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: Blowout by Rachel Maddow
When I finished Blowout by Rachel Maddow, I had to wash all the residual oil slick off my skin. The book is just that immersive in the oil industry. Not to mention a different kind of Kremlin-based, Putin-esque oiliness. Wow, this book contains nothing less than a...
Book Review: The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
We know Ta-Nehisi Coates for his nonfiction, but his fictional debut, The Water Dancer, is just as stupendous as his previous books. He builds the details of his world drop by drop, layer by layer. By the end, I felt fully immersed, although in some ways I was...
Book Review: This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
Laurie Frankel brings us inside a raucous and somewhat unconventional Wisconsin family in This Is How It Always Is. Rosie and Penn, respectively a doctor and a writer, are the parents of four boys when she gets pregnant again. Every time she’s expecting they hope for...
Book Review: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
I wanted to love the new Gilead book from Margaret Atwood. I wanted that so much. And it didn’t happen for me. She tells a tale that pales in comparison to both The Handmaid’s Tale book and television series. It’s not gritty, suspenseful, or driven by compelling...
Book Review: How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Ibram X. Kendi covers a lot of ground in How to be an Anti-Racist. I believe we all are his intended audience, no matter our race, color, sexual or gender identities, political affiliation, or any other segmentation you might consider. He makes it clear that this...
Book Review: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
Rebecca Roanhorse crafts a unique fantasy tale in Trail of Lightning. The world she creates is in the near future, but has undergone some big physical and metaphysical changes. Heroine Maggie Hoskie survives The Big Water (catastrophic flooding caused by climate...
![Book Review: [Dis] Connected: Poems & Stories of Connection and Otherwise, Volume Two](https://i0.wp.com/thebibliophage.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/DisConnected-2.png?resize=400%2C250)
Book Review: [Dis] Connected: Poems & Stories of Connection and Otherwise, Volume Two
Editor and publisher Michelle Halket showcases work from ten poets in [Dis]Connected: Poems & Stories of Connection and Otherwise Volume 2. Each of the ten poets submitted three poems, which are interspersed between short stories from the same writers. Halket...
Book Review: The Merchant of Menace by Richard T. Ryan
(A Sherlock Holmes Adventure)
It’s a joy to revisit the world of Sherlock Holmes with author Richard T. Ryan and his latest novella, The Merchant of Menace. Holmes and Watson need to catch a thief who’s angling for priceless, one-of-a-kind items. And threatening the owners’ loved ones as he does...
Short Story Review: The Town that Feared Dusk by Calvin Demmer
Calvin Demmer writes intense horror stories. Part of a series called Short Sharp Shocks!, this one is a ghost story. Journalist Sylvia Bernstein is looking for that “big story,” which will boost her career into hyperspace. She should be careful what she wishes for....
Book Review: The Overstory by Richard Powers
Richard Powers weaves the stories of nine disparate people’s lives together like tree branches on the ground after a strong storm. There’s a college student, a software genius, an engineer, a soldier, an artist, a researcher, a scientist, an actuarial attorney, and a...
Book Review: On Writing by Stephen King
Stephen King offers a memoir and discussion of the creative life in On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. I tried to judiciously underline, but found so many valuable nuggets that my book is marked up like a high school English textbook.The book is divided into two major...
Book Review: Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari
Johann Hari did so much more than enlighten me in his book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs. I met all the players in this war, from the government officials to the cartels and dealers, to those on the global leading edge of...
Book Review: X by Sue Grafton (Kinsey Millhone #24)
X is the second-to-last Kinsey Millhone book from Sue Grafton. Although is was published in 2015, the action happens in 1989. As always, I smile at the things Kinsey has to do to make a phone call. It’s a reminder of what some people call “simpler days.” Unless, like...
Book Review: When We Were Arabs by Massoud Hayoun
Massoud Hayoun combines two shorter books into one with his debut nonfiction, When We Were Arabs. It’s a family memoir, a political history, and a commentary. He uses his own family’s experience, primarily that of his maternal grandparents, to illustrate a wide...
Book Review: Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
Mary Beth Keane is a new author for me and her latest book, Ask Again, Yes, has rocketed into the public consciousness lately. I couldn’t resist giving it a listen after a friend commented on its emotional ending. Plus, it was chosen for The Tonight Show’s Summer...
Book Review: White Rage by Carol Anderson, Ph. D.
Carol Anderson, Ph.D tells a lot of hard truths in White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. I believe her one hundred percent, partly because a solid half of this book is scholarly footnotes. And partly because of all the other social justice reading I’ve...
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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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