Jocelyn's Reviews

This thoroughly satisfying novel is not only a love story (you’re warned at the outset what you’re in for). It also features vivid, recognizable characters; insight into the diversity of the Muslim faith; glimpses of the Qatari city Doha; true friendship (with solidarity and jealousy); and a call to action against injustice. I was delighted to meet these characters and their world—ours, but with the hope of something better. Great for fans of John Green, Rainbow Rowell, and Nicola Yoon.

This unique book rather defies description: part introduction to the history of bicycles and cycling, part history of feminist moments and movements through the lens of cycling, part history of women’s cycling in the Western world, and a dizzying panoply and who’s who of remarkable historical and present-day women. Hannah Ross guides us through it all with clear prose, wry wit, and a passion for the sport and for righting the inequalities that still plague it.

Kelly Brenner brings to vivid life not only a series of microhistories found (sometimes literally) in her backyard, but her own naturalist’s fascination for all life great and (especially) small, from crows gathering at dusk to moon snails by the sea, from basement spiders to slime molds in the woods to flies all around. Brenner enthusiastically invites anyone whose childhood involved collecting bugs or who spend weekends at wilderness identification courses to join her mini expeditions—and forge their own.

Renowned historian Karen Abbott uses a wealth of primary source documents and her impeccable prose to bring to vivid life the story of millionaire kingpin bootlegger George Remus, US Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt, and their Prohibition-era world. Abbott meticulously chronicles these larger-than-life characters’ journeys in this storied time, evocatively interspersing tantalizing courtroom testimony that hints at the scandal, betrayal, and murder to come. A true crime saga written to keep you turning pages.

Porochista Khakpour is a novelist but believes she is better known as an essayist. Specifically, as an Iranian American essayist. One who now is debuting her first published essay collection on being Iranian American. And these are powerful essays on the subjects of, as the title says, exile and identity, along with culture and politics, of being American, and being Iranian, and being American Iranian. But even more, these essays—independently written though they were—create a writer’s memoir, of becoming an artist and finding one’s voice, of becoming a New Yorker, and of being a human who is a person of color in our modern-day world. Pick up this book to read Khakpour’s insight into being an immigrant, being Iranian, and Iranian American culture, to be sure. But also pick it up for the voice and artistic story of the brilliant and powerful woman behind this book.

With Once & Future, Kieron Gillen returns to one of his favorite themes: How do stories shape reality? Framed with Dan Mora’s bold, dark art, Gillen takes up the Arthurian cycle, ancient tales of family drama, nationalism, and magic, and slips under their patina of heroism and honor by creating a modern-day adventure of family drama, nationalism, and magic. A new series for those who enjoy monster hunting, quests, and turning the Western canon on its head.

Make no mistake: Carolina de Robertis has written an epic to stand in the annals of the Western canon. Set in Uruguay, with five protagonists. Women protagonists. Queer women protagonists. Building love, family, and future amidst a violent dictatorship and cultural oppression that would deny them themselves. This novel sings through decades and heartbreak to be vibrantly, fiercely alive and free, as the stories of these five cantoras unfold with vivid, sometimes aching, truth of nation and humanity. 

Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park deftly evokes a historical setting familiar to many of us, while imbuing it with sorely needed—and historically accurate—diverse and representative perspective, giving us a new hero to follow over the prairie. A book perfect for any kid (or adult) who hungers for tangible historical fiction, celebrates friendship triumphing over adversity, and yearns for heroes who don’t shy away from confronting challenges both practical and cultural to survive and thrive.

Jeanette Winterson draws you into a world split between a life mostly true and one that could be: 18-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley writing Frankenstein, and young trans Dr. Ry Shelley, in love with Victor Stein, who dreams of breaking death’s hold on humanity. Also, sex dolls, poetry, workers’ rights, AI ethics, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and God—all part of a modern fable on humanity’s fears, Desire, and Love; a wild dream to marvel at. - Jocelyn

Joy Harjo is a poet, musician, daughter and mother and descendent, member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, and a poet laureate of the United States. She writes with urgent beauty of just anger and beautiful celebration, of past crimes (whose resonance is both felt and resurrected today), legacy, present joy, music and song, the immediacy of being human, and the specificity of being Native. Her words stick with the brightness of specific stars, of a greater whole winding its story still. - Jocelyn