📚Review & Interview 🥰 The Cloisters by Katy Hays In what seems a serendipitous job offer when her summer associateship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art falls through, Ann Stiltwell finds herself working at The Cloisters, a center for medieval art, and with a group of researchers studying the history—and the validity—of Tarot and divination. Ann’s particular skill set and background bring much-needed insight and her presence shifts alliances within The Cloisters. Soon, she wonders if she was handpicked for the job long before she came to New York. When Ann uncovers a secret Tarot card deck that brings hidden powers to light, The Cloisters’ facade unravels in dangerous ways that will change The Cloisters, and Ann, forever. If you love Tarot, chances are, you’ll love The Cloisters. If you don’t, there is still lots to like. On the light-to-dark scale of characters, the personalities in The Cloisters tip toward the dark, with ambition winning out over collaboration and vengeance over compassion in interesting and even surprising ways. A unique and worthwhile read! ⭐️The full review contains a virtual book club interview with author Katy Hays—caution, spoiler alert! Find it via the “Book Reviews” tab in the profile link. 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #whatireadin2024 #KatyHays #KatyHaysAuthor #TheCloisters @heykatyhays
📚Review 🥰 The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee @heathercmcghee The core message of The Sum of Us is that the often race-centered policies of American governments and private enterprises hurt not only people of color but all Americans by using racial hierarchies to divide people against one another. This consolidates power and wealth at the top and drains it from everyone else by presenting economic, educational, and other advancements by people of color as a zero-sum game that comes at the expense of Whites. For example, 2000 massive public works community swimming pools were built in the first part of the 20th century, paid for by public taxpayer money (including Black taxpayers) but open only to Whites. When the exclusionary policies were struck down, cities either privatized the pools so that they could legally exclude Blacks or filled the pools with dirt so that no one, including White people, could swim. This “cut off the nose to spite the face” pattern of using public funds for public benefit when the beneficiaries were Whites and then scrapping them when they were extended to people of color has been repeated over and over. This has not only shrunk the middle class for all, but it has harmed more White people than Black because the number of White people hurt by the loss of these programs vastly exceeds the number of people of color. In what she calls a Solidarity Dividend, McGee demonstrates how when ordinary people work together across racial and ethnic lines they come up with more creative and workable solutions to local problems, gain advantages for all workers through collective action, think more deeply, and are more thoughtful, engaged citizens. ⭐️NOTE⭐️ Find an extended review, an Imagineering Protopia Bonus commentary & Heather McGee’s Ted Talk via the “Book Reviews” tab in the profile link. 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviewers #bookreaders #bookread #bookreviewblogger #bookreaderscommunity #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #whatireadin2024 #HeatherMcGee #HeatherMcGeeBooks
📚Review 🥰 Dust Child by Que Mai Phan Nguyen @nguyenphanquemai_ Set in both wartime and 2016 Vietnam, Dust Child by Que Mai Phan Nguyen weaves a tapestry both heart-wrenching and hopeful of the experience of women surviving war by working as bar girls, prostitutes, and girlfriends of foreign GIs, of soldiers finding refuge from the trauma of war in the arms and beds of these women, of the resulting Amerasian children born and raised in Vietnam, and of American soldiers returning to Vietnam to heal old wounds and find their children. Dust Child follows sisters Trang and Quỳnh, whose friend woos them to Saigon with the promise of making money to pay their parent’s debt by flirting with foreign soldiers in bars. Trang falls in love with Dan, an American helicopter pilot who arrives in Vietnam friendly, charming, and sure he is helping his country until the realities of the war set in. In 2016, Dan, who has suffered from PTSD since the war, returns with his wife to Vietnam to heal the trauma of war, and, unbeknownst to his wife, to look for Trang and their child whom she was pregnant with when he left. A third thread follows Phong, the child of a Vietnamese woman and a Black soldier who, like many Amerasian children, was left at an orphanage as a baby and grew up being called “the dust of life” and “child of the enemy.” Phong, though a survivor, wrestles with the lifelong discrimination of being a child of the enemy, the pain of being abandoned, and various schemes to get to the US and find his father. Dust Child poignantly portrays the war’s human cost in the lives irrevocably changed, by both the Vietnamese people and the foreign soldiers. A fundamentally hopeful story of healing and finding connection, it’s also a reminder of the many layers and generations of trauma that are reaped when the seeds of war—any war—are sown. 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #whatireadin2024 #DustChild #readvietnam #nguyenphanquemai #nguyễnphanquếmai
📚Review 🥰 Prequel by Rachel Maddow I read Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism after seeing an interview in which Rachel Maddow said that rises in anti-semitism, other blaming-isms, and political conspiracies are generally always part of an attempt to subvert democracy in favor of authoritarianism or fascism. In researching other rises in anti-semitism in US history, she stumbled onto this story, which had been buried beneath the annals of time, but that had been huge news in its day—until it wasn’t. The basic story starts with how early Nazi Germany used US race laws as a model of how to disenfranchise and “otherize” Jews in Germany by basically making living-while-Jewish illegal there. The story then lays out how a relatively small group of people including many congressmen and other high-level politicians, notaries like Henry Ford, and others worked to replicate Hitler’s model of fascist government in the US in the 1930s and 40s and almost succeeded. It is also, and primarily, the heroic story of the people who stopped it—which included many ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things, ordinary civil servants defending democracy and the constitution they were sworn to protect, as well as, finally, some government officials who eventually listened—until they didn’t. The Prequel title is a reminder that history is cyclical, that democracy is a team sport in which we all have a part to play, and that again we have the opportunity and obligation to stop the march toward otherizing and authoritarianism if we want democracy in all its messiness to endure. 💥 Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviewers #bookreaders #bookread #bookreviewblogger #bookreaderscommunity #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #whatireadin2024 #RachelMaddow #RachelMaddowBook #RachelMaddowPrequel
