I don’t generally read or watch “scary” things. I avoid scary movies (much to the chagrin of the boyfriend, who loves them), and don’t normally pick up thrillers or horror stories. That’s why it’s particularly strange I read two books in the last few months that I’d consider scary — although I’m not sure how [...]
Book Review
Today I want to share a couple of quick reviews of books I read several months ago that I didn’t take any notes on (bad book reviewer!). I also didn’t have very strong feelings about either book, but liked them well enough that I can think of a few readers I’ll be suggesting them too. [...]
Welcome to week three of Nonfiction November, a month-long celebration of nonfiction I’m co-hosting with Leslie of Regular Rumination! Throughout the month, we’ll be reading and writing about nonfiction, and encouraging other readers to join us through a series of post topics. I had so much fun reading all of the posts from last week, when readers shared lists [...]
Title: The Distraction Addiction: Getting the Information You Need and the Communication You Want, Without Enraging Your Family, Annoying Your Colleagues, and Destroying Your Soul Author: Alex Soojung-Kim Pang Genre: Nonfiction Year: 2013 Publisher: Little Brown Acquired: From the publisher for review consideration [rating:5/5] Review: In The Distraction Addiction, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, a “professional futurist” [...]
Title: Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital Author: Sheri Fink Genre: Narrative nonfiction Year: 2013 Publisher: Crown Acquired: From the publisher for review consideration [rating:4.5/5] Review: I have to admit, I didn’t (and still don’t) know a lot about what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I knew that the [...]
Since I finished reading Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg, there are two studies that I have repeated to just about every woman I know: Researchers gave two groups of students identical descriptions of a venture capitalist save one difference: in one group, the subjects name was Heidi, in the [...]
Disclosure: I use Grammarly for online proofreading because typos are embarrassing for someone who gets paid to fix them in real life. This post is sponsored by Grammarly, but content and opinions are my own. Title: How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times Author: Roy Peter Clark Genre: Nonfiction Year: 2013 Publisher: Little, Brown Acquired: From the [...]
Title: Drama High: The Incredible True Story of a Brilliant Teacher, a Struggling Town, and the Magic of Theater Author: Michael Sokolove Genre: Narrative nonfiction Year: 2013 Publisher: Riverhead Acquired: From the publisher for review consideration [rating:5/5] Review: I fell really hard for Drama High. The jacket copy for the book said the book was like [...]
Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors. I don’t remember exactly when I first read The Handmaid’s Tale, probably in a high school English class, but I remember that reading that book changed my life. It was one of those books that helped me understand something fundamental about what literature can do (use an [...]
I like to think (and hope) that every person has at least one other person in their life who will tell them what is what. For me, those people are usually my mother and my sister. I know they love me unconditionally, but I also know that they don’t put up with my nonsense. If [...]
