Three star review, originally posted here on April 21, 2024. This book tells the history of a fish. That’s pretty much it. Now, sometimes books come along that are about a seemingly boring or inconsequential topic, but then the writing style or the subject matter itself is so mind-blowingly amazing that this niche topic sucks … More Goodreads Review: Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

Four star review, originally posted here on April 21, 2024. This book felt like Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, but dripping with snark. Or at times like Alexandria Petri’s US History: Important American Documents (That I Made Up), but with nothing made up. The history is all real history, but this … More Goodreads Review: Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot

Three star review, originally posted here on April 8, 2024. Every now and then I decide to read a super popular book, even though I typically don’t like them all that much. Occasionally I love them, but even when I don’t, it’s interesting to see what the masses are into nowadays. I didn’t go looking … More Goodreads Review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Four star review, originally posted here on March 29th, 2024. This is easily the nerdiest thing I have ever read, and I am 100% here for it!!! I love history, I love Alexandra Petri, and I loved doing goofy humor-based projects in high school. So this was right up my alley. I was surprised, though, … More Goodreads Review: Alexandra Petri’s US History: Important America Documents (I Made Up) by Alexandra Petri

Three star review, originally posted here on March 29, 2024. This is not a book that, at first glance, interested me. Judging the book by its cover, nothing jumped out at me. It’s about a grocery store? I dunno, seems kinda touchy-feely. And the cover art is just some nondescript dude standing around holding a … More Goodreads Review: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

Three star review, originally posted here on March 15, 2024. ** spoiler alert ** There was plenty of interesting content in the book, both in terms of general information, and specific narrative. However, the storytelling was disorganized and disjointed, which made it really drag. It began well, but once we’d established who our narrator is, … More Goodreads Review: Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Train by Andrea Lankford

Five star review, originally posted here on March 1st, 2024. This review will bear a striking similarity to my last review, Ayoade on Top, which was also by a British comedian. In that review I said that if you’re someone who is into Richard Ayoade’s humor, you’ll like the book. Go figure, in this case, … More Goodreads Review: James Acaster’s Classic Scrapes by James Acaster

Four star review, originally posted here on February 26th, 2024. It goes without saying, but if you’re not really into Ayoade’s style of humor, then you won’t like this. if you ARE into Ayoade’s humor, though, then this book is absolutely hilarious. I recommend doing the audiobook (read by the author) so you can get … More Goodreads Review: Ayoade On Top by Richard Ayoade

Four star review, originally posted here on February 21, 2024. For the first half (maybe even two-thirds) of this book, I was considering giving it five stars. The main reason was purely subjective: I really, really wanted to continue reading. I was interested in the story. I was enjoying the experience. I was looking for … More Goodreads Review: Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Four star review, originally posted here on February 20th, 2024. This was a pretty thorough history of Indiana’s KKK at its peak in the 1920’s. I wasn’t expecting any story involving the klan to be anything other than absolutely horrible, but I was surprised by the way in which this particular way was horrible. I … More Goodreads Review: A Fever in the Heartland: The Klu Klux Klan’s Plot to Overtake America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan