Format: Digital Audiobook

The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell

I totally unexpectedly really, really enjoyed The Madwoman Upstairs. There’s a couple things immediately that should have turned me off this novel. First of all, the romance. I am never interested in a student/teacher sort of tryst. Not my cup of tea. Secondly, there’s all the focus on the Bronte sisters. I don’t talk about it a lot, but I actually despised reading Jane Eyre… to the point where I haven’t touched it or anything like it since. Disliking Jane Eyre led me to skipping Wuthering Heights, and also all the Austen novels. So how in the world did The Madwoman Upstairs end up on my […]

Posted November 15, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //

The Fever by Megan Abbott

My initial feelings about The Fever were pretty lukewarm. While conceptually interesting, this book doesn’t get very good ratings on Goodreads and nobody has really been talking about it. In short, the buzz about The Fever has been (if anything) that it’s just “fine”. And after reading it, I agree. There are a lot of things that could have happened in this novel. Megan Abbott is not a bad writer. There was a minute when I thought this was going to end up a gruesome swamp-thing-esque horror novel and damn I was there for it because that would have been SO unique and […]

Posted November 13, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

The Ruby in the Smoke called out to me not because of any merit of its own, but because it was written by Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials. Usually, when I enjoy an author’s work as much as I enjoyed The Golden Compass, it only makes sense to try some of his other series, yeah? I have some mixed feelings about The Ruby in the Smoke. On the one hand, I really liked the characters as a general rule. Each had his or her own quirks. They were a little bit stereotyped to what would have been common to their class, […]

Posted November 11, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

I first read The Red Tent for tenth grade English. It was a curious choice, as the protagonist is a figure from the Bible, and I don’t think it is one most other schools teach. Despite being assigned academic reading, The Red Tent stole 15-year-old me’s heart because it was an empowering story about women in a world I was familiar with… and in a world where I had been taught only the men truly mattered. In the years since, I have found different reasons to love this book as I’ve read and re-read it. I love the idea of the red […]

Posted November 8, 2019 in Reviews // 4 Comments //

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley

Much like Gone Girl and Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, Lily and the Octopus was one of those books that everyone was reading for a while. The title and description were just enough to get me vaguely interested and I added it to my TBR… but I wasn’t so invested that I jumped on board the hype train immediately. And you know what? This book was good. It was the perfect balance of funny and sad. Also, the little summary does it no justice. Lily and the Octopus is the story of a middle-aged gay man who discovers, one day, that his beloved dachshund has an “octopus” […]

Posted November 6, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //

Saints and Misfits by S. K. Ali

I think I may have added Saints and Misfits to my TBR on a whim just before it came out (two years ago) and then promptly forgot about it. … Until it popped up at the head of my TBR! I’ve been in a bit of a reading rut lately – I’ve been reading and listening, but haven’t really been able to fully immerse myself in anything, even old favorites. Little did I suspect that Saints and Misfits would pull me in so thoroughly! I would like to take this moment for the traditional aside – I am a white woman and […]

Posted November 4, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //