The Republican War on Science is a nonfiction novel detailing the falsification of scientific evidence by the Republican Party written by Washington Post reporter Chris Mooney. This book relays several examples of Republicans falsifying, hiding, or cherry-picking scientific information to promote their own purposes, most of which come from the Bush administration. As expected, this book is clearly biased, but that didn’t make the information any less intriguing.
In 1893, witch trials are rampant, especially in the town of New Salem. Juniper, Agnes, and Bella are three sisters bound together by magic after years of separation. While having to work through buried conflicts with themselves and each other, these sisters realize how magic and witchcraft are on the brink of extinction. Together, these sisters work with witches in the town of New Salem to combat the misogyny and anti-witch attitudes that dominate New Salem society, all the while learning the value of their own witching abilities and womanhood.
Veronica Roth’s Divergent, the first series in her trilogy of the same name, is a young adult dystopian novel. At this time, society is split into five factions, each based around a core value. Beatrice Prior’s initiation ceremony is arriving soon now that she’s sixteen, and she’ll have to choose between remaining in the faction she was born into or joining one of the others. After making her choice, Beatrice, nicknamed Tris, must navigate training, initiation, and relationships with her peers and family.
How About Never--is Never Good for You? is Bob Mankoff’s engrossing memoir that focuses primarily on his experiences as a cartoonist and editor of TheNew Yorker magazine. Wryly funny and a little tongue-in-cheek, this book is a quick and enjoyable tidbit. The story initially focuses on Bob Mankoff’s life, but gradually shifts to his professional experiences and the cartoons of The New Yorker.
After Ever Happy is the final book in the After series written by Anna Todd. This book follows Tessa and Hardin as they adjust to living in different states to get space from one another and experience personal growth. This book had a different vibe than the rest of the series; it had more of a somber tone than the others, which I didn’t love.
After We Fell, the third installment of Anna Todd’s After series, might just be the best book in the series. Tessa and Hardin learn to live separately and travel to England for Hardin’s mom’s wedding. Throughout all of this, Hardin and Tessa actually seem to learn how to communicate for the most part, and a lot of drama arises surrounding both Hardin and Tessa’s parents.
After We Collided is the second book in Anna Todd’s After series. This book really isn’t anything different from its predecessor except that it’s slightly better. In this book, Tessa and Hardin changed a little bit; Tessa became slightly more annoying with her inability to use commonsense, and I was happy to see Hardin actually express some emotion for once.
Lovely War by Julie Berry is a romance and historical fiction novel that follows the lives of four individuals during World War I, told from the perspective of Aphrodite (goddess of passion and love). Hazel, James, Colette, and Aubrey’s paths cross by mere circumstance, and with Aphrodite’s help, beautiful relationships are formed. As time passes, the perils of war threaten to interfere with the romances and friendships.
Sadie is a dual-narrative book following Sadie Hunter, a 19-year-old girl on the hunt to find the man who killed her sister, and West McCray, the radio personality tracing her footsteps for a true-crime podcast.
Sadie’s 13-year-old sister, Mattie, went missing and was later found dead. The police have no suspects, but Sadie has one, and she’s determined to find him.
Kiera Cass's fifth and final installment of The Selection series, The Crown, wasn't the best, but it wasn't the worst. I have a few problems with this book, the major one being the development of Eadlyn and Eikko's relationship, or lack thereof. Their relationship was predictable, but it had no growth; it seemed like they just kind of ended up together.
