Since 2008, Ashley Eckstein has had a huge, positive impact upon the lives of fangirls everywhere as both Ahsoka Tano and the founder of Her Universe and now she’s written a book too! Out today, It’s Your Universe: You Have the Power to Make It Happen is a biographical and inspirational account of Ashley’s journey from being a young Disney-loving girl in Florida to a Star Wars star who runs a company focused on supporting fangirls.
Towards the start of the book, Ashley encourages readers to use the book as their own journal for writing down their hopes and dreams and what the path towards that dream might look like. She even leaves lines and little prompts for readers to do so. This turns the reading experience into something interactive.
Admittedly, It’s Your Universe is not a book intended for me. (I’m a 28-year-old pessimist who masquerades as a realist.) But that’s okay. Not every book has to be for every person and there are plenty of people out there, young girls in particular, for whom this book will be amazing. The suggested age range for this book is 12-18 but I think younger fans would appreciate it even more than older teenagers.
Throughout the book, Ashley incorporates some of her favorite quotes and storylines from Disney films, both classic and new. Between descriptions of times when Disney Princesses had to keep going in the face of adversity and Ashley’s own candid descriptions of instances where she experienced set backs, readers are reminded that the path to success isn’t always a straight line. What matters is that you keep believing in yourself and come up with a new plan when your first one doesn’t work out.
It’s Your Universe is likely the perfect book for a young fangirl and especially one who needs a little positive reinforcement as she strives towards her dreams. And hey! While it might not be the book for me, it could very well be an inspirational book that older fans adore as well. In short, if you’re a fan of Ashley Eckstein and Her Universe, you’ll likely find something to like about It’s Your Universe.
Thank you to Disney Editions for providing an advance copy of the book for review.
What do you get when you take Daniel José Older, toss him into the Star Wars universe, and let him play with two of the most famous scoundrels in the galaxy? A goddamn delight. You get a goddamn delight. Okay, fine: it’s actually called Last Shot but that doesn’t mean it’s not also a delight. Set two years after the Battle of Jakku, Last Shot follows Han and Lando on a mission with an eclectic team as choices they made over a decade before rear their ugly heads to bite them in the rear. What could possibly go wrong?
If you came out of The Last Jedi hoping to learn more about Paige or Rose Tico, Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein, is likely the book you’ll gravitate towards. While on a mission, Paige and Rose’s ship is boarded by a smaller one crewed by two people with a desperate mission. Their planet is ruled by and treated poorly by the First Order and they fear that their people might die if the New Republic doesn’t find a way to aide them. Knowing there’s little the Senate will do, General Organa tasks Cobalt Squadron with seeing while they can do… all while, elsewhere in the galaxy, Starkiller Base is rapidly approaching completion. 
Reference books and visual guides aren’t usually the sort of Star Wars item that I consider my thing. They’re neat, of course, and fun to flip through at a friend’s but when there’s only so much money in your bank account, you can’t get everything. Not so here. Much like the Star Wars Propaganda book from last year, Stormtroopers: Beyond the Armor by Ryder Windham and Adam Bray is one of those books that caught my interest completely from the moment I started paging through it right up until I closed it. 
What I told you was true… from a certain point of view