Black Beauty - Anna Sewell

I know very little about horses, their functional usage, or how their lives progressed in late Victorian England, so this was new territory for  me.  While a little childish and simplistic (it's written from the horse's perspective so that makes sense), I enjoyed the story significantly, though I certainly wasn't on the edge of my seat at any point in time.  This is a sweet book, though not necessarily a happy one as it goes to great lengths to outline the awful conditions and cruelty endured by working horses.
I was checking on the history of the book and apparently its publication and instantaneous popularity started an animal welfare movement that rapidly did away with the unnecessary and dangerous practice of using reins to jack up a horse's neck.  I was glad to see the power a simple book can have on making the world a better place.

From Renting to Buying: A Basic Guide to First Time Home Buying and Ownership - Ben Stefan

This is a very short, super basic book on the topic.  It's geared towards people who have rented their whole lives.  It talks about hiring handy people to do your up keep that was 0% relevant to me or anyone who doesn't enjoy wasting money. 
It was good as a quick review, but I didn't think there was enough substance to really make it anything I'd recommend.  There are other, far more interesting and useful options on the topic.

Breasts: The Owner's Manual - Dr. Kristi Funk

I'm still not sure how I feel about this book.  It was both up-beat and depressing at the same time.  It is jam packed with information from what you can do today to avoid cancer all the way to how best to treat reoccurring cancer. 
Pro: You can make lifestyle changes today to lower your likelihood of developing all cancers, including breast.
Con: These changes aren't fun.  Cut out all alcohol except maybe a glass of red wine once in a while.  Exercise at least five hours a week.  Cut out all animal products, especially dairy and meat.  Don't eat processed foods.  Don't eat refined sugars or syrup.  Bla bla bla, you know, all the things your doctor has been telling you to do all along.
The good news is that you can make these changes at any point in time and start benefiting from them.  It's never too late to get started!
And even if you have a history of breast cancer in your family, it's ok! 85% of all breast cancer occurs in people without a family history of the disease. So if you've got relatives with breast cancer, it's not a death sentence.  And if you don't have relatives with the disease, you still need to be proactive about ensuring you are screened and maintain a healthy lifestyle!  More broccoli and flax all around!
I would recommend this book to anyone with a history of any cancer in their family, all women over 40, anyone who is fighting cancer or has a loved one fighting cancer.  Or anyone who is fascinated by cancer biology and treatment.

Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery

This was another "well, I never read it as a child" books.  I must confess, I hated this book as it started.  Anne rambled so much, I wanted to tell her to shut the hell up.  As the book progressed and the character was well-established, there was less need for the monologues of rambling.  The reader already knows the deal.  And then, as Anne ages, she does actually shut the hell up, which makes her much more palatable, in my opinion.  I like the whimsical ideas, but the delivery is poor.  It's supposed to be, it's a child ranting, but it sucks to read through it all.
As I said, eventually, it reached an "ok" point, but I believe I would have disliked this book as a child (the target reader) even more than I did today.

The Red Prophet - Orson Scott Card (Tales of Alvin Maker, Bk. 2)

The book made me sometimes wish fiction were true.  This is an American-style tall tale of powerful fiction. (again, as with the first book in this series, you really have to know your history to appreciate the differences and the lore)
At first, I was having a hard time getting into the Native story line having just come off of Seventh Son, but Card's superb story telling did eventually grab my attention.  This is a beautiful, tragic story that leaves you with all the wonder of real historical battle stories, but with both the relief and disappointment that it wasn't exactly real.  The hard part is that it's just close enough to what really happened and what could have really happened that it blurs the line between fiction and the real world perfectly.  I believe that's why it was such a good story.

Seventh Son - Orson Scott Card (Tales of Alvin Maker, Bk. 1)

Orson Scott Card is one of my favorite authors.  I've not read any of his books in a long time, and it was great to get back to him.  I'd actually read this book many years ago, but had a hard time following it up because the library didn't have all of the series (which I think is 7 books total, but not real sure).  So now I have access to a variety of other options and I've found them so I'm going to have a go at it again. 
This particular series I like because it takes place in Indiana.  I recognize many of the areas spoken about and enjoy pointing out that Indiana weather is so crazy that it's used as a plot device in a piece of fiction.  As always, I love the alternative world he's created, particularly because you really have to know your history to appreciate it. 
Needless to say, this is another fantastically fun, artfully crafted piece of fiction. 

