Skye Falling (2021) by Mia McKenzie was both hilarious and heartbreaking in nearly equal measure. Bad things happen, as they do in the world, but Skye’s perspective and ability to find humor made me laugh through the tears. Skye owns a Black travel agency, leading groups traveling around the world, living her best life. She’sContinue reading “Skye Falling”
Category Archives: Weight-Neutral
Big Time
I thoroughly enjoyed many things about Big Time by Ben H. Winters (publication day March 5, 2024)! Winters brought me in to the story immediately–we learn that Allie, a teacher with a young child, has been abducted by a woman who is taking her . . . somewhere. Allie escapes in Maryland, not without doingContinue reading “Big Time”
Mad Honey
Mad Honey (2022) by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, was the library book group’s February selection, and, as sometimes happens, I started reading with no background or expectations about the book. I’ve read other Picoult books (which I generally enjoyed), but I wasn’t familiar with the second author. I was immediately hooked! We meetContinue reading “Mad Honey”
Learned By Heart
Learned by Heart (2023) is the latest beautifully-written novel by Emma Donoghue (Room. The Wonder). It’s a fictional retelling of the story of Eliza Raine and her relationship with Anne Lister. Lister kept extensive diaries, is known as “the first modern lesbian,” and is the subject of the 2-season HBO series Gentleman Jack. Set primarilyContinue reading “Learned By Heart”
Lessons in Chemistry
I loved Lessons in Chemistry (2022) by Bonnie Garmus and have no idea why it took me so long to get to it! Elizabeth Zott is a chemist in 1959, at a research firm in southern California. She meets Calvin Evans, the hotshot of the office, when she appropriates beakers from his lab because, asContinue reading “Lessons in Chemistry”
Les Be Honest
I had high hopes for Les Be Honest (Pub. Date February 13, 2024) by Sarah Robinson, a multicultural queer lesbian romance by the author of Baby Bank, which I really enjoyed. The story is told from the perspective of Yasmeen, a queer black millennial trust fund young adult with ADHD, who has just had toContinue reading “Les Be Honest”
Starling House
Starling House (2023) is Alix E. Harrow’s newest fantasy, this time a contemporary gothic featuring a former coal-mining town in Kentucky and a fictional creepy children’s book called The Underland, written by an E. Starling. Harrow describes it as a “southern gothic beauty and the beast, sort of”. It was a Reese’s Book Club selection,Continue reading “Starling House”
Remarkably Bright Creatures
I was absolutely delighted by Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (2022)! I am happily in the majority of people who loved this book, the story of widowed Tova Sullivan who lost her teenage son Erik thirty years before, and Cameron, annoying screw-up, man-child, who shows up in Sowell Bay, Washington, looking for hisContinue reading “Remarkably Bright Creatures”
Salt Houses
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan (2017) told the story of one Palestinian family over multiple generations, beginning in the late 1960s through the 2010s, centered around Alia and her husband Asif, who is best friends with Alia’s brother Mustafa. Alia and Mustafa’s mother is forced to leave with the Six-Day War in 1967, and MustafaContinue reading “Salt Houses”
State of Wonder
State of Wonder (2011) by Ann Patchett has been on my TBR stack forever, so I was really glad when it was a monthly book group pick. I even knew lore about it, as the writer Elizabeth Gilbert writes about her exchange with Ann Patchett about this book, in her 2015 creativity book Big Magic:Continue reading “State of Wonder”
Reading While Fat 