Category: Books

I have honest and completely biased – cause I’m human – reviews on all the books I’ve been reading since December of 2016.

Books, Fiction

Prevailing Impacts of Cishet Normativity in Torrey Peters’ Detransition, Baby

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 337
Feels Complicated yet Positive
Gay Vibes Super Gay
Drink Pairing Wine Flight
⭐⭐⭐⭐

As a woman living in a non-traditional family, Detransition, Baby is an important representation for so many people who have been confronted with the cishet-normative and choose to live the life we want or need. As a queer woman, Detransition, Baby is exceptional for so many reasons. Torrey Peters and Detransition, Baby is one of the first novels ever published by an out-trans woman by a big-five publishing company. Congratulations to One World, an imprint of Penguin Random House, for using its considerable power and influence to uplift a voice that needs to be heard. 

A blond woman in a romper lounging on stairs beside the book Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters.
This picture was taken over a year ago. Finally posting a review. We can say I’m a bit behind and have definitely changed my hair.

The most exceptional part of Detransition, Baby is in its presentation and acceptance of the mundane and quotidian quality of the lives and struggles of queer and trans people because they are. Peters, as a queer trans-woman writes with the authenticity of lived experience and presents it to her readers with a perfunctory yet humorous: this is life. Queer lives and loves hold all the same ups and downs of cishet loves and lives, we just have the added bonus of prejudice, bigotry, systemic laws, outdated beliefs, ignorance, and hatred cishet people don’t have to deal with. For the LGBTQIA+ community, that is just life and it is mundane and quotidian, albeit painful and frustrating, but to be queer is to look the world in the face and keep living and loving authentically. Peters doesn’t make instances of homophobia or transphobia extraordinary or unique because they are not. They are a part of our lives. We do our best to get through them; educate the people we love so they can better protect us; and we continue on because that is all we can do. Queer people are just trying to pay the bills, feed our pets, have some friends, get a healthy amount of sleep, create families, and enjoy life. Detransition, Baby allows readers into the daily struggle of what that looks like for queer and trans women from the very first page. 

Reese is a thirty-something, queer, trans woman living in Brooklyn with a penchant for men who do not treat her well and a deep yearning for a child. Ames, formerly known as Amy, was Reese’s partner for years before detransitioning, losing Reese and their life together. Ames’ lover, Katrina, is a half-Chinese, half-Jewish cis woman. These three thirty-something women’s lives collide in Brooklyn when Katrina finds out she’s pregnant, though Ames believed he was sterile from the years of hormone treatments. Ames creates a plan to bring Reese, Katrina, and himself together to bring this baby into the world in an unconventional yet stable and loving manner. The narrative bounces along a timeline spanning years before the baby’s conception when Amy and Reese were together to weeks after conception as Ames, Reese, and Katrina confront their own self-destructive ways, identity, gender, and what a stable life for a child could and should look like. 

Close up of the cover of Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters on steps.
Detransition, Baby is an amazing book.

Ultimately, Detransition, Baby puts cishet social norms at the forefront of the novel in conjunction with how queer lives, loves, and families are expected to fit within an outdated societal structure, which no longer serves the humans it was built for and around. (Like it ever did…) Yet everyone is impacted by those expectations due to the basic human need to be seen, accepted, and affirmed. Peters, in her debut novel, which garnered her the first nomination ever by a trans woman for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, creates a messy, emotional, and vulnerable deep dive into the meaning of womanhood, queerness, family, relationships, gender, and sex. It speaks so deeply to the queer experience, yet every human who has been met with the opportunity or sought out a new beginning in their thirties, when their lives are expected to be settled. It’s hard. It’s messy. It’s painful. And yet, we come out the otherside more authentically ourselves. It’s no wonder Peters dedicated her novel to “divorced cis women.” 

Within Detransition, Baby there is a universal understanding of the human condition told through the lens of a specifically queer story. 

