Booth

Author: Karen Joy Fowler
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

From the Man Booker finalist and bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves comes an epic and intimate novel about the family behind one of the most infamous figures in American history: John Wilkes Booth.

In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth—breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one—is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.

As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country's leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.

Booth is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.

---

TL;DR Review

Booth is part historical fiction, part family saga focusing on the family of John Wilkes Booth. I felt pretty neutral about it, but definitely recommend audio over print if you read it.

For you if: You like a deep, historical character study of a large cast.

---

Full Review

Booth was my final read from the 2022 Booker Prize longlist. I went in knowing that it was everyone else’s least favorite by far, so I was determined to find some good in it. And while I definitely didn’t love it, I did find that good!

You may be wondering, “Does the world really need a book about John Wilkes Booth?” — and you’d be right to. Karen Joy Fowler felt the same way but was fascinated by the rest of the Booth family (who were not on the side of the Confederacy, politically), so she set out to write a book about them.

My enjoyment here was entirely thanks to one piece of advice that I now pass on to you: Listen to this book on audio instead of reading it in print. The audio moved along at a pace that was perfect for multitasking (cleaning, driving, etc), whereas if I had tried to sit down to read these 500+ pages, they definitely would have been a slog.

I was most drawn to the POV chapters belonging to the two sisters. One, perhaps my favorite, was nearly 100% constructed from scratch — KJF oculdn’t find much about her, except that everyone called her “poor Rosalie” and it listed scoliosis on her death certificate. I actually wish this book had had a slightly tighter focus on the women of the Booth family rather than trying to encompass everyone; I think that would have been more impactful.

All in all, I feel pretty neutral about this one. Definitely worth reading to finish out the 2022 Booker list!

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Child death

• Alcoholism

• Racism (Civil War era)

• Animal cruelty

The Vaster Wilds

Author: Lauren Groff
Publisher: Riverhead
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

A taut and electrifying novel from celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, about one spirited girl alone in the wilderness, trying to survive

A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her.

Lauren Groff’s new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how—and if—we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.

---

TL;DR Review

The Vaster Wilds is another work of genius from Groff, intimate and visceral. You have to be in the mood for a book like this (it has almost no dialogue), but if you are, I think you’ll love it.

For you if: You like to be thrust deep, deep inside a character’s head (and have a particular love for incredible sentences).

---

Full Review

“Swifter, girl, she told herself, and in their fear and anguish, her legs moved yet faster.”

I’ve only read a few of Lauren Groff’s books, but that’s all I need to know she’s one of the greats. So of course I was over the moon to get my hands on an advanced copy of The Vaster Wilds (thanks, Riverhead!). Litfic lovers: rejoice, for you will love this book. That said, I don’t think it’s going to be for everyone.

The Vaster Wilds is set in the early days of America’s colonization and is about a young servant girl fleeing the famine-torn Jamestown settlement in winter, although we don’t find out exactly why until later. We watch her fight to survive in the cold, harsh wilderness and get pieces of her backstory dripped throughout.

This book is intimate and visceral in focus but also vast and sprawling in scope. And even though it’s set in a distinct historical moment, Groff manages to make the subject matter feel timeless: womanhood (and the threats that come with it), the wonder and harshness of nature, survival at all costs. Her prose, as always, is incredible — although this time she writes in a distinct colonial-style English that takes a chapter or so to sink into, but once you do, it’s hypnotic and engrossing. (Pro tip: Don’t try to start this book in bed/laying down; the language will rock you gently to sleep!)

Fantastic as it is, you also need to be in the mood for this kind of book or you’re not going to like it. It’s very interior and atmospheric; there’s no dialogue at all except in two or three flashbacks. It is not fast-paced or plot-driven. If you’re in the mood for something to breeze through, this will not be it. But if you’re in the mood to savor a book or become immersed, it will be.

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Cannibalism

• Animal death

• Child death

• Suicidal thoughts

• Rape/sexual assault (off-page)

A Crown of Ivy and Glass (The Middlemist Trilogy, #1)

Author: Claire Legrand
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

Lady Gemma Ashbourne seemingly has it all. She's young, gorgeous, and rich. Her family was Anointed by the gods, blessed with incredible abilities. But underneath her glittering façade, Gemma is deeply sad. Years ago, her sister Mara was taken to the Middlemist to guard against treacherous magic. Her mother abandoned the family. Her father and eldest sister, Farrin—embroiled in a deadly blood feud with the mysterious Bask family—often forget Gemma exists.

Worst of all, Gemma is the only Ashbourne to possess no magic. Instead, her body fights it like poison. Constantly ill, aching with loneliness, Gemma craves love and yearns to belong.

Then she meets the devastatingly handsome Talan d'Astier. His family destroyed themselves, seduced by a demon, and Talan, the only survivor, is determined to redeem their honor. Intrigued and enchanted, Gemma proposes a bargain: She'll help Talan navigate high society if he helps her destroy the Basks. According to popular legend, a demon called The Man With the Three-Eyed Crown is behind the families' blood feud—slay the demon, end the feud.

But attacks on the Middlemist are increasing. The plot against the Basks quickly spirals out of control. And something immense and terrifying is awakening in Gemma, drawing her inexorably toward Talan and an all-consuming passion that could destroy her—or show her the true strength of her power at last.

---

TL;DR Review

A Crown of Ivy and Glass, an adult fantasy romance Giselle retelling, was definitely not perfect, but I had a ton of fun reading it and can’t wait for book two.

For you if: You’re looking for anxiety/chronic pain rep and love a steamy fantasy book.

---

Full Review

I loved Claire Legrand’s Empirium trilogy (first book is Furyborn), so imagine how excited I was when I read in her newsletter that she’d sold a new adult fantasy romance trilogy where each book focuses on a different sister and retells a famous ballet. I DMed the publisher to put me on a galley list right away (to which they kindly said “it’s a little early lol”).

A Crown of Ivy and Glass was far from perfect, but I definitely had fun reading it. This one is a Giselle retelling and focuses on the youngest sister, Gemma.

