Reviewed by Andrea Marks-Joseph

Teenage sisters unexpectedly upend everything they know to be true of their colonized homelands in this high fantasy political drama.

Sisters Effie and Vanna, three years apart, have been orphaned in the violent plundering of their village and consequential imperial rule from the Celestials. Claiming to protect them from piracy, the Celestials proclaim that their “lands are too rich to avoid unwanted attention, and your Gifts, however bountiful, will not be enough to deter those who would do you harm.”

The Celestials host an annual ceremony where villagers who have come of age and demonstrated proof of magical powers are tested for a particularly rare valuable skillset. Winners are honored with the duty to use their talents at the imperial army’s will. No one questions this or the Celestials’ intentions because the lore of the bloodshed they were saved from hangs heavy and haunting.

Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies spans years, venturing with Vanna and Effie into hidden, unfamiliar places, from alternating points of view: Effie and Vanna alone on their journeys. This is a politically intriguing and morally challenging story, a coming-of-age, a reckoning with colonialism and corruption—and it’s rooted in authentic sibling energy that anyone who grew up with a sibling just a few years apart in age will understand and feel deep to their core.

All Effie wants is to manifest powers and travel the world doing the duty she’s dreamed of for all her fifteen years of life. When Vanna manifests powers and joins the dragoons, Effie’s powers remain elusive, keeping her home. Their relationship becomes tense, especially with Effie sulking as she grows desperate to claim her destiny.

Alternating chapters provide insight into their strained sisterhood: We read Vanna’s pride in and protective heart for Effie, while we watch the sisters (both under increasing stress) verbally clash whenever they meet; Vanna’s duty takes her away for days on end, and we feel Effie’s tangled jealousy of Vanna colliding with the ache of realizing she misses her sister.

When Vanna is sent to stop rebels in another village who have “taken up arms to deny our host her tithe” she learns about the corruption and control used to enforce the Celestials’ power.

Back home, a conniving, entitled Effie lies, cheats, and demands her way into the audience of people with the power to grant her the job of her dreams. The determined sisters follow their hearts and sense of justice—Vanna’s aligned with duty to her country, army, and humanity; Effie’s led by her belief that the life granted to those with powers is her birthright.

Along the way, both teenagers are unexpectedly faced with an awakening about the reality behind the Celestial empire. Confronted with the patriarchy masquerading as servants to their Celestial queen, they begin to question their allegiance.

As an older sister, and someone who was nowhere near as bold (and frankly, daringly arrogant) a teenager as Effie, I related most to Vanna. I appreciated her compassion and capacity to recognize the enemy rebels as untrained, unskilled fighters not much older than Effie. She sees them for what they are: “children playing at soldier, armed with deadly weapons they didn’t understand.” I loved the strategic moves reflected in Vanna’s chapters and how her heart shone through even more than her very capable skills on the battlefield. Effie’s plans to claim her “rightful” place are twisted and so typical of a teenager willing to risk it all. I was thrilled and entertained by the lengths she was willing to go.

“To work the craft, you need to lie truthfully. You need to be honest and false, mysterious and bare. You need to bend in half without breaking. How many men do you know capable of containing so many contradictions?”

With a brilliantly evocative representation of imperialist tactics, Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies’ stunning setting serves as a background to the teenage girls’ feminist fueling, empowering understandings of their own power, and reckoning with the rewarding reality of rebellion. I read this book while following the proceedings at the UN General Assembly and was struck by the sharp, incisive clarity with which the author was able to mirror the struggle and strength of countless nations represented at the conference.

Author Z. Bennett Lorimer’s glittering high-fantasy world mirrors ours with remarkable emotional impact. Readers can’t help but be struck by the heartbreak and manipulation of a town left in ruins “as a reminder of all they had lost —all they might lose again without their host’s protection,” even as Effie and Vanna’s people live in peaceful gratitude to them.

“You’re balanced on a knife’s edge over bare sky…You’re going to spend the rest of your natural life falling through it. You’re going to fall and fall and fall—until your heart stops or your organs give out.” I frequently paused in awe of the author’s vivid descriptions of moments like a side character changing their beard’s style, a lavishly worded villainous threat, or an already-shocking-in-context scene turning into a truly astonishing sight, so gorgeous that anyone’s jaw would drop. Z. Bennett Lorimer has a gift for not only imagining spectacular, staggering drama, but writing these moments with searing emotion felt from each character’s specific desires.

I’d recommend this book for readers who love magical stories with real-world impact, listen to Paris Paloma songs, and prefer their revolutionary ideology served with a heaping dose of magnificent fantasy worldbuilding. More than anything, I’ll remember this book for its representation of siblinghood. I have not read so true and honest a reflection of the tangled emotions between similarly-aged siblings who aren’t on the best of terms but remain the one person on the planet who knows you deeply and (in their own complicated, questionable way) can’t help wanting the best for you.

Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies is worth recommending for Vanna and Effie’s sisterhood alone, but it’s also an expansive call for young women to follow their desires, and to listen carefully when older women impart their riotous feminist wisdom.

Plot-wise, I’m extremely stressed and enthralled about what will happen next. Luckily, the author has given us a wealth of thought-provoking, bewitching implications for each storyline Vanna and Effie find themselves in. I’ll be thinking about every possible angle—knowing that author Z. Bennett Lorimer will certainly continue to shock both his characters and his readers in unimaginable ways—while I wait for the urgently-needed, well-earned sequel.

Thank you for reading Andrea Marks-Joseph’s book review of Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies by Z. Bennett Lorimer! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Erin Britton

A haunting psychological drama that explores the rippled effects of trauma, betrayal, and accusation

Principally set during what should be a relaxing Mexican vacation, D.E. Adler’s The Rape of Elliott Roth confounds expectations by delving into the unsettling tension between public success and personal failure.

The initial tragedy belongs to someone else. A ranch hand swerves to avoid an oncoming car. He escapes the incident without physical damage, but the family in the other car is not so lucky. “He surveyed the damage and turned toward the sound of hissing steam and the smell of gasoline. A sudden explosion shattered the stillness and sent a plume of black smoke into the blue expanse.”

While a young girl is thrown from the vehicle during the accident and so avoids the explosion, the other family members are trapped inside. “After the fire died down, the cowboy saw the charred remains of the mother, father, and older brother suspended by their shoulder harnesses.” Critically injured, the girl is flown to Good Samaritan Hospital in Seattle for live-saving surgery.

It is here that Dr. Elliott Roth enters the milieu. A brilliant surgeon and a flawed human being, he is one of the few doctors with sufficient expertise to perform the brain surgery required to save the girl. “The child had a chance of surviving, but with what quality of life remained to be seen.” Deciding that the situation is too urgent to follow the time-out procedure and wait for a CT scan, Elliott begins to operate immediately.

Despite his undeniable skill, perceptions of his conduct in the operating theater will come back to haunt him.

The day after the surgery, Elliott joins best friend Jay “JDub” Walsh and a bunch of others—friends, acquaintances, and strangers—on holiday in Cabo. It’s not really his idea of a fun time, but Jay didn’t give him much choice. “It’s paradise with coral reefs, warm ocean breezes, and the freshest seafood. I’ve been after you like a honey badger. This time there’s only one answer.”

The group is certainly an eclectic one. There are hints of tension between Elliott and Jay’s wife (“Liz Walsh and I had been close for too long to let our friendship disintegrate over something that happened more than a year ago and would seem trivial five years from now.”), and the others seem to be harboring more than their fair share of secrets and lies. Will there really be the opportunity for rest and relaxation?

One thing to note about this story is that the title, The Rape of Elliott Roth, is not named for sexual assault but more in comparison with the literary tradition put forth by Alexander Pope in “The Rape of the Lock,” signaling the removal of something.

The book is narrated from the first-person perspective of Elliott, providing unfettered access to his thoughts and feelings. Saying that, D.E. Adler presents Elliott’s responses and reflections in such a way as to imbue them with a dream-like quality, with guilt and uncertainty echoing through much of what he has to say. Elliott may be convinced of the truth of his account, but others will likely be far less certain.

Elliott has low expectations regarding the trip to Cabo, but in this regard he is proven wrong by two opposing points of view. On the one hand, the holiday proves far worse than he could have imagined, providing the backdrop to his quite spectacular emotional unraveling. As the days pass and the need to return to reality looms, he has to confront the fragility of his façade and the long shadows of past events.

On the other hand, the vacation feels positive in a strange way, freeing Elliott from the mask of stability and solidity he has worn for decades. He faces up to various struggles and traumas from the past, and he finally recognizes the need to take a stand against the wrongs of those who surround him. He even manages to form a romantic/emotional connection, which though not without complications, does expand his horizons.

And Elliott is not the only holiday-maker desperate to avoid facing deep-seated damage, both their own and wounds caused to others. Beneath the illusion of camaraderie, when not occupied with swimming, snorkeling, and fine-dining, long-buried resentments simmer among the group, giving rise to a charged atmosphere of suspicion. As memory and desire collide, the boundaries of consent and accusation blur.

At both the personal level and more generally, The Rape of Elliott Roth wrestles with themes of guilt, loyalty, and the cost of remaining silent. Elliott’s moral ground becomes shaky as the accusations that surround him gather steam. Adler doesn’t offer him easy absolution; instead, there is the uncomfortable reality that some wrongs leave indelible scars and require more than apologies to heal.

Adler’s storytelling is taut and measured, echoing the surgical discipline of Elliott. Every encounter, flash of memory, or moment of silence feels deliberate, included to peel back another layer of his psyche. Adler also excels at emotional restraint. The unsettling core of Elliott’s emerges gradually through glances, half-formed admissions, and the friction between what characters reveal and what they conceal.

The setting—sun-drenched Cabo—provides a clear contrast to the darkness that unfolds. It’s an environment suggestive of escape and rejuvenation that instead becomes reflective of Elliott’s fears and failures. Rather than offering a sanctuary, the holiday becomes a trap, with the warmth of the sun and the companionship giving way to suspicion and tension. The presence of the others also means that Elliot’s private collapse becomes a public spectacle.

The Rape of Elliott Roth is an emotionally difficult story to process. It is part psychological thriller, part cautionary tale, and part moral inquiry. Much of it takes place at the messy boundaries between guilt and innocence, making it difficult to differentiate fact from fiction and determine who—if anyone—to trust.

Thank you for reading Erin Britton’s book review of The Rape of Elliott Roth by D.E. Adler! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Eric Mayrhofer

A post-WWII story with a clear sense of history and some truly thrilling scenes

With Diane Wagner’s Byline Budapest, readers can relax, confident that they’re in the hands of a gifted storyteller. Wagner shows an authoritative knowledge of the time period without ever letting it get in the way of a pulse-pounding tale.

We follow Charlie Atkins, an American expat in Munich working for Radio Free Europe, a station broadcasting pro-democracy news stories to citizens in nearby countries who want democratic reform for their governments. In love with the organization (perhaps naively so), Charlie longs to be part of the new staff instead of a coffee girl, and when she gets an opportunity to prove herself with a story about blood donations making their way to a war-torn Hungary, she jumps at the opportunity.

While women in the newsroom may have been more uncommon in the post-WWII era, the book makes the adventure believable by couching it in a deep familiarity with the geopolitics of the time. Charlie can rattle off the current events as well as the reporters she wants to join, proving her worthiness early on (even if the editor Mr. Owens refuses to acknowledge it). The authoritativeness with which the narration handles explanations of history makes it easy to trust and emotionally invest in all the other characters and harrowing obstacles that fall in Charlie’s path.

The book also plays with format to give readers the sensory experience of a radio broadcast. Throughout the book, readers will see Charlie’s radio reporting chops in action, presented in a radio script format, and anyone who has ever heard an NPR story will immediately hear Charlie’s voice as the confident reporter turned storyteller spinning yarns around the fire. These passages evoke narration interspersed with interview soundbites. After one story, readers discover that “Charlie worked hard, learning to write for listeners rather than readers…She incorporated music and sound effects,” making the whole radio news experience complete.

Wagner does a great job of characterizing these people in short windows, vividly sketching in what readers need to know and then moving along with the plot. While learning about Charlie’s professional life and her journalistic aspirations, we meet her colleague Viktor, a man with a coveted news staff position who readers will quickly grow to loathe (and love it). We see him through Charlie’s eyes and he immediately sets readers on edge: “His blue eyes, as cold and hard as January ice, his cheekbones, as sharp as right angles, and his teeth, which were broken and jagged like rickrack.”

That ability to concisely distill a character’s essence is a powerful gift, but it occasionally threatens to go awry. When characters meet Andras Kovács, a native Hungarian in the employ of Russia’s Communist regime, we quickly learn he’s meant to be the book’s foil for Charlie. When thinking of the Communists’ deteriorating hold on Hungary, he wonders, “And what to tell Moscow? That the entire country had gone mad on his watch? Not that Kovács was surprised, of course. He sensed for months that trouble was coming, and although he warned Hungary’s deeply loathed General Secretary Mátyás Rákosi directly, no one wanted to hear that unrest was brewing.”

Kovács is just as frustrated and disregarded by his peers as Charlie; a lovely setup to propel readers ahead—will he achieve his goals and stand in her way? Will he fail? Readers don’t get the full picture as quickly and deeply with him as we do our heroine. Yes, we do come to understand that he is a survivor, always knowing where the political wind is blowing and flowing with its currents. However, it’s a little blurry where and how that deep survivalist instinct gels with his desire to be seen, respected, and included by his peers.

This never stops Byline Budapest from being a good read though. If the book ever seems like it’s entering enough of a lull for readers to ponder on these mild contradictions, it quickly and organically introduces a thrilling action scene that cements your hatred of Kovacs, makes readers re-evaluate how ready Charlie is for the challenges of a war zone, and wondering how she will get back to Munich alive, let alone into the Radio Free Europe news room. If future installments of this expected series can keep the same brisk pace and astonishing grasp on history, sign me up.

Thank you for reading Eric Mayrhofer’s book review of Byline Budapest by Diane Wagner! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Addison Ciuchta

A fun and hopeful read about friendship, loyalty, and love

Turn Around is set in Stadium, Texas, a small football-centric town. Heather Ramsay is up for a promotion to principal of Stadium High, her marriage is strained, and her daughter keeps changing her college major, causing the family financial hardship to cover her tuition.

Luckily, she has a tight-knit group of friends who are part of a running club who lend her clothes to wear for her confirmation as new principal and offer emotional support when, out of nowhere, the school board gives the principal job to a newcomer instead. Now she’s not only faced with being passed over by the board, but also Heather’s financial situation is floundering without the promotion, and she must deal with the demands of the new principal who doesn’t seem to understand Stadium’s culture. Will Heather, her marriage, and her friendships make it in the face of rising tensions as the principal makes decisions that send shockwaves throughout their small community?