The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman

I loved this book.  It reminded me of somewhere between CS Lewis and Madeleine L'Engle.  This is my favorite Gaiman book so far, but Good Omens in on my list to read soon too.  The book is beautifully written and I enjoyed it much more than many of the books I've been reading lately. 
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fanciful, magic-based fiction. 

I am Not your Perfect Mexican Daughter - Erika L. Sanchez

As far as angsty, YA novels go, this one was pretty good, but holy cow, if I'd read it before living in Brownsville I would have been like, "No one actually DOES this!"  But I have lived in Brownsville and the sad, sad remnants the parents desperately cling to "how it was in the old country" are totally accurate.  It infuriates me.  Immigrants come to this country to "give their children a better life" and then get mad or try to hold them back when those children take full advantage of what's offered here.  Either you want your children to surpass you economically, or you don't, and if you don't, just stay home where things never change!
This novel also focused a lot on basic differences between parents and children, which is common regardless of heritage or cultural background.  People reproduce and think that because that child shares half their genetic material, certainly the child will be just like they are.  So often wrong! And that was a central theme in this book.  It disgusts me when parents believe their children are great, so long as they agree 100% with you.
I don't expect anyone will read this, so spoiler alerts to follow:
This book hits irony HARD, which is both satisfying and frustrating.  The MC is a girl in her mid-teens with an older sister in her early 20's.  The eldest is the "golden" child and the younger is the "problem" child.  The older sister dies in a traffic accident and as the younger sniffs out something's not quiet in order, we learn the "perfect daughter" is anything but.  It's so aggravating how blind the parents are that the MC tries to kill herself, and frankly,based in their behavior, I can't say she's totally wrong.
This is a well-written book, but there aren't many people I'd recommend it to.

Home Buying for Dummies - Eric Tyson & Ray Brown

Obviously I read this because I'm looking to buy a house.  My last experience was so horrible, I was convinced I did something wrong.  This time I thought I'd do way more research to ensure the same errors were not repeated.  As it turns out, my lack of education was one of the reasons I had trouble, HOWEVER, everything I didn't know SHOULD have been taken care of by the people I hired. It was not.  This book harps on putting together a good team.  I had a team, and as best I can tell, it should have been good, years and years of experience.  But that team dropped the ball at every available chance.  So, I could have corrected them, but  they shouldn't have let any of those mistakes happen to begin with, that's why they were getting paid!
I like the format of this series of books.  As an E-book, it didn't always format right, but you could at least get an idea.  There's a lot of great general information, but as they repeatedly remind you, there are always exceptions.  I know I had a few very odd, specific questions that this book could not answer. (that's what the internet is for)  But as a prep guide, it's very good.

Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin

A classic, so I thought I should give it a try.  It was about what I expected.  The author does a perfect job of setting up the tower so that it crumbles perfectly at the end.  You pretty much know what the deal is the whole time, but it's still wonderful to see it all come together.  And the ending, while not what you want, is perfect for Rosemary's character and makes total sense (unlike some other fiction I've seen lately, ahem!, GoT... anyway!) 
As a classic, if you're a horror/suspense fan, you should probably put it on your list. If you're not a horror/suspense fan, eh, that'd be up to you then, but I enjoyed it greatly.

The Witches of New York - Ami McKay

This was a fun book.  Sneakily feminist.  I liked it. Was it life altering? No. Was it a good romp? Totally.  I loved many of the obscure historical references like the Egypt-mania of the turn of the last century, tansy tea, the weird obsession with seances, carrying coals in oyster shells and especially the Comstock Act.
This book will make you appreciate how far women's rights have come, holy jeeze!  Perhaps the detail I appreciated the most was not a historical reference but the twist the author put on the relationship between Satan and witches.  The "alliance" of witches and the devil was manufactured by demons because witches work against the evils of the world and Satan's work.  So over the centuries, demons have turned people, mostly men, against them.  That was a very crafty move.
I'd recommend this to people who like an entertaining piece of fiction set in the 1880's, but I would not recommend slapping it at the top of your "To Read" list. 

This is your Brain on Anxiety: What happens and What helps - Faith G. Harper

I do not have anxiety, but many of the people I work with and many of my friends do, so I picked up this short book to better understand their condition and how I can help.  This book is good for that and not too long. It is written in a very personable style for the millennial or the Gen Z individual. Older readers who become easily offended by "bad words" will not be fans.  Foregoing that issue, it is a concise book on cause and correction of anxiety and if, like me, you find yourself surrounded by anxious people, would be a good one to pick up. 