The not-so-great parts: The pacing was inconsistent, with a much slower build and sudden change 75% of the way in. Gemma is vain and self-absorbed and not very likable, especially in the beginning. Legrand’s “once upon a time” prose style also takes some time to get used to until it stops feeling cheesy, as does Gemma and Talin’s insta-love.

And for the good parts: Gemma gives us some solid rep, including anxiety/panic attacks and severe chronic pain, which Legrand has said was extremely important to her. I loved that it was a Giselle retelling, and it managed to surprise me even so. The magic system feels novel and interesting. Oh, and steamy scenes be steamyyy.

The next book is going to be about Gemma’s eldest sister, Farin, and based on the glimpses we got in this book, I can already tell it’s going to be a fantastic romance. I’ll be eagerly awaiting it!

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Chronic pain

• Self-harm

• Panic attacks

• Suicidal thoughts

• Blood and violence

• Sexual content

The Fragile Threads of Power

Author: VE Schwab
Publisher: Tor Books
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

***Description is a light spoiler for the Shades of Magic trilogy***

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and set in the world of A Darker Shade of Magic, V. E. Schwab opens a new door into perilous adventure and tangled schemes with The Fragile Threads of Power.

Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power, and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast, and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. The few magicians who could still open the doors grew more rare as time passed and now, only three Antari are known in recent memory―Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk, of White London.

But barely a glimpse of them have been seen in the last seven years―and a new Antari named Kosika has appeared in White London, taking the throne in Holland's absence. The young queen is willing to feed her city with blood, including her own―but her growing religious fervor has the potential to drown them instead.

And back in Red London, King Rhy Maresh is threatened by a rising rebellion, one determined to correct the balance of power by razing the throne entirely.

Amidst this tapestry of old friends and new enemies, a girl with an unusual magical ability comes into possession of a device that could change the fate of all four worlds.

Her name is Tes, and she's the only one who can bring them together―or unravel it all.

---

TL;DR Review

The Fragile Threads of Power is everything I hoped it would be. V.E. Schwab is a master plotter, a master of the details, a master of sentences — just a master of everything

For you if: You read the Darker Shades of Magic trilogy (start there!).

---

Full Review

The Fragile Threads of Power was possibly my most anticipated book of the year. It has a LOT to live up to, kicking off a new trilogy that follows the bestselling (and a personal favorite) Darker Shades of Magic trilogy. I’m happy to report that I absolutely loved it.

The Fragile Threads of Power is set seven years after A Conjuring of Light, and it heavily features the characters we love most — Kell, Lila, Rhy, Alucard — while also introducing several new (excellent) characters. I don’t want to tell you much more, because I really enjoyed reading this without knowing any of the plot beats, but rest assured that it earns all of its 600+ pages and then some.

Darker Shades readers know this, but V.E. Schwab is a master plotter, a master of the details, a master of sentences — just a master of everything. Our beloved characters are seven years older and seven years harder. They’ve been through it — there was healing to be done after Conjuring that’s largely still in progress — and she’s matured them in a way that can sometimes feel not quite like what you expect, but always feels realistic and true.

I will warn you: There are a few places in the beginning, as she’s piecing together the events of the past seven years, when she tries to stress you out. But have faith, dear readers, she will not forsake you. I also counted two instances where the original canon was slightly broken (I reread Shades immediately before reading this, so it was very fresh), but they are things I can ultimately forgive.

Finally, what an ending!! Thankfully not as much of a cliffhanger as A Gathering of Shadows (IYKYK), but it’s a great setup for more books to come and I cannot WAIT for the next one.

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Violence, blood, and murder

• Suicidal thoughts (minor)

• Child abuse

• Homophobia

Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World

Author: Lauren Fleshman
Publisher: Penguin Press
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

Fueled by her years as an elite runner and advocate for women in sports, Lauren Fleshman offers her inspiring personal story and a rallying cry for reform of a sports landscape that is failing young female athletes

Lauren Fleshman has grown up in the world of running. One of the most decorated collegiate athletes of all time and a national champion as a pro, she was a major face of women's running for Nike before leaving to shake up the industry with feminist running brand Oiselle and now coaches elite young female runners. Every step of the way, she has seen the way that our sports systems--originally designed by men, for men and boys--fail young women and girls as much as empower them. Girls drop out of sports at alarming rates once they hit puberty, and female collegiate athletes routinely fall victim to injury, eating disorders, or mental health struggles as they try to force their way past a natural dip in performance for women of their age.

Part memoir, part manifesto, Good for a Girl is Fleshman's story of falling in love with running as a girl, being pushed to her limits and succumbing to devastating injuries, and daring to fight for a better way for female athletes. Long gone are the days when women and girls felt lucky just to participate; Fleshman and women everywhere are waking up to the reality that they're running, playing, and competing in a world that wasn't made for them. Drawing on not only her own story but also emerging research on the physiology and psychology of young athletes, of any gender, Fleshman gives voice to the often-silent experience of the female athlete and argues that the time has come to rebuild our systems of competitive sport with women at their center.

Written with heart and verve, Good for a Girl is a joyful love letter to the running life, a raw personal narrative of growth and change, and a vital call to reimagine sports for young women.

---

TL;DR Review

Part memoir, part manifesto, Good for a Girl is perspective-shifting and deeply important, all while deftly carrying the narrative of Fleshman’s memoir. I loved it.

For you if: You care at all about girls and women in sports.

---

Full Review

This is my fourth or fifth book by a women runner so far this year — a niche subgenre currently exploding with incredible books — and it was my favorite one so far. What. a. book. An absolute must-read for anyone who cares about girls and women in sports.

The jacket says it best: "Written with heart and verve, Good for a Girl is a joyful love letter to the running life, a raw personal narrative of growth and change, and a vital call to reimagine sports for young women."

Part memoir, part manifesto, Good for a Girl covers not just Lauren Fleshman’s high school, collegiate, and professional careers, but also everything she’s learned since then about the harm that bias and a lack of scientific research does to women and girls who play sports. All without making the memoir portion ever feel bogged down (super impressive.)

What made the book for me was not just the look at how girls and women are treated differently, but also a look at how they are assumed to be the same and why that becomes so physically harmful. Women’s bodies change and cause a (normal) performance dip right when men’s bodies are peaking — during college. But nobody realizes or talks about this, and girls resist it, and that leads to frustration and injury and way, way too many eating disorders. Fleshman’s call for the NCAA to implement better preventative requirements, like they have no problem doing for concussions in football programs, is powerful.