Turn Around is great at tugging on emotional heartstrings for Heather as the downfalls she face just keep piling up on her. Each time she seems to find some stable ground, yet another thing happens to set her back in a new way. Not only is she passed up for the principal job, but she’s also dealing with her marriage problems, tuition money, a critical mother, a difficult new boss, and an outraged community as she carries out the new principal’s rules despite how wrong they seem for her school. Rules like a strict attendance policy which, in their small town where many of the students work on their parents’ farms or miss class for football, is a difficult standard for many to meet causing some players to be unable to play, resulting in backlash from the community.

In the face of it all, though, she’s determined to find a solution, sacrificing even her most favorite things to make ends meet. She does it for her daughter. She reaches out to her husband even when it often ends in arguments. She shows up for work every day and does more than she’s asked for the students she loves. Her passion is what makes her a character who is easy to connect to and root for, putting all her efforts into a job that often has little to no acknowledgement but finding purpose in the job anyway. I also adored her love for raising chickens, her fancy chicken coop and all. The chickens really showcase her personality and even in her friends’ personalities.

The pacing does seem slightly off. The vast majority of this relatively short book is rising tension with new and added stakes stacking on top of each other from maybe too many directions. Then the resolution feels a little short and storylines wrap up too abruptly, like those involving her mother and the football coach.

While there might be slightly too many of them, the sources of tension in the book all touch on the troubles of everyday life. They make perfect sense for Heather and the parameters of her life. These aren’t the grandiose tensions of an action-packed thriller, but the tensions of daily life in the form of financial stress, relationship problems, workplace disappointment, and sacrificing what she loves for the sake of her family. These are things almost everyone has experienced, and the author does a great job of scaling the story to the characters and the setting.

The friend group is where the heart of this book truly lives, as Heather and her friends support, push, and take care of each other in their times of need. Based on the epilogue, the next book in the series will focus on one of Heather’s friends, with hopefully more to follow. I look forward to reading more about their dynamics, history, and their quirky small town from the others’ points of view in the future.

Turn Around is a sweet, heartwarming story of friendship, strength, and perseverance in the face of daily struggles. It’s not a grand adventure of a novel but a quiet peek into the lives of Heather and the residents of Stadium, Texas. I’d recommend Turn Around as a book club pick or for those looking for something hopeful and realistic.

Thank you for reading Addison Ciuchta’s book review of Turn Around by Carole Wolfe! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Shelby Zwintscher

A twisted, whimsical young adult fantasy

Stacy is not pleased to be moving into a new house and changing schools. Her new room smells of dog urine, her best friends are no longer speaking with her, and her new town has a peculiar amount of missing children posters plastered about. Tensions are high between Stacy and her parents, and after an argument where Stacy accuses her parents of not caring about her opinion, Stacy cries herself into a curiously dream-filled sleep.

In her dream, whispers from the woods beckon her to a stream where, in the distance, fairies shimmer and glow. With a deep breath, Stacy takes a leap, believing she can fly across to join them. Instead, she is met with the frigid chill of stream water. She thrashes against the water until light emanates and breaks free from her body, and she feels a sense of relief of knowing who she truly is.

Upon waking, Stacy’s curiosity carries her to the real woods, where she leaps across the stream and finds an alarming sight. Fairies, resembling children with wings, are having some kind of ceremony. In the center of it all, a human child tied to a rock altar, about to be sacrificed by a faded, ghostly fairy. Stacy is desperate to help, but an older man rushes to stop her from intervening, warning her she’ll be next.

The next night, Stacy returns to the woods to find the phone she dropped when she fled. She stumbles across the kind old man from the night before, but not long after, she is captured by the fairies as a prisoner of the Queen.

Stacy’s story unravels and twists as she is thrust into the remarkable world of fairies. With the guidance of the kind old man, a wizard called Bower, Stacy learns about the world of magic dust, the reason fairies sacrifice human children, and the queen’s dark ambition.

The Queen’s Dark Ambition oozes with childlike wonder and whimsy. The fairies live in harmony with the natural world, residing in doorless tree houses to welcome their coexistence with nature. Each description of this world within the wood feels carefully and thoughtfully laid out, immersing the reader into the deep wonder of nature and fairy magic. The childlike whimsy is apparent in common activities of the fairy world, such as flying races and foraging about the woods.

“Deep purple lupins were scattered amongst the large foxgloves, with their spectacular luscious flowering turrets. Bees and butterflies hummed and fluttered above… In the air, particles of dust, unsettled by a light breeze, shimmered in the light as they fell.”

The Queen’s Dark Ambition covers a lot of ground, sometimes more than necessary. There are a few parts where the story drags, but there is still plenty of tension and unanswered questions that keep you going through the slower parts. The magic system is complex but engaging, especially when interwoven with religion.

