I came across this one in a NYT column and put it right on my holds list. It sounded intriguing–a man with three wives found dead near his rural compound. What a disappointment! I’m not entirely sure if Marilyn Stasio actually read the book. I didn’t get the impression from Black Widows or interviews with … Continue reading
I found A Spy in the Struggle a little puzzling. The concept was unique and I like how it touched on real issues and was topical (there is even a Covid-19 reference) but the main character was so flat. Her thinking was very black and white and childlike. It was very difficult to believe she … Continue reading
I started The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard by John Birdsall as an ARC and couldn’t get through it then tried again when it was published. This time I was able to put my finger on what bothered me. I understand the impulse to make the subject of a biography … Continue reading
I always like Heiny’s books because they are filled with people I feel like I’d actually know in my own life, teachers, woodworkers, mandolin players, and not the soccer moms and endless lawyers that populate so many other books. Early Morning Riser did not disappoint! I really felt like I lived in this town and … Continue reading
What a mess All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft turned out to be. I was ready to be dazzled but I was mostly left thrilled that I don’t know this woman. I think she thinks she is being charming and self-deprecating but she really comes across as smug and … Continue reading
I read Heidi Pitlor’s first book back in March. I had found it a little odd stylistically but the subject matter–a wife disappears–was interesting and dealt with in a serious fashion that this current trend to the sensational in publishing rarely seems to do well. This book is about another woman on the margins of … Continue reading
I have read all Caroline Leavitt’s books since I was in high school in the late ’90s so I was excited to read this one. I follow her on Twitter so I knew it was a loose fictionalization of the author’s own coma experience so that intrigued me. She said that she had been in … Continue reading
The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness by Sarah Ramey was really a mess on a lot of levels. I was very interested in the book as someone who had/has a mysterious illness myself but the unacknowledged privilege, the transphobia, the strange, circular, repetitive way she wrote, weird views on the source of racism (it’s … Continue reading
This Is Big: How the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World is sort of a memoir hybrid with Meltzer exploring the history of Weight Watchers though the lens of her lifelong battle with her weight. While she is very honest about how much she doesn’t like her body, the negative attention it attracts, her … Continue reading
I was hoping this would be a fun book to read during day 18 of quarantine but what a disappointment. Being from the area where he moved from gave me some insight other readers might not have. I don’t buy any of the reasons why he felt like he had to move. It was a … Continue reading
Rachel Reads Books 