Lady Macbeth - Susan Fraser King

This book was entirely unexpected and not what I initially thought it would be about.  When I picked it up, I thought it was about the fictional Lady Macbeth of Shakespeare's play Macbeth.  I soon realized, no, it was a historical fiction about the actual Lady Macbeth, the one Shakespeare VERY loosely based his play on (as in not at all).  So that being said, it's a great read, a fascinating portrait of a turbulent time.  The author has a PhD in like medieval art history, or something, but she's clearly an excellent historic researcher and has written this book around what has been written down about this time, and I don't mean recent books, I mean annals from the 1500's (already ancient history when documented, but that's all we have left). 
I love books that bring ancient history back to life the way this does! I highly recommend this book for the history lover!

The Death of Cancer: After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer Is Winnable--and How We Can Get There - Vincent T. DeVita Jr. & Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn

This book is shocking and frustrating and hopeful and fascinating. I recommend it to people who could get cancer, literally everyone. I don't think I can state how important this book is!  It's essentially a history of cancer treatment, quite literally.  When the author (now in his 80's) began his work in the 60's, there was some surgery and radiation, but mostly the "treatment" for cancer was a pat on the back and they sent you home to die. Seriously.  They didn't even TRY to do anything most of the time because "why? it will just prolong the suffering".   At one point, the author resigned from a lead position at a cancer hospital because no one would listen to him (never mind the fact that he'd  practically built the NCI and Sloak-Kettering himself). The announcement was done by his primary antagonist who explained that "the problem with Dr. DeVita is that he wants to cure cancer."

There were and continue to be so many problems, it's a miracle anyone goes into remission! Here are a pair of examples:

1) The author begins the book with a story about his friend, Lee, who develops prostate cancer at the age of 60.  The author makes recommendations to doctor after doctor, pulling a few strings to get Lee the best care. It works.  At diagnosis, Lee was given a very grim outlook, he had all the worst signs.  But using Dr. DeVita's vast knowledge and connections they push Lee's cancer into remission several times, but each time it comes back worse than before, and subsequently resistant to whatever treatment worked previously, but there were several steps in the process where he could have been cured and only red tape and bureaucratic bullshit stopped him.  The author got his friend enrolled in an experimental drug research group that had a good likelihood of working, but Lee's cancer was more dire than the subjects selected for the experiment, but because of his connections, Dr. DeVita was able to get Lee in a sort of tester side project: given the experimental drug alongside the subjects, but just not reported in the final paper because he didn't qualify for the study group.  The drugs works, but because Lee's cancer was larger, he needed to be on the drugs for longer.  He wasn't permitted. Why? Because the study ended. No actual reason.  Lee's cancer came back. Later research on more advanced stages determined that he would have been cured had he continued the regiment.  Then Dr. DeVita heard about another drug that was successful in advanced prostate cancers just like Lee's, but the research was completed.  The new research was testing the drug on less advanced stages.  It had not yet been approved by the FDA, which purposefully approves drugs slowly, even after they've been proved effective in people, so Lee wasn't allowed to have it even though it had been proven effective for his kind of cancer.  Lee lived much longer than his first doctor estimated, but in the end, he died for no reason other than the drug that would have saved his life was being sat on by the FDA.  The experiments were cut short and the drug fast-tracked because it was so successful.  It reached the market 2 years after Lee died.

2) The author was asked to weigh in on a rich Italian's son's cancer problem.  The type of cancer the son had was curable so Dr. DeVita was concerned when the Italian doctors were adamant that it wasn't working.  He flew all the way to Italy to figure out why.  He looked at the son's charts for 5 minutes and knew why.  The Italian doctors weren't giving the son full doses, they were afraid of causing too much discomfort and looking bad in front of the influential father.  All they'd done was teach the son's cells how to get around the medication.  The author sat down with the Italian doctors and told them what they were doing wrong, why and the consequences of it.  He meticulously laid out the doses and schedule they should be using.  They rolled their eyes at him, so he went to the father.  He informed the father what was wrong and why.  There was the Italian version of a national cancer hospital where Dr. DeVita knew the head physician and knew that the proper schedule would be followed, but the father refused to send his son there because it was "for poor people". The son died.  He died because of his father's pride and his doctors' fear.  Incidentally, don't be rich and famous and get cancer, their outcomes are always worse because the doctors do dumb shit they wouldn't otherwise do.

