Half a Life

On Being 40 (ish) edited by Lindsey Mead
Publication Date - February 5, 2019
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A group of the editor's women friends wrote essays on what it means to be forty.  The writing encompasses topics such as parenting, body image, career, marriage and health at an age when you probably have more life behind you than ahead.  As someone who will turn forty next year, I found most of these essays immensely relatable and true to life.  It also introduced new authors and journalists that I will now follow.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Friday Reviews

The Last Cruise by Kate Christensen
🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

I have been a fan of Kate Christensen’s since reading her novel In the Drink when I was a young adult.  I find her writing crisp and her character’s fascinating and she has a very Generation X thing going (but I maybe I just think that because I am Generation X and I like her writing).  This book concerns the last cruise of a 1950’s era ship called the Isabella.  It’s last route will take 500 passengers from California to Hawaii in an attempt to showcase the old-fashioned glamour of the cruise.  Once on board, pretty much every terrible thing that can occur on a cruise happens.  I loved this book and it completely catered to my own ability to imagine the worst case scenario for everything I do.  I am taking a half star on this book for the ending which was abrupt and kind of weird, but otherwise this was an entertaining and well written book…just don’t read it before taking cruise.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  

Impossible Owls: Essays by Brian Phillips
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Essay collections are often hard to review, especially ones like this with lengthy essays, but I will say that out of these were reliably solid.  This starts out with a beautifully descriptive essay about the Iditarod Race with details about Alaskan life and scenery. There is one about England's royals that was cheeky but also very perceptive and one about his hometown in Oklahoma that exemplifies a place and time in the American West.  Overall this was a solid collection and one that I will probably dip back into for rereading.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Breathtaking Mix of History and Fantasy

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
Publication Date - March 12, 2019
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Set during the fall of Muslim Granada in the fifteenth century, among the terrifying days of the Spanish Inquisition, this young adult novel follows Fatima in her quest of the mythical Bird King. She is a beautiful young woman who grew up in the royal harem, and while a pampered favorite of the Sultan she feels shackled by her slave status.  When her best friend, Hassan, is accused of sorcery because of his map-making skills, they decide to escape the walls of their palace.  This book is a beautiful mix of historical fiction and mythical fantasy.  I don’t think I’ve read another young adult novel quite like this and it is a welcome addition to the genre.  I received a complimentary copy of this book through the BookishFirst program in exchange for an honest review.

Midweek Review

The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World
by Bart D. Ehrman
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I am extremely interested in how religions spread and was looking forward to the ideas examined in this book.  While I did learn quite a bit, the way the book was written was a bit dry and repetitive. I also did not like how a topic was brought up and then dismissed saying "as we will see in chapter..." or in some other manner which was done frequently.  Overall,  the topic and information is interesting, the format not so much.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Family and Virginia Woolf

All the Lives We Ever Lived by Katherine Smyth
Publication Date - January 22, 2019
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Book criticism mixed with memoir is one of my favorite sub-genres.  This particular book mixes the story of the author’s family life, specifically her father’s decline in health, with Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse.  I have always struggled with Woolf’s works which is probably why I found these sections a big of a slog.  I thought the sections about her father were very well written so a fan of Virginia Woolf may rate the book in its entirety higher.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Friday Review

True Gentlemen: The Broken Pledge of America's Fraternities by John Hechinger
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This was an really interesting (and I thought fair) look at the fraternity system at U.S. colleges with insider interviews and lots of historical research.  It acknowledges the horrific racist history of the institutions along with their current atrocious behavior of binge-drinking and occurrences of sexual assault but also gave instances of fraternities that have devoted themselves to changing their image and creating a place of community for all genders, races and social classes.  I work on a college campus and while it is so easy (and appropriate) to disparage the fraternity as an organization,  it is also easy to notice the inherent loneliness that some students face on big college campuses.  This opened my eyes to the problems and possible solutions to the Greek system.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  

The Waking World

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
Publication Date - January 15, 2019
🌟🌟🌟1/2

On a college campus on a mountain in California, a girl falls asleep and can’t be woken.  As more and more people submit to the disease, both on and off campus, the town is put under quarantine and the awake try to survive while the asleep are deep in their dreams.  I really enjoyed the first half of this book.  I love the premise and enjoyed trying to figure out what was going on.  The middle slags, though, and I felt a disconnect to the characters and felt that there were plot threads that were not being completely examined.  This had the feeling of a three star read until the last several chapters which were beautiful and superbly written.  I wish that it was a more in-depth account and that the characters’ lives were explored more fully, but overall I like the ideas behind this book and will read further books by this author in the future.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Pride and Prejudice and Pakistan

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal

Publication Date – January 15, 2019

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This is an extremely faithful retelling of Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan.  So much so that even the names sound like the original and all of the scenes happen right on cue.  While this became somewhat predictable, it was also extremely comforting.  I enjoyed the Pakistani culture and found myself doing research on many of the unfamiliar terms while reading.  It is always a risky endeavor to read a re-imagining of one of your favorites, but I really did enjoy this book.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Inspiring and Realistic Take on Eating Disorders and Recovery

Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib
Publication Date - February 5, 2019
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This is a surprisingly powerful and life affirming novel about a group of women in an eating disorder recovery program.  It is told from the point of view of 26 year old Anna.  A former Parisian dancer, she moves to St. Louis with her beloved husband and the loneliness and isolation she experiences spirals her into severe anorexia.  Eventually she lands at 17 Swann Street and meets a group of women who stick together and support each other through the difficult and sometimes impossible recovery process.  Due to the fragmented writing approach, this is a quick read but I thought it very well done and finished with a better understanding of the inner thought processes of those living with an eating disorder.  I received a complimentary copy of this book through the Bookish First program in exchange for an honest review.  