Memorable Quotes
“Many people think a trans woman’s deepest desire is to live in her true gender, but actually it is to always stand in good lighting.”
“She had previously been under the impression that she had failed majorly for most of her life, but in fact, she had simply confused failure with being a transsexual—an outlook in which a state of failure confirmed one’s transsexuality, and one’s transsexuality confirmed a state of failure.”
I stopped keeping quotes because there are so many fabulous ones.

bisous un обьятий,
RaeAnna

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Title: Detransition, Baby
Author: Torrey Peters
Publisher: One World
Copyright: 2021
ISBN: 9780593133378

Books, Fiction

Claustrophobic and Voyeuristic Nature of High Society in Gervais Hagerty’s In Polite Company

RaeAnna

Stars ⭐⭐⭐
Length 368
Quick Review Honestly, I was hoping Simons Smythe, the main character and Charleston elite’s sweetheart, was gay. Spoiler: She’s not. There were signs; I would know! But alas. 

Gervais Hagerty brings the reader into the upper echelons of historic Charleston society through the eyes of a former debutante and daughter of the prominent Smythe family in her debut novel In Polite Company. Simons is a young woman who loves to surf, go crabbing, and knock back drinks at the local bars. She questions her engagement to the golden boy of Charleston’s elite, her stagnating career as a TV producer, and her secretive, Southern grandmother Laudie. In the midst of her younger sister’s debut, her older sister’s second pregnancy, an ailing grandmother, planning a wedding, and society balls, Simons has to figure out what the hell she really wants. 

In Polite Company is good. It’s not great. I read it on a beach vacation, and that’s exactly where it should be read. Falling short of a searing look at the glamor enclosed behind the doors of Charleston high society, it does capture a watered down essence of what it feels like to be trapped in a life that feels less chosen and more predestined. It all starts with a seemingly innocuous idea, “It was on that ride that I first considered our end might come before our hearts stopped.” So often these thoughts start as nothing more than a musing, but the ultimate question Simons, and most everyone facing them, must answer: Do people in happy relationships ever have these thoughts? The ability society, both men and women, has of telling young women what they want is baffling. Hagerty has no problem depicting this clearly throughout, but when Simon’s fiancé says, “Of course I want you to be happy. But you don’t know what happy is, Simons. Happiness comes from stability.” I wanted to pull out my own hair for this fictional character. Because Simons may be fictional, but so many women, including myself, have heard this refrain time and time again. It’s infuriating, and I’m glad Hagerty didn’t shy away from it. 

No one will ever accuse me of being appropriate for polite company.

One of the things Hagerty gets right, though minimally because it could be its own novel, is the hypocrisy and ignorance the elite—particularly Southern—has as to how they got where they are. On the backs of slaves. In Battery Hall, a Charleston club for men, the restrooms feature art depicting pre-Civil War plantation life in “seemingly idyllic scenes,” which is “a visual denial that their babies weren’t oftentimes snatched away and sold to other owners, never to see their mothers again.” I would have had a much harder time reading this book if it did not call into question this obvious disparity in the culture as well as the ability of the privileged to whitewash history, forget, rewrite, and ignore the repercussions on today’s society.

For what it is, this is a solid book. I think it could have been longer, giving Hagerty the time to really dive into the hypocrisy, ignorance, and elitism of high society, and the toll it takes on a woman when she chooses to step away. There were a lot of areas in the novel that Hagerty wraps up difficulties with a bow, which really undercuts just how important and interesting this topic is. It resonated with me because I have stepped away from polite company on more than one occasion, and it’s not so clean. It’s not so easy. Hagerty left out the grit.

In her debut novel, Hagerty creates a moving and captivating piece about the limitations placed on women to stay the course and not make waves. In Polite Company is all the things one could hope for in a book about existing in the claustrophobic and voyeuristic society of the rich and powerful.

Memorable Quotes
“It’s what we’ve been bred to do: hide our disagreements beneath the smiles.”
“One random person, at some random time, can make the day better.”

bisous un обьятий,
RaeAnna

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Title: In Polite Company
Author: Gervais Hagerty
Publisher: WilliamMorrow
Copyright: 2021
ISBN: 9780063068865

Books, NonFiction

Raging Against Male Privilege in Entitled by Kate Manne

RaeAnna

Worth A Read Most Definitely
Length 269
Quick Review If you’re looking to be angry at the obstacles women face, this is a great book to read. If you have no idea what obstacles women face, please go read this, right now. 

Entitled by Kate Manne | Shoes | Pants | Bralette | Earrings

Sometimes I think I’m the only one who likes to subvert serious conversations with an incredibly dark sense of humor, but then I read Kate Manne’s Entitled. I wouldn’t call it funny, but I would call it witty. Let’s be honest, male privilege is sadly funny in usually the most ironic ways; however, male privilege is a plague on society, hurting women and ultimately holding the entirety of the world back from its full potential.  