Truly, this one was perspective-shifting and taught me so much that feels important that I didn’t know before. You should read it.

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Eating disorders (severe)

• Alcoholism

• Domestic abuse (minor)

• Death of a parent

• Pregnancy

Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English

Author: Valerie Fridland
Publisher: Viking
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

A lively linguistic exploration of the speech habits we love to hate—and why our "like"s and "literally"s actually make us better communicators

Paranoid about the "ums" and "uhs" that pepper your presentations? Concerned that people notice your vocal fry? Bewildered by "hella" or the meteoric rise of "so"? What if these features of our speech weren't a sign of cultural and linguistic degeneration, but rather, some of the most dynamic and revolutionary tools at our disposal?

In Like, Literally, Dude, linguist Valerie Fridland shows how we can re-imagine these forms as exciting new linguistic frontiers rather than our culture's impending demise. With delightful irreverence and expertise built over two decades of research, Fridland weaves together history, psychology, science, and laugh-out-loud anecdotes to explain why we speak the way we do today, and how that impacts what our kids may be saying tomorrow. She teaches us that language is both function and fashion, and that though we often blame the young, the female, and the uneducated for its downfall, we should actually thank them for their linguistic ingenuity.

By exploring the dark corners every English teacher has taught us to avoid, Like, Literally, Dude redeems our most pilloried linguistic quirks, arguing that they are fundamental to our social, professional, and romantic success—perhaps even more so than our clothing or our resumes. It explains how filled pauses benefit both speakers and listeners; how the use of "dude" can help people bond across social divides; why we're always trying to make our intensifiers ever more intense; as well as many other language tics, habits, and developments.

Language change is natural, built into the language system itself, and we wouldn't be who we are without it. Like, Literally, Dude celebrates the dynamic, ongoing, and empowering evolution of language, and it will speak to anyone who talks, or listens, inspiring them to communicate dynamically and effectively in their daily lives.

---

TL;DR Review

Like, Literally, Dude is a joyfully fun, delightfully nerdy book that I absolutely loved. In the running for a top nonfiction of the year for sure!

For you if: You’re a word nerd and/or love having fun facts to whip out at parties.

---

Full Review

From the moment Like, Literally, Dude landed on my radar, I knew I had to read it. John McWhorter’s Words on the Move and Gretchen McCulloch’s Because Internet — both of which explore how language changes and uncover some of the shifts happening right now — are two of my favorites. Add in a little bit of feminism, and you’re calling my name.

In this book, Valerie Fridland not only gets delightfully nerdy about linguistics, with whole chapters on the history and fascinating unconscious use cases of um/uh, dude, literally, and more. She also explains how and why women and young people tend to lead the way in language shifts — and why they’re often criticized for it. Plus, Fridland is witty and freakin’ funny (PSA, there’s also a chapter on our use of -in vs -ing!) and doesn’t pass up the opportunity to take a swipe at bigotry.

If you need some convincing of how fun and fascinating this one is, here’s my favorite party fact I walked away with: The way people use “literally” to actually mean the opposite of that word? Very normal! This is a natural evolution of words called intensifiers, as they come to be used simply to signify that intensity and lose their attachment to the original definition. Other common examples that don’t make us clutch our pearls: “horribly handsome,” “terribly funny,” etc. I LOVE IT.

Pick this up! You won’t regret it!

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• None

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters

Author: Richard Rumelt
Publisher: Crown Business
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world.

Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to--and approach for--overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with "strategy."

In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of "bad strategy" and awakens an understanding of the power of a "good strategy." He introduces nine sources of power--ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth--that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007-08 financial crisis.

Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt's decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.

---

TL;DR Review

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy is the first business book I’ve read in years that didn’t feel like it should have been a TED Talk instead. It really lit my brain up and energized me — highly recommend!

For you if: You lead strategy for any part of the company you work for (for example, I lead content strategy).

---

Full Review

I first heard about Good Strategy/Bad Strategy on an old podcast episode from the content agency Animalz. In it, the hosts discussed how the common use of the term “content strategy” (a set of goals and plans for execution) isn’t actually a “strategy” at all (it’s a plan). This book’s big takeaway — which explains what a strategy is and is not — inspired that episode.

It’s been a long, long time since I read a business book that felt like it earned the entire length of the book. This is no cheap expansion of a good TED Talk, like so many business books nowadays are; it’s a well-written set of lessons explaining a fairly complex topic that builds upon itself. And once you do grasp it, it’s really revolutionary. I covered about 25 sticky notes with notes about how to apply its concepts to my work as a content marketer.

I can’t wait to put this stuff into practice at work in the second half of this year and on. If you’re responsible for the strategy of any part of the company you work for, I highly, highly recommend!!

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• None

Case Study

Author: Graeme Macrae Burnet
Publisher: Biblioasis
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

The Booker-shortlisted author of His Bloody Project blurs the lines between patient and therapist, fiction and documentation, and reality and dark imagination. London, 1965. 'I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting myself in danger,' writes an anonymous patient, a young woman investigating her sister's suicide. In the guise of a dynamic and troubled alter-ego named Rebecca Smyth, she makes an appointment with the notorious and roughly charismatic psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite, whom she believes is responsible for her sister's death. But in this world of beguilement and bamboozlement, neither she nor we can be certain of anything.

Case Study is a novel as slippery as it is riveting, as playful as it is sinister, a meditation on truth, sanity, and the instability of identity by one of the most inventive novelists of our time.

---

TL;DR Review

Case Study is a quick, (I found) engrossing read. The way it explores the idea of the self and performance was also very smart. I don’t think it’ll be for everyone, but I liked it!

For you if: You like epistolary, psychological novels.

---

Full Review

Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, Case Study was definitely one of those I probably never would have picked up otherwise. But I’m glad I did!