📚Review 🥰 Prequel by Rachel Maddow I read Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism after seeing an interview in which Rachel Maddow said that rises in anti-semitism, other blaming-isms, and political conspiracies are generally always part of an attempt to subvert democracy in favor of authoritarianism or fascism. In researching other rises in anti-semitism in US history, she stumbled onto this story, which had been buried beneath the annals of time, but that had been huge news in its day—until it wasn’t. The basic story starts with how early Nazi Germany used US race laws as a model of how to disenfranchise and “otherize” Jews in Germany by basically making living-while-Jewish illegal there. The story then lays out how a relatively small group of people including many congressmen and other high-level politicians, notaries like Henry Ford, and others worked to replicate Hitler’s model of fascist government in the US in the 1930s and 40s and almost succeeded. It is also, and primarily, the heroic story of the people who stopped it—which included many ordinary citizens doing extraordinary things, ordinary civil servants defending democracy and the constitution they were sworn to protect, as well as, finally, some government officials who eventually listened—until they didn’t. The Prequel title is a reminder that history is cyclical, that democracy is a team sport in which we all have a part to play, and that again we have the opportunity and obligation to stop the march toward otherizing and authoritarianism if we want democracy in all its messiness to endure. 💜 Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviewers #bookreaders #bookread #bookreviewblogger #bookreaderscommunity #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #whatireadin2024 #RachelMaddow #RachelMaddowBook #RachelMaddowPrequel
📚Review 🥰 Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri @danielnayeri Daniel Nayeri’s autobiographical novel Everything Sad is Untrue begins with his life as an Iranian refugee living in Oklahoma, where his schoolmates and English teacher aren’t sure whether the stories he remembers from Iran before they fled are true. Many are the interpretations of events by the young Khosrou (Daniel's birth name) which he clings to because they are the only memories of his grandparents and father that he has. Khosrou and his family lived a privileged life in Iran, but that ended when he was eight and his mother converted to Christianity. She was threatened with death for her and her children if she didn’t give up the names of the underground church she attended, which would get the people she named arrested or killed. Khosrou and his mother and sister flee to Dubai and gained short-term asylum in Italy before being accepted by the US and settling in Oklahoma. His mother marries (and remarries) a Christian man who beats her, and their station in life stalls at a low economic level despite his mother being well educated and skilled. That’s the basic plot, and yet spelling it out doesn’t give anything away because the magic of Everything Sad is Untrue are the stories within stories within stories that Daniel tells about his life. The novel is both poignant and hopeful amidst the terror and sadness of the refugee experience—an experience that people who have never had to flee for their lives would benefit from reading about. Behind the statistics in the great migration happening on our planet now are people like Khosrou and his family. Hearing their stories can help open the hearts of the citizens in the countries who receive them, and help refugees find not just a safer place to live, but a true new home. 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Everythingsadisuntrue #danielnayeri #Bookreviewers #bookreaders #bookread #bookreviewblogger #bookreaderscommunity #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #whatireadin2024
📚Review 🥰 The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson The Ministry for the Future reads like modern life—a few narrative threads interspersed with breaking news, social media feeds, sudden technological breakthroughs, secret intrigue, and random acts of terror—all in service to speculating on the ideas, actions, and social, political and technological changes that can shift humanity from Earth’s nightmare creation run amok to a species that can live in greater harmony with each other and the planet we all call home. In classic Robinson style, it’s a head-spinning, well-researched exploration of climate-change-adapting possibilities funneled through the fictional Ministry for the Future, which is tasked with plotting a way through our escalating environmental and climate challenges and creating something better on the other side. He makes a compelling case for a global Plan B to shift into as our current Plan A status splinters and sinks and explores many possible ways to cobble together a Plan B. A compelling and worthwhile read! ⭐️NOTE⭐️ Find an extended review and a Imagineering Protopia Bonus commentary via the “Book Reviews” tab in the profile link. 💥 Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #whatireadin2024 #sciencefictionbooks #KimStanleyRobinson # #KimStanleyRobinsonBooks #theministryforthefuture #ministryforthefuture
📚Review 🥰 The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner @sarah_penner_author Sarah Penner’s debut novel The Lost Apothecary is a wonderfully original story with compelling characters and plot twists, set in two different time periods. Modern-day aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell is in London alone for her tenth wedding anniversary after finding out about her husband’s affair. She joins a group of waders searching in the muck of the Thames river and finds an unusual bottle with a small bear etched on it. The bottle once belonged to an 18th-century apothecary named Nella who dispensed poisons to help women kill scoundrel husbands or other harmful men in their lives. In the 18th-century timeline, young Eliza comes to Nella’s hidden shop to fetch a poison for her mistress to kill her lecherous, predatory husband, which kicks off a spiral of interesting events that you’ll have to read to find out. The modern and old stories parallel nicely and are equally compelling—a hard feat to pull off, especially in a debut novel! As each story twists and turns, the net pulls tighter for all three women in a way that connects them through time. This is smart, edgy, thought-provoking, escapist fiction at its best! Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #whatireadin2024 #SarahPenner #SarahPennerBooks #TheLostApothecary
