Welcome!
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t reading at least one book. I devour them, make time for them, hunt for bargains, and love to talk with other readers like you.
When I was trying to sum up my favorite 2016 reads, I realized I read mostly in three categories: books I learn from, books I use to relax, and books that are about resisting patriarchy, racism, and the status quo. So, that’s how I’m organizing my blog posts here. (I hope you’ll check out my favorite 2017 and 2018 reads also.)
I’m also the author of the Amazon best-selling Kick Pain in the Kitchen, about how to find holistic pain relief.
Find me at Goodreads and on the Litsy app as BarbaraTheBibliophage!
Book Review: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Eleanor Catton creates an epic story of the New Zealand Gold Rush in her prize winning 2013 book, The Luminaries. It captivated and confused me, as Catton takes many disparate characters and creates a constellation of mystery. She builds it piece by piece, jumping...
Book Review: Proof of Collusion by Seth Abramson
I confess. It wasn’t easy to read this Seth Abramson book. I spent a lot of it feeling down, depressed, and angry. But what we need is clarity, and Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America is absolutely crystal clear.It explains exactly how Trump has been...
Book Review: City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert creates an enchanting story of one woman’s turbulent and rebellious life, starting just prior to World War II. Vivian Morris is a good girl from a well-to-do family in a small, upstate New York town. Well, when she’s not getting kicked out of...
Book Review: Your Heart is the Sea by Nikita Gill
Nikita Gill is a twenty-something poet, of British-Indian heritage. She’s an Instagram poet, which is a social media phenomenon of the our new century. And, as such, I’m not really her audience.But, since I read another of her books earlier this year, her publisher...
Book Review: Elderhood by Louise Aronson
Louise Aronson subtitles Elderhood with the following: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life. I submit that she focuses primarily on the second of these topics, rather than the other two. And that makes sense because she has many years of...
Book Review: A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Warren is a fighter, whether in her personal life or for middle class Americans. From the very beginning of her law career, she’s been researching and making a difference for regular folks like you and me.As the author of many books, Warren has plenty of...
Book Review: Where We Go From Here by Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders writes and publishes unabashedly campaign-related books. Where We Go From Here is definitely that, although it was published before he officially entered the 2020 Presidential race. Essentially, it discusses his activities from the time of the 2016...
Book Review: The Oyster Thief by Sonia Faruqi
Sonia Faruqi writes her debut novel as a mash-up of mermaid fantasy and oceanic conservation information. Unfortunately, it’s more mashed than up. I abandoned it after 100 pages.The parallel story lines of a human and a mermaid are a trope that goes back to old-school...
Book Review: IQ by Joe Ide (IQ #1)
Isaiah Quintabe (known to his friends as IQ) is a new and unique detective character. He doesn’t have a Ph.D. like Alex Delaware. Or a PI’s license like Kinsey Millhone. He’s just a young guy who dropped out of high school because it was more important to pay the...
Book Review: The Pun Also Rises by John Pollack
John Pollack prefaces his exploration of puns with his experience at the world pun championship. This was the most intense part of his book, The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More than Some Antics. The...
Book Review: A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
In A Ladder to the Sky, John Boyne and his main character, Maurice Swift, take us inside the world of a writer. And a sociopath. It's so completely wrong that it's right. This is the follow up to Boyne’s fabulous 2017 book, The Heart’s Invisible Furies. And because I...
Book Review: Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
Lilac Girls from Martha Hall Kelly is an entrant into the crowded field of World War II historical fiction. She tells the story of three women, inspired by real life people and events. While everything about the book is appropriately tragic and inspiring, for me it...
Four Audible Originals: A Combined Review
After some long books in May, I decided to catch up on some shorter books. In my Audible collection, that means listening to a few Audible Originals. And finally Audible let's you sort your titles by length, which makes it much easier to manage via time. Instead of...
Book Review: The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson
Lindsey Lee Johnson takes readers deep inside the high school ecosystem in The Most Dangerous Place on Earth. Actually, the first chapter occurs in eighth grade, but the remainder are during high school. Her main characters are students, and one first-year...
Book Review: The Twilight Pariah by Jeffrey Ford
Jeffrey Ford wants to give his readers a creature feature, haunted house story in The Twilight Pariah. He also wants it to be quirky and funny, by virtue of the odd trio of college students involved. Problem is, it just fell flat for me. Not scary, and not especially...
Book Review: Grief is a Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
Max Porter takes grief and gives it the face of a crow in Grief is a Thing with Feathers. You think I mean figuratively. But no, in this prose poem slash novel, there is literally a Crow character. The less fantastical characters are a dad with two sons, whose mom and...
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I will definitely recommend Kick Pain in the Kitchen to my patients: Those who are looking to avoid pharmaceutical treatment and those who want to combine western medicine with alternative therapies.
Jane A. Swartz
ARNP, MSN, Rheumatology Nurse Practitioner
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