The novel is written by “GMB,” a fictional narrator who presents a woman’s journal entries alongside GMB’s own biography of fictional psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite. The woman believes Braithwaite drove her sister to death by suicide and goes undercover as “Rebecca Smyth” to find him out. (Braithwaite’s prevailing belief was that there’s no such thing as the “real” Self; all our various versions of ourselves are performances, and so to free ourselves from misery we have to “kill our Selves.”) We flip-flop back and forth between her journals and GMB’s biography as things become more and more unraveled.

Not everyone in my book club liked this one, but I did. I found it to be surprisingly engaging; I was drawn in and held the whole time. I also thought the parallelism between Braithwaite’s theories and “Rebecca Smyth’s” journey was smart and creative enough to not be too on the nose. There were some parts of this (which professional reviews called satire to the counter-counter culture of the 1960s) that went a bit over my head, but I’m not bothered by it.

Ultimately, this was a quick, fun one!

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Suicide, suicidal thoughts

• Mental illness

• Rape (imagined and off-screen)

• Alcohol use

Fire Rush

Author: Jacqueline Crooks
Publisher: Viking
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

Set amid the Jamaican diaspora in London at the dawn of 1980s, a mesmerizing story of love, loss, and self-discovery that vibrates with the liberating power of music

Yamaye lives for the weekend, when she goes raving with her friends, the "Tombstone Estate gyals," at The Crypt, an underground dub reggae club in their industrial town on the outskirts of London. Raised by her distant father after her mother's disappearance when she was a girl, Yamaye craves the oblivion of sound - a chance to escape into the rhythms of those smoke-filled nights, to discover who she really is in the dance-hall darkness.

When Yamaye meets Moose, a soulful carpenter who shares her Jamaican heritage, a path toward a different kind of future seems to open. But then, Babylon rushes in. In a devastating cascade of violence that pits state power against her loved ones and her community, Yamaye loses everything. Friendless and adrift, she embarks on a dramatic journey of transformation that takes her to the Bristol underworld and, finally, to Jamaica, where past and present collide with explosive consequences.

The unforgettable story of one young woman's search for home, animated by a ferocity of vision, electrifying music, and the Jamaican spiritual imagination, Fire Rush is a blazing achievement from a brilliant voice in contemporary fiction.

---

TL;DR Review

Fire Rush is an impressive debut, with an undeniably electric voice and propulsive energy that really makes it stand out. I thought the pacing was a bit uneven, but I still liked it and I’m glad I read it.

For you if: You like books that highlight underrepresented perspectives from recent history.

---

Full Review

I may never have read Fire Rush if not for the fact that it was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize. And though it wasn’t my favorite from the list, it’s impossible to deny the electric voice and propulsive energy Crooks has created.

The main character is a young woman named Yamaye, a second-generation member of the Jamaican diaspora living in West London in the late 1970s (the early days of Margaret Thatcher). She’s a regular of the local underground dub scene (literally, they go to a place called The Crypt and it’s in a crypt) alongside others for whom music is survival, and losing yourself is the only way to feel alive. But soon tragedy, injustice, and an increasingly hostile carceral state uproot her life, taking her to Bristol and eventually Jamaica.

I can absolutely see why this book is being praised; it has a strong, strong voice, and it crackles with rage and grief and life. This was particularly true in the audiobook experience; Yamaye’s narrator was the perfect fit and the producers included just the right (light) touch of effect to bring her music/club scene to life. Crooks makes it possible for us to take a hard look at the Black British experience of those years; them vs “Babylon.”

I think, for me, what kept this book from going on the “love” pile was some uneven pacing. It felt like it took the actual story a really long time to start, even though the narration had plenty of energy. Then as the plot picked up and I became invested in the story, some of that initial crackling energy waned.

But still, an extremely impressive debut. Glad I read it!

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Police brutality, police killings

• Racism

• Sexual assault and rape

• Death of one’s partner, grief

Choosing to Run: A Memoir

Author: Des Linden
Publisher: Dutton
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

Featuring both the story of an historic, unforgettable win and insight into the life of an indelible champion, Choosing to Run is a truly inspirational memoir from Boston Marathon winner and Olympian Des Linden, sharing her personal story and what motivates her to keep showing up.

When Des woke up on April 16, 2018, the morning of the Boston Marathon, it was 39 degrees and raining, with high, gusty winds. The weather didn’t bother her. In fact, she thought it might be a blessing. She was far from peak form—recovering from illness and questioning her running future—and didn’t expect much of herself that day.

But as she ticked off mile after mile in the brutal conditions, passing familiar landmarks on the course she knew by heart, something shifted. Opportunity unexpectedly presented itself. Des tapped into her inner strength and remembered all of the reasons she loved to race.

Coming off Heartbreak Hill at Mile 22, Des took the lead and never relinquished it, becoming the 2018 Boston Marathon champion and the first American woman to win the race in thirty-three years.

Her career has always been defined by tenacity and an independent spirit, stretching back to her first competitive race in San Diego, when she beat better-outfitted, more experienced kids. Des was a two-time All-American at Arizona State University, and as her collegiate years wound down, she decided she wasn’t done with the sport. Des gambled on herself and moved to Michigan to give professional running a try. As she rose through the elite ranks, she became increasingly determined to do things her way in an industry often bound by the status quo.

In her first book, readers will learn the story behind that resolve: the way Des trains, the way she thinks, her relationships with other great runners of her generation, and how much she values her family and friends. They’ll read about her deep connection to the most famous marathon in the world, her two very different Olympic experiences, and how she defined new goals and set a world record at the 50-kilometer distance.

Most of all, they’ll learn what makes her get up and run every day.

---

TL;DR Review

Written by the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon in 33 years, Choosing to Run is exactly what I love in a memoir. It was engaging, taught me something new, and made my world a little bigger.

For you if: You love a good comeback or underdog story, and especially if you enjoy running.

---

Full Review

Des Linden won the Boston Marathon in 2018, in the worst weather conditions imaginable. She was also the first American woman to win in more than 30 years. Choosing to Run is her memoir, and it’s a damn good one.

In the book, Des gives a linear account of her professional running career’s beginnings, ups, and downs, with progressive snippets of the big race interspersed throughout. I loved this structure; it took a good memoir and gave it the momentum to make it great. We hear about how she fell in love with the sport, her sputtering start as a pro, several injuries and a chronic illness, and finally, how she started that Boston race not even sure she’d finish — and even decided to drop out mid-race before realizing she had it in her to not only finish but actually win.

My favorite kind of memoir is one by someone who feels like a regular person, someone you could get a beer with, who just so happens to have an incredible story (or find meaning in a normal life). Here, Des has done both. Her memoir made my world a little bigger — in fact, reading it inspired me to become a fan of women’s professional running, and I subscribed to the Fast Women newsletter.

I’d recommend this to not just anyone who’s run so much as a 5K, but also anyone who loves a good memoir, who lives a comeback or underdog story!

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Medical content

• Chronic illness

• Disordered eating (minor)

Black Butterflies

Author: Priscilla Morris
Publisher: Duckworth (UK publisher; not published in the US yet)
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from Blackwells, an ethical Amazon alternative in the UK that ships free to the US (and most countries).

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

Sarajevo, spring 1992. Each night, nationalist gangs erect barricades, splitting the diverse city into ethnic enclaves; each morning, the residents — whether Muslim, Croat or Serb — push the makeshift barriers aside.

When violence finally spills over, Zora, an artist and teacher, sends her husband and elderly mother to safety with her daughter in England. Reluctant to believe that hostilities will last more than a handful of weeks, she stays behind while the city falls under siege. As the assault deepens and everything they love is laid to waste, black ashes floating over the rooftops, Zora and her friends are forced to rebuild themselves, over and over. Theirs is a breathtaking story of disintegration, resilience and hope.

---

TL;DR Review

Black Butterflies is a well-researched, captivating, deeply moving novel about war and art set during the siege of Sarajevo. I couldn’t put it down and ultimately loved it.

For you if: You like books that handle heavy topics with beauty and care.

---

Full Review

I would probably never have read this book if it hadn’t been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize — it’s not published here in the US — but wow, am I glad I did. It was actually my pick to win among the (very strong) shortlist). What a stunner; I can’t believe it was a debut. (Pro tip: If you're in the US, you can get a paperback from Blackwells for about $15, including free shipping.)

Black Butterflies begins in the early days of what became known as the Bosnian War’s siege of Sarajevo in 1992. The main character, Zora, is a painter and art professor. She sends her husband and elderly mother to stay with their daughter in England and stays behind to work and keep watch over their apartment, thinking the conflict will be short-lived. But as weeks turn into months and phone service, food, heat, electricity, and water all become impossible to find, survival becomes a matter of both desperation and unity within the found family of neighbors.

This book isn’t very long, but it’s expertly researched (based, in part, on the lived experiences of her own family members) and deeply moving. I also found it transportive and captivating, despite the fact that it’s quite heavy. Zora’s emotions, from fear to joy, are palpable. It’s about community during crisis, small joys, the power and persistence of art, and art as an act of personal resistance. It’s also impossible to read this and not think of folks currently under siege in Ukraine — a reminder that the peace and security of our homes can vanish overnight.

Give this one a go; you won’t regret it.

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• War and death (active war zone)

• Death of a child

• Grief

• Rape (minor)

Demon Copperhead

Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher: Harper
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.

---

TL;DR Review

Demon Copperhead is a smart, hard-hitting modern retelling of David Copperfield that hits all the right notes. I’m not surprised it’s winning so many awards.

For you if: You’re in the mood for a 500-page American saga.

---

Full Review

Demon Copperhead is an accomplishment of a novel; a true American saga that I’m not at all surprised won the Pulitzer. It’s not going to be for everyone — it’s more than 500 pages long and not a cheerful book — but if you’re in the mood something immersive and hard-hitting, it will hit all the right notes.

Written as a (whip-smart) modern-day retelling of David Copperfield (although you don’t need to be familiar with that one to enjoy this; I wasn’t), Demon is set in southern Appalachia as the seeds of the opioid crisis blossom. It follows the boy in question from young childhood through early adulthood. I don’t want to give much away, but suffice to say that this is a heavy book; poor Demon just cannot catch a break, ever. And yet the novel is anything but trauma porn. We’re rooting for Demon and his loved ones hard the whole time.

Before reading Demon, I’d only read Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, which I was lukewarm on, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I needn’t have worried; she blew me away this time. It’s one of those books where the concept — the alignment between source material and subject matter — is so genius that it feels almost obvious after the fact. Last but not least, the audiobook is really good.

Not surprised this is winning All The Things — it’s worthy.

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Drug use, abuse, addiction, and death by overdose

• Death of one’s parent, one’s romantic partner

• Suicidal thoughts

• Child abuse, domestic abuse

• Foster care abuse

• Homophobia

Trespasses

Author: Louise Kennedy
Publisher: Riverhead
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a shattering novel about a young woman caught between allegiance to community and a dangerous passion.

Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla lives a quiet life with her mother in a small town near Belfast. By day she teaches at a parochial school; at night she fills in at her family's pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a barrister who's made a name for himself defending IRA members. Against her better judgment — Michael is not only Protestant but older, and married — Cushla lets herself get drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, and an affair ignites. Then the father of a student is savagely beaten, setting in motion a chain reaction that will threaten everything, and everyone, Cushla most wants to protect.

As tender as it is unflinching, Trespasses is a heart-pounding, heart-rending drama of thwarted love and irreconcilable loyalties, in a place what you come from seems to count more than what you do, or whom you cherish.

---

TL;DR Review

Trespasses is a well-written, intentionally tense novel about choice, conflict, and community. I wasn’t quite in the right headspace for it, but there’s no denying its merits.

For you if: You are interested in novels set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

---

Full Review

Shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize, Trespasses is a well-written, character-driven novel about the ripple effect of personal choices on a tight-knit community, especially during times of political unrest (in this case, the Troubles in Northern Ireland). I think that I was perhaps not quite in the right mindset for this one, so it didn’t blow me away, but I certainly enjoyed it and have a lot of respect for what it pulls off.

The novel takes place in a small town outside Belfast around 1975. The main character is a young Catholic schoolteacher named Cushla who begins an affair with an older, married, Protestant barrister (lawyer) named Michael. She also finds herself a bit too involved in the home life of one of her less fortunate students, Davy. Of course, all that hardly lends itself to stasis even without the Troubles; eventually, the precariousness of the situation implodes.

This kind of felt like Milkman meets Shuggie Bain. That explains why critics loved it and I only liked it (I was lukewarm on Milkman but loved Shuggie). I feel like I’ve read a lot of novels lately about young women making morally gray choices, and a lot about the Troubles, so maybe that’s why it didn’t stand out as much in my mind. I also thought I was picking up on a couple of hints at the end that ended up being red herrings or just wrong assumptions about where the story was going; the actual execution made less sense to me, plot-wise, than what I’d assumed, which left me a little unsatisfied.

Lest you think I disliked this book, I will say that I very much appreciated how Kennedy managed to show both sides of the conflict with nuance, more like what I imagine it would have been to live in a mixed community than history or the press can convey. I also appreciated the way she brought the question of class into the mix of themes — this was very well done. Finally, I gotta hand it to the narrator of the audiobook, who read the story beautifully and authentically.

If you like Irish literature, especially about the Troubles, this one might be for you.

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Adultery

• Alcoholism

• War, murder, violence, death (The Troubles)

Ink Blood Sister Scribe

Author: Emma Törzs
Publisher: William Morrow
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

In this spellbinding debut novel, two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family's library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection—a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power.

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements—books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna's isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they'll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .

In the great tradition of Ninth House, The Magicians, and Practical Magic, this is a suspenseful and richly atmospheric novel that draws readers into a vast world filled with mystery and magic, romance, and intrigue—and marks the debut of an extraordinary new voice in speculative fiction.

---

TL;DR Review

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a fast-paced, well-written, bookish standalone fantasy that I absolutely adored. It’s been a long time since a book made me want to text live updates to someone who’d already read it!

For you if: You like fantasy books set in our real world, and of course books about books!

---

Full Review

Magical books. Magical libraries. Magical herbs. Magical mirrors. Evil hiding in plain sight. A witchy cat. Sapphic (closed door) romance. Sisterhood. What more could you ask for?

I absolutely loved this standalone fantasy/thriller/dark academia mashup. It’s been a long time since a book made me want to text live updates to someone who’d already read it, but that’s what happened here. I also stayed up 3 hours past my bedtime to finish it, sooo.

The book has three main characters: Joanna, keeper of her late father’s library of magic books; Esther, her sister who’s been on the run from magical danger since she was 18; and (later) Nicholas, who is also magical and lives in England — but I won’t tell you more about him because of spoilers. I pieced some of the things together before they were revealed, but it was one of those books where that doesn’t take away from the experience at all. And there were surprises too!

One thing I really loved about this book was its structure, where one plotline builds the mystery while the other plotline answers it, so you get info you know some characters are missing, and then eventually the two plotlines merge. And yet it’s never frustrating like a miscommunication trope would be. (How!)

Anyway, you should read this. Kbye.

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Kidnapping

• Confinement

• Death of a parent

• Abandonment

• Body horror

Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes

Author: Christine Yu
Publisher: Riverhead
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

How the latest science can help women achieve their athletic potential

Over the last fifty years, women have made extraordinary advances in athletics. More women than ever are playing sports and staying active longer. Whether they’re elite athletes looking for an edge or enthusiastic amateurs, women deserve a culture of sports that helps them training programs and equipment designed to work with their bodies, as well as guidelines for nutrition and injury prevention that are based in science and tailored to their lived experience.

Yet too often the guidance women receive is based on research that fails to consider their experiences or their bodies. So much of what we take as gospel about exercise and sports science is based solely on studies of men.

The good news is, this is finally changing. Researchers are creating more inclusive studies to close the gender data gap. They’re examining the ways women can boost athletic performance, reduce injury, and stay healthy.

Sports and health journalist Christine Yu disentangles myth and gender bias from real science, making the case for new approaches that can help women athletes excel at every stage of life, from adolescence to adulthood, through pregnancy, menopause, and beyond. She explains the latest research and celebrates the researchers, athletes, and advocates pushing back against the status quo and proposing better solutions to improve the active and athletic lives of women and girls.

---

TL;DR Review

Up to Speed is a really interesting, important book. It started a little slow for me because I happened to already know some of the info presented, but that definitely wasn’t the case the whole way through.

For you if: You’re a woman who is active or pursues athletic goals (or coaches women).

---

Full Review

As a person who spent nearly 5 years writing content for a company focused on the gender wealth gap, I immediately put any book that talks about gender gaps on my list. And as a hobby runner, I pulled this one to the top. What a fascinating, important book Yu has given us.

She discusses the current state of research into how women’s bodies respond to standard fitness advice (spoiler alert: it’s paltry at best). Then she talks in depth about various aspects of athletics — exercise, nutrition, hormones, menstruation, etc — and points out the current danger of too little information and challenges to researching it more. She also highlights people who are doing the work today and tells stories from elite women athletes.

It started a little slow for me because I’m so familiar with the presence of gender gaps overall (I didn’t need to be convinced of that), but that definitely wasn’t the case the whole way through. Any woman who is active or pursues athletic goals (or coaches women) should read this book.

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Medical content

• Disordered eating

• Fatphobia (discussed, not expressed by the author)

Chain-Gang All-Stars

Author: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Publisher: Pantheon
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own.

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.

---

TL;DR Review

Chain-Gang All-Stars is a searing, extremely smart, and compulsively readable novel about incarceration, the use of Black lives as entertainment, and so much more. You gotta read it.

For you if: You like books that use an imagined near future to look critically at the world as it is today.

---

Full Review

Whew. Y’all. This book.

Chain-Gang All-Stars is a near-future novel set in the US in which the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment (CAPE) program puts on a TV show called Chain-Gang All-Stars. Inmates facing dire circumstances can “volunteer” to participate, which means every month or so they fight to the death. If they survive for three years, they’re freed. There are a lot of characters, but it focuses heavily on Loretta Thurwar, who won a massive upset in her first fight and is now one fight away from being freed, and her partner and fellow teammate, Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker.

If you’re thinking that sounds like a sapphic Roman gladiators/Hunger games mashup, you’re pretty much right. But the way Adjei-Brenyah shows this world from so many angles — from the inmates to the guards to the fans to the protesters — speaks volumes about the current carceral state in the US, the way Black lives and bodies have been and are still used as entertainment, the fetishization of violence (especially when the person being killed is “bad”), and a lot more.