📚Banned Book Review 🥰 "Monday's Not Coming" by Tiffany D. Jackson @writeinbk Monday’s Not Coming is a YA novel that dives right into the murky question of what happens when a child, particularly a Black girl, disappears. When Claudia’s best friend Monday doesn’t show up on the first day of school, Monday is worried. When Monday doesn’t show up the next day, week, or month, Claudia becomes more frantic and insistent that something is wrong. The paths she goes down to find her best friend show the social and legal issues that limit what the adults around are willing and able to do to help. “You don’t get into other people’s family business,” is a common refrain, and the police detective that Claudia turns to shows her a wall full of pictures of missing girls of color, implying that Monday is one of a pattern of runaways or otherwise missing girls, and thus nothing uniquely alarming. Monday’s Not Coming is challenged/banned because of its depiction of violence, abuse, and neglect. Some adults feel that young adults should be sheltered from, you know, the reality of life for many people. To me, this fear is an extension of the general apathy toward the issue: if we can stop people from learning about it and caring about it, then we can continue to avoid doing anything about it. The issues brought up in the book are big and important and need to be addressed if we are to socially and even economically thrive as a country. Books like Monday’s Not Coming, do us all a great service by helping adults, and young adults, see the world as it currently is so that we can make changes and create a better tomorrow. ⭐️NOTE⭐️ Find an extended review and an Imagineering Protopia Bonus commentary via the “Book Reviews” tab in the profile link. 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #whatireadin2024 #MondaysNotComing #TiffanyDJackson #TiffanyDJacksonNovels
📚Review 🥰 The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt plunges into the modern third rail by looking at how morals divide people primarily in religion and politics. By morals, he doesn’t mean a particular set of morals, but of individual and group moral parameters and values. He likens the mind to an elephant and rider, with the rational mind rider steering the intuitive, instinctive, reactionary elephant that is actually in charge. The elephant, Haidt says, has an immediate internal response to things and the rider acts like a rational press secretary who comes up with reasons, which may be highly irrational, to follow the reaction of the elephant. Liberal-minded people tend to be more open to new experiences and less threatened by fear and change. Their focus on the morality of compassion, freedom, and fairness leads them to stand up for the underprivileged and marginalized. Conservatives consider a wider moral structure but attribute positive attributes to groups similar to them. Can the two sides ever come together? Haidt doesn’t have a prescription for that beyond learning to speak to one another’s elephant to find common hive ground. But he also suggests that there is a place for both ways of thinking and that the globe would be a more peaceful, prosperous place if we were able to find ways to communicate and solve problems using both the universalist liberal minds and the more ordered worldviews of conservatives. ⭐️NOTE⭐️ Find the full review at via the “Book Reviews” tab in the profile link. 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviewers #bookreaders #bookread #bookreviewblogger #bookreaderscommunity #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #whatireadin2024
📚Review 🥰 Trespasses by Louise Kennedy I listened to this book on a whim because a friend was traveling to a mixed-religious neighborhood in Ireland that had been a ground zero for The Troubles. Trespasses brought to life the conflict in Northern Ireland that I heard about on the news growing up. Twenty-something Cushla straddles both Catholic and Protestant as a parochial school teacher living in a somewhat mixed town outside Belfast. She’s dedicated to her young students, especially a young boy from a mixed Catholic/Protestant family who is under threat from all sides. When she falls in love with a married Protestant lawyer who defends members of the IRA, it thrusts Cushla into the center of the Troubles’ broiling sectarian conflicts to both heartwarming and heartbreaking ends. The prose was spare and direct, and very well written. The audio version narration was extraordinary. Louise Kennedy puts the reader right into the taut survival mode and hunkered-down mood of people who are trying to get by, carve out lives, and find love amid a war zone. A wonderful historical read that brings to life—and to heart—a painful era that is within the living memory of many readers. It also reminds us both that while troubles pass, history repeats itself until we let go of old grudges and choose peace within and toward others. 💥 Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviewers #bookreaders #bookread #bookreviewblogger #bookreaderscommunity #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #trespasses #louisekennedyauthor #whatireadin2024
📚Review 🥰 A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys A Half-Built Garden opens with Judy Wallach-Stevens noticing pollutants in the Chesapeake watershed and taking her infant daughter to check on it. They find that an insect-like alien species called Ringers has landed, in a savior-complex way, to save humanity from itself because experience has taught them that high-technology societies destroy planets and themselves if they don’t move into space habitats in time. Judy and the other watershed community inhabitants believe they can adapt human life and Earth’s systems to live in symbiosis over the long term. But not everyone on Earth lives in watershed communities, and other factions are interested in life in space for various reasons. A Half-Built Garden explores symbiosis with technology and natural systems, as well as between species, cultures, and people, and how finding symbiosis on one level doesn’t always translate to finding it on another level. Emrys is wildly imaginative in how both humans and the Ringers have organized socially around things like gender, family relationships, power, and decision-making. The Ringers make family structure central to political and power structures. For them, bringing their kids to an alien invasion and diplomatic negotiations is critical to finding common values and demonstrating a willingness to cooperate. If you are looking to expand your idea of what is possible in space, between species, and even between human groups with different interests, add this book to your reading list. ⭐️NOTE⭐️ Find an extended review and a Imagineering Protopia Bonus commentary via the “Book Reviews” tab in the profile link. 💥Find my book reviews through the Instagram profile link 💜 #Readingnow #readingcommunity #readingisfun #readingnook #readingwomen #readingforpleasure #readingclub #whatareyoureading #readerlife #kristinemadera #readercommunity #readersandwriters #kristinemadera1 #kristinemaderaauthor #ruthanneemrys #readersofinstagram📚📚❤️
