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

The Sandcastle Girls: Heartbreaking Historical Fiction from Chris Bohjalian (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 16, 2020 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

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...

Alma Katsu Dives into Chilling Waters with The Deep (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 2, 2020 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

The Deep from author Alma Katsu is the perfect example of a genre I like to call Historical Fiction with a Twist. To qualify, that twist needs an element of fantasy or supernatural. In this case, Katsu imagines the lives of Titanic passengers and crew. With the hint...

The Nickel Boys: Reality-based Historical Fiction in the Jim Crow South from Colson Whitehead (Book Review)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 11, 2020 | RELAX: Historical Fiction, RESIST: Social Justice

The Nickel Boys is the third Colson Whitehead book I’ve read. It’s a joy to watch his skill as a writer improve each time. Of course, two of the three won Pulitzer Prizes, so I’m not the only one noticing. And this book evoked a range of emotions from cheers to jeers...

Margaret Walker, Classic Southern Historical Fiction and Jubilee (Book Review)

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...

Book Review: Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho (Sorcerer Royal #1)

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 10, 2020 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, RELAX: Historical Fiction

The publisher summary of Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho focuses on Zacharias Wythe, who is England’s young Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers. But for me, this imaginative fantasy is as much about the female lead Prunella, as it is about Zacharias. And Cho...

Book Review: Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion

by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 19, 2020 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

Joan Didion invites us into late 1960s Hollywood in her novel Play It as It Lays. Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-ah) Wyeth is a struggling actress, whose fledgling career is in a stall. Although she’s married to a connected and somewhat powerful man, Carter Lang, they’re...

Book Review: Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell

by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 2, 2020 | RELAX: Historical Fiction, RELAX: Mystery-Thriller

Author David Morrell skillfully blends history and mystery in his 2013 novel, Murder as a Fine Art. Morrell uses real-life historical figures and inserts them into likely situations. Plus, he bases events on the history surrounding their lives. In addition, he...

Book Review: The Edge of Nowhere by C.H. Armstrong

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 7, 2020 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

Author C.H. Armstrong writes a compelling deep dive into Oklahoma’s Dust Bowl years in the early twentieth century. In The Edge of Nowhere, her main character is Victoria Hastings. And, my goodness, she does not lead an easy life. The book is a letter from Victoria to...

Book Review: The Art of Sherlock Holmes – USA Edition

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 28, 2019 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

Phil Growick conceived and curated The Art of Sherlock Holmes – USA Edition. The premise is simple. Collect a group of Sherlockian tales by accomplished writers familiar with the genre. Then ask world-class artists to each create a work of art that reflects one...

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 23, 2019 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

I remember just enough of The Kite Runner to know that Khaled Hosseini would break my heart in A Thousand Splendid Suns. And so he did, over and over and over. It’s the story of two women in Afghanistan who each forge a path for themselves, despite and because of the...

Book Review: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 16, 2019 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

Eleanor Catton creates an epic story of the New Zealand Gold Rush in her prize winning 2013 book, The Luminaries. It captivated and confused me, as Catton takes many disparate characters and creates a constellation of mystery. She builds it piece by piece, jumping...

Book Review: City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

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...

Book Review: A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 18, 2019 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

In A Ladder to the Sky, John Boyne and his main character, Maurice Swift, take us inside the world of a writer. And a sociopath. It’s so completely wrong that it’s right. This is the follow up to Boyne’s fabulous 2017 book, The Heart’s Invisible Furies....

Book Review: Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 16, 2019 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

Lilac Girls from Martha Hall Kelly is an entrant into the crowded field of World War II historical fiction. She tells the story of three women, inspired by real life people and events. While everything about the book is appropriately tragic and inspiring, for me it...

Book Review: Woman 99 by Greer Macallister

by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 31, 2019 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

Greer Macallister did it again. With Woman 99, she wrote another book I couldn’t stop listening to and reading. Macallister has a way with her portrayals of strong, but flawed, women. In Woman 99, she gives us several who fit that mold.Her chief protagonist is...

Book Review: Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 27, 2019 | RELAX: Historical Fiction

Kristin Lavransdatter is a Norwegian literature classic by Sigrid Undset. In fact, Undset is so revered that she won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928, after Kristin was published. But, let’s also clarify that this is actually a trilogy, now published as a 1100+...
« Older Entries
Next Entries »

Bookshop.Org Affiliate

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

Search All Posts

Archives

Recent Comments

  • “The” Jay Geary on Rebecca Woolf — All of This (Book Review)
  • Barbara the Bibliophage on Jamie Raskin — Unthinkable (Book Review)
  • Barbara the Bibliophage on Malcolm Nance — They Want to Kill Americans (Book Review)
  • "the" Jay Geary on Jamie Raskin — Unthinkable (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 biography bodily autonomy booked2019 celadon chronic illness contemporary cults and religion diverse authors essays fantasy feminism fiction GOP administration / 45 historical fiction historical fiction with a twist history horror IRL book group lgbtq medical medical memoir medicine memoir mental health awareness mystery / thriller netgalley nonfiction politics reading asia 2021 reading women challenge 2019 science short stories social history social justice speculative fiction u.s. medical system 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
© 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