Not only that, but the book itself is compulsively readable. Part excellent plotting, part not being able to look away, I was hooked until the last page.

Give this novel the National Book Award, stat.

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Violence and murder (fighting to the death)

• Racial slurs

• Confinement (characters are inmates)

• Rape (minor)

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea

Author: Rita Chang-Eppig
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

For readers of Outlawed, Piranesi, and The Night Tiger, a riveting, roaring adventure novel about a legendary Chinese pirate queen, her fight to save her fleet from the forces allied against them, and the dangerous price of power.

When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die. Instead of mourning, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: immediately marrying her husband's second-in-command, and agreeing to bear him a son and heir, in order to retain power over her half of the fleet.

But as Shek Yeung vies for control over the army she knows she was born to lead, larger threats loom. The Chinese Emperor has charged a brutal, crafty nobleman with ridding the South China Seas of pirates, and the Europeans-tired of losing ships, men, and money to Shek Yeung's alliance-have new plans for the area. Even worse, Shek Yeung's cutthroat retributions create problems all their own. As Shek Yeung navigates new motherhood and the crises of leadership, she must decide how long she is willing to fight, and at what price, or risk losing her fleet, her new family, and even her life.

A book of salt and grit, blood and sweat, Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is an unmissable portrait of a woman who leads with the courage and ruthlessness of our darkest and most beloved heroes.

---

TL;DR Review

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a lush, poignant dramatization of the life of legendary pirate queen Zheng Yi Sao. It’s very interior, more about her than her adventures. I liked it a lot.

For you if: You like quiet historical fiction about strong women steeped in folklore.

---

Full Review

As soon as I heard about Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea (two words: PIRATE QUEEN) I knew I had to read it. It turned out to be a different book than I expected (or was quite in the mood for), but I still ended up liking it a lot.

This book is a dramatization of the life of Shek Yeung (better known as Zheng Yi Sao), a woman who led a massive, legendary pirate confederation during the Qing Dynasty in the early 1800s. She’s has been called the most successful pirate in history (they even put her in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies). It starts when her husband, the former leader, is killed, and she very quickly moves to secure her leadership by marrying his chosen heir.

But this novel is much more of a character study than an adventure — it’s not about her conquests, it’s about her interiority throughout it all. Throughout the book, we see her fight to protect her fleet and her position — a struggle between survival and hope, ruthlessness and love, freedom and roots. It’s a fascinating exploration of how gender roles and power dynamics persist even in places where those things are already so different from the rest of the world.

I’d also add that I think “for fans of The Night Tiger” is pretty accurate — not for plot, but for vibes. This is billed as a fantasy, but I wouldn’t call it that. Maybe historical magical realism: the “magic” is more like folklore. Plus, it follows a more literary-fiction-eque approach.

Anyway, this was a lush, beautifully rendered, carefully imagined novel. As long as you don’t go in expecting a swashbuckling badass pirate adventure, I think you’ll like it a lot.

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Violence and murder

• Pregnancy and childbirth

• Indentured prostitution

• Sexual content (minor)

After Sappho

Author: Selby Wynn Schwartz
Publisher: Liveright
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

What did we want? To begin with, we wanted what half the population had got by just being born.

It’s 1895. Amid laundry and bruises, Rina Pierangeli Faccio gives birth to the child of the man who raped her — the man she has been forced to marry. Unbroken, she determines to change her name and, alongside it, her life.

1902. Romaine Brooks sails for Capri. She has barely enough money for the ferry, nothing for lunch; her paintbrushes are bald and clotted. But she is sure she can sell a painting — and is fervent in her belief that the island is detached from all fates she has previously suffered.

In 1923, Virginia Woolf writes: I want to make life fuller — and fuller.

Told in a series of cascading vignettes, featuring a multitude of voices, After Sappho reimagines the lives of a brilliant group of feminists, sapphists, artists and writers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as they battle for liberation, justice and control over their own lives.

Sarah Bernhardt, Colette, Eileen Gray, Lina Poletti: these are just a few of the women (some famous, others hitherto unsung) sharing the pages of a novel as fierce as it is luminous. Lush and poetic, furious and funny, After Sappho celebrates the women and trailblazers of the past — and offers hope for our present, and our futures.

---

TL;DR Review

After Sappho is a unique, experimental reimagining of the lives of (mostly) lesbians from history. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I’d known more about the women, but there’s no denying that it’s a feat of a book.

For you if: You’re a queer, lesbian, and/or feminist history buff.

---

Full Review

After Sappho was my 11th read from the 2022 Booker Prize longlist, and what a unique little book! When they say it “defies genre,” they really mean it. I’m not sure that it was really for me, but I have a boatload of respect for what Selby Wynn Schwartz has pulled off.

The book reimagines the lives of real women — mostly lesbians — who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Sarah Bernhardt, Isadora Duncan, Virginia Woolf, etc.). Threaded throughout is a choral voice representing the amalgamation of all of them. It’s poetic, it’s imaginative — and it must have taken so much research to create.

Unless you know a lot about at least some of these women, this is definitely a “go with the flow” / “just vibes” kind of book. As per my usual, I wasn’t really able to let go and just sink into that approach. So I think I would have liked this book if I was a bit more of a history nerd. In fact, I think queer/lesbian/feminist history buffs will LOVE this one. Still, I’m impressed and can definitely see why it’s gotten critical acclaim.

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Homophobia

• Rape/marital rape

• War

• Terminal illness

Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood

Author: Satya Doyle Byock
Publisher: Random House
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

An innovative psychotherapist tackles the overlooked stage of Quarterlife—the years between adolescence and midlife.

I'm stuck. What's wrong with me? Is this all there is? Satya Doyle Byock hears these refrains regularly in her psychotherapy practice where she works with "Quarterlifers," individuals between the ages of (roughly) sixteen to thirty-six. She understands their frustration. Some clients have done everything "right" graduate, get a job, meet a partner. Yet they are unfulfilled and unclear on what to do next. Byock calls these Quarterlifers "Stability Types." Others are uninterested in this prescribed path, but feel unmoored. She refers to them as "Meaning Types."

