While the target audiences of this book are educators and/or people with school-age children, I think the overall outlook of the book is important to the general public and policy-makers. Even if you are decades out from school or don't have kids, just as an adult it was eye-opening thinking about the kind of technology I want in my own life. How do I want to engage with my brain, new information, and curiosity and does technology help or harm that? There were so many great takeaways, but I appreciated this quote the most:

“Many digital tools are designed to support what psychologists call cognitive offloading: the act of using external devices to perform mental tasks. AI is the ultimate offloading device. That’s why it’s often hailed as the ultimate productivity booster across industries. But here’s the problem: productivity is not the same as learning. Whenever people regularly offload a task, they naturally come to lean on the tool. Over time, this creates dependence: take the tool away, and performance collapses.” p. 111

Recommend, also a very quick read!

My favorite quote was "The past is always here, haunting our homes, standing over us at night. They say you don't get rid of a ghost by pretending it isn't there. The legends tell us to address the ghost directly. Declare that this is our home and it isn't welcome here anymore. But I'm the only one yelling, screaming at spirits in the living room while everyone else averts their eyes, pretending there's nothing wrong" (p. 191).

This was a hard hitting book. Raw feelings, traumatic events, and a full range of emotions on the page. Stephanie Foo gave us a gift in being willing to share so much of herself, not just the trauma, but also the healing, and her work with therapists. If you choose to read it (which I highly recommend) do so knowing that you don't have to finish it all in one sitting and in fact, working on it a bit at a time may offer more insights.

“Health inequities are caused by poverty, racism, lack of medical care, and other social forces” (162). Don’t dismiss this slim work by notable fiction writer John Green. Green’s voice lends a thoughtful albeit simmering overview of the treatable and preventable leading cause of death in the world. Due to the aforementioned health inequalities, TB is still very much alive and deadly in low- and middle-income countries. Woven with the heart-wrenching story of Henry, this work is a must-read for its humanity and care.

Lauren Asher really likes to pack a punch in the third book of her trilogies and this one is no different. Some really tough topics were handled with care including OCD, mental illness, grief, and trauma. I liked the dynamic of the two characters. Despite them seeming at such odds in the previous two books they really worked well together. If you're looking for smut, this one isn't it, as it takes all the way until almost page 380, though it is well-written when it does arrive. However, if you want some deep conversations and deep emotions, this one hits home.

I cried reading the final pages of this poignant and lovely memoir. Spanning from the 1960s through the 2020s it is a tribute to grief and anger, but also to love. India is not only the backdrop but an entire character, nearly as colossal as Mary Roy (the author’s mother and often main character). It is a wonder that we even have the chance to read this memoir given how much life Arundhati has lived—at least triple that of an average person. I’m thankful for that opportunity. Lucky, even.

One of my favorite quotes: "It wasn't nostalgia that took me back so much as the desire to exorcise some of my old ghosts by looking them in the eye, and to hang on to others, to tell the of my great escape. That I learned, is impossible. We either house all our ghosts as I do, or unhouse them all, as my brother does. There's no bargaining with ghosts." (Page 272)

Absolutely gruesome, but I couldn’t put it down. The quaint, pastel art style of a children’s storybook lulls the reader into a sense of security before suddenly two pages of serial killer horror shock you back into the story. It’s this juxtaposition that makes this graphic novel really imaginative, alongside a surprisingly likeable main character, and a plot worthy of a Dexter episode. Great for anyone who ever imagined what it’d be like if the Berenstain Bears or Winnie the Pooh were secret killers.