The Old Drift

This particular backlist title has been on my radar since it's publication a few years ago, but sort of as a backburner situation. Interestingly, I have no idea why I chose now to read it, as it's not like my TBR is suddenly shorter or anything. But someone checked it out at the library the…

The New Wilderness

Here we are. A couple months later, a little behind schedule of my goal of finishing before the shortlist was announced, but nevertheless better late than never: my final Aspen Words 2021 longlist read/review! I won't lie, this is the longlist book I was least interested in reading, so I saved it for last. I almost decided…

A Children’s Bible

My 7th book on the Aspen Words Literary Prize 2021 Longlist and this is one that was neither on my radar at all prior to this list nor one that I read anything about before picking it up (or, to be fair, starting the audio...the narrator for which has a particularly grating voice, in my…

Catherine House

My interest in the genre of dark academia, and in fact my knowledge of that as a sub-genre of its own in the first place, is totally due to @kiara.in.the.stacks. So, shout out to her! But for real, I am really feeling this dark academia vibe. I have read The Secret History, which was good…

Vox

There has definitely been a trend in recent literature for speculative stories about dystopian futures (especially in the US and especially for women). This isn’t really a surprise, I don’t think, considering some of the leadership we’re currently experiencing. And it definitely adds a realistically frightening edge to the speculative-ness of the stories. Obviously, Margaret…

The Book of M

I grabbed this one at a used book store last year. I’d seen it around a little bit and knew it was apocalypse-ish themed but that was about it. I know I generally love that genre though, so I figured I’d grab it for when I was in the mood later. I started it about…

Memory of Water

Let me take a quick moment to thank my long-distance book club for this read right quick. As our theme for this month’s book club, we chose something related to endangered species/Ocean Month/general environmental things. It’s a broad, vague category. Haha. But actually one of the prompts for The Reading Women Challenge 2020 is a…

The Farm

I’m not sure how much I’ve talked about this on the blog, but before I went back to school for my MPH, I did prenatal breastfeeding and childbirth education. And I loved it. It’s actually what prompted me to go back to school for public health. Anyways, the reason I bring that up is because…

The Water Cure

When it was published last year, I saw a lot of mixed reviews on this novel. Which does sort of makes sense, since it was long listed for the Man Booker Prize, and many prize winners do tend to be polarizing (in style and/or message). I am always interested in seeing what these mixed review…

Red Clocks

This one has been on my TBR since it was published. And even after it was starting to get mixed reviews, I still wanted to read it. Feminist dystopia is one of my favorite sub-genres. And I loved (in a literary-interest way, not in an actual real-life way because OMG NO) that the premise of…