Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR & NARRATOR: John Fugelsang GENRE: Religious Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: Jun 04 2026 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A nonfiction that does exactly what the title declares: separates the church from the despicable version sold to us by fascists and fundamentalists. Insightful, incisive, accurate, brilliant. Hard truths delivered with a good dash of humour. The book (as well as this review) might create allergic reactions in certain *Christians*, but to the fellow sane believers out there, this is a must-read. Much recommended! When I see religion-based nonfiction books ( any religion, not just Christian ones ) with titles that call out strongly to me, the first thing I do is check the credentials of the author. Any person who behaves like an extremist on their social media ( most conservative evangelicals in case of Christianity ), who spreads hate against other religions or minorities, who uses demeaning words to refer to people of other faiths, and who misinterprets scri...

AUTHOR & NARRATOR: Cory Doctorow GENRE: Tech Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: October 7, 2025 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: An engrossing exposé on the enshittification of the internet and all its components over the last few years. Well-researched with substantial and concrete examples. Informative without getting too techy. Don’t be fooled by the cover; this is a serious and scary book. Much recommended. Canadian author Cory Doctorow has been an internet activist for more than twenty-five years. He has worked on digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics, among other themes, and has actively lobbied for liberalising copyright laws. Doctorow coined the term ‘enshittification’ in a blog post in 2022, to indicate the process by which online products and service gradually decay in quality until they are *shit*. While the concept was already being spoken of, his term caught on and became a widespread neologism, chosen as the ‘Word of the Year’ by The American...

AUTHOR: Abby Cooper ILLUSTRATOR: Eliana Gutiérrez GENRE: Humour PUBLICATION DATE: March 10, 2026 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A clever satirical picture book speaking to babies and toddlers about how to take care of their new moms. 😉 Absolutely loved the concept and the implementation. The satire is excellent, as is the strong tone of empathy. Much recommended to all moms-to-be and new moms. The title was enough to get me to grab this book. With the twist on the usual “It’s a Boy/Girl”, “It’s a Mom” made me curious to see the content. Turns out, it is a care package for new mommies wrapped in a lot of satire. What fun! I enjoyed the concept as well as the execution. The text is directed at kiddos aged 2 to 5 ( wink, wink! ) and is a guide on how to take care of their new moms ( more exuberant winking! ). Thus it offers advice about essentials such how to help moms stay awake at night, how to ensure that moms have a wash during your bath time, how to allow her tummy time, and so ...

AUTHOR: Kelly Barnhill GENRE: Fantasy-horror. PUBLICATION DATE: February 28, 2023 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A horror-fantasy with elements of surrealism. Retelling of the Japanese folktale ‘The Crane Wife’. Set in an imagined dystopian near-future. Understated yet mindblowing. Love how it handles the characters, the folktale, and even the dark theme. Suspension of disbelief required. Much recommended, but not to those who steer clear of weird stories. Check the triggers listed below if needed. Plot Preview: A fifteen-year-old girl is forced to be the support of her family after the death of her father, taking care of the household as well as of her six-year-old brother Michael, while her mom, a talented but somewhat oblivious artist, weaves stunning tapestries to pay the bills. The mother randomly brought “guests” home, but none stayed for long. Until now. Her latest guest is a tall crane who seems to have captivated her heart even though the daughter finds him manipulative and...

AUTHOR & NARRATOR: Arundhati Roy GENRE: Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: September 2, 2025 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A memoir written by one of India’s most eloquent writers. I picked it up for her writing and was rewarded richly with her thoughts and words. Her deeds aren’t always my cup of tea, but I judge memoirs by their content and not by their authors’ life choices. This was an easy winner in that regard. Much recommended. I am not a big fan of memoirs. I find most of them fake and pretentious and even indulging in humble-bragging. Celebrity memoirs are even worse because they all sound the same ( probably because most of them are ghostwritten by the same ghostwriters who went to the same kind of creative writing courses .) I also am not a big fan of the new trend in memoirs wherein dirty family linen is washed in public, sometimes after the death of the “antagonist”. Given all this, I shouldn’t even have picked this book up, forget about reading it. But there was one key dif...

AUTHOR: Gabrielle Meyer SERIES: Dollar Princess, #1 GENRE: Historical Romance, Retelling PUBLICATION DATE: January 6, 2026 RATING: 4.5 stars. In an Nutshell: A historical romance inspired by the classic musical, ‘My Fair Lady’. Christian fiction. Excellent characters and plotline. Great exploration of the gilded era, social mores, and emotions. Does far better justice to the adopted-heiress trope. The first of the ‘Dollar Princess’ series, but standalone. Much recommended. ♫ ‘ Wouldn’t it be loverly’♫ to read more such adaptations? 😍 Plot Preview: 1882. Twenty-one-year-old Keira O'Day, abandoned by her parents in childhood, has grown up with her uncaring relatives in the tenements of NYC, scraping by somehow. So when a wealthy eccentric widow named Maude Hill makes a wild proposition, Keira hesitates only a little before accepting. The plan is that Maude, an unflappable social climber, will adopt Keira, train her to be a lady, and present her as a rich bride for any titled Englis...

