Featured Review Archive

These reviews, which were promoted in CBR social media, on our homepage, and in Pajiba Love, appear below by review publication date, not by date featured.

Pest? A Matter of Perception

Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire

March 25, 2023 by LittlePlat 8 Comments

What defines a pest, really? What makes one animal seen as a loveable little critter that we want to share our space with and the other an irredeemable menace marked for eradication? In Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains, Bethany Brookshire attempts to answer this question by giving us a cultural history of our relationship with these species we deem ‘pest-y’ and what makes us so quick to assign them a villainous role. One of things that really stood out to me is […]

Smokey the Bear was Wrong

The Big Burn by Timothy Egan

March 25, 2023 by reginadelmar 4 Comments

The Great Fire of 1910 burned 3 million acres in Western Montana, Northern Idaho, parts of Washington and British Columbia. The fire burned in newly created national forests including the Bitterrroot, Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai and Lolo. Timothy Egan tells the story of the fire and the larger story of the creation of public lands through the efforts of Teddy Roosevelt, forester Gifford Pinchot and John Muir. The politics of resource conservation and the role of fire are certainly relevant now, particularly with the additional complexities […]

Judging a book by its cover worked in my favor this time

For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World by Sasha Sagan

March 25, 2023 by Mobius_Walker 1 Comment

I picked up this book based entirely on the title and cover for the Read Harder challenge. I had no idea what to expect, but this was such a good get. I checked out the audiobook version read by the author from my local library, but I absolutely will be purchasing a physical copy for myself. I have a very storied past with religion, and my journey of deconstruction continues to this day; despite no longer being religious, I frequently find myself missing religion. More […]

Love to Loathe this set of novellas

Loathe to Love You by Ali Hazelwood

March 23, 2023 by MegsDarcy 2 Comments

I haven’t been able to ‘get’ into any big books lately. My mind has been constantly bombarded by family drama, work drama, and society drama. Every time I’ve tried to sink into a nice big book and get lost I’ve had to set it down and it feels like weeks later before I can pick it up again. But I was flying and at the airport early and wanted something to read that wasn’t attached to a screen. Enter this enchanting little anthology. Three novellas […]

Luz Jimenez, Daughter of the Nahua – Guest Post by Terry T

Child of the Flower-Song People by Gloria Amescua, Duncan Tonatiuh

March 22, 2023 by Emmalita 1 Comment

Throughout history, the lives of certain individuals, when examined closely, illustrate the times in which they lived. This was true of the life of Luz Jiménez. The famous muralists and other artists of Mexico considered Luz to be the perfect model of the Indigenous Woman. She remarked at one time that she didn’t need a picture of herself because she was portrayed all over Mexico City. I heard Ms. Amescua read a part of Child of the Flower-Song People this past weekend. She stated that she […]

“What if it’s enough to just be…Us.”

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

March 17, 2023 by anana 1 Comment

The previous book in the Monk and Robot series by Becky Chambers was one of the first books I read and reviewed in 2023, and I adored it. I immediately put a hold on the second (and so far, last) book in the series, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. I eagerly waited for it to make it through my queue, fully confident that I would love it based on my feelings for the first book as well as my experiences with Chambers’ Wayfarers series. After […]

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