by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 20, 2023 | LEARN: Chronic Illness
Cole Kazdin combines memoir and narrative nonfiction in her upcoming book, What’s Eating Us: Women, Food, and The Epidemic of Body Anxiety. It’s an excellent reflection of life with an eating disorder. But it’s also much more. For example, Kazdin investigates aspects...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 8, 2023 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Arca is the second book in G.R. Macallister’s Five Queendoms series. It follows the main characters of her first book in the series, Scorpica, which was one of my 2022 favorites. These women are grappling with the changes happening in the queendoms. As rulers and...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 26, 2022 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Red London, the newest Red Widow mystery from Alma Katsu, is set in a world that is both post-Putin and post-Ukrainian war. It focuses on the relationship of Russia’s new (and fictional) government with its oligarchs. And, of course, on Russia’s relationship...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 8, 2022 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
I read Dark Celebrations during the Halloween spooky season, but Calvin Demmer’s flash fiction collection is appropriate for horror fans to celebrate all year long. He takes typical holidays and events and turns them into extraordinary—and gory—celebrations. Honestly,...
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 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 | Jul 2, 2022 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Upgrade is Blake Crouch’s latest thriller and it focuses on using genetics for good or evil. Main character Logan Ramsay experiences both in the course of the story. As the son of a famous geneticist, he was a tangential part of an apocalyptic genetic failure. As a...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 12, 2022 | RELAX: Other Relaxation
Elsewhere from Alexis Schaitkin is a melancholy, unsettling book. The setting is an imaginary town, high in the mountains. It’s so near the mountaintop that the clouds settle in there during the evenings. And some mornings, the townspeople wake up to a terrible event....
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 5, 2022 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Alan Drew creates a thoughtful mystery with multiple viewpoints in The Recruit. It’s set in 1987 and happens around a small city in Orange County, California. Drew uses a smart approach to his suspenseful story. He’s unafraid to confront the big issues of the day,...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 16, 2022 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, RELAX: Historical Fiction, RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
In A Rip Through Time, Kelley Armstrong creates Vancouver police detective Mallory Atkinson. Mallory is visiting her gravely ill grandmother in Edinburgh, Scotland. The year is 2019. Until one evening when Mallory goes jogging and unexpectedly finds herself waking up...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 11, 2022 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
In The Fervor Alma Katsu blends lesser-known World War II history with Japanese folklore and the horror of racism. This relatively short book introduces Meiko and her young daughter Aiko. Meiko came to Seattle as part of an arranged marriage to another Japanese...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 27, 2022 | RELAX: Memoir
Valerie Biden Owens offers readers insights into her family, political and otherwise in upcoming her memoir, Growing Up Biden. As the younger (and only) sister of President Joe Biden, she has a unique story to tell. At its heart is a deep trust between family members....
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 12, 2022 | LEARN: Medical Memoir
Fiona Murphy focuses her lyrical memoir, The Shape of Sound, on her experience with hearing and deafness. We follow her memories of childhood up until the present. So, we learn about her ongoing denial of being deaf in one ear. She analyzes how and why she hid her...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 28, 2022 | RESIST: Politics, RESIST: Social Justice
Lily Geismer covers tremendous political, social, and historical ground in Left Behind: The Democrats’ Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality. Starting with mindset changes in the post-Carter, Reagan-era Democratic Party, Geismer works through fifty years of policies....
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 21, 2022 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Scorpica is everything I want in epic fantasy—world-building that still makes characters the focus of the story. G.R. Macallister creates entrancing characters in places I’ll never forget. She’s billed this as book one of a new series—The Five Queendoms—and I’m...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 10, 2022 | RELAX: Memoir
The upcoming memoir from Rachel Krantz, Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation, and Non-Monogamy is raw and sometimes raunchy. It’s also a tale about control and gaslighting in relationships. As the memoir opens, Krantz is a twenty-something writer who doesn’t...
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