Reviews and Comments

Jules

eldritchteacozy@bookrastinating.com

Joined 1 year, 4 months ago

I'll read just about anything that catches my eye, especially if there's an audiobook of it!

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Anita Kelly: Love and Other Disasters (AudiobookFormat, 2022, Hachette Audio) 5 stars

The first openly nonbinary contestant on America’s favorite cooking show falls for their clumsy competitor …

Cooking up romance

5 stars

I cannot say enough good things about this book. The characters are lovable and flawed and so relatable. Their romance feels refreshingly real, while still being fluffy and a little sexy. The ending works so beautifully and the setting of the cooking show is just a lot of fun. It was the perfect distraction. I used to think romance just wasn't the genre for me, but this book has changed my mind. It's kind of amazing what good representation can do.

Recommended for: anyone who loves romance and cooking shows, especially if you love a good tsundere.

Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (AudiobookFormat, 2004, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC) 4 stars

Published in 2004, it is an alternative history set in 19th-century England around the time …

Magical History Tour

5 stars

I have literally had a copy of this book since it came out and was finally able to read it through the magic of audiobooks. The narrator is very good and does distinct character voices that made it much easier to follow and digest. The book itself was very enjoyable, as long novels often are, once you really get into them. There is A LOT of world building and detail, and the characters were mutlifaceted and interesting and the language surrouning faerie and magic was very evocative. Highly recommended.

Anna-Marie McLemore: Self-Made Boys (AudiobookFormat, 2022, Macmillan Audio) 4 stars

Stonewall Honor recipient and two-time National Book Award Longlist selectee Anna-Marie McLemore weaves an intoxicating …

A Great Gatsby?

4 stars

Full disclosure: I've started but never finished The Great Gatsby multiple times. It just hasn't clicked for me yet. So, I have no real connection to the source material other than the retellings and the movie. What drew me to this initially, was the author, Anna-Marie McLemore. Their book, Lakelore, was a really good and fantastical portrayal of struggling to come to terms with the parts of yourself you'd rather keep hidden, while simultaneously being an uplifting story of queer found family and care. I was hoping this would be the same, and I was not disappointed. If anything, the themes are even stronger in Self-Made Boys. It has some of my favorite tropes of found family and mutual pining, while exploring the consequences of multiple types of passing. I really appreciate that McLemore touched on the character's relationships to the war, as well. That's something that has often been …

Ed Yong: I Contain Multitudes (AudiobookFormat, 2022, Penguin Random House Audio) 5 stars

Joining the ranks of popular science classics like The Botany of Desire and The Selfish …

What do animals see?

5 stars

This was utterly fantastic. It's the kind of book that reminds you that there is so much mystery and wonder in the world and so much that we still do not know. The structure was very forgiving, moving from senses that are easier to imagine to sense humans don't have, and in the case of magnetoreception, don't even really understand. The pop culture references were pretty great, too. How can I not love a book that makes a totally pertinant reference to Toph Beifong? I highly recommend the audiobook version. The author really nails it with a dynamic reading that also manages to be calming without being boring.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the natural world and different perceptions of reality. Just be aware that there is a chapter on pain. It talks about the ethical implications of causing harm to study pain, but by its nature, it discusses …