The Gilded Ones, by Namina Forna Order Now Her blood proves her worth. Deka lives in Otera, a land that has ritualized the patriarchy to keep women in their place. ‘The Gilded Ones,’ Namina Forna’s debut novel, takes you deep into these themes and more. As girls reach their sixteenth year they are sent to the village temples for a ceremony to determine their purity. If their blood runs true they become a member of society. If their blood runs gold a girl is impure and sentenced to death. What is not shared about these gilded girls is that gold blood does not just markRead More →

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan GHM Rating: 5 of 5 stars It’s Downton Abbey crossed with Meangirls swathed in couture on an exotic cerulean sea that is unzipped just enough to peak into a world we have never seen…unless maybe you are reading this from your 140 million dollar yacht. Crazy Rich Asians by Houston-transplant, Kevin Kwan, is fun and predictable in all the right ways! Rachel and Nick are professors in New York. When he invites her to travel with him on their summer break to his homeland of Singapore she wonders if this is the type of trip that leads to aRead More →

Sometimes I Lie

Sometimes I Lie, by Alice Feeney GHM Rating: 5 of 5 stars Overall, I really like this book and could easily recommend it. It’s a solid four stars but could be a five if you were in the right mood – and, I was! It follows Amber as she “wakes” up and realizes she’s in a coma. The narrative changes from her cognizant but fading state trying to remember what happened, to scenes from the previous month to excerpts from childhood diaries. Each point of view slowly adds more to the story. First we come to suspect Amber is probably a bit depressed, certainly dealsRead More →

The Hazel Wood

The Hazel Wood: A Novel, by Melissa Albert GHM Rating: 3 of 5 stars I was going to post The Hazel Wood as my next “to read”…but I read it. #thatescalatedquickly. I mean, that cover! How could you not!? The Hazel Wood is a modern-day fairy tale following that begins when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood. Upon her death, her mother is abducted by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s stories are set. Alice’s only lead is the messageRead More →

How to be Married

How to Be Married, by Jo Piazza GHM Rating: 4 of 5 stars In ‘How to be Married: What I Learned from Real Women on Five Continents about Surviving My First (Really Hard) Year of Marriage‘ Jo Piazza looks into marriages around the world whole embarking on her own adventure – becoming a newlywed. She manages to tell her own story while gleaning information from the men and women she met. From a jungle sweat lodge to to the top of a mountain if anyone can say they’ve gone to the ends of the Earth for marriage it is she – and we, thankfully, gotRead More →

“I’ll Gather My Geese,” by Hallie Stillwell A Must-Read for Anyone Traveling to Out West For each seasonal list, we include a nonfiction pick, the autobiography, “I’ll Gather My Geese,” by Hallie Stillwell is part of the winter list and after reading it I’m inclined to include more Texas women on our book lists! Hallie Stillwell was the embodiment of everything a non-Texan think a Texan is (even today). She was bold and a bit daring. A woman who did what needed to be done even if she had to figure out exactly what that was. “I’ll Gather My Geese,” is Hallie Stillwell’s account ofRead More →

“The Perfect Nanny”   “The baby is dead. It only took a few seconds. The doctor said he didn’t suffer.” The Perfect Nanny, by Leila Slimani, begins with this bold statement and from there delves into a literary study of mothers, fathers, guilt, happiness, class, and racism. I made the horrible mistake of reading Shutter Island one month post-partum with my second child. The horror of that story waited until the last pages to unleash its emotional fury on my new-mommy brain. For years after my children’s births, I avoided Dateline-esque shows involving the awful things done to children. It just isn’t something I couldRead More →

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Murder on the Orient Express   Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie, is the heyday of murder-mysteries. It is classic and, from the opening lines, Mrs. Christie sets an impeccable stage and the reader is transported to a train station in Syria. Here we meet Christie’s most famous hero, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. He is about to begin a short holiday but is suddenly called back to London.? Managing to secure the last coach on the train bound for London we meet a cast of characters who will become a cast of suspects as during the night, one, Mr. Ratchett, is murdered. TheRead More →

A List of Things that Didn’t Kill Me

A List of Things That Didn’t Kill Me? I want to be Han Solo.” “Han – what about Luke?” John asked. Luke…never seemed to have much of a choice…Han Solo made choices, and most of them were pretty self-serving…But when the chips were down, he made a choice to come back and join the fight….I wanted to be the guy not to fuck with, who comes through at the last minute…I wanted to be loyal and brave. ??Jason Schmidt, A List of Things That Didn’t Kill Me A List of Things That Didn’t Kill Me, by Jason Schmidt is the gritty memoir of a youngRead More →