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 | Jan 21, 2022 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
The 2018 book Circe by Madeline Miller retells the mythological story of the daughter of Helios and a nymph named Perse. Helios is the sun god and a Titan, the group of original gods. (That brings an entirely different meaning to the current term OG.) Myths credit her...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 19, 2022 | RESIST: Social Justice
Michelle Duster is the great-granddaughter of her subject, Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells. Her family preserves the legacy of this important woman. They deserve sincere kudos for keeping her memory alive because it’s inspiring to...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 21, 2021 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
Just River by Sara B. Fraser is a novel about hopeless people in Wattsville, a small upstate New York town. Once a place with a booming factory, it’s now slower and sadder. It’s the kind of town people leave as soon as they can. And yet, Carol raised her daughter...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 22, 2021 | RELAX: Memoir
Sharon Stone writes about plenty of dramatic moments in her 2021 memoir, The Beauty of Living Twice. To date, her life story includes adopting three sons, surviving two traumatic brain injuries, contributing mightily to good causes, and yes, acting up a storm....
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 1, 2021 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
On paper the new book from Laurie Frankel, called One Two Three, is a perfect fit for me. Triplet teenage Erin Brockoviches investigate and maybe even save their town from villainous chemical company. I love a good feminist, strong (young) women book! Trouble is that...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 23, 2021 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
Author Lauren Willig just didn’t deliver what I hoped for in The English Wife. It’s historical fiction and mystery, set in The Gilded Age of New York City, Newport, Rhode Island and country houses. The Van Duyvil family is “old money,” having come to America from...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 5, 2020 | LEARN: Everything Else
Stacy Schiff looks for hidden details about the world’s most famous female monarch in Cleopatra: A Life. And, believe me, those details hide among gobs of information about the men she loved. In order to tell Cleopatra’s life, Schiff really tells the stories of Caesar...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 5, 2020 | LEARN: Medical Memoir
Casey Schwartz writes a memoir and social history mash up in Attention, A Love Story. She’s a thirty-something woman who started using Adderal, a drug to treat ADHD, in college. But she took it without being diagnosed. It’s just one of those things college kids do,...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 1, 2020 | RELAX: Memoir
Maggie Nelson and Harry Dodge have a non traditional family, while doing common things like struggling to get pregnant and raising two children together. In her memoir, The Argonauts, Nelson explores the unique aspects of their lives. At the same time, she discusses...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 2, 2019 | LEARN: Everything Else
Massoud Hayoun combines two shorter books into one with his debut nonfiction, When We Were Arabs. It’s a family memoir, a political history, and a commentary. He uses his own family’s experience, primarily that of his maternal grandparents, to illustrate a wide...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 12, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
The Final Days of Magic is my last shot at the New Orleans Witches series. And I’ve discovered that none of the characters matter very much to me. Even if author J.D. Horn writes another book in the series, I won’t be following along. I’m disappointed to be leaving...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 8, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Jeffrey Ford wants to give his readers a creature feature, haunted house story in The Twilight Pariah. He also wants it to be quirky and funny, by virtue of the odd trio of college students involved. Problem is, it just fell flat for me. Not scary, and not especially...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 13, 2019 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
In The Paragon Hotel, Lyndsay Faye brings us a character nicknamed Nobody. She’s actually Alice James, but is skilled at disappearing into the corner of a room or a street. She uses some disguise, but mostly changes voices and attitudes to blend in. It’s a skill she...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 1, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
This was my first venture into the Aimée Leduc series from Cara Black. So, I started with book one and took an armchair trip to the neighborhood in Paris called the Marais. Aimée is the owner of a small private detective agency in Paris. She’s the daughter of a French...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 12, 2019 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
Like imaginative authors everywhere, Ella Carey based Paris Time Capsule on a real-life occurrence. In late 2010, a Paris apartment that had been uninhabited for 70 years was opened after its owner’s death. She had left Paris during World War II and never returned....
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