Tag: 5 stars

Book Review | The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Posted July 22, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle. . . . Isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
N/A

The Reason

It has been reviewed highly by readers whose opinions I respect and I love epistolary novels in general.

The Quotes

“I look in the mirror and how can it be? I am an old woman. What has my life been?”

“I know you know this, but I want to repeat that when someone(s) treats you poorly, it is a reflection of him or herself and the misery within the heart of them. It doesn’t help a bit to hear that when you’re young, but later it will.”

“An e-mail can in no way replace a written letter. It does concern me that one day all the advancement of technology will do away with the post.”

“I remember when you said in an email that when you find a place for yourself in the world, it feels like music.”

The Narrator(s)

Maggi-Meg Reed. Jane Oppenheimer. Carly Robins. Jeff Ebner. David Pittu. Chris Andrew Ciulla. Mark Bramhall. Petrea Burchard. Robert Petkoff. Kimberly Farr. Cerris Morgan-Moyer. Peter Ganim. Jade Wheeler. And more. An amazing production! I love what the cast did with the characters’ voices!

My Thoughts

What a wonderful, nostalgic book! I’ve always loved letter-writing and books that feature letter-writing. Penpalling was one of my favorite hobbies as a child but snail-mail is no longer as popular as it once was now that we have “fast-mail”, and unfortunately I don’t have as much time to write letters as an adult as when I was a child anyway. Still, I have wonderful memories of writing letters and receiving them, and I love epistolary novels because letters can tell such a story!

I love how Sybil’s character shone through from her letters. I love seeing her relationship with the people in her life from the letters they write as well. I particularly love her relationships with Rosalie and Harry. Oh, to have a life-long friend like Rosalie who loves you enough to tell you hard truths and risk your ire. And Harry, a child who trusts her and feels safe with her. It was all very heartwarming.

There is only one minor complaint I have with the book, and it’s the whole weird mystery about Colt and the unsent letters. I feel like there was no need for the mystery, and in fact, quite unrealistic in tone considering the reveal. However, I’m letting that go because I love the rest of the book so much, and I’m still giving this 5 stars.

Note for everyone who loves letter-writing and snail-mail:
I’m writing this here because if you’re reading this review, chances are you’re as charmed by this book as I am and/or are interested in the premise of letter-writing. This book has made me want to start penpalling again. I wonder if anyone else feels this way and want to start something up? I have often gotten the urge to find penpals again but I worry that I can’t keep up with regular letter-writing. This book has made me realize that the longevity of the connection is more important to me than the frequency, and if anyone else agrees, I’d love to give it a try! Hit me up if you’re interested anytime you see this, even if it’s years and years and years in the future!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

Posted July 15, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges – how to get relative with the inevitable – you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.”

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights – and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #42: Includes a handwritten interior font)

The Reason

Someone recommended it highly to me, and it fit the 2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge prompt so I moved it up my TBR.

The Quotes

“I haven’t made all A’s in the art of living. But I give a damn. And I’ll take an experienced C over an ignorant A any day.”

“Life is our resume. It is our story to tell, and the choices we make write the chapters. Can we live in a way where we look forward to looking back?”

“I have a lot of proof that the world is conspiring to make me happy.”

“I never wrote things down to remember; I always wrote things down so I could forget.”

“Sometimes which choice you make is not as important as making a choice and commiting to it.”

The Narrator(s)

The author, Matthew McConaughey. I loved it!

My Thoughts

This is probably one of the best books I’ve read this year. I had no strong feelings towards Matthew McConaughey as an actor before reading this book. I’d loved many movies he’d been in and I have always thought he was a great actor but I just didn’t know very much about him. Now after reading the book, I have so much more admiration and respect for him.

I respect his confidence and work ethic, and the way he went after what he wanted in life. I also really love his attitude and approach to life; he seems like an introspective person who doesn’t take any of his accomplishments in life for granted. I listened to this book on audio while also reading it on a physical copy – because there were many notes, photos, and other notions included in the physical copy – and I loved seeing copies of his handwritten notes, featured quotes, and more. There were so many quotable words of wisdom, and I’m pretty sure that if it wasn’t a library copy, I would’ve highlighted almost the whole book!

This is one book that I would recommend reading both on audiobook and on the physical copy if you can. His narration is wonderful to listen to, so high energy it lifts you up too, and it sounds like he’s just having a nice conversation with you. And reading the physical book is wonderful too because of the format and the included photos and notions. I loved the whole experience.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker

Posted July 10, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker

A carjacker lurking in a shopping mall parking lot. An abusive husband pounding on the door. A disgruntled employee brandishing a gun. These days, no one is safe from the specter of violence.

But according to Gavin de Becker, everyone can feel safer, act safer, be safer — if they learn how to listen to their own sixth sense about danger.

