Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Jennifer S. Brown NARRATOR: Helen Laser GENRE: Historical Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: September 3, 2024 RATING: 4.5 stars In a Nutshell: A historical fiction set during the Prohibition era. Great protagonist, great character development, great storyline, great themes, great writing. Basically, just great! Plot Preview: 1920. When Minnie Soffer arrives with her family to New York, she is surprised to learn that it isn’t as grand as she was told. Her father, who had emigrated to the US some years before, lives in a small house, and the language that everyone at school speaks is unfamiliar. Minnie and her elder brother Max work hard to adjust to their new lives. When her father opens a soda shop, it seems like life is finally going the right way. But the soda shop is just a front for a speakeasy, which soon becomes a bigger part of their life than they had anticipated. The story, spanning the thirteen years of prohibition in the USA, covers Minnie’s struggles through childhood and...

AUTHOR: Tyler Thrasher & Terry Mudge GENRE: Nonfiction PUBLICATION DATE: September 24, 2024 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: Love STEM-based books? Love admiring the colours of nature? Ever wonder what is "colour"? Here’s a fabulous addition to your TBR. Insightful, informative, mind-boggling. Loved the entire spectrum of information and hues in this book. Ours is a world of light, and hence, of colours. It is tough to think of colours as linked to energy, but that’s what they are. In school, we learn of the VIBGYOR spectrum, and we learn of the prism experiment that helps us scatter white light into a visible rainbow. But are sufficient light, an object, and functional eyesight enough to see all colours? The book begins with an introductory note on the meaning of colour. ( I love how it used the analogy of a music orchestra to explain how we see colours. ) It includes several mind-blowing facts about colours, both visible and invisible to the human eye. ( Did you know ...

AUTHOR: Faralee Pozo GENRE: Sci-fi Romance PUBLICATION DATE: August 30, 2024 RATING: 3.5 stars In a Nutshell: An unusual novel straddling multiple genres: humour, romance, mystery, thriller, science fiction, and end-of-the-world. Slow-paced and a bit repetitive, but entertaining enough if you are looking for a light read with an unusual plotline. Plot Preview: Let me copy-paste the GR blurb here for once: “It's the age-old story. Boy meets girl. Girl lies to boy about being human. Girl accidentally destroys planet. Girl apologizes super hard.” This story is epistolary, written as the apology letter by the girl to all humans, especially Greg. The “girl” is an alien queen, and that’s what turns this *age-old story* into a humorous novelty. Bookish Yays: 👽 Our narrator and the writer of this extended apology: the alien queen known as Aria. Unlike any queen you have ever met in fiction, be it human or animal or alien, Aria’s quirky nature and impulsiveness lead to many goof-ups, a...

AUTHOR: Nelly Buchet ILLUSTRATOR: Mathias Ball GENRE: Children's Picture Book. PUBLICATION DATE: RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A cute picture book about a little wolf who discovers her howl just when she needs it. Sweet story, gorgeous illustrations, valuable life lessons, plenty of animals. A great option for little readers. Plot Preview: Little Wolf tries hard to howl, but her version sounds more like a hiccup or a whistle. Her siblings laugh at her but not in an insulting way. They find her attempts cute, but Little Wolf wants to be strong and tough like them. One day, Wolf finds herself lost in the forest after chasing a butterfly. She knows that if she howls, her mother will be able to locate her. But as she can’t, she is determined to remember her mother’s other instruction: “If you are ever lost, find North” and make her way back home. The only problem is, Wolf has no idea who or what or where North is. This is such an adorable story! Right from its little protagon...

AUTHOR: Helaine Becker ILLUSTRATOR: Kevin Sylvester GENRE: Children's Graphic Novel PUBLICATION DATE: October 1, 2024 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A children’s graphic novel about two classmates who learn how to work together. Cute for the target age group. Nice life lessons as well. Learnt some interesting facts too along the way. Plot Preview: After moving with his family to ‘New Stork City’, Puffin is excited to be in a fancy new school in ‘Brookloon’. However, he soon realises that the buddy assigned to him, Penguin, is the coolest and busiest kid in school, always in demand and loved by everyone. Feeling ignored, Puffin hatches his own plan to make friends and joins the stage crew of the drama club. But even the best of plans comes with glitches, and Puffin learns that enthusiasm doesn’t lead to automatic success. Bookish Yays: 🐧 Two of the cutest birds in one graphic novel! Loved how the book played on the similarity in appearance between puffins and penguins. 🐧 T...

AUTHOR: Tae Keller GENRE: Middle-Grade Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: January 28, 2020 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: Such a disappointment! I had high expectations from this Newbery Medal winner as it promised to have some amazing OwnVoices writing and Korean folktales. Unfortunately, the execution was more YA than MG, and the myriad elements didn’t come together sensibly. This is an outlier review. Plot Preview: Eleven-year-old Lily, along with her mother and her elder sister Sam, has moved to the opposite coast to stay with her sick Halmoni (Korean for ‘grandmother’.) When Lily keeps spotting a tiger that no one else seems to see, only Halmoni believes her, and reveals to her a secret: Halmoni had stolen something from the tiger long ago, which the tiger now wants back. Now Lily has the tough tasks of keeping safe from the dangerous tiger as well as protecting her grandma. The story comes to us in Lily’s first-person point of view. I like middle-grade fiction way more than YA ficti...

