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, 2018, and 2019 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!
Coming Soon from Jodi Picoult: The Book of Two Ways (Book Review)
Jodi Picoult combines Egyptology and the work of a death doula in her new book, The Book of Two Ways. She even throws in a side helping of quantum physics and multiverses. The story is emotional, wise, and engaging but also sometimes a bit dry and hard to follow. Main...
Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women by Kate Manne (Book Review)
The good news is you only have to wait until Tuesday 8/11 to read Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women from author Kate Manne. There is absolutely no better time to get the run down on male privilege, since it’s loud and proud all over social media and the news....
Stacy Schiff: Cleopatra: A Life—Shifting Sands of Power (Book Review)
Stacy Schiff looks for hidden details about the world’s most famous female monarch in Cleopatra: A Life. And, believe me, those details hide among gobs of information about the men she loved. In order to tell Cleopatra’s life, Schiff really tells the stories of Caesar...
Alma Katsu Dives into Chilling Waters with The Deep (Book Review)
The Deep from author Alma Katsu is the perfect example of a genre I like to call Historical Fiction with a Twist. To qualify, that twist needs an element of fantasy or supernatural. In this case, Katsu imagines the lives of Titanic passengers and crew. With the hint...
Jesse Wegman: Electoral College Explained in
Let the People Pick the President (Book Review)
Jesse Wegman demystifies the Electoral College in his new book, Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College. No, really. He lays out all the myths I thought were true and some I didn’t. Then Wegman puts every one of them in...
From Rachel Carson: Silent Spring, an Environmental Classic
Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, and it’s an environmental science classic. She was one of the first authors to expose the realities of pesticides to the general public. Now, the world has always had natural pesticides. Sometimes it’s a protective...
Jason Stanley Offers Stellar Explanation in How Fascism Works (Book Review)
Jason Stanley breaks down How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them in this short, but intense book. We throw the term fascism around a lot these days. Better understand what it is before using it in a sentence. Or so I told myself when starting this book....
In Nomadland from Jessica Bruder the American Dream
goes Houseless (Book Review)
In Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century Jessica Bruder explores the subculture of houseless individuals. She primarily addresses the decisions that people make in their 50s and 60s and greater. Lacking pensions or savings, they need to take extreme...
Dysfunctional Family Extraordinaire: Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump, Ph.D. (Book Review)
If you’ve been present for the last five years, you know that Donald Trump (herein mostly referred to as 45*) is all about winning. But sometimes his wins aren’t especially positive. Like the story Mary Trump tells in her new book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My...
The Beautiful Struggle, a Coming-of-Age Memoir from Ta-Nehisi Coates (Book Review)
With The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, I claim completion of the Ta-Nehisi Coates canon. (Not counting his work on Black Panther graphic novels.) Now I want to go back and re-read some of his later books with the perspective I...
The Nickel Boys: Reality-based Historical Fiction in the Jim Crow South from Colson Whitehead (Book Review)
The Nickel Boys is the third Colson Whitehead book I’ve read. It’s a joy to watch his skill as a writer improve each time. Of course, two of the three won Pulitzer Prizes, so I’m not the only one noticing. And this book evoked a range of emotions from cheers to jeers...
Caitlin Myer on Escaping Abuse, Church, Patriarchy in Wiving
(Book Review)
Caitlin Myer explores family, identity and the role of women in her upcoming book Wiving: A Memoir of Loving then Leaving the Patriarchy. The story starts in Provo, Utah where she’s the youngest child in a medium-sized Mormon family. And her Art Professor dad holds it...
Margaret Walker, Classic Southern Historical Fiction and Jubilee (Book Review)
Reviewing Jubilee by Margaret Walker, a classic piece of historical fiction, is a daunting thing. Walker crafts a story, “inspired by the memories of her maternal grandmother, Elvira Ware Dozier.” (see source below) The main character is Vyry, a woman born on a...
From R.L. Maizes: A Feel-Good Novel called Other People’s Pets (Book Review)
Only R.L. Maizes would have thought to combine burglary with animal empaths. And she does just that in her sparkling, feel-good novel, Other People’s Pets. (Publishing on 14 July 2020.) I loved her 2019 short story collection, so I’m not surprised I feel the same way...
Mychal Denzel Smith on why Stakes is High: Life After the American Dream (Book Review)
Mychal Denzel Smith crafted a group of stunning essays in his new book, Stakes is High: Life After the American Dream. These essays are so spot on and relevant to current events as to be fully prescient. When in fact, they’re discussing complex conditions that have...
Anne Tyler, Book Group and a Palate Cleanser
The new book from Anne Tyler, Redhead by the Side of the Road, is a certified palate cleanser. At least that’s how it worked for me. In the midst of a history book about pandemics, and historical fiction about slavery, this was a small story about a few days in one...
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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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