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 | 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...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 5, 2022 | RESIST: Politics, RESIST: Social Justice
The essays in The 1619 Project, created and edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times Magazine, are more vital reading than ever. This week’s events at the Supreme Court have proven that. We’re watching the dismantling of privacy and human rights here in...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 15, 2022 | RELAX: Memoir
Lauren Hough shares her outspoken and unique voice in the essay collection Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing. It’s a memoir that wanders (in the very best way) through the various chapters of her life. Listening to the audio version, narrated by Cate Blanchett and the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 6, 2022 | RELAX: Memoir
Levi Vonk is a young anthropology student investigating migrant caravans in Mexico. Early in his process Levi meets Axel Kirschner, whose story includes time in the US, Guatemala, and travel through Mexico. Their experiences form the core of their book, Border Hacker:...
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 19, 2022 | LEARN: Everything Else
Libby Copeland considers all the ways consumer DNA testing has changed our lives in The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Uncovering Secrets, Reuniting Relatives, and Upending Who We Are. She interviews scientists, career genealogists, ethicists, and lots of regular...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 17, 2022 | LEARN: Chronic Illness
Jennifer Wright balances aspects of medicine, science, and social history in her 2017 book, Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them. Perhaps I connected most strongly to the human and social elements because of experiencing the COVID-19...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 16, 2022 | RESIST: Politics
Jonathan M. Metzl began researching his 2019 book Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed. As a physician, he wondered why people who benefited from the insurance and health...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 5, 2021 | RESIST: Social Justice
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration is Isabel Wilkerson’s first tour de force, published in 2010. Her second is Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which I reviewed earlier this year. Reading them in reverse order didn’t change the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 19, 2021 | LEARN: Everything Else
Sasha Geffen writes a captivating musical and social history in Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary. Not only do they* capture the magic of music through the decades, they also explain how a plethora of performers broke through the limitations of...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 2, 2021 | RESIST: Politics
Tom Nichols is a credentialed expert discussing The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters in his 2017 book. No irony here. This is a serious subject that relates directly to today’s world. If you’ve spent any time discussing...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 16, 2021 | RESIST: Feminism
Elizabeth Packard is the subject of Kate Moore’s new book, The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear. But I’ll venture to guess you’ve never heard of Mrs. Packard. Although her story is...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 6, 2021 | RESIST: Feminism
Caroline Criado Perez covers extensive ground in Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. Because the world offers her illustrations galore of how we exclude women from data. Then she turns around and explains what this means in everyday women’s lives....
by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 4, 2021 | RESIST: Social Justice
Isabel Wilkerson writes about devastating history in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. It’s long, intense, and absolutely necessary to read. Thinking of the social and societal issues around race as based in a complicated caste system makes perfect sense. And...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 23, 2021 | RELAX: Memoir
Sarah M. Broom creates a tour de force memoir in The Yellow House. And truthfully, it’s so much more. It’s about her family, her childhood, and the house she grew up in. But it’s also about her home city, New Orleans, including the politics, the racial divide, and the...
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