have enjoyed this more or less if I had just kept going the first time I picked it up, because I do think that the pause is part of what made it so predictable to me. And because I had a sense of where we might be going, some of the tension dissipated and part of me was simply eager to get to the end.
I can absolutely see why this book doesn't work for a lot of people, and I can also see why many have it as one of their favorites of the year. I seem to have had both of those sides warring within me, so I get it!
It's also hard to recommend this book without spoiling it, which is a bummer. Absolutely seek out content warnings for this one, and I'll go ahead and call out sexual assault of a minor as a big one.
I have sat with my thoughts on this book for a couple of weeks now, and I think time is making me appreciate this more than I did when I first finished. I was probably at a 3 or 3.5 when I finished, but between the writing, the general eeriness, and the way this book is still swirling around in my head, I am firmly at a 4 now. A re-read might bump that up or back down.
We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson
5.0
What a fantastic book this is! The writing is clear and compelling, the book is thought-provoking and confronting, and I have not been able to stop thinking about it since I finished it a couple of weeks ago.
We continue to be fed the lie that the only correct type of resistance is non-violent, and then the state gets to define what is and is not violence. I loved the author's approach to resistance and the many forms it can take. By focusing specifically on forms of Black resistance, the scope is narrow enough to dig into concrete examples, which I really appreciated. The stories of real-life women resisting in so many different ways was inspiring and motivating. And while I don't want to take away from that focus on Black resistance, there is also a lot here we can apply to other movements and other injustices worth resisting. (For instance, I could not stop thinking about Palestine as I read this.)
I took my time with this book, which I don't often do. Because of that, my reading helped support me through the election, the continued genocide in Gaza, the Luigi of it all, and the host of other devastations we are currently living through. Perhaps hope isn't quite the right word for how I felt while reading this, but there was a certain resolve and determination I got as I read -- a sense that what we are fighting can be defeated, even if it seems massive and unmovable. In a time when hope is hard to come by, I can easily recommend this book on that feeling alone.
I will say that my physical reading experience was far better than the audio. I could not tell if it was the narration or the editing or both, but the audiobook felt stilted. Taking that away, though, this is an easy 5-star read for me.
We continue to be fed the lie that the only correct type of resistance is non-violent, and then the state gets to define what is and is not violence. I loved the author's approach to resistance and the many forms it can take. By focusing specifically on forms of Black resistance, the scope is narrow enough to dig into concrete examples, which I really appreciated. The stories of real-life women resisting in so many different ways was inspiring and motivating. And while I don't want to take away from that focus on Black resistance, there is also a lot here we can apply to other movements and other injustices worth resisting. (For instance, I could not stop thinking about Palestine as I read this.)
I took my time with this book, which I don't often do. Because of that, my reading helped support me through the election, the continued genocide in Gaza, the Luigi of it all, and the host of other devastations we are currently living through. Perhaps hope isn't quite the right word for how I felt while reading this, but there was a certain resolve and determination I got as I read -- a sense that what we are fighting can be defeated, even if it seems massive and unmovable. In a time when hope is hard to come by, I can easily recommend this book on that feeling alone.
I will say that my physical reading experience was far better than the audio. I could not tell if it was the narration or the editing or both, but the audiobook felt stilted. Taking that away, though, this is an easy 5-star read for me.
Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire
4.0
Another lovely entry in this series. I enjoyed learning more about this world and Nadya's backstory. The ending felt abrupt and I also kept expecting more (in a general sense), which bumps this down to a 4 for now, though I wonder if it'll be higher upon a re-read of the series as a whole.
Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake
3.0
This didn't do a ton for me, which is unfortunate because I typically enjoy Ashley Herring Blake's romance novels. I didn't like either character enough to root for them as a couple (honestly couldn't even remember which was which for the first few chapters), and I didn't understand why Brighton got off so easy and why Charlotte's intimacy issues took center stage when they weren't super relevant to their romantic relationship, more so her friendships.
The steamy scenes were great, I loved the side characters, I enjoyed the Two Turtledoves shenanigans, and I guess I'm a sucker for a holiday-themed romance, which brings this to a 3 rather than something like a 2.5.
The steamy scenes were great, I loved the side characters, I enjoyed the Two Turtledoves shenanigans, and I guess I'm a sucker for a holiday-themed romance, which brings this to a 3 rather than something like a 2.5.