Wild Swans

I was recommended this book by a coworker many years ago and a combination of events this year, including AAPI Heritage Month, a book choice recommendation for a book club topically related to Mother’s Day, and prompt #15 for The Reading Women Challenge 2020 (a biography) finally had me picking this one up. Wild Swans…

How We Get Free

This book was chosen by a friend as the first book of an Anti-Racist Book Club that she started. I know that the reactions to white people, white women, starting book clubs like this to address racism is very understandably skeptical as an empty gesture that will soon be moved on from… All I can…

Wolf Hall

This book has sat on my shelf, unread, for years. It’s curious, because it’s so lauded a historical fiction of a time period that I love reading about, so I can’t figure out why I hadn’t picked it up before. But the recent publication (and Women’s Prize short-listing) of the final book in the trilogy,…

The Deep

Just about two years ago I read Solomon’s debut novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts, and was so impressed with the world-building, the diversity of the characters, the writing…it was a fantastic debut. And it was before I really had any idea about Afrofuturism as a genre, so it felt truly groundbreaking to me. I am…

When Women Ruled the World

I picked this book up to fulfill Prompt 6: Nonfiction by a Woman Historian on The Reading Women Challenge 2020. I have always been fascinated by ancient Egypt and I have read a ton of historical fiction about these great Queens, including a fantastic one about Nefertiti by Michelle Moran and a 1000+ page one…

Black Leopard, Red Wolf

I have had every book that Marlon James has ever written on my TBR (and, for most of them, on my shelves) for years. I’ve heard his writing is amazing and the stories are intense and affecting, but for some reason this mood reader has just never been in the mood. And then BLRW was…

The Half-Drowned King

Alright, you know how sometimes your brain does weird things and gets you all confused? Well, that happened to me with this book so hard. When I first read a description of it, I was like, “Yes! This sounds amazing and I want to read it!” And then, somehow, I got this book and The…

A Gentleman in Moscow

This book has been on my TBR since it’s publication in 2016. Years ago, definitely before I started officially blogging my reviews, I had read a previous novel of Towles’, Rules of Civility. I really enjoyed it. I remember thinking it was a great period piece, though I don’t remember a lot of the details,…

Educated

This book fairly burst onto the scene recently. And I have to be honest and say that I was not originally that interested in reading it. I had seen comparisons to The Glass Castle, which I had read and enjoyed years ago, but just was not in the mood for. I figured I’d hold onto…

The Philosopher’s Flight

The description of this book sounded right up my alley. A mix of magic, history, science and more with a whole flipped gender role aspect. I mean seriously, sign me up! And though it took me much longer than I had originally anticipated or hoped to get around to reading it, I was right. (Congratulations…