Helga without the H

Five star review, originally posted here on September 30th, 2024. I’ve been having one of those common slumps where absolutely nothing I read is drawing me in. Like… everything is ok, but there’s nothing where I just can’t wait to jump back in. Thankfully that slump ended with Smoke Get in Your Eyes. For the … More Goodreads Review: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & The Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

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