Don’t let the excessively long title of this book turn you off. I promise you that **deep breath** A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself is a GREAT read.
When Kaye Publicity asked me if I’d like an ARC of this Katherine Howe title, I pounced on the opportunity. I adored Howe’s witchy historical fiction novel The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, and I wasn’t passing up a chance to get my...
The Invisble Life of Addie La Rue was another different type of read for me: fantasy. This creative story by V.E. Schwab is rich and complex; it’s detailed and emotional; it’s sweet and exciting. There are SO many things going on in this behemoth of a novel that it’s hard to pinpoint what to talk about. Let’s start at the beginning, which I actually didn’t love. The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue is slow to start. There’s a lot of...
Unpopular opinion alert: I did not finish (DNF) Red, White, and Royal Blue. SO many people have raved about this book by Casey McQuiston, readers and bloggers alike. It was all over bookstagram when it published in 2019, and I'm still seeing it appear in bookstack photos of beloved books. As a lover of rom-coms, I was eager to read this relatively new member to the genre: a queer rom-com in which two gay men fall in love. And one of them...
I knew I was going to enjoy Wow, No Thank You when I saw that author Samantha Irby also runs a blog called bitchesgottaeat.com. My level of enchantment only increased when I saw that she dedicated this book of essays to Wellbutrin, to which I, too, owe many a debt of gratitude. Obviously, Irby and I are kindred spirits. The reason I originally decided to read Wow, No Thank You is the title. The second I saw it, I could hear one of my friends...
Michael Arceneaux, author of I Can't Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I've Put My Faith in Beyoncé, may be my spirit animal. I can't even tell you how many times I emphatically nodded and shouted "Hell, yeah!" as I read his candid and moving memoir. It's rare that I stumble across a writer whose wry sense of humor so closely matches my own -- or, at least, my own if I had the chutzpah to speak or write about things as...
This book wins the award for the best last sentence of a book, ever. No, don’t go look at it! Do not flip to the back of the book to read it, or search for it on Google books, or anything like that. You have to read the entire book in order to fully appreciate – and understand – that last line. Just know that it made me cackle happily, close the book with a great big grin on my face, and say, “Oh, Evelyn.” Because that line is 100% the...
I almost stopped reading this book. I have a 50-page rule when I read something new -- every book has 50 pages to get me interested in the story, or I put it aside. Most novels grab me right from the get-go; others take a bit of time to get into the story. I used to dismiss books after only a few paragraphs or pages, but I decided to make the cut-off point 50 pages after reading We Need To Talk About Kevin, which is perhaps one of my favorite...
I have a friend who, without fail, asks me “So, what have you been reading lately?” every time I see him. Despite the fact that I’m a book blogger, I usually draw a blank when someone asks me for literary recommendations out of the blue. I’m always reading something, but I can’t always recall the title of my current read off the top of my head. (Meanwhile, I remember the name of my best friend's sophomore year math teacher quite...
I won’t lie – I mainly picked this title because of the author’s name (shout out to the CJ’s!) and the fact that there is an adorable orange cat on the front cover that looks very much like MY adorable orange cat. I figured with the stars aligning like that, I HAD to read this book. Honestly, the book description didn’t intrigue me that much (mainly because it didn’t offer much plot reveal—more on that in a bit), but I usually...
