essays Archives - The Gilmore Guide to Books

The Next Day

Catherine — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 07:47:48 +0000

Nonfiction has not been rewarding for me this year. My guess is the petulant part of my brain feels that it is already working too hard to process this country’s current reality and has no room for more information. But then I discovered The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward by Melinda French Gates […]

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Buying Books and Feeling Good About It

Catherine — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 07:21:30 +0000

On Wednesday I shared a 5-star memoir about a woman who worked as an executive at Amazon for over a decade. I knew, even as I was making my disdain for Amazon clear in my review (it’s a horrible company and Bezos a walking Napoleon complex in an interminable midlife crisis), that I was on […]

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July Reading Wrap-Up

Catherine — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 07:51:26 +0000

Goodbye, July. It was a busy month of travel, family reunion, and not-so-fun adulting, but overall there was some great reading to be had amongst the gorgeous weather here in Seattle. I’m sorry for you lovelies who struggled with sweltering. One week in Colorado in the 90s was enough to make me overjoyed to return […]

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The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West

Catherine — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 05:20:50 +0000

So fine, if you insist. This is a witch hunt. We’re the witches, and we’re hunting you. November and December are my months of backlist reading—the time of year when I abandon ferreting out great new reads from publishers and instead read based on my mood or other people’s recommendations. By-and-large the 2020 iteration […]

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A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost

Catherine — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 05:43:44 +0000

If you’re a fan of Saturday Night Live then you’ll know the name Colin Jost. If not, he’s one of the anchors for Weekend Update and a very funny man. His memoir is called A Very Punchable Face and listening to it with him narrating, had me driving around aimlessly so I didn’t have to stop. […]

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More Than A Woman by Caitlin Moran

Catherine — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 04:54:48 +0000

I’ve loved all of Caitlin Moran’s fiction (How to Build a Girl, How to Be Famous) but had never read any of her nonfiction, so was interested to see she has a new book out. More Than a Woman is her follow-up to How to Be a Woman, which she wrote when she was […]

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What I’m Reading this Week

Catherine — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 04:53:51 +0000

Hello, lovely readers! Everyone still managing to hold onto at least a semblance of their sanity? Mine is questionable so I’ll stick to my reading today. You may already know this, but in case you don’t: I get advance copies of books I request from publishers in exchange for my review. It’s a wonderful thing, […]

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Summer Nonfiction Mini-Reviews

Catherine — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 04:59:06 +0000

I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing my astonishment over my nonfiction reading, but honestly, this is the first time in all my years of blogging where I have 3 5-star nonfiction books before the year is even over. And this is just from the last two months! I’m not going to bore you (yet!) […]

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We Are Never Meeting in Real Life

Catherine — Mon, 25 May 2020 04:46:35 +0000

Samantha Irby is a 36-year-old, black, lesbian living in Chicago. She also grew up broke-ass poor—all of which she lets you know from the get-go in her essay collection We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. But her biographical details are the least interesting thing about her. What really matters is that she is wildly […]

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Good, Better, Best: Nonfiction

Catherine — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 10:15:37 +0000

Last year was another outstanding year for my nonfiction reading. I read a little less nonfiction than 2018 but the majority was 4 stars or above, with 5 books getting a perfect rating from me. I wasn’t able to review all of them then so am starting 2020 with 3 options that were good, better, […]

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