libscote's reviews
6271 reviews

This is an excellent overview of the movie making process and all the work that goes into it. The "choose-your-own-adventure" aspect makes it a little different than other nonfiction books, and it works here to make the reader feel like they are making their own decisions about some different parts of the movie. 

I tend to like juicy details of people's lives, but I can understand why they might not want to share them all. I was inspired to listen to this after seeing the musical "Beautiful." I wanted to know how much was real and how much was made up for the show. Overall I would say that it's close but not exact. It also made me realize how much of my knowledge of Carole King ends with the "Tapestry" album. There's so much after that!

A powerful read about a little-known time that becomes especially poignant when looking at Ukraine and Russia right now. I also think the misinformation part is interesting in 2024. I agree with another review I saw that it was a little slow to start--whiny kid heads are sometimes hard to start in. It gets way better though.

I like this middle grade novel about a child coming to terms with their identity. It explores transracial adoption (which I don't find a lot of in middle grade books) as well as some LGBTQIA+ categories. I also thought the exploration of a first relationship was pretty accurate. For those of you in Maine, the writer grew up in southern Maine before moving to NYC.

The story of the power of girls and the power of the press, based on an Italian village during the Middle Ages. I did like the girl power feel of the book, but felt it wrapped up a bit too neatly. 

I didn't know a lot about Mae West, other than that she was best known for her witticisms. I read this book on the second try, when I decided to spend less time trying to figure out who all the vaudeville figures were and just go with the flow. It did make me want to see some Mae West films.

There were things I really liked about the book--I liked the author's note at the end explaining the history of anti-Semitic tropes in vampire lore, and how he consciously went about using those in his book, and how he included the Jewish faith in his story. I liked the bond between the two brothers and how their different ages can cause friction even mortals feel.

This is perhaps due to being an adult, or reading more vampire lore, but I spent a lot of time wondering how vampires lived in the same house in the same town with jobs for years and no one seemed to question it. I know that isn't what I was supposed to be focusing on, but that drew me out of the book and made it hard for me to fully tap in. Someone who is able to let that go will find this book much more enjoyable.

This is the cute summer romance I was hoping for. Abby feels like she's always the sidekick, and that's okay. She's got this awesome internship this summer and runs a plus-size fashion blog called Plus Style. There's one small road bump--she has to share the internship with Jordi Perez, a photographer in her class. A very CUTE photographer, who might be gay like Abby. Friendship and family drama also happen in the book, but sometimes they are very supportive. 

Gorgeous illustrations about different animals and their lifespans.

I think this book is a good introduction to period poverty and what life after being a serious athlete can be like. The transition period is hard. That explains Eden's lack of knowledge about different areas. I think the part I struggled with is the relationship between Eden and her mom. There seemed to be a lot of assumptions happening that I didn't quite follow, especially on Eden's mom's part.