Journey Through Glitzy 1960's Europe

An Improbable Pairing by Gary Dickson

🌟🌟🌟1/2

It is the 1960’s and Scott Stoddard, twenty-three, is on a ship bound for Europe and a high quality education.  While he is excited by the glamour of Europe, he also has to shoulder the high expectations of his upper middle class parents.  Almost immediately, he meets and falls in love with an older, highly sophisticated and extremely wealthy countess.  His European adventures and his courtship with the beautiful countess shape the course of his life.  This novel excels at descriptions of clothes, restaurants, food, cities and everything European.  The romance between the two felt clinical to me and I wasn’t exactly rooting for them, which somewhat colored my opinion of the book.  Regardless, the nicely flowing plot and exquisite depictions of upper class living made me keep reading until the end.  I received a complimentary copy of this book through the Bookish First program in exchange for an honest review.

Another Tudor Read

Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him by Tracy Borman

Publication Date -  January 18 ,2019

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It is hard to find new history books on Henry VIII that explore any new instances in his life.  What this book does different is focus on his male relationships and those that were exploited for power and those that suffered from them with their lives.  I am ceaselessly fascinated by the Tudor reign and this book does a great job of exploring the relationships between the men such as Wosley, Cromwell and Cranmer and the mercurial king.  I have done quite a bit of reading about the Tudors so am familiar with most of the players so since the mass quantity of names and title didn’t trip me up, I found this thoroughly enjoyable.   I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Continuation of a Great Series

Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers
Publication Date - February 5, 2019
★★★★



Continuing in the world of LaFever’s His Fair Assassin series, this books revisits Sybella and introduces Genevieve, another daughter of death.  I enjoyed the duel perspective of this book even when Genevieve sometimes frustrated me with her disability to trust anyone.  As always, the author is so good at mixing historical fiction with a slight fantasy element and I’m happy she decided to continue with this series.  Two suggestions when reading this are to read the initial trilogy as they contain most of the backstory and don’t expect anything to really be wrapped up at the end.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Care and Feeding Post

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray
Publication Date - February 19, 2019
★★★★★



Althea and Proctor are well respected business owners in their small Michigan town.  After some illegal business practices, they are put in jail leaving their twin teenage daughters in the care of Althea’s sisters.  Viola and Lillian are both dealing with their difficult childhoods in different ways and must confront their complicated past while doing the best they can for their troubled nieces.  This is a beautifully written novel about forgiveness,  accepting failings and dealing with the past.  The characters were flawed and well developed and this was a great first read of 2019.  I received a digital ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Strange and Atmospheric Novel

The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh
Publication Date - January 8, 2019
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I am a bit flummoxed on how to rate this book.  On the one hand it is beautifully written with atmospheric prose and an eerie plot.  It is also very strange, depressing and kind of vague.  It follows a family of sisters and their mother who live in an isolated beach house after the mysterious disappearance of their father.  It has tones of dystopia but it is really not clear until the end what is going on.  The inner monologue of the sisters (mostly Lia and Grace) is claustrophobic and often frustrating.  I'm interested to read what others think as there is quite a bit to discuss in this book.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Fast Food Nation

The Elephant in the Room:  One Fat Man’s Quest to Grow Smaller in a Growing America

By Tommy Tomlinson

Publication Date – January 15, 2019
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Tommy Tomlinson is a well-known journalist in Charlotte, North Carolina who has dealt with his weight his entire life.  After the death of his sister served as a wake-up call, he decides to finally face his emotional connection to eating and try to healthily lose weight.  This book is not only a chronicle of one year of this attempt but also a look back at his relationship to food and how it has affected his entire life.  I found this entirely relatable, and his descriptions of unhealthy food were so strangely beautiful that I completely understood why he spent so much time waiting in line at fast food restaurants.  His descriptions of his wife and their relationship were so inspiring and I really admire his complete honesty and introspection about his weight.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting Psychological Thriller

Anonymous Girl by Greer Henricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Publication Date – January 8, 2019

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Jessica enters into a morality study illegally in order to make some much needed cash.  As the study progresses, she get much more than she bargains for when she becomes enmeshed with the psychologist who runs it, the sleekly manipulative Dr. Shields.  This is a psychological thriller at its best.  Deeply creepy with lots of twists, I really enjoyed this and think that it stands slightly above the many other books in this genre.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Excellent End to a Series

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden
Publication Date - January 8, 2019
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This is the rare case of a series that has gotten exceedingly better with each additional book.  I liked the first book but the second book really hooked me and the last is pretty much everything I want in the conclusion of a fantasy series.  This series takes on a mix of true Russian history with ancient fairy tales.  All of the characters are perfectly well developed and flawed without taking away from their likability.  There was even a little more humor in this book which was needed amongst the darker topics, and this book does definitely go dark.   I highly recommend sticking with this series if you are unsure after reading the first.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.