jaygabler's reviews
120 reviews

Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend: A TOON Graphic by Noah Van Sciver

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informative medium-paced

5.0

Like a lot of Minnesota kids, I grew up with books about Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. The books told incredible stories of the man who could fell an entire tree with one swing of his ax, and about his bovine companion, whose footprints became the state's 10,000 lakes.

Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend tells the story behind those stories of the legendary logger — and it's not pretty.
The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink by William Inboden

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informative medium-paced

3.0

Thank you Penguin Random House Audio for the free audiobook. With Robert Petkoff confident on the mic, William Inboden presents the most sympathetic possible view of U.S. foreign policy in the ‘80s. The narrative is as fixated on the U.S.S.R. as Reagan was, and there’s a certain authenticity to that.
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Blood in the Tracks: The Minnesota Musicians Behind Dylan's Masterpiece by Paul Metsa, Rick Shefchik

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informative medium-paced
 Much has been written about those two winter nights in 1974, including a 2004 book co-authored by Kevin Odegard, one of the musicians who played with Dylan. Still, Blood in the Tracks now stands as the definitive account of the sessions that produced one of the most lauded albums ever recorded in Minnesota. 
From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi by Mike Chen, Saladin Ahmed, Olivie Blake, Fran Wilde, Charlie Jane Anders, Mary Kenney

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dark emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Lots of TV show references packed into this alternate take on Episode VI, from The Book of Boba Fett to Obi-Wan Kenobi to Andor to...the Ewoks animated series and TV movies?! I'm obsessed. Thank you Random House for the free book.
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Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere by Maria Bamford

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funny lighthearted fast-paced
Although Sure, I'll Join Your Cult recounts a long journey through support groups and professional care, with no pat resolution, it's not cynical. The book acknowledges that a human brain is a complicated thing to have, and that even if no one cult — er, program — can solve all your problems, it just might save your life.
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Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

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emotional funny reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you Random House for the free book. One last 2023 beach read! “Summer Sisters,” out in a new edition for its 25th anniversary, shows a new dimension of why Judy Blume is such a compelling author. Closely observed characters, evocative seaside setting, incisive wit.
The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
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Mining the Heartland: Nature, Place, and Populism on the Iron Range by Erik Kojola

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informative medium-paced

5.0

 Essential documentation of the fight over copper-nickel mining: not just about jobs, not just about the environment.
Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins

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

4.0

Hollywood Wives has been given new life with a 40th anniversary reissue, but it was long ago guaranteed immortality. A gilt-edged, leather-bound copy of Jackie Collins’s novel has pride of place on the schadenfreude bookshelf. Anyone seeking assurance that rich and famous people are absolutely miserable and obsessed with petty grievances can take Hollywood Wives into the bubble bath.

It might be awkward to celebrate Hollywood Wives’ milestone birthday just as movie actors and writers are taking to the picket line, but the story of these characters and SAG-AFTRA, if set in the present day, would be just as free from actual moviemaking as the original novel.

Sadie LaSalle would be trying to get Buddy Hudson on TikTok, with Buddy left wondering whether a doppelgänger account was run by his twin or simply a deepfake. Gina Germaine would be pitching a reality series, Ross Conti would be mulling offers from Pornhub, and Montana Gray would be on the picket line trying to answer reporters’ questions about whether it really counts as striking when she’s never had a screenplay actually produced.

While the foibles of Collins’s characters remain recognizable, the world they lived in is long gone.
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Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade by Delilah S. Dawson

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you Random House for the free book. Star Wars may be space opera, but Delilah S. Dawson plumbs real emotion in her absorbing new novel. There’s even a Barbie-season element, with a pink mean girl Twi’lek nemesis for the seething Iskat Akaris.
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