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2021 Review

The Last Nomad

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CW: war, discussion of rape, female genital mutilation, abuse (physical, mental, and emotional)

The Last Nomad is a memoir by Shugri Said Salh. Shugri grew up as a nomad raised by her grandmother in the Somali desert prior to the Somali Civil War. She recounts momentous occasions from her childhood, her struggles after her mother’s death, her family’s separation as the fled the Somali Civil War, and her adjustments to life in Canada, followed by her experiences raising children today in the United States with circumstances she had never imagined.

Shugri tackles difficult subjects with honesty and a tone unique to one who has occupied two such opposite worlds. She discusses growing up in a society that places such pride on virginity yet has young girls consistently threatened by rape. The most moving transition for me was her views on female genital mutilation (FGM). As a child she underwent the traumatic mutilation but at time it was a great honor for her. After fleeing the civil war, moving to North America, and having a daughter of her own, she explains how her thoughts shifted. She doesn’t shy away from explaining the honor she once felt in FGM, but now views her survival following this trauma as a breaking of chains for her daughters and other women that will follow.

Shugri’s strength is beautiful. She underwent so much trauma with a consistent will to survive, to do better, and be better than what she witnessed. Though her memoir is filled with trials, it’s also infused with love, humor, and happy memories. It was a difficult read at times, but such an eye-opening experience into growing up in a country I know so little about.

I highly recommend this for anyone interested in memoirs, cross-cultural experiences, and women in the middle east. Even if memoirs are not your usual read, I still urge you to pick this up. Shugri writes with such honesty, humor, and personality, that it did not feel like the slog that nonfiction can occasionally be.

The Last Nomad can currently be preordered here through Bookshop.org and will be for sale August 3!

Thank you to Shugri Said Salh and Algonquin Books for gifting me a copy of The Last Nomad in exchange for an honest review.

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Girls with Bright Futures

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Girls with Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman is a fictional behind-the-scenes look at college early application season at a prestigious Seattle prep school. Madness ensues as the kids are trying to apply to their top picks for schools and their parents are unable to withhold meddling in this momentous decision. When Stanford announces it will only be accepting one student from the academy because student athletes have filled all the other slots, it gets cutthroat as three girls and their mothers do whatever they can to assure they are given the coveted Stanford slot. One of the girls lands in the hospital after a horrific hit-and-run and her mother is left to pick up the pieces and figure out if college fever was responsible for what happened to her daughter while grappling with her own history that she would prefer to keep private.

I was quite impressed with Girls with Bright Futures! Based on the synopsis I expected a solid level of thrills and mystery, but I was pleasantly surprised by the development of the characters, the multiple viewpoints, and how real the characters felt. I don’t share their lifestyle by any means, but I know people like this, and I’ve heard horror stories about the ivy league application process that were confirmed here. I’m so glad that wasn’t something I ever had to experience first-hand!

I truly felt for the girls and wanted to throttle every single one of the parents. I understand no one is perfect, but how could anyone in this situation not see how gross their behavior is! They were able to call out each other but felt totally justified in their own poor decisions that affected not only themselves but their children and spouses. I can’t even imagine what psychological damage these parents wrought on their children. It’s hard enough to be a senior in high school trying to decide what to do next with your life without your parents trying to push you into their own unfulfilled dreams.

Tracy and Wendy wound this storyline so tightly, it was like watching a sweater unravel with each slight tug. Everything was connected to cleanly; each character’s choices unraveled someone else’s lies. The twists kept coming all the way through to the epilogue. After you thought everything had been revealed, Tracy and Wendy still weren’t finished. I found myself sitting in the car after I reached my destination or throwing in my headphones every chance I got to fly through this book.

I listened to this as an audiobook and was thrilled with their choice of narrator in Mia Barron! She was brilliant and I hope to read more book narrated by her. She has a clear, even tone, reads at a great pace that didn’t feel like it was dragging, and had fantastic voices for each other the characters that were easy to distinguish.

Thank you to Netgalley, RB Media, Recorded Books, Tracy Dobmeier, Wendy Katzman, and Mia Barron for the pleasure of listening to the audiobook of Girls with Bright Futures in exchange for an honest review.

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Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.

Float Plan

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CW: Suicide

After her fiancé’s death, Anna feels lost until she makes the impulsive decision to take off on their sailboat on a trip they had planned to take together. As she island-hops through the Bahamas and further south through the Caribbean, she begins to piece herself back together realizing that she is stronger than she knew.

On GoodReads, Trish Doller says, when writing Float Plan, she took the advice to write the book she wanted to read. And I couldn’t agree with that sentiment more! Her passion for the context and the characters shines throughout the entire book. Anna is well-developed, complex, and felt like someone I would want to be friends with. Anna meets Keane when she most needs him, but their encounter felt serendipitous rather than forced. He’s a perfect gentleman but not contrived and exactly who she needs in her life when she is feeling most alone. They form a fast bond after spending days together in close quarters and Keane urges Anna to live for herself without forgetting her positive memories of her fiancé. I found myself rooting for them to develop a romantic bond, but even more so for Anna to heal and find joy in her life again.

