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Read this in fits and starts over several months. Very much a product of its time and of Kipling's background and experience.

It's about 60% sharply observed gripes and amusements about army life that are still relevant today, 25% good faith (I think) attempts to show respect to foreign enemies or subjects that come out racist anyway, and 15% klan-level racism.

Boots and Danny Deever remain the standouts.

This was a great concept for a book and very well-researched, but I think it had pacing problems and the end.

It's difficult to write from the point of view of a child and I think this book mostly pulls it off. One thing that worked very well for me was Helga's conflicted and evolving feelings toward Hitler. She's naturally repulsed as a small child and, because of her upbringing and propaganda, talks herself into a more positive view as an adolescent.

My biggest problem was pacing. The chapters in the bunker started to get rushed and perfunctory toward the end. I thought it was ramping up for a big scene on May 1, but that wound up being mostly off page, so kind of an anticlimax.

I thought the parallels with Snow White worked very well.

Credit for delivering on the title, the narrator did in fact have chocolate cake with Hitler several times.

I'd be interested in reading the author's other book about the bunker next April.

I appreciate the writing challenge Rosen sets for himself here because the detective operates underground/outside the law and can't just go to the police at the end.

This was suitably twisty and turny for a mystery novel, and I enjoy how Rosen writes all different kinds of queer characters.

It kind of tried to make a statement about freedom of information and reading, but didn't really have anything new to say.

The story was fairly conventional but the character work was very strong. I liked seeing how young Elwood was personally affected by the civil rights movement, especially in contract to Turner. That's an angle I haven't seen very much.

I had seen the movie before reading the book, so I knew the twist at the end going in. I kind of wish I had not and I had been able to see it develop on its own. I thought the encyclopedia scene was important to Elwood's character development, and was surprised with wasn't included in the movie.

I listened to on audiobook and the narrator generally did a good job giving the characters unique voices.

This was enjoyable, but I didn't like it as much as Nothing to See Here.

Now is Not the Time to Panic was more personal, and also had a great sense of time and place. It captured what it felt like to be a smart, weird kid in a small town in the South.

Wilson has a way of making the main characters feel real and the side characters a little cartoonish (e.g., the three brothers).

I think the audiobook was read by Judy Hopps?

This is very interesting as a product of its time, in that it's attempting to grapple with racism and tell a story where the black character is the hero, but ultimately has the black character dying for the sake of the white protagonist. The author had good intentions, but didn't seem to have made black people part of the writing process.

The story was exciting and set up a lot of challenges for the protagonist, but I would have appreciated one or two more twists and turns.

Listened to the audiobook. Well performed, but the accent wouldn't fly today.

@picklish It comes from the Red Letter Media review of Star Wars Episode I: "Describe a character without mentioning their job or their appearance." In other words, does this character express a personality outside of their mechanical role in the story?

It's a lot easier to describe Han Solo's personality than, e.g., Qui Gon Jinn's, because Han Solo is a much more written-out and realized character.