AUTHOR: Zoe Persico GENRE: Middle-grade Graphic Novel PUBLICATION DATE: April 1, 2025 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A beautiful middle-grade graphic novel about a young girl coping with grief and discovering something magical during the healing process. Great characters, touching storyline, nice medley of reality and fantasy, many thought-provoking lessons, fabulous illustrations. Much recommended. Plot Preview: Eleven-year-old Adara hates that her father has decided to uproot them from sunny California and move to cold Michigan to stay with his mother for emotional support. Adara thinks it's too soon after her mom's death to be making such a drastic change, and she's even more annoyed that he doesn't want to talk about his one-sided decision. Adara's mom had been called the Plant Whisperer, and Adara assumed it was only because she was always talking to her plants. But now, she learns that the plants were also talking back to her mom. When Adara gets a beautifu...

AUTHOR: Gabrielle Meyer SERIES: Timeless, #6 GENRE: Historical Romance. PUBLICATION DATE: November 4, 2025 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A historical fiction with elements of romance, time travel, familial rivalry, royal intrigue, and Christian faith. Outstanding in plotting, historical research, and character development. The sixth book of the fabulous Timeless series. Works as a standalone, but better not read in isolation. Much recommended! Plot Preview: 1883, Virginia. Twenty-four-year-old Charles has been struggling to take care of his mother and widowed sister as his horse farm has been facing losses ever since the death of his father a few years ago. His 1563 life in England, though more opulent, comes with its own share of struggles. (Yes, Charles lives two lives simultaneously. Read the earlier Timeless books to know how this works.) His main concern there is his stepsister Cecily, who has no one except him. Cecily works in the court of Queen Elizabeth, but if Charles ha...

AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Pénélope Bagieu TRANSLATOR: Montana Kane GENRE: Graphic Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: October 17, 2023 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A graphic memoir, but not of the kind you typically see. Loved this eclectic collection of anecdotes from the author’s life, covering sweet and bittersweet memories. The writing and the artwork both are great. Definitely recommended. Somehow, there have been too many graphic memoirs coming my way in the last few weeks. Most of them hadn’t gone too well, so I had decided to take a break from nonfiction graphic works. When I picked this book up, I didn’t realise it was again a memoir, having totally missed that tiny tagline under the title. I just saw the adorable cover art and grabbed it. But this book has been a delight in various ways. This graphic comic was originally published in French under the title ‘Les Strates’ in 2021. This English translation was released in 2023. Had I not read this on the inside page, I would never hav...

AUTHOR: Suzanne Collins NARRATOR: Jefferson White SERIES: The Hunger Games, #0.5 GENRE: YA Dystopian Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: March 18, 2025 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: The fifth book in the Hunger Games series, second in chronological order. Focusses on the 50th Hunger games and its winner, Haymitch Abernathy. Gets everything right from characters to plot to action to emotions to continuity. I am so thrilled one of my favourite characters of the HG universe got this fabulous book. If only it could have been happier, but we know it’s not possible. Much recommended. Read this only after reading the earlier four books. Plot Preview: On Haymitch’s 16th birthday, he wants to spend some time with the girl he loves. Unfortunately, his birthday is the same date as the Reaping. This year’s games are special. As the 50th edition of the hunger games, the Quarter Quell will have double the number of tributes from each district. Haymitch hopes against hope that his name won't be chosen...

AUTHOR: Kanza Javed GENRE: Short Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: September 23, 2025 RATING: 4.4 stars. In a Nutshell: An exceptional OwnVoices short story collection covering contemporary experiences of Pakistanis in their country and of the diaspora in the USA. Brilliant writing and memorable characters. A haunting kind of melancholic tone to every story. I don’t remember the last time I was so enraptured by a story collection. Much, much recommended! This collection of eight stories is an OwnVoices work by Pakistani-American author Kanza Javed. The stories are set either in Pakistan or in the USA, and represent contemporary experiences of the citizens and/or the diaspora. There is no introductory note specifying the unifying theme across these stories. But the blurb indicates that the stories focus on “fiercely resilient characters who desire more than what their circumstances can offer them—and what these desires ultimately cost them.” I cannot put it better! ( For once, the blur...