📚Review 🥰 An Impossible Thing to Say by Arya Shahi An Impossible Thing to Say is the kind of YA book I would have loved back in the day—and thoroughly enjoyed as an adult. Omid is an Iranian-American teenage boy crushing on a girl from school and learning how to find and embody his voice in two languages and cultures, all while straddling the before and after of 9/11. Full of angst and heart, tears and laughter, rhythm and discord, friends and family and conflict, and the power of words no matter the language, Omid shares his unique story of adolescence in a way that inspires not only how to discover and speak your truth. Then it goes deeper than that as Omid searches and finds his own rhythm and words and learns to appreciate the life he has rather than trying to be someone else or live someone else’s life. What a glorious time it would be if we were all encouraged to find our voice and place in the world the way Omid did. One of the great gifts of YA lit today is the range of voices and stories now being told. It both opens people up to a wider range of experiences and viewpoints and is also a reminder that no matter the complicating circumstances or particulars of culture, the rite of adolescence is a challenge in and of itself. I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by author Arya Shahi, and highly recommend it. Shari pours as much heart into the narration as he did in the book. He also got me looking for local Persian restaurants and revisiting rap! 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviewers #bookreaders #bookread #bookreviewblogger #bookreaderscommunity #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #animpossiblethingtosay @aryashahi
📚Review 🥰 Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver @barbara.kingsolver The word that kept popping into my mind as I listened to this book was “relentless.” Demon Copperhead is the first-person narrator in this modern retelling of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield—itself a fictionalized telling of Dickens’ life. Demon Copperhead’s life is surprisingly true to the original. Set in Lee County, Virginia, in southwest rural Appalachia, Demon’s life is grounded in the poverty of a struggling single mother living in a rented trailer, an absent father whose death he knows little about, the rise of the opioid epidemic, and the tragic ways it pulls people into its grips. Like I said, relentless. Also excellent. Kingsolver’s writing is always spot on, but she does a wonderful job capturing Demon’s voice and thought process as he navigates his world from boyhood to a young man. The narration of the audiobook adds even more personality and I highly recommend that version. That said, it is a long, relentless story of a resilient boy who doesn’t see his innate strength, has little support from the adults in his life, is thrust into and later careens into heartbreaking situations traversed with a dogged survival impulse and a heart that, despite counter winds and poor judgments, tips toward caring and love. I think this book has toppled my old favorite Kingsolver novel and stolen its place in my heart. 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #BarbaraKingsolver #DemonCopperhead #BarbaraKingsolverBOOKS
📚Review 🥰 Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction by Annalee Newitz Part pop science, part muse for science fiction and other speculative writers, this gem of a book was a quick breeze through the various mass extinction events in Earth’s history, the promise that humans will face one or more of these events, and some hopeful wisdom on how we might weather the worst and survive as a species. Newitz sums up their book with the sentence: You’re always coming home but the path you take to get there is going to change all the time. In other words, humans are in a relentless quest to survive and thrive but we’d better learn to adapt quickly because life throws us curveballs all the time. Scatter is a strategy used by diaspora communities, like Jewish immigrants, to spread their population widely and survive as a people. Humanity, as we propel ourselves into the space age, will only survive long-term as a species if we colonize other planets—and not just the ones in our own backyard. Rapid adaptation is another human survival strategy. A massive volcano eruption, large asteroid, or nuclear apocalypse could drive humans underground for months or years to survive, requiring the ability to grow food, access water, dispose of waste, and keep from killing each other from the stress of life underground. Newitz presenting past problems along with current possible and theoretical solutions on the path to what they state more than once as our ultimate survival strategy—to become a space-faring species colonizing multiple planets and star systems. Terrific read, especially for SFF writers! Oh, and did I mention that Newitz is a stellar Sci-Fi writer, too? Now you know! ⭐️NOTE⭐️ Find an extended review and an Imagineering Protopia Bonus commentary in the profile link. 💥 Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #AnnaleeNewitz #AnnaleeNewitzBOOKS @ghidorahnotweak #ScatterAdaptandRemember
📚Review 🥰 The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston @douglaspreston6 The Lost City of the Monkey God is a true adventure as gripping as fiction. In it, Preston recounts a 2015 expedition into the remote Mosquitia mountains of Honduras to find the legendary Ciudad Blanca—the White City, also known as the City of the Monkey God. In indigenous and local stories, Ciudad Blanca is the magnificent city where ancestors fled to escape Spanish invaders, and is now long-buried under tropical overgrowth. The city’s archeological location is in some of the densest jungles and steepest mountains in the world, and nearly impossible to see on the ground, even when you are standing in front of it. It was pinpointed by air in 2012 using lidar (light detection and ranging) technology—a technology that may reveal many more hidden archeological treasures from our distant past. Preston details the perilous expeditions to the site, including his heart-stopping encounter with one of the deadliest snakes on earth, about the aggressive parasitic mucocutaneous leishmaniasis that Preston and many on the team contracted, and how/why the expedition was vilified by the archeological establishment. Preston also addresses the age-old problems of uncovering ancient ruins—the fight about who owns them, and how to protect them from looters and others who are willing to pillage human history to cash in on the lucrative antiquities market. A gripping read! ⭐️NOTE⭐️ Find an extended review and an Imagineering Protopia Bonus commentary via the “Book Reviews” tab in the profile link. 💥 Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviewers #bookreaders #bookread #bookreviewblogger #bookreaderscommunity #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #douglaspreston #lostcityofthemonkeygod #douglasprestonbooks