While society is quick to label the emotions and behavior of this age group as generational traits, Byock sees things differently. She believes these struggles are part of the developmental journey of Quarterlife, a distinct stage that every person goes through and which has been virtually ignored by popular culture and psychology.

In Quarterlife, Byock utilizes personal storytelling, mythology, Jungian psychology, pop culture, literature, and client case studies to provide guideposts for this period of life. Readers will be able to find themselves on the spectrum between Stability and Meaning Types, and engage with Byock's four pillars of Quarterlife development:

- Separate: Gain independence from the relationships and expectations that no longer serve you
- Listen: Pay close attention to your own wants and needs
- Build: Create, cultivate, and construct tools and practices for the life you want
- Integrate: Take what you've learned and manifest something new

Quarterlife is a defining work that offers a compassionate roadmap toward finding understanding, happiness, and wholeness in adulthood.

---

TL;DR Review

Quarterlife is an insightful and pretty helpful book about the phase of life between the late teens and mid-thirties. I recommend it!

For you if: You’re in your 20s or 30s and find yourself in the tug-of-war between stability and meaning (relatable).

---

Full Review

As is true for a lot of the nonfiction books I’ve been picking up lately, I first heard about Quarterlife in Anne Helen Petersen’s Culture Study newsletter. It was a quick listen on audio, and while it wasn’t quite as hard-hitting for me as I think I’d expected, I am really glad I read it and would recommend it to anyone else in their 20s or 30s.

It’s by a woman who’s essentially the only psychotherapist who specializes in and studies the years between the late teens and mid-thirties, which she calls quarterlife. From her observations, she’s constructed two common personas — “stability types” and “meaning types” — that bookend the two ends of a spectrum all quarterlifers fall into as they search for the right balance of stability and meaning. She’s also identified and named “four pillars of quarterlife development”: separate, listen, build, and integrate.

The first part of the book describes some of the research and how she arrived at these two personas, and the second part introduces us to four of her former “clients” (fictionalized blends of many real-life clients) and talks about their journies through the four pillars. I liked this construction, but I think the four people she described just felt a tad bit too much like stereotypes of their personas (which, tbh, they were meant to be) for me to connect to.

Still, I recognized a LOT of myself in her work and descriptions, and I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time to come.

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Suicidal thoughts

• Porn addiction

• Toxic relationship

To Shape a Dragon's Breath (Nampeshiweisit, #1)

Author: Moniquill Blackgoose
Publisher: Del Rey
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

---

Cover Description

A young Indigenous woman enters a colonizer-run dragon academy—and quickly finds herself at odds with the “approved” way of doing things—in the first book of this brilliant new fantasy series.

The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations—until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, for all remember the tales of the days when dragons lived among them and danced away the storms of autumn, enabling the people to thrive. To them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon.

Unfortunately for Anequs, the Anglish conquerors of her land have different opinions. They have a very specific idea of how a dragon should be raised, and who should be doing the raising—and Anequs does not meet any of their requirements. Only with great reluctance do they allow Anequs to enroll in a proper Anglish dragon school on the mainland. If she cannot succeed there, her dragon will be killed.

For a girl with no formal schooling, a non-Anglish upbringing, and a very different understanding of the history of her land, challenges abound—both socially and academically. But Anequs is smart, determined, and resolved to learn what she needs to help her dragon, even if it means teaching herself. The one thing she refuses to do, however, is become the meek Anglish miss that everyone expects.

Anequs and her dragon may be coming of age, but they’re also coming to power, and that brings an important realization: the world needs changing—and they might just be the ones to do it.

---

TL;DR Review

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is a beautifully rendered, fiercely imagined Indigenous Own Voices fantasy novel set in an academic setting about anticolonialism and dragons. I did think the shape of the plot was a little flat, but overall I liked it a lot.

For you if: You’re looking for some really kickass Indigenous queer poly representation.

---

Full Review

As soon as I heard about To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, I was on board. (Anticolonialsm + Indigenous own voices + queer poly rep + academia + dragons?? I mean, come on!) And while I didn’t think it was perfect, I really liked it, and I’m eager to see where the next book goes.

The book is set in a world that looks a lot, but not exactly, like ours. It takes place in a country similar to the United States during the Industrial Revolution, but instead of Christianity dominating, the colonizers (“Anglish”) descended from Vikings, and their religion is Norse in nature. Also, of course, there are dragons. The main character is Anaqus, a young woman from the Indigenous Masquapaug tribe, bonds with the first Nampeshiwe dragon to be seen in recent history. But the Anglish require all dragons to be registered and their riders attend a special school where they learn to shape their dragon’s breath, aka focus its power into a helpful instead of dangerous force. Fearing what would happen to her community if she eschews these rules, Anequs attends the school.

First, just a few minor complaints: While the beginning of this book tingles with promise, as I approached the end, I felt like the plot dragged a bit, mostly because it lacked a shape. The story essentially just follows her first school year, and that’s about it. I wished there had been some kind of central mystery to hook me in a bit more. Also, while I appreciated how unapologetic and loyal Anaqus to her people, she was a bit more aware of the dynamics of colonialsm than I thought was realistic. She was able to verbalize things like “There’s nothing uncivilized about my people” and “I don’t believe I would be better off by assimilating into Anglish society” — which, yes, and good for her, but contrasted with the way the other Indigenous student at the school had internalized those beliefs much more realistically, it felt a little convenient to the book’s (worthy) political purposes.

But like I said, those things are minor. This series has so much promise. Where it’s trying most pointedly — social and historical commentary on colonialism and racism against Indigenous people, and beautifully positioned Indigenous traditions and communities — it’s extremely effective. And the worldbuilding here is lush, imaginative, unique, and beautiful. I believe that all the setup in this book could come to fruition in big ways in the following books, and I definitely plan to read them.

Finally, a small thing: I really appreciated the extensive pronunciation guide at the front of the book, even though the author did not HAVE to do that for us. I did my best to refer to it every time I encountered an unfamiliar word until the proper pronunciations stuck in my head!

---

Content and Trigger Warnings

• Colonization

• Racism

• Genocide (minor/in the past)

• Violence