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After a botched treatment for a UTI leaves [a:Sarah Ramey|16210153|Sarah Ramey|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] in intense, chronic pain, the medical system's inability to diagnose, treat, or help her leads her to a downward spiral of treatments, side effects, and debilitating illness. In this chronicle of her decade-long search for relief, Ramey paints a disastrous portrait of the modern, symptom-focused American medical system. Her story is fascinating, but I would not recommend this memoir unequivocally, at least without a tighter edit: Ramey's writing is unconventional and sometimes overly precious; the book is way too long, often whirling into repetitive tangents; and the author's largely irrelevant feminist theories, presented to inspire other women in similar predicaments, only detract from the important systemic failures Ramey aims to expose.

[a:Ijeoma Oluo|14408819|Ijeoma Oluo|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png] doesn't pull any punches as she describes common pitfalls in confronting racism, and she exposes difficult truths that some may find painful but are necessary to address if systemic change is to be possible. Presented with actionable lists of behaviors to check and constructive ways to approach uncomfortable topics, this book is both practical and useful, and one I would highly recommend.

After Vivian, a rebellious girl from a well-to-do family, is kicked out of Vassar, she's sent to live with her theater-owning aunt in Manhattan. Vivian quickly becomes engrossed in the theater scene and gets a crash course in sex, drugs, and show tunes. What makes this book so engaging is the environment that [a:Elizabeth Gilbert|11679|Elizabeth Gilbert|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1440718929p2/11679.jpg] creates--it has been a long time since I've felt so fully immersed and able to so vividly picture each scene in a story. Some may be frustrated by the pacing--in creating such a rich, detailed environment, the sense of plot movement suffers at times--or the premise that what we're reading is a letter that clocks in at nearly 400 pages long. But by surrendering to the setting and allowing myself to get transported in the process, I found this to be an extremely fun escape.

In this memoir of his experiences and struggles with racism, [a:Ibram X. Kendi|14161726|Ibram X. Kendi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1607960083p2/14161726.jpg] intersperses personal anecdotes with careful analysis to support his binary definition of racism: unless a thought, action, or policy actively opposes a hierarchy of race (and other attributes with which it intersects), it is racist. Kendi's framework is useful for rationally examining one's own racist (and sexist, colorist, ablist, homophobic, etc.) tendencies--an important exercise for anyone, but especially those who think they're beyond discriminatory thought patterns that are more ingrained than most of us would like to admit.

I had issues with the book's pacing and repetition at some points, and I didn't connect with any of the individual characters as much as I'd have liked, but this book's true magic lies in its messages of being true to oneself, fighting for what you want most in life, and grieving the inevitable losses in life by loving more, not less--important lessons that I need to be better about integrating into my own life. Would recommend.

In this engaging and approachable read, [a:Carol Anderson|184936|Carol Anderson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1535725690p2/184936.jpg] presents a timeline of the systematic and concerted efforts to oppress Black people in America, extending well past the end of the Civil War into current times. This book is a perspective-shifting read that I think should feature more prominently on recommended reading lists for racial awareness.

I consider Margaret Atwood to be one of my favorite authors, but her books are very hit and miss with me. This one was a miss. I enjoyed Atwood's writing, but the entire plot was muddied and inscrutable, and ultimately this book was a complete bore.

While this book's level of sexual explicitness would not be scandalous by today's standards, the frank discussion of sexuality, especially from a woman's perspective, resulted in a lot of pearl-clutching and book-burning/banning in its day. Perhaps just as scandalous were the book's critique of the noble class and its discussion of worker's rights and socialist/Bolshevist ideals. With its political and social analysis, it was a surprisingly enjoyable book to which I was able to draw parallels relevant to the modern world.

This book tried to be too many things at once: was it a kitschy memoir dripping with mid-century Americana, a brief history of white settlers displacing the native inhabitants of the Palouse, or an exposé covering the health impacts of radiation from Hanford on Eastern Washington residents? I can't say, as it didn't particularly succeed at any of the above. Going in I'd hoped to read stories that focused on the latter, but the bulk of the book comprised rambling family anecdotes that failed to hold my attention.

It's hard not to see [a:Brittany Kaiser|19100626|Brittany Kaiser|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] as a career opportunist, readily exchanging her purportedly progressive political and social views for a lucrative career in election interference around the world. But her story is an important one, in which she illustrates how Cambridge Analytica used data harvested from Facebook profiles to build powerful psychographic profiles used to microtarget ads in the 2016 election, helping to propel Trump to victory. The book is long and somewhat repetitive, but it's important for anyone who cultivates any sort of virtual/online presence to understand how personal data is harvested, analyzed, and ultimately used to craft a specific message designed to appeal to an individual's proclivities.

Confused after being hit by a car near the famous Abby Road zebra of Beatles fame, Saul recounts pieces of his life in a jumbled mess, confusing the present day with his time in East Germany just before the fall of the wall, and unsure how to fit the characters--and his interactions with and feelings for them--in the right place or timeline. While I enjoyed the unconventional approach to timeline, I'm not sure if I'd recommend this book, even if it was long-listed for the Booker. 2.5