Honest, thoughtful, and passionate book reviews and recommendations.
★★★★★
Jess Ekstrom’s Chasing the Bright Side: Embrace Optimism, Activate Your Purpose, and Write Your Own Story is a wonderfully uplifting, joyful, and honest exploration of the ways in which entrepreneurs and go-getters of all kinds and in all stages can stay positive, live a life with purpose, and achieve their dreams.
Thanks to the amazing author, Jess, for sending me a free copy of her book!
Continue reading “Chasing the Bright Side: Jess Ekstrom”★★★★
In Garth Greenwell’s searingly personal and super sexy Cleanness, an American reflects on the time he has spent abroad as a teacher in Bulgaria, with particular focus on his emotional and sexual experiences.
Thank you to FSG for the free book!
Continue reading “Cleanness: Garth Greenwell”2019 is gone (like, way gone – better late than never!), but the stories that I read in Q4 will stick with me for a long time. I had a slower reading quarter, which isn’t surprising given football season, holidays, and the general sense of laziness that comes with less daylight. I’ll be giving you all the info on the books I read in October, November, and December here, but don’t forget to take a peek at my favorite books of 2019, too!
★★★★★
Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy is an utterly astounding account of the heinous ways in which the American justice system gets incarceration and the death penalty so wrong – disproportionately in the lives of disenfranchised and marginalized people.
★★★★
Tanen Jones’ The Better Liar is a deceptive, edge-of-your-seat domestic thriller about a woman who will go to great lengths to claim her inheritance.
Thank you to Random House for the free advanced copy!
Continue reading “The Better Liar: Tanen Jones”★★★★
Miranda Popkey’s Topics of Conversation is a particularly distinctive collection of conversations between women painting a portrait of female desire, love, shame, and much more.
Thank you to Knopf Publishing for the free book!
Continue reading “Topics of Conversation: Miranda Popkey”★★★★★
Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven tells the story of a pandemic that kills a majority of the population, leaving the survivors in a shockingly realistic post-apocalyptic world.
★★★★★
Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House is a fantastically unique, searingly honest memoir of one woman’s experience with abuse in a same-sex relationship.
★★★★
Lee Matalone’s Home Making is a quietly profound story of a mother and daughter, each navigating her own meanings of motherhood and “home.”
Thank you to Harper Perennial for the free advanced copy of this book!
Continue reading “Home Making: Lee Matalone”★★★
Rye Curtis’s Kingdomtide is a sparing, motley story of an elderly woman’s struggle to survive after a plane crash strands her in the Montana wilderness, the park ranger who leads her rescue efforts, and the intimate struggles facing each of them.
Thank you to Little Brown for the advanced copy of this book!
Continue reading “Kingdomtide: Rye Curtis”