AUTHOR: Kyle A. Massa GENRE: Micro-fiction Collection PUBLICATION DATE: August 21, 2024 RATING: 3.6 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of a hundred hundred-word stories from various genres. A quick and entertaining indie read. A hecatontagon ( I dare you to pronounce it five times in a row without faltering! ), also known as a hectogon, is a hundred-sided polygon. A stew is, as you probably know, a dish of multiple veggies and meat slow-cooked. A “Hecatontagonal Stew” is a collection of a hundred stories from multiple genres and themes. This isn’t my first Kyle Massa work. I have read his novel ‘ Eggs for the Ageless ’ and two other story collections, ‘ Monsters at Dusk ’ and ‘ Past, Present, Future ’. Each of these has been a delightful experience, showcasing the author’s creativity and humour excellently. So I had ( unfairly ) high expectations from this new collection, and to a great extent, they were met. The specialty of this latest work is that each story (excluding the title)...

AUTHOR: Siân Hughes GENRE: Literary Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: July 30, 2024 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A literary fiction novel about a woman who finally learns how to deal with her unresolved grief. Slow and poignant but also rambling (in both its meanings.) Might be a good read for the right reader, but not my cup of tea. (Should have known better, considering it is a Booker-longlisted work.) Plot Preview: When Marianne was eight, her mom went missing, leaving behind a distraught husband, a forlorn daughter, and a newborn son. As the years go by, Marianne struggles to make sense of her grief, and tries to understand what might have gone through her mother’s mind in her final moments. When she discovers a medieval poem named ‘Pearl’ and sees its theme being similar to that of her life, she tries to see her life and her pain through the poem’s lens of loss and healing. The story comes to us in Marianne’s first-person perspective. I have a fondness for Irish writers. I have a disli...

EDITOR: Sonia Sulaiman GENRE: Speculative Anthology PUBLICATION DATE: September 5, 2024 RATING: 3.5 stars In a Nutshell: An anthology of Palestinian speculative fiction. Focusses on the Palestinian identity as well as the speculative content without losing track of either. The OwnVoices writing and the undertone of wistfulness adds to the impact. Much recommended to SFF lovers. "All Palestinian fiction is speculative; we are always grappling with the past and living in expectation of the future..." "The world as I know it will be a memory by the time you read these words." This anthology of fourteen stories was conceptualized before the latest war began. So the above sentences in the editor’s note seem even more poignant. While we know war comes with uncertainty and mayhem, most of us haven’t experienced living under a daily threat of death and destruction. No wonder fantastical writing is the preferred mode of storytelling for Palestinian authors. Though specula...

AUTHOR: Monita Kumari ILLUSTRATOR: Yadnyee Shingre GENRE: YA Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: NOT A CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK! Officially, an illustrated story book for young adults. The textual content might work better for this age group as it gets quite dark. I found the concept as well as the implementation somewhat half-baked. It might have worked better in a lengthier work with more plot and character development. Plot Preview: Seven-year-old Vivek dislikes his Daadi (paternal grandmother) for two main reasons: 1. She always forces him to have raisins, and 2. She pinches his cheeks every chance she gets. But when he gets his hands on her old diary, he learns some painful truths from her past and begins to understand her better. The story comes to us in Vivek’s third-person perspective, with some first-person interludes through Daadi’s diary entries. Bookish Yays: 😊 The appearance of the diary entries in the illustrations, with the sepia tone and the ...

AUTHOR: Helen Rutter GENRE: Middle-grade Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: September 12, 2024 RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A middle-grade novel about a boy who struggles with his overactive “Brian”. This had great potential, and some of the content has great value, but somehow, the overall book didn’t come together well enough for my liking. Plot Preview: Since childhood, thirteen-year-old Josh has called his brain “Brian”. Brian is very active in Josh’s life, constantly poking and prodding him towards good ideas as well as mean insults. Brian also creates a lot of insecurity by making Josh feel guilty for the family arguments between his mother and his elder brother Charlie. When the situation at home gets too bad, Josh is sent to stay with his maternal grandmother for a few days. But she stays in a small shack in the middle of nowhere, and Brian protests vehemently. Will Josh be able to push Brian’s nagging away and strengthen his own voice? The story comes to us in Josh’s first-person ...

  AUTHOR:  Jaimie Admans SERIES: The Ever After Street, #4 GENRE: Romance-Drama PUBLICATION DATE: September 2, 2024 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A sweet standalone continuation to the Ever After Street series. Christmassy vibes, loveable lead characters, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers. Somewhat slow in tempo and not much conflict, but the emotions in the story trivialise the shortcomings. A heartwarming read for Christmas time. Plot Preview: After her career as a ballerina came to an abrupt end, Franca has been running her own nutcracker shop on Christmas Ever After, a festive offshoot of the Ever After Street. However, her shop might now be in danger, thanks to an unexpected competition pitting her against her “pet nemesis” Raff Dardenne and his snow globe shop. As they have been told that only one of their shops can continue on Ever After Street, it is going to be a fierce battle. When an accident leads to an injury, Franca is forced to accept assistance from t...