📚Review 🥰 The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers Not quite on the run, Rosemary Harper flees her family’s infamy in the human colony on Mars by joining the crew of the Wayfarer, a jalopy of a ship that tunnels wormholes through space. Filled with an imaginative galactic cast and a mind-blowing array of everyday tech, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is a fun romp through space with a mix of species, genders, and galactic cultures that also explores intergalactic, interspecies relationships of various kinds, including family, chosen family, romantic, professional, and diplomatic. The story spine of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is the Wayfarer’s contract to shortcut through space to a potential new member of the Galactic Commons, which could provide a key resource. Things happen. They face crises. Hearts are healed and broken. These are all interesting. The story isn’t the most compelling thing about The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, and I don’t think it’s meant to be. Cozy Sci-fi, in which getting to know the characters and enjoying their ponderings, actions, and dynamics provides the crux of the story, is a growing trend—and hopefully one that expands. A terrific read to chill out by a winter fire or on a summer day in a hammock under a shade tree. ⭐️NOTE⭐️ Find the full review and a Building Protopia bonus commentary at https://kristinemadera.com/the-long-way-to-a-small-angry-planet/ or via the “Book Reviews” tab in the profile link. 💥Find my reviews at https://kristinemadera.com/tag/book-review/ or in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #BeckyChambers #beckyChambersbooks #thelongwaytoasmallangryplanet
📚Review 🥰 Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You by Jenara Nerenberg What is normal and who gets to define it are the central questions in Jenara Nerenberg’s Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn’t Designed for You. The core of modern society’s “design” that excludes divergent minds are its economic and social systems, which, let’s be honest, strive to optimize by standardizing people to fit into well-oiled profit and power structures through education, employment expectations, and other standardizing systems. Like discarded tomatoes that don’t fit neatly into a packing crate, the expectation of conformity to made-up standards excludes a significant percentage of people who are then classified and categorized in disparaging ways. Nerenberg focuses on high-functioning women who process information in non-standard ways, including high sensitives, ADHD, and women on the autism spectrum who slip through the cracks because they do well enough in school that they must be okay. I have to admit that the book was an eye-opener for me. Though I’ve known for years that I’m a highly sensitive person (HSP), according to Nerenberg’s lists, I also have a majority of both ADHD and Asperger’s/Autism traits when I combined current traits with the childhood ones that I have spent my life trying to overcome. Like me, many women who have commented on this book have shared their dismay at newly seeing their struggles and quirks as part of an expanded sense of normal that includes talents and abilities not found among the general population and thus not generally acknowledged or valued in modern systems unless they can be monetized somehow—and consistently, without the need for things like self-care, stimulus moderation or other accommodation. If you fit into that category, or love someone who does, give this a read! ⭐️NOTE⭐️ Find the full review and a Building Protopia bonus commentary via the “Book Reviews” tab in the profile link. #Bookreviewers #bookreaders #bookread #bookreviewblogger #bookreaderscommunity #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #DivergentMind @neurodiversityproject
📚Review 🥰 A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers This Hugo Award-winning novella is a balm in an increasingly shrill world. This first in the Monk and Robot series is the first “Cozy Sci-Fi” sub-genre that I’ve read, having heard about it in a Long Now Foundation event that piqued my interest. The cozy, some might criticize, as not having enough action, but the idea of the genre is less to juice up the adrenaline-fueled parts of the nervous system and more about soothing, reflecting, and tapping thoughtfully into deeper questions, new relationships, and the introspection necessary to navigate a changing world from a sense of growth rather than with lasers and battles. The story is fairly simple. Dex, a tea monk in need of something meaningful but they don’t know what, breaks from their life as a wandering tea monk to venture to an old hermitage. Along the way, Dex meets a self-aware robot who has lots of questions about humans since the time that humans and robots split ways on the planet of Panga. Together they journey to the hermitage and forge a new relationship between self-aware people and self-aware robots. If you need things to blow up, this isn’t for you. But if you are looking for a quieter, more contemplative, thought-provoking escape, then give this series a whirl. 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #BeckyChambers #beckyChambersbooks #apsalmforthewildbuilt
📚Review 🥰 The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ You know a book is good when you yell at the characters for the choices they make. This was that book for me. The characters were rich and true to themselves (as frustrating as that was.) Alaska herself is a glorious character in all her brutal wildness and raw beauty. The writing was terrific and layered and kept me riveted. At times, the young narrator of the story (the daughter, Leni) was far too insightful to be believed, but since this was an adult novel and not YA, that was fine. The family dynamic revolves around the physical, emotional, and psychological abuse that a returned Vietnam vet/POW inflicts on his family, and in particular, his wife Cora. Not a subject I generally like to read about in fiction. Having worked with battered women, I can attest to Hannah’s true-to-life portrayal of the classic abuse dynamic and progression from “lovingly” overbearing to erratic and dangerous on the abuser’s side, and the excuse-making, self-blaming, and tunnel vision of the abused. It is a tragic, predictable, heartbreaking cycle, and in the 1970s, when this novel takes place, there were even fewer helpful laws, protections, and resources to help the abused person break free from their abuser. The cycle and how accurately it’s portrayed made me want to hurl the book against the wall, but since I had it on audio, that would have started an infuriating cycle of having to buy a new phone. So I settled for yelling and cursing now and then. This is my first Kristin Hannah book and probably not my last. A very worthwhile read if family abuse stories don’t give you flashbacks or nightmares. What did you think of the book? 💥Find my reviews at https://kristinemadera.com/tag/book-review/ Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #kristinhannahbooks #kristinehannah #thegreatalone #thegreatalonebook #thegreatalonenovel #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram
📚Review 🥰 Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes by Daniel Everett ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Daniel Everett's story kept popping up when I was researching language and culture for a novel I was writing. It’s a must-read if you’re in-depth interested in other cultures and languages and I definitely recommend the audio version read by the author. While it lacks the polish of a professional reader, he speaks a lot of Piraha so that the reader/listener gets a true sense of this fascinating language. Daniel Everett was a missionary linguist with SIL—the Summer Institute of Linguistics—who went to the Piraha people in Amazonian Brazil and studied their language and culture for 20 or more years in order to translate the gospel into their language, assuming that if they heard the gospel, they would be eager to convert. Much of the book recounts his experience and the experience of his family while there, the process of learning a language that challenges prevailing theories of language, and quite a bit about the Piraha people and culture. One of the main reasons I wanted to read this—obligatory spoiler alert, but knowing this about his story made the book much more intriguing to me—was Everett’s own personal journey away from Christianity because of what he learned from the Piraha. So much of Western and religious work assumes that “we” are somehow the pinnacle of human evolution (God helps us!) and that “primitive” societies should move in the direction of that pinnacle that it is deeply refreshing to hear an honest and heartfelt account of questioning the dominant paradigms by looking at them from the point of view of people who have seen those paradigms and said, “no thanks.” Everett’s public admission of his change of heart cost him dearly—marriage, family, friends, career, and so on, yet he did it anyway, in a brave example of having a heart and mind open enough to see himself, the world and the universe in a radically new way. 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviewers #bookreaders #bookread #bookreviewblogger #bookreaderscommunity #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor
📚Review 🥰 Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Normally, I shy away from novels this dystopian since life is dystopian enough, but this was recommended to me by enough people that I give it a whirl—and I’m glad I did. Woven through Parable of the Sower is a hopeful thread that something better is possible and out there if we are brave enough, crafty enough, and compassionate enough to follow its tug and reimagine our guiding philosophies. Though I truly hope the world isn’t destined for a version of life presented in Parable of the Sower, the lessons apply as much to our journey today as they do to the world that Lauren, the 18-year-old protagonist in the book, lives in. Lauren models those lessons and her own emerging philosophies for living with openness, curiosity, grace, and grit, and offers examples we’d do well to follow. 💥Find my reviews at https://kristinemadera.com/tag/book-review/ Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #octaviaebutlerbooks @octaviaebutler #parableofthesower
📚Review 🥰 The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name by Brian C. Muraresku ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Immortality Key is an epic romp through history and prehistory to investigate the claim by 1970’s renegade scholars that the modern eucharist ritual that symbolizes union with God in the Christian religion was built on a sacrament of psychedelic wine and beer used ritually by the Greeks and others to bring about a direct experience of transcendence. In other words, were the ancient religions with no name based on the direct experience of the divine realms through consciousness-altering drugs—which is a highly subjective and individual experience. If so, then how did this mutate into the modern religions that focus on collective belief in shared stories, concepts, and dogmas to unify adherents? And, in the case of Christianity, how did a sacrament that symbolizes transcendent union displace a sacrament of direct experience? The premise grabbed my interest from the start, especially the contention that the original recipes for the purported psychedelic sacraments were the domain of women in the ancient world, and how women were cut off from this ritual power and vilified as witches as the tamer modern eucharist was appropriated by men. Mind-altering substances have been part of the human story in most ancient, indigenous, and even modern societies (martini, anyone?), and so the premise of this book is both believable and compelling. Is it true as Muraresku laid it out? I don’t know. But his 12-year search for evidence from talking with archeological chemists, spelunking the catacombs of Rome touring ancient Greek ruins with archeologists, Muraresku presents a strong case. Even if readers choose not to accept the evidence as “true,” readers will certainly come away with a broader understanding of history and our enduring connection with both our ancestral roots and the whole ancient world. 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviewers #bookreaders #bookread #bookreviewblogger #bookreaderscommunity #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #brianmuraresku @brian_muraresku
