The Bibliophage
  • Bibliophage
    • About
    • Contact Form
  • Resist
    • Feminism
    • Social Justice
    • Politics
  • Relax
    • Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
    • Historical Fiction
    • Memoir
    • Mystery – Thriller
    • Other Relaxation
  • Learn
    • Chronic Illness
    • Medical Memoir
    • Everything Else
  • Miscellaneous
  • Review Policy
  • Newsletter
Select Page

Mateo Askaripour: New Author Offers Insightful Novel, Black Buck (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 14, 2021 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour is many things—racial justice commentary, social satire about the sales industry, debut novel, and maybe even a morality play. But at its heart, it’s a good story with a compelling main character who indeed sold his ideas effectively to...

Jacqueline Woodson: Red at the Bone—A Novel of Family and Struggle (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 31, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

Jacqueline Woodson does it again with Red at the Bone. In my opinion, there’s no other living author that imbues so much emotion and grace into so few pages. This story is all about family and self-realization at any age. It’s a story of Melody, a teen whose parents...

Boys in Two Unique Coming-of-Age Books

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 21, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

Reading two books about two boys in very different eras and situations warmed my heart at the start of this cold, dark winter. I began Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis with my 10-year-old granddaughter. And then I started The Absolutely True Diary of a...

Rachel Mans McKenny: The Butterfly Effect is a Stellar Debut (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 16, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

In the debut novel from Rachel Mans McKenny, The Butterfly Effect, Greta Oto is more a spiny caterpillar than beautiful butterfly. Even though she’s an entomology graduate student, specializing in the winged creatures. She’s not socially comfortable in most...

Taffy Brodesser-Akner Explores NYC Life in Fleishman Is in Trouble (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 29, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

Taffy Brodesser-Akner shines a light into the darkness of dysfunctional marriage and divorce in Fleishman Is in Trouble. Set in the world of Manhattan’s social climbing thirtysomethings, we meet Toby Fleishman first. He’s experiencing the unstable world of newly...

Lindy West—Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 13, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

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...

Amitav Ghosh: Gun Island is Socially Conscious Storytelling (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 6, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

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...

Coming Soon from Jodi Picoult: The Book of Two Ways (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 11, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

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...

From R.L. Maizes: A Feel-Good Novel called Other People’s Pets (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 2, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

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...

Anne Tyler, Book Group and a Palate Cleanser

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 25, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

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...

Book Review: Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 13, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

Carol Rifka Brunt created a debut novel with a huge emotional wallop. Tell the Wolves I’m Home hits the pain of teen years, family tensions, grief, and a looming virus. It’s set in the 1980s, when AIDS was just coming into the national consciousness. June, our 14-year...

Book Review: The Bourbon Thief by Tiffany Reisz

by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 10, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

Tiffany Reisz combines one part romance, one part mystery, and two parts family dysfunction in this Kentucky bourbon themed novel. At its center are Paris and Tamara, both women driven to have what they want, logic be damned. It pulled me along like the distillery...

Book Review: Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 18, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

Elizabeth Wetmore crafts a multi-layered debut novel in Valentine. To me, it reads like a book written by a more experienced author. She takes many points of view and melds them together into a narrative as slick and sticky as unrefined oil. Which is fitting since...

Book Review: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 2, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

Dear Kevin Wilson: Thank you for giving me something to laugh at while on lock down in my house. Nothing to See Here offered me hours of escape, into the world of kids who catch on fire and the pliable definitions of parental love and family. It was a life saver for a...

Book Review: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 24, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

Bernardine Evaristo writes a prose poetic novel, honoring a wide-ranging group of black British women in her 2019 book Girl, Woman, Other. The women represent many walks of life, various generations, and diverse personalities. They connect with each other, but the...

Book Review: Women Talking by Miriam Toews

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 21, 2020 | RELAX: Other Relaxation

In Women Talking by Miriam Toews, a group of women sort life out after experiencing terrible assaults. What makes this unique is that the women are all conservative Mennonites living in the isolated, fictional colony called Molotschna. But this isn’t strictly a work...
« Older Entries

Free Limited Edition Bookmark When You Subscribe

Bookshop.Org Affiliate

bookshop logo Now a proud Bookshop.org Affiliate! Please consider supporting this blog by ordering from our shop!

Search All Posts

Recent Comments

  • Barbara the Bibliophage on Kerry Greenwood and Phryne Fisher: Cocaine Blues is Historical Mystery Par Excellence (Book Review)
  • Sue Dix on Kerry Greenwood and Phryne Fisher: Cocaine Blues is Historical Mystery Par Excellence (Book Review)
  • Barbara the Bibliophage on Jacqueline Woodson: Red at the Bone—A Novel of Family and Struggle (Book Review)
  • Barbara the Bibliophage on Rachel Mans McKenny: The Butterfly Effect is a Stellar Debut (Book Review)

Tags

2.5 stars 3.0 stars 3.5 stars 4.0 stars 4.5 stars 5.0 stars advanced reader's copy backlist bump booked2019 booked2020 celadon chronic illness contemporary cults and religion diverse authors dystopia essays fantasy feminism fiction france GOP administration / 45 historical fiction historical fiction with a twist history horror IRL book group lgbtq medical medicine memoir mental health awareness mystery / thriller netgalley nonfiction Obama administration poetry politics reading women challenge 2019 science short stories social history social justice speculative fiction women's studies

Purchase My Book

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

 

Goodreads

Find Me on these Book-Related Sites

I'm Listed in Book Review Directory NetGalley Professional Reader NetGalley Top Reviewer NetGalley 100 Book Reviews My Favorite Bookish Social Media

Archives

© Copyright 2017 All images (unless otherwise noted) and text are the creation and property of Barbara Searles and TheBibliophage.com. Any other use must be approved.

Get RSS feed here

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments