Helga without the H

Four star review, originally posted here on December 31st, 2025: I’m playing catch-up and doing my last couple months worth of reviews, which is never fair to any of these books. It’s especially not fair to the later books when I’m already pooped from my other reviews and just want to be done. I pushed … More Goodreads Review: North Woods by Daniel Mason

Four star review, originally posted here on December 31st, 2025: Full disclosure: I’ve done that thing where I don’t review any book for a couple months, then try to catch up all in 1 day. I’ve done several other reviews today, and I am fried. Also, I barely remember this book. I listened to it … More Goodreads Review: Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II by Abbott Kahler

Four star review, originally posted here on December 31st, 2025: I’m not usually a sci-fi reader. Even for TV and movies I’m generally not much of a fan unless there’s something particularly appealing to me about it. It’s just a preference, I guess. But I did really like the movie The Martian (based on another … More Goodreads Review: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Three star review, originally posted here on December 31st, 2025: There was so much potential here. Alas, the book is infuriatingly uneven. This was my first time reading a Fannie Flagg book, though I’ve seen the movie Fried Green Tomatoes a million times. This book is very similar, in that we jump back and forth … More Goodreads Review: The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion

Four star review, originally posted here on December 31, 2025: This is not a book I ever would have thought to pick up on my own. But in one of my classes I ask people to recommend books (to help me find inspiration, and to broaden my own horizons,) and this is the one that … More Goodreads Review: Worst Case Scenario by T.J. Newman

Five star review, originally posted here on September 29th, 2025: Well wasn’t this just delightful? Yes, yes it was. Hiller starts off his book by telling us that he loves the shit out of actor memoirs. It’s his favorite “genre.” This is the first time I’ve ever heard anybody else say they love these books … More Goodreads Review: Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success by Jeff Hiller

Three star review, originally posted here on September 25th, 2025 This is a good book to read 2 days before your period starts. That is, if you are like me and find yourself crying at cheesy commercials, wondering WTF is wrong with you and why is every cheesy thing tearing you to bits, then realizing, … More Goodreads Review: Wish You Well by David Baldacci

Four star review, originally posted here on August 29th, 2025: This book was highly recommended to me by my lovely spouse as the perfect book for escapism. He never recommends books to me, but was adamant about this one after several discussions we’ve had recently about trying to find books that really suck us in. … More Goodreads Review: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Five star review, originally posted here on August 29th, 2025: This was fantastic. An absolutely perfect work of non-fiction. This book is just non-stop animal facts, and they’re all fucking fascinating. It took several days before I broke myself of the habit of contacting my poor husband with constant weird animal facts. “Let me tell … More Goodreads Review: Bitch: On the Female of the Species by Lucy Cooke