📚Review 🥰 Where It Rains In Color by Denise Crittendon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Everything is now...this idea is at the heart of this imaginative story. Contemporary Earth and the mythology of the (real) Dogon tribe of Mali seed the world of Swazembi, where the distant descendants of the Dogon live. Lileala, a "Rare Indigo" beauty connects with this history and even interacts with it in a way that heals the many wounds of the past and creates a better, more compassionate, wise, and inclusive alliance once Lileala has faced adversity to bring her true gifts and beauty to her world. Crittendon creates an extraordinary world of sensation and beauty and vibrational (color, light, sound) technology that interconnects a Coalition that mostly works well and is peaceful and functional. The critical problem (that comes back to bite them) is that they have excluded the Kclab, who would like to join. The Kclab bargain for entry by offering a cure for the keloids that suddenly mark Lileala as well as others in the Coalition, and require that those they treat come to a stark asteroid for several weeks where life is challenging but not a horror show. On this asteroid, Lileala faces both the inner and outer adversity that marks the classic dark night of the soul, where she connects with her distant ancestry, confronts her shortcomings, and cultivates the wisdom and compassion to live her true beauty so he can then help the world she comes from, and step into a better version of itself. This new protopian flavor of story is one I want to see more of (and write myself.) Coined by Wired's Kevin Kelly, protopian stories imagine a better but evolving and imperfect future, rather than the dystopian or occasionally utopian stories that most sci-fi and spec-fi focus on. 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #Whereitrainsincolor #denisecrittendon @denisecrittendon7
📚Review 🥰 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I'm in the five-star camp on this one because the characters and their interactions and complications seem so much like they might in real life, which is to say messy and somewhat dysfunctional yet redeeming in a quiet way. Not being a gamer, learning about the gaming aspect was interesting rather than off-putting, and has me wondering if there might be a game or two out there that I might be interested in playing--I'd always thought games were either about shooting/fighting or domination of some sort and never through there were ones where you might have interesting interactions with other avatars that were about more than trying to hurt them or partnering with them to hurt someone else. After I got oriented, I thought that the second-person "you" segment was quite well done and important to the story as a whole in that it would have been lacking something without it. I also like that the book wasn't very predictable in a story sense, though readers would obviously assume relationship ups and downs. This is my first read by Gabrielle Zevin but it won't be my last for sure! 💥Find more reviews using the Instagram profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #gabriellezevin #gabriellezevinbooks @gabriellezevin
📚Review 🥰 Euphoria by Lily King ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I was drawn to Euphoria by Lily King because it took place in Papua New Guinea and I was a Peace Corps Volunteer there—and had traveled briefly to the Sepik River where much of the story took place. Within the context of anthropological work in the era between the two world wars, is a love triangle between three anthropologists that is at points redemptive, inspiring, and ultimately deadly. I enjoy books I learn from, and the cultural portrayals and insights into that era of anthropology fascinated me. Beautifully written and sometimes jarring, this is a great read that challenges the reader to step out of the world as they know it, by exploring a new culture, coming to terms with how anthropology interacts with indigenous people, and with the relationships of the characters involved. 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #lilyking #lilykingbooks @lilybooks
📚Review 🥰 Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us by Will Storr @williamstorr ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Will Storr’s book Selfi stitches together the ancient Greeks through to the modern age with the thread of existential perfectionism, our changing self-perception and the stories we tell ourselves about the unattainable person we are supposed to be. The ancient Greeks obsessed over the idea of a perfect man (yes, always a man with the Greeks) who believed that fate was centered in the individual to the exclusion of other cultural forces (like, say, being a woman in ancient Greece) and that outer beauty signaled inner virtue. This gave way to the Christian idea of perfection as a clean and godly interior self. The Humanists then brought the idea of idealized authenticity and radical self-responsibility, followed by the Neo-liberal hyper-competitive, winner-take-all cultural ideal of self-sufficiency, success, and trampling over the masses to achieve your own goals. Storr, in this part research project and part memoir book, shares his own journey on the path of perfection. He says that storytelling is ultimately a form of tribal propaganda that defines the ideal self, tells us what we need to change to become that ideal self, and then gets us to internalize this story and become complicit in the propaganda. He warns that perfection is an illusion that can cause people to chase goals that they don’t care about and skills they don’t want in the relentless pursuit of perfection. For some, the dissonance between the faddish ideal self and the real self can even cause a spiral of self-loathing that can lead to suicide. Storr encourages readers to stop believing the propaganda and free themselves from its demands so that they can live a life that is meaningful to them. In other words, put down that selfie stick and be the real you, not the idealized you that you’ve been taught that you need to be. A worthwhile read! 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Bookreviewers #bookreaders #bookread #bookreviewblogger #bookreaderscommunity #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor
📚Reading Now 🥰 Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You by Jenara Nerenberg I’ve known I was an HSP (highly sensitive person) since before that label rose to the fore. No fan of labels, even though they can provide a kind of social shorthand, I started this book to learn more about HSP and how it works for women in particular. Then came the section on Aspergers/Autism and ADHD, and as she listed the traits, I thought check, check, check…holy crow! So it is with curiosity and no small amount of trepidation that I am working my way through this book and taking time to process what I’m reading (as per my HSP+ tendencies.) A caution that even about 30% of the way in, the book seems focused on high-functioning, predominately white women who have found ways to excel despite and even because of their processing differences. So if this isn’t you or if you are expecting something more inclusive, fair warning to check expectations. That said, for me, it has been an eye-opener and has proved helpful in making me feel less alone and less different, yes, even as a high-functioning white woman who has been lucky enough to carve out a life that works for me. Are you reading or have you read this book? What did you think? Are you a neurodivergent woman? If so, does this book reflect your experience? NO spoilers please 🙏🦄 💥Find more reviews in Book Reviews via the profile link 💜 #Readingnow #readingcommunity #readingisfun #readingnook #readingwomen #readingforpleasure #readingclub #whatareyoureading #readerlife #readercommunity #readersandwriters #readersofinstagram📚📚❤️ #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #booklover #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #jeneranerenberg @neurodiversityproject