Even when the author himself got cancer, he had to fight tooth and nail to get the care he knew he needed.  And he chose not to go to the hospital that he currently worked at! Different places do better on different kinds of cancer.

We've gotten as far as we have because of one woman : Mary Lasker.  She, single-handedly, was the force behind getting federal funding to fight cancer. She CREATED The War on Cancer.  If you have a loved one, or if you yourself have survived cancer, you probably have this woman to thank.  Without her, we would be much, much farther behind than we currently are.

When it comes down to it, we have the tools to kill all but the most obscure or aggressive cancer, we just don't always use them properly for many different reasons: doctor's pride or ignorance, crappy leaders of a hospital, a lethargic FDA, and, most disturbingly, insurance companies (because it wouldn't be worth it.)  During my short 1.5 months at MD Anderson Cancer Center I've not interacted with doctors and the most of the patients I ever see are tiny pieces in tubes, but I already know of one person killed by an insurance company in our trials alone. Everyone else in the trial went into remission and were doing very well, but that one person's insurance decided to reject the payment. That is unacceptable. This kind of bullshit is becoming more common.  American needs to get her head out of her ass and remember that a person is worth more than a few dollars.  The current for-profit system is vile and people will continue to die unnecessarily until we destroy our current system.  This book will piss you off.  Again, I highly recommend it to everyone.

Non-Campus Mentis: World History according to College Students - Anders Henriksson

This is a great book, though I think it might only be funny if you have a solid handle on both world history and geography.  I thought it was great.  It was compiled by a history professor of all the wack stuff he's read over the years in essay, term papers, and blue book exams.  Honestly, I can't imagine how much more there's been that just didn't make it into the book. This is great for a chuckle, and to feel wildly superior.
Sample:  The Black Plague - A plague of boobs

Cinder - Marissa Meyer

Another random selection, much better results than last time!

I would totally recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a fun fiction romp.  The premise is old-world fairy tales retold with a modern twist.  I really enjoyed the book and would absolutely read more by this author in the future!

Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher has her photo in the mental diseases book. It's a still of her from when she was in Star Wars.  Her response, "See! I'm not crazy! That bitch is!" Ha hahaha!
This was a great book. It was essentially her stand-up routine, so it was fast and amusing, but also weird.  It would not have been any good if someone else had read it. I'm glad I got to listen to her talk about her own life.
It took me a bit to get used to her humor, but not long.  I love the heavy sarcasm.  I would strongly recommend this to anyone who loves a ridiculous, sarcastic, self-depreciating stand-up routine about the shitshow that is Hollywood!

New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan - Jill Lepore

This book is terrifying.  Terrifying in the same way the Salem witch trials were, which, to my great amusement, was a parallel someone made JUST after the concluding events of this book!

In 1741 there were a series of suspicious fires in New York City.  At this time, it was a large town of 10k people and made entirely of wood, so fire was a serious fear.  After a good number of fires (like 6 -10) were started, all within a few weeks of each other, the New Yorkers started pointing fingers. And what better group to blame than newly enslaved Africans? New York was had slavery at that time and a few years previous there had been significant loss of life from slave revolts in some of the locations these slaves came from in the caribbean.  So some slaves get blamed for starting fires, and while there's 0 proof one way or the other, I suspect a small few, maybe 2-4 men did actually start the fires.  However, if that's all it amounted to, there would have been no story.  As we've seen before, hysteria took hold, and suddenly all 2,000 slaves in the city were in on it!

In a nearly surreal coincidence (maybe not?), one young, powerless, maid girl began the finger pointing, just as in Salem.  She was incensed at having to serve food and ale to black men, or so she claimed, and told the court that there was a plot to burn the whole city hatched at this gathering.  Some slave men are jailed, then some more, then the white tavern keeper where the gathering was held along with his entire family, some more black people, and MORE black people.  Despite having no evidence of any actual arson, nearly everyone was killed for treason.  The lucky ones were hanged. This continued until they had killed nearly any slave who even MIGHT have been acquainted with any of the slaves who had been killed for treason and slave owners started to complain that they were having to watch their money burn at the stake.