Starting off with Brett Kavanaugh’s hearing and the attack on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, Manne only digs deeper into the blatant problems women face due to men’s entitlement. What’s even more impactful are the chapters on the subtle ways women are hurt by male privilege. It is the everyday male privilege affecting the physical and mental well being of women everywhere that is so often overlooked and unaccounted for in daily life and conversation. We can all agree rape, beating, retributative violence against women is bad. What isn’t talked about so often is emotional labor, mansplaining, domestic labor, medical gaslighting, bodily autonomy, parenting, and so much more women are inundated with and by daily, which has an immeasurably negative impact on women’s psyche. Yet Manne never lets up on the importance of every facet, no matter how seemingly benign, the pain caused by male entitlement through anecdotal and academic evidence. 

Noting Manne’s definition of misogyny—therefore male privilege—may be one of the most important moments in Entitlement,

“First, some instances of misogyny lack any individual perpetrators whatsoever; misogyny may be a purely structural phenomenon, perpetuated by social institutions, policies, and broader cultural mores. Second, understanding misogyny as more about the hostility girls and women face, as opposed to the hostility men feel deep down in their hearts, helps us avoid a problem of psychological inscrutability.”

Misogyny is pervasive, and men are not the only culprits of it. As much as women are victims, we are also culpable. Manne tackles instances of women perpetuating and bolstering misogyny and male entitlement because this system indoctrinates us from the moment we enter the world to cater to male feelings, privilege, experience, and everything else. Defining an aspect of that, “himpathy, as I construe it, is the disproportionate or inappropriate sympathy extended to a male perpetrator over his similarly or less privileged female targets or victims.” It is not our fault, but once we have the knowledge, we can choose to combat the system keeping us in a place we have never deserved to be in. Manne is not only providing the information, she’s creating a rule book for every woman and man to follow on how to create a better tomorrow for men and women. 

I’m just going to stare down male entitlement in a power suit.

Short, yet deeply unsettling from start to finish, Manne unveils the horrifying world women are born, live, and die in. She does not fail to point out the imbalance when the minority status is multiplied by race or sexual identity. Chapter after chapter rages on, enumerating the ways male entitlement causes harm, creating a spiral of depression. For me, at least. Ending with a glimmer of hope in the last chapter, an address to her unborn daughter. Manne hopes for an easier future for her daughter; though, she knows the fight will be “long, and interminable.”

The narrative may end in the last chapter, but the Notes section is an amazing trove of research, statistics, quotes, anecdotes, and information. Do not overlook it. It’s powerful and soul crushing, in the best way.

Women fill the role of provider. Providing, providing, providing for the needs emotional, physical, and all the in betweens of men, children, and everyone around us.. Even when completely fulfilling the role of provider or caretaker happily without complaint, women are interrogated, berated, and undermined at every turn. It has been the way of the world for so long, it’s what we women have come to expect as acceptable, and it is not. Kate Manne’s Entitled can be summed up in one succinct sentence: “We expect too much from women.”

Memorable Quotes
“As we’ve already begun to see, medical misinformation is a ubiquitous feature of anti-abortion activism.”
“If the truth is not our property, then neither is authority.”
“If men often feel entitled to certain kinds of paid work, they also feel entitled to far more by way of leisure, as compared with their female partners.”
“Do men do so little because they engage in more leisure activities than their female partners? Or do they engage in more leisure activities in order to do so little?”
“Another reason men don’t do more is that, under such conditions, asking them to pull their weight is in itself a form of labor.”
“Don’t we regard rape as a heinous, monstrous crime? Yes, in the abstract. Very well then, but in practice, why do we refuse to hold certain perpetrators accountable vis-ȧ-vis certain victims?”

bisous un обьятий,
RaeAnna

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Title: Entitled; How Male Privilege Hurts Women
Author: Kate Manne
Publisher: Crown
Copyright: 2020
ISBN: 9781984826572

Books, Reading Lists

A Reading List with Political Ramifications

RaeAnna

I have been very, very bad at writing reviews for the books I’ve read over the last… two years. Really, super terrible at it. To the point my closet was being over run by books I’ve read and haven’t reviewed, and there was very little room for the books coming in that I have yet to read. So I consulted my board of directors, aka the dogs and I, and we made the executive decision to do a few reading lists instead of overwhelming myself with a to do list that I will, frankly, never do. Working on creating a clean slate for the rest of the year.

