by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 4, 2022 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen is tepid historical fiction with unlikable characters in this fish out of water novel. Three feckless and privileged young Americans travel to a village in the Scottish Highlands to find the Loch Ness monster. Because of the journey,...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 25, 2022 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
Mad Honey is a compulsively readable novel by two of my favorite authors, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. It’s about two single moms in small-town Adams, New Hampshire, and their high school-age kids. Olivia is a beekeeper and entrepreneur. Her son Asher is...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 14, 2022 | RELAX: Memoir
Keri Blakinger tells her harrowing story about addiction to drugs and disordered eating in her memoir, Corrections in Ink. She lands in prison and reconstructs her experience from scribbled journals kept on purloined paper that miraculously survived the cruelty of...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 9, 2022 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Autumn is upon us, and it’s time for some freaky and spooky reading. I started early with two mysterious books ideal for the spooky season. They share an unexpected pairing element, but I’ll let you find out for yourself. No spoilers here! The House Across the Lake by...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 3, 2022 | LEARN: Everything Else
Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity is Mark Nepo’s latest book of essays. His approach is both as a spiritual teacher and as a student of life. Nepo is also a poet and philosopher. So, when you blend all these elements, you sense his writing...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 30, 2022 | RELAX: Memoir
Qian Julie Wang (王乾) crafts a poignant immigrant memoir in her 2021 book Beautiful Country. She and her parents emigrated to the New York City metro area from China. Wang discusses her early school experiences, one with a more diverse student population than others....
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 23, 2022 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, RELAX: Historical Fiction
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution, is precisely what I expect from writer and historian R. F. Kuang. It’s complex and highly literate. Plus, the struggle between colonizers and those they oppress is at its...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 20, 2022 | LEARN: Medical Memoir, RESIST: Social Justice
Thomas Fisher wears many hats in his new book, The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER. He’s a writer, physician, and commentator. All in all, he blends the various roles well and creates a compelling narrative. But I found it more...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 12, 2022 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
The late writer Chinua Achebe originally published his remarkable book, Things Fall Apart, in 1959. That it still lands on “best books ever” lists is a testament to its lasting effect on readers. Late to the party, I just read it for the first time this year. The book...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 8, 2022 | RELAX: Memoir
Rebecca Woolf creates a complex yet vulnerable tale in All of This: A Memoir of Death and Desire. How do these two topics intertwine, you ask? And Woolf answers this question in spades. Her marriage was far from perfect, but they stayed together. Then doctors diagnose...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 6, 2022 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
Kali Fajardo-Anstine delivers a portrait of womanhood in Colorado in her debut novel, Woman of Light. She tells the story of multiple women across three generations of an indigenous and mixed-race family. Moving back and forth across time, Fajardo-Anstine connects the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 4, 2022 | LEARN: Everything Else
Donna Jackson Nakazawa does it again with her upcoming book, Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media. She blends real-life situations with scientific knowledge and analysis. And concluding the book...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 27, 2022 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
Dandelion Wine is a masterwork in the art of connected stories or vignettes. In the hands of Ray Bradbury, small-town America in the summer of 1928 comes alive. Kids run free and adults sip glasses of dandelion wine on their porches. But there’s also an unsettling...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 26, 2022 | RELAX: Memoir
Melissa Gilbert and I were born the same year—1964. So I relate to every pop culture reference in her books. We have similar perspectives about the world, despite our vastly different lives. She was a child actor on the long-running TV series Little House on the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 24, 2022 | RELAX: Memoir, RESIST: Politics
Congressman Jamie Raskin bares his soul in Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy. This combination of memoir and political history covers topics related to the health of this country. One is the crisis of mental illness in this country,...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 22, 2022 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
Naomi Hirahara offers historical fiction and intrigue in her 2021 book Clark and Division. The time is the middle 1940s, which means that the story begins in Manzanar, one of the many World War II Japanese internment camps. As the Ito family considers leaving the camp...
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