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!
The Lottery and Other Stories: Classic Horror from Shirley Jackson (Book Review)
The Lottery and Other Stories proves that Shirley Jackson was a master storyteller. Everyone knows this, so I’m not saying anything new. I’m behind on reading Jackson’s work, having only read We Have Always Lived in a Castle previously. But I figured October was a...
Lindy West—Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema (Book Review)
Lindy West reviews classic movies from the last several decades in Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema. These are her favorites, meaning she likes to pick them apart and point out all the plot holes, weird characters, and clunky...
Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang, MD and Nate Pedersen (Book Review)
Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen is two parts gasping at astounding purported medical cures. It’s also one part rubbernecker can’t look away no matter how yucky the example might be. I thoroughly enjoyed...
Amitav Ghosh: Gun Island is Socially Conscious Storytelling (Book Review)
Gun Island is my first Amitav Ghosh, but certainly not my last. I love his style and this book. I’m particularly drawn to Ghosh’s ability to weave various current news topics into a compelling story. It grounds the narrative solidly in our own time period, and...
Bob Woodward explains Trump administration in Rage (Book Review)
Rage by Bob Woodward is the combination of rage-inducing, all the rage, and full of rage. Woodward’s on every interview show (at least on the channels I watch). He’s getting his message out and selling books, for gosh sakes. Plus of course, time is short before...
From Paramahansa Yogananda: Autobiography of a Yogi—A Classic Memoir
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda is exactly that. Yogananda details episodes in his spiritual and bodily life from childhood until the book’s publication around 1945. The stories are wide-ranging and vary between India and the U.S. But primarily,...
Alex Michaelides: The Silent Patient is a Thrill Ride (Book Review)
Alex Michaelides builds layers of psychological suspense in The Silent Patient. It’s tempting to think you’ve got it all figured out. But the maze of the characters’ minds is complex. In this drama of betrayal and therapeutic potential, Theo is a psychologist treating...
The Sandcastle Girls: Heartbreaking Historical Fiction from Chris Bohjalian (Book Review)
In The Sandcastle Girls, Chris Bohjalian crafts a skilled and sad historical fiction novel. It centers on the little-known Armenian genocide around the time of World War I. Tragically, the Ottoman government expelled and mass murdered 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey...
Robin Wall Kimmerer—Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Book Review)
From indigenous American botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass is absolutely beautiful in concept and execution. It’s the perfect antidote and balm for the world of 2020. Kimmerer takes indigenous wisdom and marries it with both science and social...
Robin DiAngelo—White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (Book Review)
As defined by Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility refers to both a book and a behavior. In her subtitle, “Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” we learn the simplest definition of the behavior. White people see race through a completely different lens,...
A User’s Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Nick Capodice and Hannah McCarthy (Book Review)
Nick Capodice and Hannah McCarthy host a show and podcast called Civics 101 on New Hampshire Public Radio. This experience makes them uniquely qualified to write A User’s Guide to Democracy: How America Works. It’s a 21st century primer on everything about U.S....
Following Trump in 2016: Unbelievable by Katy Tur (Book Review)
What does it say about my reading habits that when I needed something easy, I picked up the 2017 book Unbelievable: My Front Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History by Katy Tur? And that subtitle? It’s not holding up over time, if the state of the 2020...
Our Malady by Timothy Snyder—Healthcare, Freedom & Politics (Book Review)
Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary by Timothy Snyder is just under 200 pages. While it’s not long, it covers topics we all face daily whether we know it or not—our health and freedom. A Yale professor, historian, and writer, Snyder was not well at...
Three Brief Audiobooks with #OwnVoices
In between longer reads, I often pick brief Audible Originals or other short audiobooks. This group of three #ownvoices reads are about women whose lives illustrate the realities of being black and brown in a difficult world. Proof of Love by Chisa Hutchinson...
From Mikki Kendall—Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot (Book Review)
When Mikki Kendall published Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot in early 2020, the situation was dire. Today, not even six months later, it’s even worse. The shooting of Breonna Taylor by police in her own home is just one reason. Countless...
Brittany K. Barnett: A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom (Book Review)
Brittany K. Barnett tells a series of moving and disturbing stories in her new memoir, A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom. If you read social justice books like The New Jim Crow or Locking Up Our Own, you must get your hands on a copy of this...
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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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