lyzz's reviews
995 reviews

I absolutely devoured this book. I have been a nurse for almost twenty years and I learned so much about nursing history from this book. In nursing school and my profession, I have been told the tale of Florence Nightingale. While she is certainly an important figure, this book tells a much more comprehensive history of nursing that begins in ancient times and comes to the present.

Not only does this book focus on nursing history but it focuses on how nurses are changing the world now in terms of reproductive access, chronic disease management, climate change and impacting public policy.

This book makes me even more proud to be a nurse and to be part of this rich history of carers. This is one of my favorite non-fiction books of all time and definitely my top for 2023!

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How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This is a sweet romance between two Jewish girls, Shana and May set during Christmas time in Washington DC. The meet-cute happens when Shana's mom accidently hits May with her car when dropping Shana off in DC to participate in a winter internship at the Smithsonian on paleontological ichthyology (dinosaur fish!). They met again when Shana takes a short-term job walking a neighbor's corgi who happens to be May's Dad. They have a cute non-queer date at the National Portrait Gallery. May is majoring in climatology. They both get so excited talking about climate change and dinosaur bones and it made me excited too.

I loved how this book tenderly explored the excitement and hesitation that goes with being vulnerable with someone, especially when you are young and inexperienced. It also gentles looks at how do you manage all these big new emotions from taking over your life and interfering with the other things that are important. Shana sees that her new romance is impacting her coveted internship.

I also loved how well the book handled intimacy and communication about intimacy. Shana has suffered a sexual assault and learning how to share that and ask for what she needs is done authentically.

Tropes: Forced proximity

Content Warnings

The Mosquito by B.A. Paris

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I loved the build-up in this short-story. I just felt like the pay-off was not as good as the build-up. It felt a bit meh for me.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

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challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a brilliant satirical take-down of the publishing world. I love how it tackle so many current topics like - who gets to tell what stories, the role of Twitter and social media, and how the publishing world picks winners and losers through selective marketing.

I love how engrossing this book was with the first person perspective. Juniper is desperate for the reader to her and at times it almost works.

The pacing of this book is spot-on as the tension of whether Juniper will get caught hangs over her head the entire novel.

One of the storylines in the book - an editorial assistant review bombing Juniper's book, actually played themselves out in real life last month when a debut author created fake accounts to review comb fellow authors. This speak to how close this book hits.

This is one of my favorite books of the year.

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lyzz's reviews 995 reviews

lyzz's reviews
995 reviews