“A Life of One’s Own” is part memoir by Joanna Biggs, recounting her starting over after her divorce, and part biographical exploration of the path to independence and intellectual freedom carved by nine famous women writers who also began again (notably Mary Wollstonecraft, George Eliot, Zora Neale Hurston, Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Sylvia Plath, Toni Morrison, and Elena Ferrante).
Book Review: Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
“Dept. of Speculation” is a fictional meditative novel about a crumbling marriage through short vignettes, in which the ‘wife’ narrator struggles between the demands of a desired art life and the reality of a domestic life.
Book Review: Bread of Angels: A Memoir by Patti Smith
“Bread of Angels” is a memoir that explores Patti Smith’s genesis, from her early artistic admirations and storytelling inclinations to the arduous path she’s trekked personally and artistically throughout her life and career. Patti Smith has stayed true to her bohemian roots amid poverty, great loss, and political turmoil.
Book Review: How To Manifest With Magic and Dark Cosmic Energy by Ashera Goddess
“How To Manifest With Magic and Dark Cosmic Energy” is a non-fiction, full-picture guidebook on precisely that, manifesting with magic and dark cosmic energy by the famous YouTuber Shera Seven (on her main channel) or Ashera Goddess (on her second channel).
Book Review: Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
“Half His Age” is a novel following seventeen-year-old Waldo, a sharp, lonely, depressed, and always-wanting girl who becomes enamoured by her creative writing teacher, Mr. Korgy, who’s twice her age, married with a family, and a self-proclaimed failure.
Book Review: Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li
“Things in Nature Merely Grow” is a gutwrenching, unflichingly honest non-fiction memoir about Yiyun Li’s thoughts on losing her second son, James, to suicide, following the loss of her first son, Vincent, a few years prior.
Book Review: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
“Sea of Tranquility” is a time travel novel about art, love, humanity, and the plague. We follow multiple journeys: the exiled Edwin St. Andrew, who travels to Vancouver Island in 1912, Mirella Kessler, who in a pre-pandemic 2020 is in search for her long lost friend Vincent Alkaitis, Olive Llewellyn, a famous postapocalyptic author who is on Earth’s last book tour in 2023, and finally Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, who works as a hotel detective on a Moon colony in 2401.
Book Review: Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
“Regretting You” is a contemporary romance novel that follows the strained relationship between a mother (Morgan Grant) and her teenage daughter (Clara Grant), after the passing of the family’s anchor (Chris Grant), their husband and father, respectively.
Book Review: The Half of It by Madison Beer
“The Half of It” is a memoir by singer-songwriter Madison Beer, depicting her decade in the spotlight. She writes about her music career, mental health struggles, and the online hate and safety violations she’s faced.
Book Review: Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell
“Pumpkinheads” features the wholesome friendship between Deja and Josiah, who work together during every Halloween season. However, this is their last Halloween at the patch together, as next year the pair will go off to college. But Deja is determined not to let this final day go to waste. She wants to bring Josiah out of his shell and to pass their last day with no regrets. How? By abandoning their post at the Succotash Hut, where they’ve always worked, for a day of adventure and treats at the patch instead.
Book Review: An Archive of Romance (A Study in Drowning) by Ava Reid
“An Archive of Romance” is a collection of letters, poems, art, diary entries, and other illustrations of Effy and Preston that take place during the A Study in Drowning duology, as well as the lovers’ final epilogue.
Book Review: A Theory of Dreaming (A Study in Drowning #2) by Ava Reid
“A Theory of Dreaming” is the sequel to the book A Study in Drowning, continuing the story of Effy Sayre and her academic nemesis-turned-lover, Preston Héloury.