📚Reading Now 🥰 A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys I picked up this book because speculative writer Ruthanna Emrys organized some of her future world in this book similarly to what I did in a Spec-YA series I’m working on (but I won’t spoil why LOL). I’m about 25% into it and am finding it highly imaginative both socially and technologically, and of course in the interaction between the Earth’s humans and the alien species that comes to convince Earthlings to leave their planet. Look for the review in a few weeks! Are you reading or have you read this book? What did you think? NO spoilers please 🙏🦄 💥Find my book reviews through the Instagram profile link 💜 #Readingnow #readingcommunity #readingisfun #readingnook #readingwomen #readingforpleasure #readingclub #whatareyoureading #readerlife #kristinemadera #readercommunity #readersandwriters #kristinemadera1 #kristinemaderaauthor #ruthanneemrys #readersofinstagram📚📚❤️
📚Review 🥰 Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock is speculative fiction at its best—in this case, a highly readable romp through what might happen if climate change got bad enough for private actors and small countries to go rogue with geoengineering tactics to slow the impacts of global warming. In Termination Shock, global warming has compelled Texas billionaire to launch sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere using his super gun Pena2Bo—named for the real Mt Pinatubo, whose actual 1991 eruption sent ash and sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere, reflecting sunlight and cooling the planet by a degree for about 15 months post-eruption. Does the ploy work in the book? Technologically, yes—which is why it is debated in real life as a climate mitigation technique. Is it successful? It depends on if you are a country like the Netherlands that is slowly sinking beneath rising sea waters, or a country like India whose delayed monsoons decimate crop yields. The takeaway in the book—as in real life—is that the unintended consequences of geoengineering may have a higher sociopolitical and economic cost than directly changing the carbon burn and other dynamics contributing to our climate problems. Termination Shock is rich with compelling characters, competing agendas, and intrigue that gives readers an understanding of the possibilities and pitfalls of using geoengineering to mitigate climate change, as well as the catastrophic cost of doing nothing—or not doing enough. An entertaining and informative read! 💥Find more of my reviews at https://kristinemadera.com/tag/book-review/ or access book reviews from the Instagram profile link 💜 #Bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookreader #bookreviewblog #bookreads #authorlove #authorsofinstagram #indieauthor #kristinemadera #kristinemaderaauthor #booklover #nealstephenson #nealstephensonbooks #nealstephensonbook #nealstephensonrocks
The Akashic Records are your soul's entire story, and they're available for you to explore. Spending time in the records can help with understanding challenges or past trauma--healing oneself is possible through this process! You may also discover what purpose God has planned just for YOU while exploring these energies here on Earth... This passage mainly focuses on how significant access one has to their own personal spiritual archives which contain all previous experiences since birth. So check the link below for my podcast with Kristine Madera. Here are the links: Webpage: https://kristinemadera.com/find-your-soul-plan-in-the-akashic-records-with-lisa-barnett/ Bitley: https://bit.ly/3Mx9VZL Anchor: https://anchor.fm/kristine-madera/episodes/Find-Your-Souls-Plan-in-the-Akashic-Records-with-Lisa-Barnett-e1hcud8 Bitley: https://bit.ly/37E4fOF Youtube: https://youtu.be/7aeQOzAaQa0 #podcast #KristineMadera #energy #lisabarnett #akashicrecord #akashicrecords #openyourheart #heartopener #meditation #soulguidance #akashic #reikihealer #spiritualcoach #healingjourney #soulguide #lightwarrior #spiritualmentor #soulfood #soulgrowth #soulwisdom #lifelessons #lifesupsanddowns #lifeofpurpose #intentionallife #intentional #intuitionismysuperpower
One of my favorite stories from my upcoming book Faithcation: An Adventure in Truth is when I had arrived in St Petersburg and all my places to stay fell through. 😱⠀ ⠀ Back then, it wasn’t a city with hotel and restaurant signs where you could just walk in and get a meal or a room. This was also a time when Western visitors were supposed to be supervised by the official government Intourist service. But I’d come in through the back door without any official babysitters and I was trying to keep it that way, so I needed to stay under the radar. 😎⠀ ⠀ With nowhere to stay, limited food and had no idea what to do next—which was actually the point of this whole Faithcation trip—I stilled my racing thoughts and my racing heart and dropped into the quiet to lean into this consciousness to show me the way. The resolution still blows me away and was total proof to me that this force was trustworthy. 🙏🙏🙏⠀ ⠀ I share the full story of this, and many more, in my upcoming book Faithcation: An Adventure in Trust. 😍⠀ ⠀ Check out the book at MyFaithcation.com⠀ ⠀ If you’d like to read the book—and find out the rest of this story, help me get the best book deal possible by pre-ordering before June 13th & please share this with your friends⠀ ⠀ Thanks so much for your support! ❤️⠀ #kristinemadera1 #Booklovers #kristinemadera #books #nonfiction #travel #spirituality #Kindle #crowdsourcing #selflove #selfcare #selfdiscovery #higherself #empowerment #empoweryourself #loveyourself #nonfiction #travel #consciousness #women #bookstagram #soulawakening #spiritualjourney #spiritualawakening #selfhelpbooks #truth
Love travel? Love spiritual growth? 💜 Check out my new book and pre-order for exclusive bonuses. Preorders also help me get the best publishing deal 😍 Thanks for taking a look! Link has summary, sample chapter & more! #kristinemadera1 #Booklovers #kristinemadera #books #nonfiction #travel #spirituality #Kindle #crowdsourcing #selflove #selfcare #selfdiscovery #higherself #empowerment #empoweryourself #loveyourself #nonfiction #travel #consciousness #women #bookstagram #soulawakening #spiritualjourney #spiritualawakening #selfhelpbooks #truth