Trish’s writing style was exquisite. She pulled me into the book from the first chapter and I couldn’t put it down. It was comfortable, but not lazy. This is one of those books that feels like a comforting hug that you miss dearly when it’s finished. Float Plan had great pacing: short chapters that flow together smoothly and led to long binges before I realized how long I had been absorbed in the story.

Though I don’t know for certain, I expect Trish is a sailor herself or did very thorough research. I learned a lot of sailing terms, boat etiquette, and Caribbean geography while reading. I found myself reaching for my phone to look up sailing terms that felt perfectly natural in the context of the book but were unfamiliar to me. The descriptions of the locations Anna visited were exquisite! I felt I was island-hopping along with her and witnessing the beautiful locales though I have never seen them myself. It was fun tracking Anna’s progress on a map while seeing the world through her eyes. I also found myself hoping to be able to take a sailing trip such as this someday! Thank you, Trish, for giving us a book that made me feel as though I were exploring at a time when we were stuck at home while also providing ideas for future travel.

Float plan was at times heartbreaking, hopeful, joyous, introspective, and adventurous. What a gem! I would love to see more like this from Trish Doller; she is an amazing talent. Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martins Griffin, and Trish Doller for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.

The Confession

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Jessie Burton’s The Confession is a split timeline between Elise in the 1980s and her daughter, Rose, thirty-odd years later. Elise falls madly in love with a writer and follows her to the US, then vanishes. In her thirties, Rose desperately wants to know what happened to her mother but is unable to learn anything from her father, so she sets out to solve the mystery of Elise’s disappearance herself. I read this as a buddy read with a couple friends on bookstagram. It was a bit of a hassle to get as it’s not yet sold in the US, but it was totally worth it.

This was my first experience with Burton’s writing and I deeply hope her other books are as lyrical! Her writing was so beautiful and drew me in completely. I found the entire book very engaging and couldn’t put it down. Elise was mysterious and I found myself consistently wondering what was going through her head. Rose was curious, sad, and relatable. I particularly enjoyed the chapters from her point of view. I did not care for Connie for about the first half of the book, but throughout the second half she greatly grew on me. The characters were real and didn’t feel contrived. I felt like each of the primary characters was someone I could know in real life. Also, the parallels between Elise and Rose, though unknown to the characters themselves, were interesting to watch unfold.

Burton tackles some serious topics that I haven’t seen frequently in other books and was grateful to see represented here. While I felt at times the situations were dealt with a bit flippantly, I was still glad to be put inside a character’s head who was having to make difficult decisions that can often be taboo. Burton didn’t shy away from these topics and brought the characters and readers through in a very human manner that I appreciated. 

I don’t want to say too much more because I won’t be able to do so without giving spoilers. I loved this read, the characters, the lyrical language, the relationships. I felt a bit shorted by the ending but felt like it followed with the rest of the storyline. If you’re sensitive to triggering content, this may not be the read for you as several triggers are at the very least mentioned, but if you can power through some difficult content, this can be a rewarding read.

This was read as a paperback purchased through Book Depository.

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Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.

Ms. Adventure

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We’ve only started 2021, but I think Ms. Adventure is going to be the nonfiction read to beat for me this year. Thank you so much to Netgalley, Timber Press, and Jess Phoenix for gifting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jess Phoenix is a badass geologist and fills Ms. Adventure with stories of her research, education, travel, and life. From research in Death Valley to encountering drug cartels in Mexico onto filming a TV show that tried to incorporate more stunts than science and running for office, her life has not been boring. It’s a short read with each chapter consisting of a new site visited.

I loved Jess’ story telling style. She incorporates science that you don’t need to be a geology student to understand and takes you along on her adventures as though you were riding along with her. Her tone is casual, friendly, and frank. It was wonderful to be able to read some of her journal entries from expeditions at the ends of certain chapters, making her encounters that much more interesting. Even in these journal entries, she has a true flair for writing.

Jess’ honesty about her experiences is what I found most engaging. She talks about her journey to discover her interest in geology, something I found wholly encouraging. Whether your interest lies in geology or another field, it’s a wonderful reminder that it’s never too late to pursue your passions. She didn’t gloss over details of struggles in her work or pass off each assignment as being absolutely fascinating; in fact, she is straightforward that sometimes science can be boring, but it’s necessary to get through the boring bits to appreciate the discoveries.

I wasn’t expecting the closing chapter to involve a political discussion, as politics were never brought up earlier in the book, but I enjoyed seeing a scientist’s take on the previous election and hearing the fears many of them shared as a man took office who worked to discredit science. Some of the fears I was familiar with as I had them myself, but there were several others that hadn’t even occurred to me. It was encouraging to see a young scientist interested in pursuing a public office in an attempt to quell those fears and encourage public support of the science community. She’d absolutely have my vote!

Finally, I think Jess’ encouragement to stay curious and not let society strip you of your need to discover is crucial, words everyone can benefit from, which stayed true with the tone of the book. Ms. Adventure can be enjoyed by a wide-ranging audience, whether you’re looking for travel writing, scientific writing, adventure, or a memoir. Rarely have I been saddened to see the end of a nonfiction book. I would gladly immerse myself into more of Jess’ stories and hope this will spark a trend of more published works by womxn scientists.

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Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.