I started working at a local nature center about a year ago, and since then I’ve delighted in being more aware of the nature that inhabits my yard, fills apartment window boxes, and struggles through sidewalk cracks. Thrive Where You’re Planted: A Guided Journal to Help You Connect with the Natural Wonders in Your Neighborhood is a lovely exercise book for those of us who want to become more aware of the natural world around whether … Continue reading Thrive Where You’re Planted by Andrea Debbink →
This Guest Review is from Jen Barr. Jen is an over-educated wonk who likes reading and writing both cool real-life stories and cool made-up stories. To her surprise, she currently lives in Denver, but will always be a Californian at heart. Ed. Note: this book is literally about historical murder, so please be careful with yourself and this review. Emma Southon’s book is a highly readable, incredibly smart, sometimes funny and sometimes heart-wrenching history of … Continue reading A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome →
If you are a history buff, a food buff or (ideally) both, then you have to read A History of the World in Ten Dinners: 2000 Years, 100 Recipes. This book is so well-organized and natural that I’m not sure if I should say that it’s a food book with history or a history book with food. I was this many days old when I learned about Edible History. Victoria Flexner and Jay Reifel host … Continue reading A History of the World in Ten Dinners by Victoria Flexner and Jay Reifel →
Do not fear the page length of The Good Ally, which, in paperback form, is enormous. The book has a generous font size, it’s easy to read in terms of language, and the author, Nova Reid, is firm but empathetic in her approach to those of us who want to be actively and effectively anti-racist but may find ourselves sidelined by ignorance, fear, shame, and our own internalized White supremacy. Even if you’ve done a … Continue reading The Good Ally by Nova Reid →
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror is a collection of essays by horror fans who reflect on their experiences with the cinematic horror genre through a queer lens. I enjoyed every essay in this book and gained a new understanding of the complexities of meaning that each viewer can find within a film. As the LGBTQIA+ viewers in this volume strive to see themselves reflected in a media that erases them, they … Continue reading It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror ed. by Joe Vallese →
Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing felt right up my alley, despite not reading a ton of non-fiction. I watch a lot of anti-scam and anti-MLM content on YouTube and many podcasts I listen to fall into this category; it’s often the background noise while I’m gaming or reading. Hey, Hun tries to walk a fine line between gossipy memoir and cautionary tale and to me, failed on both … Continue reading Hey, Hun by Emily Lynn Paulson →
I listened to this book, which I definitely recommend because it is about 6 hours, and it’s read by the author. She’s a comic and writer so her timing and delivery are terrific. This book is part memoir and part advice on how trauma and childhood insecurity can interfere with your friendship-making and -keeping skills. It’s also about how to identify ways to evaluate and keep good friendships. Important: The book isn’t really about going … Continue reading You Will Find Your People by Lane Moore →
Come As You Are: The New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life is interesting and informative. It’s a solid Sex 101 book. I learned some new things from reading it and I got a better understanding of some things that I kinda sorta knew but didn’t fully understand. I also found it entertaining and accessible, and very body and sex positive. The book consists of the main text, which explains different concepts and elements … Continue reading Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski →
The Happy Vagina is a fun book, primed for gift giving, punctuated with inspiring quotes and featuring bold, fun illustrations. I took one look at it and thought, “I should give this to my daughter.” My daughter took one look at it and said, “It reminds me of those very ‘You Go, Girl!’ pamphlets about periods.” This book, with its teeny tiny nibble sized portions of important health facts, is either too darn peppy, or … Continue reading The Happy Vagina by Mika Simmons →
I loathe exercise. I don’t mean that I dislike it. I don’t mean that I talk about how much I hate it as a form of humble bragging i.e. “You know running is just SO HARD on the knees but it was SUCH A RUSH finishing the marathon in first place.” No, I really, really hate it. I would never, ever, ever have expected to fall in love with a book about exercise but…I think … Continue reading Work It Out by Sarah Kurchak →
We are in the middle of a witchy pop culture wave (see: many, many recent witch-themed romance novels, for example). Toil and Trouble: A Women’s History of the Occult looks at the roles that women have played in America’s occult history. It’s a very complicated topic, and I admired the authors for being able to present an organized and inclusive, although not comprehensive, look at some of the many ways that women have been active … Continue reading Toil and Trouble by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson →
