Three star review, originally posted here on September 13th, 2024. I hesitate to even rate this because it’s not even a book. Audible pitched it to me, it was free and short, it had Joseph Fiennes, and the story looked super interesting. Only after starting it did I realize this is just an old-timey radio … More Goodreads Review: Bluebeard by Jim Clemente and Peter McDonnell

Four star review, originally posted here on September 9th, 2024. I wasn’t going to read this book. It looked boring. It was free, which made me suspicious (They can’t even give this thing away!) And at a whopping 20+ hours it was loooooong. I hate long books. And this boring-looking book seemed like it would … More Goodreads Review: Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon

Three star review, originally posted here on September 3rd, 2024. I got this book from the airport convenience store. It was the only book win the slim selection that seemed even remotely appealing, and I was basically just looking for a light fun beach read, so my standards and expectations were low. As I started … More Goodreads Review: The Housekeepers by Alex Hay

Four star review, originally posted here on August 20, 2024. It took me a few attempts to get started on this book, which was gifted to me. It is clear at the very beginning that this book was not written by a professional writer. That’s fine; it’s a holocaust memoir, so I’m not going to … More Goodreads Review: Together: A Journey for Survival by Ann Arnold

Three star review, originally posted here on August 20, 2024. I hadn’t heard of this book before, but it was listed very high on a Goodreads list of best memoirs. I love a good memoir, and this one had promise. From its placement on the list, and the other books around it, I was expecting … More Goodreads Review: Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

Three star review, originally posted here: It’s tough to believe that this book was written by the same person who wrote Cold Mountain. It’s not that Nightwoods is terrible; it’s just kind of there. Whereas Cold Mountain was absolutely incredible. Cold Mountain had so much to say. It was so imaginative and so thought-provoking, with … More Goodreads Review: Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

Four star review, originally posted here on June 30th, 2024. I’m not sure if books can get much more niche than this. A couple months ago I was in London, and our very last act as tourists was to stop by the Sir John Soane Museum. We didn’t really know what we were getting into … More Goodreads Review: At Home with the Soanes: Upstairs, Downstairs in 19th Century London by Susan Palmer

Two star review, originally posted here on June 19th, 2024. Another instance where I dip my toe into the waters of popular literature only to get burned. I dunno, everyone loved this book, it was nominated for reader awards, it sounded like a plot I would have fun getting lost in, etc. I wasn’t expecting … More Goodreads Review: Weyward by Emilia Hart

Two star review, originally published here on June 19th, 2024. I have a confession: I was very tempted to lie here. There was a point where I was not finished with the book yet, but fully intended to just mark this as read, leave a bad review, and move on. There’s no reason why I … More Goodreads Review: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

Four star review, originally posted here on June 6, 2024. This book was, to my happy surprise, the exact book I needed at this exact moment in my life. I thought it would be a light, fun romp. Something simple to distract me from the serious shit of the real world. And it was! But … More Goodreads Review: The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs