Staff Picks Book Reviews
Porchlight is a company filled with voracious readers—talented, creative individuals who know books, and who excel at moving them. Whenever we can, we like to do that by telling you about the books we’re reading.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Everything I Need I Get from You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It
Book Review by Jasmine Gonzalez
For those that haven’t lived through the firsthand experience of being in an online fan community, Everything I Need I Get from You offers a well-researched, holistic view of what it means to be a fan.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Last Summer on State Street: A Novel
Book Review by Emily Porter
Toya Wolfe graces us with her debut novel, a coming-of-age story set on the South side of Chicago, showing it as, yes, a hardened and dangerous neighborhood, but also a strong and resilient community.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Think Like a Horse: Lessons in Life, Leadership, and Empathy from an Unconventional Cowboy
Book Review by Bryan Rogers
For better or for worse, animals tend to be our favorite mirror of choice. In Grant Golliher's new book, our initially skeptical reviewer Bryan Rogers found it was, in the end, for the better.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Disconnected : How to Stay Human in an Online World
Book Review by Emily Porter
Emma Gannon brings us this easy and fast read to guide us in reassessing our relationship with the devices that surround us each day.
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We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story
Book Review by Jasmine Gonzalez
We Were Dreamers is not just the story of Simu Liu’s journey to stardom, but a tribute to his family that is equally heart-wrenching and beautiful.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Streaming Now: Postcards from the Thing That Is Happening
Book Review by Gabbi Cisneros
Many of us would probably love to forget the yoyo-ing between monotony and madness of the early pandemic's everyday, but I think books like Streaming Now are essential to continue cultivating our consideration for ourselves and others, extending the learning that was thrust into motion in early 2020.
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Blog / Staff Picks
In Praise of Good Bookstores
Book Review by Emily Porter
In Praise of Good Bookstores is a wonderful read for all lovers of books and all of those who make books their calling, a thank you to the hardworking booksellers of the world for doing so, as it makes our lives more enriched.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Dessert Person: Recipes and Guidance for Baking with Confidence
Book Review by Lauren Kohlenberg
I have always been an avid baker, but I did not know what kind of baker I wanted to be until I got my hands on a copy of Claire Saffitz’s Dessert Person.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Time is a Mother
Book Review by Gabbi Cisneros
Newly published in the first week of national poetry month, Time is a Mother is an emotionally full and truthful collection of grief, progress, and identity.
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Blog / Staff Picks
Love and Work: How to Find What You Love, Love What You Do, and Do It for the Rest of Your Life
Book Review by Jasmine Gonzalez
I hope, in writing this review, in doing what I can to “take this, all of it, and do something with it,” that the right person will find it at the time they need it most, that someone else’s galaxies will once again shine brightly, too.
Categories: staff-picks