I have read all of Nick Hornby’s books even the music essay ones and somehow it took me until now to read Funny Girl. I guess my library hiatus had more casualties than I thought. I enjoyed the beginning of the book. Barbara from Blackpool goes from being Miss Blackpool for an hour to … Continue reading
Computer problems plagued me again this week. We’ve had awful internet issues since we moved in this house in 2005 and since we live in Baltimore City we have little choice as to service providers. We finally bought a new desktop for me to work on (our old one was so noisy and … Continue reading
I think I am getting old because I spent the whole book thinking “where are your parents?”. I’ve read a couple Megan Abbott books and they are generally pretty good. YA but long, well written and a little dark. Dare Me is the story of two best friends, their cheerleading squad and the new, troubled … Continue reading
Some of the essays in Selfish were really good. Geoff Dryer’s essay was hilarious. Others were sort of sad. Lots of divorces and bad childhoods. I can’t say I related to a lot of them but it was interesting to read the reasons people had for making the same decision I made not to have … Continue reading
After reading an exhaustive history of Southern food and some pretty serious memoirs about mental illness I thought I’d go for something lighter. Oddly, The Perfect Neighbors took longer to read than all of those previous books. I have no idea why! The writing was pretty simple and the plot wasn’t terribly complex. I didn’t love the … Continue reading
I don’t read a lot of YA books but I do love a teen drama and was a history major so Salem Mean Girls was right up my alley. Basically, a remake of the movie Mean Girls (with a dash of Heathers and Pretty Little Liars thrown in) it reimagines the story of Cady (in … Continue reading
The Potlikker Papers one of, if not the, best food history books I’ve ever read. It goes from the segregated South to the Black Panthers (did you know Bobby Seale* has a cookbook?) to Nation of Islam to hippies relocating from cities to the deep South to start communes to Paul Prudhomme to Southern Living to … Continue reading
I had mixed feelings about Agorafabulous!. On one hand, it was fascinating to read about agoraphobia, on the other I felt like she was trying too hard to be funny at times and occasionally was slightly offensive. For example, she’d refer to people’s race, sexuality or ethnicity all the time even when it didn’t matter. It … Continue reading
I requested two Louise Millar books from the library and they came in on the same day so I ended up reading them back to back. I enjoyed The Hidden Girl so I was looking forward to Accidents Happen. I was disappointed. It is basically the story of a woman who is super anxious because of … Continue reading
The Hidden Girl was a creepy mystery. A quirky and slightly mismatched couple moves from London to a big house in rural England for a fresh start. They’d like to adopt and eventually set up a music studio in an outbuilding for the husband. When they arrive the house needs much more work than they … Continue reading
Rachel Reads Books 