Bookworm Banter

  Review of  Sapiens: A Graphic History , by Yuval Noah Harari I absolutely loved  Sapiens: A Graphic History . It explores the history of humans, from our earliest ancestors to the societies we live in today, and somehow manages to make thousands of years of human history feel genuinely interesting. It covers ideas like the Cognitive Revolution, the development of agriculture, money, religion, empires, and the ways humans have built increasingly complicated societies. Instead of just telling us what happened, though, the book constantly asks bigger questions about why humans became so successful and how we ended up creating the world around us. The thing I loved most was obviously the fact that it's a comic. I could have been reading a giant block of text about human evolution and immediately fallen asleep, but instead there are illustrations, dialogue, jokes, ridiculous situations, and characters explaining complicated ideas in ways that actually stick in your brai...

Review of The Witches of Cambridge , by Alice Hoffman This book. The Witches of Cambridge . I LOVED IT. No more to be said. To be more specific, the story follows Ava Abbott, a quiet young woman from Maine who arrives at Radcliffe College, and Lauren Bell, her complete opposite: confident, wild, and very much at home in Cambridge. The two are brought into the Lilith Society, a secret society of witches at Radcliffe that dates all the way back to colonial times. As they learn about their magical heritage, the history of the witches, and the dangers surrounding them, their friendship becomes just as important as the magic itself. There is also a mystery involving witches disappearing and the terrifying possibility that the witch trials of the past aren't actually as far away as everyone thinks. I also loved Ava and Lauren because they are such opposites. Ava is fascinated by love magic, drawn toward spells involving the heart and desperately wanting to experience love and everything ...

Review of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder , by Holly Jackson Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is one of my favourite mystery books I have ever read. The story follows Pippa Fitz-Amobi, a student who decides to investigate the murder of Andie Bell for her school project. Five years earlier, Andie was murdered and her boyfriend, Sal Singh, was blamed for it. Everyone in the town believes Sal was responsible, but Pip isn't convinced. With the help of Sal’s brother, Ravi, she starts investigating the case and quickly discovers that the story everyone accepted as the truth is much more complicated than it seems. What I loved most about this book was actually being part of the investigation. Pip doesn't just walk around having convenient detective thoughts while the reader watches; we get to see her interviews, notes, evidence, messages, maps, timelines, and theories. It made me feel like I was investigating the case with her. I was constantly making my own theories, cros...