Like in her previous novels, Helen Oyeyemi takes a traditional fairytale and spins it on it's head. Gingerbread is a brilliant take on "Hansel and Gretel" and other famed tales, cleverly blending race, working class rights, and feminism with magical realism.
Heather
They're the modern day coliseums. The hold thousands, staff hundreds, and won’t be paid off until well after they've been demolished.
John
The value of this book – barely a year old – is already so well established that one feels almost superfluous recommending it. And yet in addition to the cinematic storytelling, the breathtaking power of her writing, the incredible solidity of her mythic figures, and the author’s formidable voice, one drifts through this book with the sense of being privy to a serene wisdom, its effects too enduring not to seek to share. Amidst eternity, quiet as the dawning sun, rising with steady and peaceful assurance, the book’s central question rings out: for what will we risk our hearts?
James
Short, sweet, and bitingly funny, this collection--originally recorded as audio essays for NPR--will have you raring get outside and enjoy the spring weather! This is some of the best work I've read about the red rock deserts of Utah (my home country!), besieged by oil & mineral leases and left with diminished protections under the current Department of Interior. It might inspire a trip to Bears Ears or Canyonlands as well. ;)
Kate
Wow, what a book. This book was a blockbuster success in Australia and it deserves every bit of hype. The momentum of the writing is irresistible, the humor is both dark and laugh-out-loud, and the characters are deliciously compelling. You won't need a bookmark because you won't put it down.
David
One of the most beautiful statements on the power of reading I’ve ever read. Whether you know Proust or not, Czapski’s story of using literature to stay sane and build community in a Soviet prison is profoundly moving. Even more impressive, his reading of Proust is absolutely brilliant; insightful if you’ve read Proust and a great place to start if you haven’t.
Josh
This book will fill the gaping hole in your chest left by Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch series. One of the best science fiction debuts of 2019. Fantastic!
Rebecca
Roger lives for words. His sister Dodger lives for numbers. They were created to take control of the world, but first they have to figure out how to do it without losing themselves in the process. Good thing they can rewind and try again however many times they want. I read this book twice since it was published and I know I'll read it again soon. It's like Undertale crossed with Escape from Witch Mountain. It's not like anything else you've ever read.
Shana
The final title of Hamilton’s 3-volume biography of FDR as commander-in-chief is a triumph. Compulsively readable yet with a masterful command of his source material, Hamilton gives us a fresh and detailed view of the last two dramatic years of FDR’s life from the wartime summit in Tehran, through the landings at D-Day, his election to a fourth term and the dying president’s final Big Three conference at Yalta.
Dale
Audible gasps ahead! I could not put it down. A fantastic array of true stories and A PERFECT GIFT BOOK!
Molly