In part two of her story, Stacy spends a lot of time with Bower, the wizard. Stacy and Bower’s relationship is sweet and heartwarming as he takes care of her and teaches her the ways of this new world she’s trapped inside of. They form a touching familial bond within the cozy, warm setting of Bower’s lodge. Their relationship is a true highlight.

“I perched on his lap like he was an elderly family relative, offering what little comfort I could. Soon, I put my full weight on him, resting my head on his chest. I felt safe, missing the childhood attentions I had received from my parents until recent years.”

A modern fairy tale that fuses playfulness with eeriness, The Queen’s Dark Ambition will send you to the whimsical, yet dangerous natural world and make you feel glad you came.

Thank you for reading Shelby Zwintscher’s book review of The Queen’s Dark Ambition by Jessica L. Scott! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Alexandria Ducksworth

A sweet romantasy treat for readers who loved The Time Traveler’s Wife

The Floating City’s great World Tree is depriving the people of their precious dreams. Without it, the citizens are a husk of the imaginative human beings they once were. But there is light in the world of darkness. A prophesized time traveler is supposed to arrive in their land with their dreams.

When an enslaved fairy, Saya, is sent out to find the famed time traveler, she is forced to reflect on everything she thought was true. Was the dream where someone gave her wings true? Or is there something more to this story?

Meanwhile, Andreas is having dreams of Saya. She seems like a distant memory giving him purpose, leading him to the answers he’s been searching for. With his extraordinary time-traveling ability, he’ll defy the rules of his society. Nobody braver would fight for love more than he does, even if it means the world will fall apart.

Alessandro Candotti’s Across Time and Starlight is like if The Time Traveler’s Wife had more fantasy. There is more to this story than its romantic premise, that’s for sure. This book gets readers thinking about the complications of time travel and the endless loop of life.

Candotti cleverly adds well-known aspects from world mythology into this story too. The Fates in Candotti’s world are seen as the heavenly overseers. People may recall the same “Fates” from the three women who measure a human’s lifespan in Greek mythology. People may connect the dream-devouring World Tree to the Nordic mythology’s Yggdrasil tree; both trees symbolize great power and have deep-rooted foundations.

Saya and Andreas endure heavy trials throughout this book. The two fated lovers start off as enemies. Only in their dreams do they realize they are meant to be together. While Saya starts off as a passive character—a fairy is a valuable specimen and so she is taken and gets her wings removed—she grows bolder and more resilient during her journey with Andreas. The battle to reunite with her lover (and her wings) again pushes her where she needs to go.

Some of the time switches in the chapters can be confusing to keep track of, but the book is largely clear and remains enjoyable when you’re locked in.

Across Time and Starlight is an engrossing fantasy romance featuring a vast world and plenty of time-traveling adventure. But it’s the romance that shines. You’ll be wishing for Saya and Andreas’s happy ending.

Thank you for reading Alexandria Ducksworth’s book review of Across Time and Starlight by Alessandro Candotti! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Andrea Marks-Joseph

This satirical workplace guidebook is a laugh-out-loud group therapy session that offers technical and emotional support by decoding corporate-speak.

Whether you’re sitting down to start a specific chapter or flipping through IT Dictionary randomly as you wait for a software update, this book is an absolute blast. Author Adam Korga hilariously explains the dizzying industry terms you’ve heard in feedback from Finance, Legal, and Human Resources representatives.

This is a book to corrupt any semblance of workplace sanctity and protect your sanity as a result. The author has come up with some pretty genius phrases to describe the sheer stupidity of corporate-speak—delightfully eviscerating modern workplace norms with terms that feel impossible not to adopt into your lexicon, whether you work in IT or not.

Korga’s guide to decoding buzzwords comes with a link to an exceptional, drinking-game-worthy, buzzword bingo-board website to inject fun into your work life. This game has real trend potential and would be fun and quite thrilling for trusted work companions to secretly compete in.

Paired with the advice that “If you hear four of these [buzzwords] in a single meeting, your project is already doomed—but the slide deck will look amazing,” it’s clear that this book is not for the LinkedIn rise and grind, growth mindset crew, but for the people working with and under them, doing the actual work. IT Dictionary translates nonsensical workplace productivity fantasies and tells you how to work around them. “Rename ‘bugs’ to ‘user feedback incidents’… Color everything green by default; don’t show raw numbers. Use emojis instead; call any flat line a ‘plateau before the next phase of growth.'”

IT Dictionary is a genuine guide that offers the reader valuable “battle-tested” insights, tips on phrasing your Slack replies, and tactical responses to prioritize your wellbeing in a way that will make it seem like you care about maximizing your employer’s profit. The diplomatic language table converting what you want to say (“One team member left already… The founders are fighting”) to what you should write in the pitch deck (“Lean, focused founding team… Passionate, committed leadership”) is invaluable.

If you’ve ever spent an entire weekend eating pretzels while bent over a PowerPoint presentation, only for someone higher-up to come over to your desk on Monday morning and say they realized (over Michelin star meals and cocktails at a private beach with friends this weekend) that this brand new, big angle would work better and can we please rush to update the pitch deck in light of this, you’ll appreciate IT Dictionary‘s satirical game packaging for the “Expansion Pack – Executive Disruption Edition” which features “The New Stakeholder Who Knows Everything, Surprise CEO Drop-In, [and] Mandatory Reprioritization with Zero Context.”

So many of the translation tables in this book would be funny to share in group chats, in a lasting “I need to screenshot that for future use” way, and in an immediate “use the office printer and laminator to get this pinned up on my open-plan cubicle wall” way. IT Dictionary is worth reading for the sense of camaraderie alone. Feeling seen and heard by a book eviscerating buzzwords is something that can be so special, so personal, and yet so universal.

I’ve worked with Public Relations agencies and social media teams who would have loved using Korga’s terms to describe their clients—beauty brands and bank executives alike. You could create team-building exercises around this book, helping your staff bond by creating insider jokes to let off steam and feel understood during the worst moments of their workday. If you have IT guys available to you whenever your laptop starts “doing that weird thing again,” you might want to buy them this book. I’m being so serious; you go on your merry way once the IT ticket is resolved, but they’ll need this emotional release to gain the strength to survive until your next call.

As a millennial who has worked at global Public Relations agencies, tech startups, and international nonprofits where “the Founder’s word is both supreme law and fluid reality,” this book was actual laugh-out-loud funny to me. When I read some of the jokes to my dad (whose early career was spent training tech support staff), my mom (who has her IT team’s personal numbers saved in her phone) and my younger brother (whose accounting career has so far been spent at tech startups for whom LinkedIn “corpo-speak” is the Bible), they found it just as entertaining as I did.

IT Dictionary may be written for tech support teams, but anyone who has ever made extensive calls to IT or lost hours of their life making urgent edits to a pitch deck on presentation day will find value in laughing about this unfortunate universal experience.

If you loved and miss British broadcast satire W1A or NBC’s corporate comedy American Auto, this book is for you. If you’re sick of investor pitches, optimization, and over-valued C-suite input, this book is for you. It’s for all who need to be warned (and all who learned the hard way) that in the corporate world, a rockstar developer is really just a “Poor soul expected to do backend, frontend, UX, infra, IT ops—and support tickets in between sprints.”

IT Dictionary directly addresses the soul-crushing minutiae within an enraging experience that most workers of the modern world know intimately. No one has created a way for us to decompress (that isn’t ranting to your coworkers or partner) from this corporate chokehold until Adam Korga, until right now.

This would be a hilarious gift to congratulate someone on their first job in software development or IT support. It’s something they’ll smile politely and thank you for upon receiving it, but cling to like a lifeline of real-talk advice and sanity in a sea of frantic requests after a few weeks on the job.

Readers who, like me, have been praying for the downfall of generative AI will enjoy this book’s honest exploration of the topic (Part V covers AI’s increasingly inescapable positioning in consumer tech and our workplaces). Author Adam Korga provides a rare honest view from someone in the industry, acknowledging the greed-powered willful blindness that executives engage in in favor of a computer that cannot yet but will hopefully-someday replace their human employees who inconveniently require time off for bathroom breaks and sleep. This chapter includes admitting the truth of LLMs hallucinating information and being hilariously worse at its job than a human could ever be.

With his highly entertaining, sharp humor, Adam Korga critiques bureaucracy, stakeholder control, the hell of HR’s tactically-worded performance reviews, corporate-enforced remote work protocols that slow down your computer and make you doubt the quality of your home wifi (which works perfectly on every other device), and the many hours of your precious life lost to fulfilling your millionaire founder’s whims. IT Dictionary is a gift to all who have suffered through corporate systems and a guide to making it through your workday without truly going insane.

Thank you for reading Andrea Marks-Joseph’s book review of IT Dictionary by Adam Korga! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Victoria Lilly

Raw, witty, and irreverent—a sharp interrogation of the rust that lies beneath the gilded cage of the glamorous sorority life

Stella’s life as a sophomore sorority sister at the University of Michigan is a revolving door of alcohol, drugs, loud music and louder giggling. Yet the glamor and the brazen self-confidence are entirely hollow. Since the previous spring, Stella has been spiraling into depression and self-destruction, fueled by an unnamed trauma. Her mother considering her daughter’s issues a nuisance and her therapist droning over scripts oblivious to her patient’s true issues, Stella digs herself deeper one destructive party after another.

Things change when Penny, a lonely and deeply insecure student from New York, hitches a ride to Michigan looking for her former best friend. Instead Penny bonds with Stella, the only girl among the roster of fashion-magazine-perfect sorority beauties who takes note of the newcomer. Penny’s earnestness and humanity single her out in the world of plastic smiles and drug-fueled vapidity, and Stella begins to change through their friendship. She even begins a seemingly healthy and happy romance with a kind fraternity boy. But the college world which they inhabit begins to suck Penny into its vortex, while Stella struggles to escape it. In this swirl of feelings, drugs, and secrets, their blooming friendship is put to the test.

The Gilded Butterfly Effect is a gripping portrait of the dark underbelly of the American college experience and of the contrasting faces of female friendship. Through a tangled web of relationships and deft use of style and point-of-view, Heather Colley exposes the toxic undercurrents of college culture: addiction masked as glamor, misogyny cloaked as tradition, and the brutal demands placed on young women to perform beauty and conformity. The “butterfly effect” of small decisions—joining a party, trying a pill, befriending the wrong person—ripples outward into moments of crisis and self-reinvention.

Probably the strongest element of the novel is its style. Colley’s prose vividly immerses the reader in the drug- and liquor-fueled haze of inane college parties; in the neurotic psyche of its protagonists; and in the tense and tender moments of vulnerability between them, when courage to be earnest overcomes numbness or anxiety.

The prose gives each point of view character a distinct presence: Stella’s voice brims with bravado, cynicism, and (initially) performative cruelty, while Penny’s narrative is more introspective, vulnerable, and drenched in profound insecurity. By digging deep into the heroines’ inner worlds, the story creates a rich and tumultuous experience out of the repetition and the haze and the superficiality of the parties and hookups and constant drug abuse that comprise Stella’s and Penny’s lives.

The inanity of the “fun” college experience and sorority socialization is painted with marvelous realism, as are the mental health problems of the heroines. Stella’s body-image issues and eating disorders are some of the most compelling aspects of the novel, as well as her relationship with her careless mother Minnie. Child-parent relationships and the generational recreation of the sorority/fraternity lives are other strong points of the story, with events such as the parental visit to the university a delightfully depressing punctuation of the regular rut of college life.

Colley also succeeds in capturing the many contradictions of young adult femininity. The sorority house, a space marketed as a supportive sisterhood, becomes instead a crucible of competition, self-destruction, and quiet violence. Stella, in particular, embodies the paradox of empowerment and entrapment: she wields her charisma to dominate social hierarchies, yet her dependency on drugs and male validation renders her fragile. Penny, meanwhile, represents an “imperfect” outsider’s desperate longing to belong to a world of fun and glamor—she yearns to be seen, admired, and desired. Their entanglement illuminates how friendships between young women can oscillate between intimacy and rivalry, tenderness and cruelty, often within the same breath.

At once jarring and hypnotic, The Gilded Butterfly Effect deploys witty and flowing prose to provide a sharp and bleak examination of femininity, friendship, and coming into adulthood. It grapples with evergreen themes from a fresh angle and does not shy away from touching upon dark and traumatic subject material. Colley demonstrates a gift for inhabiting multiple voices and rendering a world that feels simultaneously grotesque and magnetic. This novel is neither easy nor comforting. However, its willingness to dwell in the messy realities of girls coming into womanhood under the seductive lights of hedonism and male attention are sure to leave a lasting impression.

Thank you for reading Victoria Lilly’s book review of The Gilded Butterfly Effect by Heather Colley! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Samantha Hui

A moving story about how a family tree can weather any storm as long as its roots are nurtured

“In one day, just like that, Naomi, Ana, and Johan, the first generation, was gone.”

Generation After Generation by Heather Gafkay is a historical novel that explores themes of love, loss, and survival during unprecedented times.

The novel traces the lives of multiple generations, showing how the decisions, traumas, and triumphs of one generation reverberate through the next. Themes of resilience, identity, and the moral complexities of human relationships are central to the story, highlighting the ways people cope with unimaginable horrors while still seeking connection and hope.

The novel follows the thorn-ridden, intertwined family tree of the Folsom and Stein families across more than a century. From their origins in Jerusalem and Germany, through the atrocities of World War II and the Holocaust, and into the present day, readers witness families torn apart by war, daring escapes from death camps, and the painstaking process of rebuilding shattered lives in the aftermath of tragedy. At its core, the story shows how secrets, sacrifices, and acts of courage shape both family legacies and individual identities, while emphasizing the unbreakable bonds of love and the resilience of the human spirit.

Gafkay structures the book across multiple generations, with chapters alternating between key characters and time periods from the first generation’s early struggles, to the post-war experiences of the second generation, and eventually to the present-day consequences for the later generations. This structure allows readers to see how historical events ripple across time and influence personal decisions.

The book succeeds in portraying not just the external horrors of war, but also the psychological effects on survivors, including survivor’s guilt, isolation, and the messy, sometimes morally complicated ways characters cope with trauma. The relationships are deeply human, fraught with infidelity, dishonesty, and complex emotions, but these elements feel authentic given the extreme circumstances the characters endure.

“‘That is the pathway that will lead you to your last steps for those that had to take it.'”

While the novel is compelling overall, the graphic depictions of violence and explicit sexual content can make it difficult to read at times. The scenes that bluntly depict the gruesome abuse and deaths during the Holocaust are blunt, intense, and may be unsettling for some readers. Additionally, the narrative occasionally relies too much on exposition, and the passive voice can slow the pacing, making certain sections feel more like a historical recounting than immersive storytelling.

“At first Conrad felt guilty helping the enemy. He felt like a betrayer. But then helping the Americans became easier when Conrad realized that you can’t betray your country if your country has already betrayed you.”

Generation After Generation is recommended for readers who appreciate earnest historical fiction that does not shy away from the harsh realities of human experience. This is a moving and ambitious novel that successfully blends historical drama with rich, character-driven storytelling. Exploring family, resilience, and the legacy of trauma, this novel is sure to leave a lasting impression, reminding readers that the past continues to shape the present and that hope and love can endure even in dark times.

Thank you for reading Samantha Hui’s book review of Generation After Generation by Heather Gafkay! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Lauren Hayataka

A legacy that shows reconciliation is never passive—it must be pursued

Jeffrey Gale’s A Human Rights Odyssey: From Dreams Deferred to Reconciliation continues the life story of Rabbi Isaac Levin, first introduced in The Secret of Redemption, with the same intellectual rigor and emotional weight—but with a new, urgent tenderness that makes this sequel feel both more intimate and more expansive.

Opening in 2014, the novel situates Isaac as a rabbi in northern Manhattan, where his synagogue, Rodef Tzedek, has become a beacon of inclusivity. Yet even in this celebrated city, Isaac knows that prejudice still festers.

The book begins in the shadow of two devastating events: the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the murder of Indigenous teenager Tina Fontaine in Winnipeg. These tragedies spark a deep reflection in Isaac, one that takes him—and the reader—on a sweeping journey through decades of activism, spiritual leadership, and the unrelenting pursuit of equality. From the segregated suburbs of 1960s St. Louis to Soviet refusenik apartments, Canadian prairies, penitentiary chapels, post-9/11 New York, and back again, the scope is astonishing.

Like its predecessor, A Human Rights Odyssey examines the complex role of religious institutions during times of social crisis. Yet Gale avoids simple binaries. The novel honors Jewish prophetic tradition while also making space for agnosticism, doubt, and interfaith collaboration. Some of the book’s most stirring passages come from Isaac’s mentors—rabbis, cousins, professors, and even prison inmates—who remind him that “true religion is about fighting for justice outside of the hallowed walls.”

That said, this is not a novel of unrelenting heaviness. Gale breaks the tension with small, grounding details: anxious preparations for an interfaith Thanksgiving program, the youthful awe of hearing West Side Story for the first time, and a black cat named Bad Bob beloved by inmates. These flashes of humanity let the work breathe, and remind the reader that the work of repair is sustained not only by courage but also by tenderness, by the small joys that keep us moving forward.

Gale’s prose is deliberate and thoughtful, often resembling a rabbinic sermon in its cadence. Each chapter feels like a lesson wrapped in a story, touching on topics from the legacy of West Side Story to the shadow of the Holocaust, from the fight for prison reform to the heartbreak of losing a lifelong friend. One of the most affecting threads is Isaac’s decades-long friendship with Jeremy, an African American classmate he once misjudged. Their bond—tested by racism, time, and tragedy—becomes one of the novel’s most moving through-lines.

The novel is unapologetically didactic at times, offering a near-encyclopedic tour through civil rights struggles, Jewish history, Indigenous suffering, and modern American inequities. And yet it rarely drifts into sermonizing. Gale’s strength lies in showing how these historical forces shape Isaac’s lived experience—whether he’s preparing a Cree girl for her bat mitzvah, standing up to the Michigan Department of Corrections, or revisiting the segregated classrooms of his youth.

What makes this sequel especially relevant today is its insistence on proactive solidarity. Isaac reminds us that reconciliation requires more than speeches—it demands presence, persistence, and often, a certain level of discomfort. This is not simply a book about anti-Semitism, but about the wider machinery of exclusion—racism, xenophobia, economic inequality—and the systemic forces that allow them to endure. Only then, Gale notes, can individuals and communities do more than remember, but also repair.

If there’s a flaw in A Human Rights Odyssey, it’s the sheer weight of its ambition. At times, the dense historical exposition slows momentum. One may feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of names, places, and events. But for those willing to stay with it, to let its many layers unfold, the payoff is profound.

Ultimately, this is a story about legacy—not only the legacy of a rabbi or a congregation, but of friendship, faith, and moral responsibility. Gale’s portrait of Isaac Levin is one of a man constantly striving—not for perfection, but for integrity. His journey resists tidy resolution. Instead, it affirms the dignity of the struggle itself, the daily work of pushing the proverbial rock uphill again and again. As one character insists, “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart.”

A Human Rights Odyssey is not a book to be rushed. It is a book to be wrestled with, to be annotated, to be discussed. And in that way, it succeeds—not just as a sequel, but as a moral call to action.

Thank you for reading Lauren Hayataka’s book review of A Human Rights Odyssey by Jeffrey Gale! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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