I am a huge fan of quirky characters, but when they fly by the eccentric train station heading full speed to weird I start applying the reading brakes. Today’s reviews are about two women who are quirky and then some. In one case it worked beautifully and led to a novel I loved. In the other, it was almost enough to overshadow a good book. As mentioned, I always ... Read More...
Heart Berries: A Memoir
It’s hard, as a reviewer, to say you loved a book or felt deeply touched by it, but that you’re not sure you understood a lot of it. And by understand, I mean, literally, the facts. This is the case for me regarding Terese Mailhot’s memoir, Heart Berries. The emotion of it gripped me. The symbolism of her words is a cold, clear stream—shocking and cleansing. For much of the ... Read More...
Love and Ruin by Paula McLain
It wasn’t bravery when you did what you had to do. Paula McLain’s novel, Circling the Sun, was one of my favorites of 2015, largely because she portrayed Beryl Markham so well as a woman who wasn’t content to follow the norms of her times—get married, have children—but who understood that the only way to follow her own path meant the norms would never be an option. ... Read More...
American Radical: Inside the World of an Undercover Muslim FBI Agent
Like some of the other non-fiction books I read last month (Educated, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark), American Radical by Tamer Elnoury reads like fiction. High-wire tension, thriller kind of reading. Tamer Elnoury (not his real name) is an undercover FBI agent. He was brought here from Egypt by his parents when he was a small boy. English is his first language and he speaks ... Read More...
A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out
Let’s not beat around the bush: I’m a sucker for a clever book cover and when I saw A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out I knew I wanted to read the book, even if the title didn’t wow me. I mean, please…her skirt is a book! I want it. Add to that this is a novel about a young woman who got an English degree because she loved books and reading so much, only to discover that ... Read More...
April Reading Recap
Don't faint, but I'm not going to complain about my reading this month! Nope. Suffice it to say, April was a month of more highs than lows. It was also one for the record books. I read more non-fiction this month than I have all year. Thanks to super recommendations from bloggers I trust and the Seattle Public Library’s Peak Picks program (every branch has limited copies of ... Read More...
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