Welcome to Litsy!

Steph doesn‘t just want to work for NASA, she wants to be The First Cherokee Astronaut. We follow Steph over 30 years as her tenacious determination to fulfill this dream casts a ripple effect on every person in her life.

Steph is messy. With every terrible choice she makes to get her closer to space, I was loving her and rooting for her even more. And the side characters all felt so real. I was sad when it ended. Fantastic debut.

While this certainly captured my attention throughout (and knocked #OK off my #ReadTheUSChallenge), I had a hard time connecting with the main narrator, Steph. She has a hard time reconciling love with her own ambition to become the first Cherokee female astronaut. The book largely revolves around her relationships which ultimately disappointed me. Steph‘s selfish, reckless & careless behavior makes her more frustrating than fun to read about!

This book has similarities to TJR‘s recent Atmosphere- two sisters, the elder childless, gay, and determined to be an astronaut. The younger, rebellious and a mother at 19 to a daughter. But this soon takes on a life of its own - even a shark attack. Life as a member of the Cherokee Nation would have been a story even if the NASA aspect was edited out. …There was also well developed storylines with supporting characters.

Super excited for my September Book of the Month! 🌙

This book interweaves the stories of a school‘s assistant principal, principal, secretary, alumni, board, and students as the school votes on a new Hall of Fame. The story was interesting and woven together nicely, but overall it felt a bit depressing and just “adults behaving badly” but not in a good or fun way. So so for me!

Hunkering down with this one while the winter storm is raging outside.

Thanks to my library for suggesting this as a skip the line copy! I did enjoy listening to it, but I didn‘t realize it was somewhat of a sequel! I never read Tom Perrotta but I‘ll prob be looking for other works by him, eventually.

Quick read, with a slew of distinct characters who tell this story. I finished it quickly and it is entertaining, but some characters that were included provided distraction from the others that had depth and could have been really interestingly developed. The ending was forced and unnecessary. Ok, entertaining read.

This sequel to Election fell short of my hopes. Read my full review here: https://debbybrauer.org/#tracy-flick-cant-win