The really terrifying part about this book is the monumentally dumbass logic employed by the courts in this era.  If you are guilty and confess, then we will hang you, or maybe pardon you, but if you maintain your innocence, then we will torture you, assume you're guilty, and burn you instead.  Unless, that is, you want to confess, then we won't burn you. And if your confession brings to light a new name, then you'll likely be pardoned.  SO DUMB!  I mean, I'd be surprised if people WEREN'T tripping over themselves to point fingers.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson

I've taken a liking to old school gothic horror, perhaps because of Anne Rice, perhaps just evolving taste.  I'm sure everyone knows the basic premise of this book, but it is absolutely worth reading fully to appreciate the literature.  I find that most of the time classic well-known books like this are much richer than the plays/movies/shows that recreate them, this one is no exception to that rule.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading classics.

A Beautiful, Terrible Thing - Jen Waite

This was a random pick recommended by my library's app: "If you liked this, you may also like this..." But nothing I've read was remotely like this, so I've no idea why it was recommended.
That being said, it was an interesting read, I'll give it that, but I certainly don't plan on reading anything similar ever again.  The book is about a woman's relationship that eventually crumbles and only afterwards does she finally recognize the signs of psychopathy in her husband.  It is both frightening and fascinating to watch this trainwreck of a relationship.  The author does a phenomenal job of detailing the obsessing many of us do when a relationship ends suddenly without it being slow, grating, or boring as I have seen in other relationship centered stories.  She also jumps back and forth in time very easily and clearly.  I've seen other authors unable to pull this off too.
Frankly, the only bad part of this story is the child. I hate children and do NOT want to continually hear about them.  Even the author writing about her cholicy child made me want to punch something! But, it was necessary because when the author began focusing on her child, she was no longer constantly stroking her husband's ego, jumpstarting the destruction of the relationship.  So it needed to be in there, and after she moved away from her husband, her child was pretty much her whole world, but ew.
Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes to watch relationship drama fiction as well as nonfiction unfolding on say facebook or so on.

City of Illusions - Ursula K. LeGuin (The Hainish Chronicles, Bk. 3)

Each one of these gets better than the last. I love the long-term effects this series uses to make such power points.  This is by far the best of the series with lots of mind games and references to the other books. This book is part survival story, part taming the wild, part mystery, part science fiction, a wonderful combination of themes.  It is intense without being overwhelming.
If you read these books, I strongly recommend reading them back to back to ensure you catch the details.

I am Malala: The Girl who Stood up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban - Christina Lamb & Malala Yousafzai

This is an amazing story and everyone should read this book.
I remember that the first time I heard the basics about Malala, I was so angry.  I'm still angry. Little men using God as an excuse to hurt others because those men are worthless and use violence to make themselves feel special.  I wish I could personally shove them into the gaping pit where they belong. But I digress....
This book does a good job of showing Malala as a normal girl. Each step of her journey by itself doesn't seem significant, but they all add up. She has and continues to use her story to do amazing work.
The book ends with her UN speech, which you can watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SClmL43dTo

If you too want to fight terrorism AND help uplift the downtrodden, you can donate here:
https://www.malala.org/

The best part is religious extremism flourishes when the population is uneducated.  Education, especially of girls, stomps out the ignorance that makes terrorism seem like a viable career.  Malala is destroying terrorism in her home country by helping people. It's so simple.
I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Planet of Exile - Ursula K. LeGuin (The Hainish Chronicles, Bk. 2)

The genealogy of this series is my favorite part.  To jump around so far in time and see how ancient actions continue to influence people's actions. 
This book was a little more desperate fighting, think GoT, than the last. I liked this one more than the first.  Typically, "the classics" of any genre are boring because those early books didn't have to get weird/creative, but LeGuin's books are delightfully original despite their age. 
I would still recommend to anyone who likes scifi.

Rocannon's World - Ursula K. Le Guin (The Hainish Chronicles, Bk. 1)

Good, but not life altering.  I noticed several similarities between this book and the Ender series.  Card obviously drew from Le Guin: the careful thought about time travel and how one would communicate vs move a living thing through space, the crazy species, the exploration process, the misunderstanding.  I hadn't heard of her until I started this book, but now having seen the similarities between her world and Card's, I will read more of her work.
This book's pace went up and down, occasionally it wasn't able to hold my interest yet at other times it was riveting.
Considered as one of the classic science fiction writers, I would recommend this book to all my sci-fi friends.