by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 11, 2020 | RESIST: Social Justice
Despite finishing Separated by Jacob Soboroff over a week ago, reviewing it is a struggle for me. It’s a complex book, so I worry I won’t do it justice. At the same time, at the center of it is the human ability to be cruel. And in this case children, even babies,...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 2, 2020 | RESIST: Politics
I spent 30 hours listening to Barack Obama in November. Hint: It was the audiobook of his recently released memoir, A Promised Land. I consider it time well spent, as well as an enjoyable listen. And even though I was alive and politically aware during the events of...
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...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 14, 2020 | LEARN: Everything Else
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...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 25, 2020 | RESIST: Social Justice
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...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 4, 2020 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
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...
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...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 16, 2020 | LEARN: Chronic Illness
Randy Shilts creates a tour de force history of the early years of the AIDS epidemic in And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic. It’s 600 pages of intense details, drawn from thousands of interviews with 900+ people. Despite being published in...
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...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 13, 2020 | RELAX: Memoir
I am so impressed by Sally Field. In Pieces is a poignant, charming, and absorbing tale. And she lived it all. Although she never glosses over the difficult parts of her life, she intersperses them with her triumphs. Through it all, we learn just how hard a Hollywood...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 11, 2019 | LEARN: Chronic Illness
Donna Jackson Nakazawa is a favorite nonfiction author of mine. Her book, The Autoimmune Epidemic was one of the first books I read after being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis 10 years ago. And I’ve devoured every one she’s written since. The Angel and the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 12, 2019 | RESIST: Politics
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...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 8, 2019 | RESIST: Social Justice
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...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 28, 2019 | RESIST: Social Justice
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...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 10, 2019 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
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...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 2, 2019 | RESIST: Feminism
Kate Manne is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University. Why am I leading with that in this review? Because knowing that informs everything about her book Down Girl: The Logic Of Misogyny. She’s a brilliant academic thinker and researcher. First and...
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