Put on my best political outfit and stood in front of Houston’s City Hall. I’m a bad ass… Not really, just pretending.

Anyways, this is a list of nonfiction books I read between 2020 and 2021 quarantine. They all are politically motivated in one way or another. This is one of the few lists that really does not have a stinker on it. Exceptionally well written, interesting, and educational. Pretty much the trifecta of a good read for me.

A Little Devil in America Hanif Abdurraqib
The thing about this collection of essays on the ways Black performance is intertwined into American culture and history in subtle and not so subtle ways. The content of the book is overwhelming and rife with emotion, but it is beautifully crafted. From the way essays are organized to the elegant syntax. Incredible read. 
Book Depository || Amazon

An American Bride in Kabul Phyllis Chelser
An interesting memoir about Chesler’s marriage to an Afghan man and her entrapment in Afghanistan. It’s well written and focuses on her physical and emotional journey, but she could have gone more in depth in all parts. It’s good but could be better. 
Book Depository || Amazon

Bag Man Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz
Spiro Agnew, Nixon’s Vice President, was quite the slimy character. This little book is a riveting exploration of the Bag Man who entered the White House with little political experience and a lot of criminal activity in his past. Highly suggest.
Book Depository || Amazon

Between Two Fires Joshua Yaffa
Russia has always been fodder for conversation and the media, but the reality of living in Putin’s Russia of today isn’t quite at the forefront of people’s minds. Looking into the lives and careers of contemporary Russians, Yaffa is able to paint a picture of the give and take people must deal with daily to get by and even make their dreams come true. Well written and very interesting.
Book Depository || Amazon

Black Futures Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham
One of the most impressive books I’ve read; it sticks in my mind as one of the most beautifully written books about Black excellence. An anthology of Black creatives curated by Black creatives, my eyes were absolutely opened to new artists, writers, activists, musicians, and so many other incredible humans bringing meaning and beauty into the world. This is the one you need. 
Book Depository || Amazon

Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land Toni Jensen
Jensen is a Native, Métis woman, who has lived her entire life around guns while carrying the weight and knowledge of their violence in her body. As an Indigenous woman, her experiences are not singular but historical. Her personal trauma and that of her people lives on in the body, and she reclaims language on stolen land. Vastly moving. 
Book Depository || Amazon

Charged Emily Bazelon
The balance between prosecutors, defenders, and judges in the American criminal justice system is supposed to be equal, yet prosecutors are gaining more and more power to decide who goes free and who does not. In a system rife with racial injustice, this problem is continuing to grow. Bazelon critiques the failing system in hopes of saving it. Fantastically important read in today’s era.
Book Depository || Amazon

Demystifying Disability Emily Ladau
Disability ranges from visible to invisible and touches so many lives. In a world that is not designed for people with disabilities and continually perpetuates disability erasure, Ladau offers a guide to opening our minds to create a more accessible world so all can enjoy and take part in it. She has an incredible sense of humor and allows space for questions and open dialogue instead of judgment and critique. 
Book Depository || Amazon

An exceptional stack(s) of books.

Dog Flowers Danielle Geller
A memoir documenting Geller’s personal journey of emotionally processing the objects her mother leaves behind after dying from alcohol withdrawals while being homeless. Combining prose and archival documents, she finds herself in her mother’s home, Navajo Nation, meeting family and finding another side to the woman who gave her life. Very moving. 
Book Depository || Amazon

Hatemonger Jean Guerrero
Guerrero documents the incredible rise of one of Trump’s most trusted senior policy advisors and speechwriter, Stephen Miller. Dissecting the horrific immigration policies and the narrowing of legal immigration, Stephen Miller created a terrifying, inhumane, and unwelcoming America he envisioned as a radicalized teenager. Quite literally nauseating; I could only read it in small chunks. 
Book Depository || Amazon

His Truth Is Marching On Jon Meacham
A beautiful tribute to John Lewis, a man who lived from a place of faith and compassion as he fought for racial equity and justice on the streets, among the people, and in Congress. Meacham writes a comprehensive look at the man and how he became the revered activist he is in the memories and hearts of Americans. 
Book Depository || Amazon

How to Survive America D.L. Hughley and Doug Moe
A hilarious and insightful look into what it takes to survive in America as a Black and/or Brown human. From water pollution to voting laws to food deserts to disproportionate COVID rates and many things in between, this book tackles real issues facing communities across the country. Funny yet eye opening.
Book Depository || Amazon

I’m Still Here Austin Channing Brown
Named to give the impression of being a white man, Brown recounts how her experiences are often juxtaposed against defying expectations by simply existing. In a world claiming diversity, she exposes the many ways actions fail to live up to words. Moving and educational. 
Book Depository || Amazon

In Pursuit of Disobedient Women Dionne Searcey
A New Yorker with a family, Searcey becomes The New York Times West Africa bureau chief, throwing all their lives up in the air to find passion and purpose. Working in the field brought her so many experiences, but she tells the stories which moved her most: The stories, struggles, and lives of women. Absolutely loved this book from prose to story.  
Book Depository || Amazon

My Broken Language Quiara Alegria Hudes
Language is a part of being human, but being a woman trapped between cultures creates a unique need and craving for a language that doesn’t quite exist. Hudes explores her search for language and meaning to tell the stories of her life and family as she searches for her own identity as a bilingual, bicultural woman and artist. One of my favorite memoirs.
Book Depository || Amazon

Oak Flat Lauren Redniss
Combining art and prose, Redniss tells the history of Oak Flat and the sacred meaning it holds for her people, San Carlos Apache, and their fight to keep it from being destroyed for capitalist gains. The conflict is ongoing and a haunting representation of what so many Native Nations are fighting for and against throughout history and today. Emotionally devastating in the best way.  
Book Depository || Amazon

The Devil in the White City Erik Larson
Larson tells two seemingly unrelated stories of the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Daniel H. Burnham, the fair’s architect, had to overcome personal and professional obstacles to construct the White City in time for opening day. Dr. H.H. Holmes, a serial killer, created the World’s Fair Hotel with a crematorium and gas chamber to lure victims. Really well written and hard to put down.
Book Depository || Amazon

The Purpose of Power Alicia Garza
Organizing and activism come with lessons to be learned, and few know those as well as Alicia Garza the woman behind #BlackLivesMatter. In this guide to creating a movement to change the world, Garza focuses on her two decades of experience leading and following as an activist and organizer from grassroots to global movements. A really important read for anyone wanting to change the world.  
Book Depository || Amazon

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Books, Fiction

The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss

RaeAnna

Worth A Read Eh
Length 340
Quick Review Single and independent Kate is coerced into a dating service consisting of twelve dates with twelve men by her best friend in Blexford, England. 

I really don’t know what I’m doing, but whatever!

It’s a cute yet predictable story—I feel like I will probably say that a few times over the course of my Christmas book reviews this year and for the rest of eternity because I have yet to find a revolutionary one. Anyways, The Twelve Dates of Christmas is cute. Frankly, give me anything set in England and I’ll like it more than I would if it’s set in the U.S.

Kate is an artist. Having moved to her hometown of Blexford to be with her father, she’s been single in a small town for a good bit. She’s a smart and sassy sweetheart with a fierce independence that makes it hard for her to find a partner. Though Kate has all but given up on a happily ever after, her best friend, Laura, has not and convinces her to join a dating agency that will send her on twelve dates with twelve different men spanning the Christmas season. At the age of 34, Kate has very much decided she’s not searching for passion but compatibility. Throughout the Christmas season, she spends her time with her best friend Matt, Laura, and all the vibrant characters decorating the town. 

Like all romance novels, the characters are ridiculously over the top, but I personally enjoyed “The Knitting Sex Kittens were a formidable group of women, all over age sixty and all single, by either design, divorce, or death.” The town and characters are saturated in Christmas joy and cheer, and, let’s be honest, that is the only reason I read this or any Christmas novel at all. I’m here for the Christmas spirit. 

Kate is an ambitious woman with lots to give but she ends up having many conversations along the lines of: ““I’m not looking for sparkle, Dad,” said Kate. “I am on a grown-up-woman mission to find a suitable, sensible partner who has no improper pride and is perfectly amiable.”” As a single woman in my thirties, I can, in some ways, identify with the want to search out compatibility over passion, but, and luckily Kate does figure it out, both is an option and the best option. 

The biggest problem I had with The Twelve Dates of Christmas were the grammatical errors and typos. I’m not even going to blame Bayliss for this because the copy editor should have caught it. For me it was distracting, but the average reader probably won’t even pick up on it. I’m going to call this: editor problems. As in most rom-com books, the character development is lack luster at best, but it’s a fun, easy read to take our minds off the holiday stresses. 

You can put this one on your holiday reading list to enjoy. 

Memorable Quotes
“Kate had to admit that her regime of pajamas, toast, and telly by seven thirty every night was not conducive to establishing a satisfying sex life.”
“But for her, contentment waned quite quickly to become a faint questioning, which bloomed into nagging doubt and ultimately wholehearted assuredness that it wasn’t right. Laura called it self-sabotage. Kate called it gut instinct.”

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

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Title: The Twelve Dates of Christmas
Author: Jenny Bayliss
Publisher: Putnam 
Copyright: 2020
ISBN: 9780593085387

Books, Reading Lists

Easy Fall Reading List

RaeAnna

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
Worth a Read Yes || Length 336 

Quick Review This really is a beautifully written work of fiction, depicting an often overlooked period of history as Americans. The Spanish Civil War raged on as two people are pushed together into a marriage and escape from Spain to Chile on a ship, chartered by Pablo Neruda. Highly suggest.
Memorable Quotes
“Her beauty intimidated him: he was used to women prematurely marked by poverty or war.”
“She was discovering it (the world) was nothing like the descriptions in books or photographs. It was much more complex and colorful, much less frightening.”

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Anywhere for You by Abbie Greaves
Worth a Read Eh || Length 368 

Quick Review I really hated this book. It was written fine, but the whole plot. I don’t get the point. Like why? Mary stands in a tube station with a sign saying, “Come Home Jim” because her boyfriend disappeared on her seven YEARS ago. Everything goes to shit when a reporter befriends her and makes it go viral. The relationship was toxic and unhealthy… So it feels like it’s just perpetuating the idea that a good woman will, in the words of Tammy Wynette, Stand By [Her] Man even when he’s shit and doesn’t deserve it. 
Memorable Quotes
“Comfort never encouraged anyone to spread their wings.”
“”When you meet the right person, you need to be with them, no matter what.””

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Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston
Worth a Read Eh || Length 288 

Quick Review Not my usual read, but it’s a cute rom-com for teens about two nerdy kids falling in love in the midst of their own problems. If you can’t tell, books are at the heart of their love story. You can also guess the plot from the title. No surprises. At all.

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Everyone Is Beautiful by Katherine Center
Worth a Read Yes || Length 256 

Quick Review I had low hopes for this, but it turned out to be a beautiful story about a wife and mother, yearning to reconnect with herself and passion again. It’s an earnest depiction of making life work on a limited income and even less sleep. Life, marriage, and motherhood is hard, but it’s even harder having to do them all at once. Center creates a compelling look into womanhood and marriage in the time that comes after the “happily ever after” or wedding because life doesn’t stop with a ring or an “I do.” This is a small book that really gets the messiness and stress of motherhood and marriage without being bitter or resentful.
Memorable Quotes
“I hate to say it, but I will. Children, despite their infinite charms, are an absolute assault on a marriage.”

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Gimme Everything You Got by Iva-Marie Palmer
Worth a Read Yes || Length 400 

Quick Review I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I don’t usually read YA, but it was accidentally sent to me, and I thought why not? Set in 1979, a school gets their first girls soccer team and sexism ensues. The girls learn how to balance their budding love of sports with their desire to be feminine and find those two things are often at odds in society’s eyes. Setting the piece over 40 years ago, allows readers to draw parallels between the world of the past and today to see what has changed and all the ways it has not budged.  
Memorable Quotes
“Then, this summer, I realized maybe the shorts meant something bigger. Like that I was a feminist. Not one who didn’t shave her armpits, but a sexy one.”
“Wasn’t the point of having a sibling that you had to endure your parents together?”

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Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
Worth a Read No || Length 240 

Quick Review I understand Rachel Hollis and this book are beloved by so many people, but I just couldn’t get on board. I had a hard time getting past the God aspect, great, have your religion, but for so many people that’s not a driving force in our lives, but what got me the most about it was her constant need to reinforce the idea that she’s a “good Christian.” There are really great nuggets and words of wisdom in there, but there’s also a kind of toxic “pick yourself up” and “you’re unhappy because of you” and “EVERYTHING is in your control” attitude. As someone who is completely self-made, I get that. As a survivor of abuse, so much of my life is circumstance and dealing with the aftermath and consequences of other people’s actions. The themes and attitudes are just not relatable for me at all. It falls so flat.  

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Little Deadly Secrets by Pamela Crane
Worth a Read No || Length 384 

Quick Review For me, this is one of those not-much-of-a-mystery mystery; it’s very easy to guess. I really did not like any of the characters. I found so many issues with the parenting and rape. So much rape. Rape, rape, everywhere. As a rape survivor, I don’t mind rape, but this felt more like rape porn than rape for literary or even human experience reasons. There’s also a lot of toxic masculinity passing as acceptable. It was just written poorly and in poor taste. A hard pass for me. 
Memorable Quotes
“Friends are the flowers you pick to beautify your life.”
“We’re trained from an early age to value beauty. What a handsome little boy, we say. Or What a pretty little princess. So we grow up believing that if we’re not beautiful enough, we won’t be loved. Then someone comes along and loves you anyway, and you make him God over you. Even when he is in fact the devil.”

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Little Wishes by Michelle Adams
Worth a Read Yes || Length 400 

Quick Review This is a really sweet love story about two people reconnecting in their twilight years. It’s sweetly written to match the tone of the story. Adams writes in an overly flowery way to try and paint a picture of Cornwall, but it’s a bit over the top. She also does a whole bunch of equating love and fire, but I guess that’s what readers like. There’s a hint of mystery, but if you’ve done much reading, that and the ending are quite expected. Overall, this is one of those books you want to read on the beach or snuggled up in a porch chair.
Memorable Quotes
“Perhaps that was what love was, the thought to herself, when nothing that came before or after seemed to matter anymore, when the world could be on fire, but you didn’t fear the burn.”
“Losing a parent did that, made you question your existence for the first time in your life. Human morality paraded before you, utterly unavoidable, the world changed.”

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Live A Little by Howard Jacobson
Worth a Read Eh || Length 288

Quick Review I really enjoyed the writing, but the story itself was lackluster for me. I can’t even remember the plot, except for the part where I couldn’t care less about the characters. The female characters in particular were… shallow. It’s an excellent example of why I don’t like reading female characters written by men. The narrative style is humorous and interesting.
Memorable Quotes
“I was more of a man than any of my men were and I don’t doubt I will prove to be more of a carer than my carers.” 
“What they call dementia, she has decided, is nothing but a failure to maintain a comprehensive filing system. And what they call losing your mind is forgetting to use it.”

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The Night Portrait by Laura Morelli
Worth a Read Yes || Length 496 

Quick Review Waffling between an art conservationist in the midst of WWII and a young woman in a Milanese court of the fifteenth century, this historical novel traces the history of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, Girl with the Ermine. I get a bit tired of historical novels set during WWII, but I did enjoy this one. I love strong women at the heart of a well written narrative. 
Memorable Quotes 
“Like most inspired ideas, it comes to me in the middle of the night.”
“And Edith had to face the fact that she was part of the giant network that enabled these men to aggrandize themselves, at the expense of so many innocent lives.”
“Edith had a difficult time reconciling the man who, by day, was responsible for the devastation around them, and by night, doted on his children.”

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The Red Daughter by John Burnham Schwartz
Worth a Read Eh || Length 288

Quick Review A historical novel focusing on Svetlana, Stalin’s daughter, and her life in America after fleeing the Soviet Union. Told from two perspectives, that of Svetlana and that of her lawyer, Peter Horvath. It’s a well told story, but largely forgettable. Getting nit picky, as a Russian speaker, when Svetlana is writing, it doesn’t feel like a Russian speaking. She also lacks emotional depth, when Peter does not. I would say that’s due to a man trying to write from a perspective he does not understand or identify with… a woman’s. Peter is the far more compelling character; even though his section of the novel is far smaller. In a lot of ways, this is a lovely story, but it also falls very short of being great.
Memorable Quotes
“Governments will always lie. It is the job of artists and intellectuals to tell the truth.”
“There is a kind of drunkenness one finds only in Russia. The Irish don’t know it, the French, the Greeks. An ecstasy of melancholy… A sadness that has no limits and is so very close to joy, but never reaches it.”

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bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

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