De Becker has made a career of protecting people and predicting violent behavior. His firm handles security for many of the leading figures in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, and his computerized risk-assessment system helps analyze threats to members of Congress and the Supreme Court.

Now, in this unprecedented guide, de Becker shares his expertise with everyone. Covering all the dangerous situations people typically face — street crime, domestic abuse, violence in the workplace — de Becker provides real-life examples and offers specific advice on restraining orders, self-defense, and more. But the key to self-protection, he demonstrates, is learning how to trust our own intuitions.

For everyone who’s ever felt threatened, this book is essential reading.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge

The Reason

I’ve seen this book recommended many times as essential reading. And after reading it, I concur.

The Quotes

“It is understandable that the perspectives of men and women on safety are so different–men and women live in different worlds…at core, men are afraid women will laugh at them, while at core, women are afraid men will kill them.”

“I encourage people to remember that “no” is a complete sentence.”

“There’s a lesson in real-life stalking cases that young women can benefit from learning: persistence only proves persistence—it does not prove love. The fact that a romantic pursuer is relentless doesn’t mean you are special—it means he is troubled.”

“We must learn and then teach our children that niceness does not equal goodness. Niceness is a decision, a strategy of social interaction; it is not a character trait. People seeking to control others almost always present the image of a nice person in the beginning. Like rapport-building, charm and the deceptive smile, unsolicited niceness often has a discoverable motive.”

“I’ve successfully lobbied and testified for stalking laws in several states, but I would trade them all for a high school class that would teach young men how to hear “no,” and teach young women that it’s all right to explicitly reject.”

The Narrator(s)

The author, Gavin de Becker.

My Thoughts

This is essential reading for both men and women. I’ve been hearing about it for some time and finally decided to read it, and it made me wish I had read it sooner. Much of it talks about extreme situations, but there are also very good insights into how to set boundaries and not engage with people who make you feel uncomfortable in the first place. As a woman, I have myself been groomed since I was a child to be nice instead of assertive, to make men feel comfortable even while they make me uncomfortable, to allow myself to be “persuaded” (coerced) into situations I’ve already said no to.

I had a lot of deprogramming to do and this book would’ve been very helpful if only I had read it years ago. However, it’s still helpful now, and I believe that both men and women would benefit from reading this, because while women are more likely to be victims of violence, men are not exempt to it. Plus, I think that a lot of men don’t understand women’s concern for safety and this book might open up their eyes to it a little bit, and maybe help them be better allies and/or be more aware of not doing things that creep women out.

There are some things laid out in this book that can seem shocking and stark, and there are definitely some things that might be triggering, but I think some of it is necessary because the topic is stark and scary, and we should all be taking it seriously. So I’d recommend it as essential reading, but caution to go into it with some care and awareness.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

Posted July 10, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

‘Nobody in the world was more inadequate to act the heroine than I was.’

Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was ‘just’ an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn’t? As Lucy Worsley says, ‘She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern’. She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness.

So why – despite all the evidence to the contrary – did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure?
She was born in 1890 into a world which had its own rules about what women could and couldn’t do. Lucy Worsley’s biography is not just of an internationally renowned bestselling writer. It’s also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman.

With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsley’s biography is both authoritative and entertaining and makes us realise what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie was – truly a woman who wrote the twentieth century.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #46: Non-fiction about character in prompt 45)

The Reason

For the 2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge to pair with another prompt.

The Quotes

“Evil people are those who will not or cannot grow up,’ Agatha wrote. ‘A man who is a child,’ says one of her characters, ‘is the most frightening thing in the world.”

“Like so many writers, Christie was an introvert. She didn’t seek publicity and in fact often fled from it. Many members of the public seemed to resent her unwillingness to open herself to them”

“Christie’s success came as a woman in a world made by men.”

“Someone once said that the greatest character Agatha Christie ever invented was Agatha Christie herself.”

The Narrator(s)

The author, Lucy Worsley. It was great, no notes.

My Thoughts

I recently read The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont for the 2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge prompt for biographical fiction and it was paired with another prompt to read a nonfiction about the character in the book for the first prompt. I did not like The Christie Affair very much and thought the drama surrounding her disappearance was much ado over nothing, to the point where I was questioning if I should read another, different book for that prompt so that I wouldn’t have to read about it again in a nonfiction setting. The Christie Affair represented Christie so badly that I wasn’t sure I wanted to know more even though I have always been curious about her.

It took me a while to find a nonfiction book about Agatha Christie that looked interesting, and even then I was hesitant, but I’m so glad I stuck with it because this book ended up getting me so interested and invested in Christie’s life and works again. She really came to life for me, and I loved how the book told her story from her birth until her death and made it all sound so exciting.

The “downside” is that now I have to add a whole bunch of Christie’s books to my already massive TBR. I first discovered her books from my school library and binge-read as many as I could when I was 11 or 12 years old, but I’m sure I missed a lot of details at that age, and I’d love to rediscover them again now and read them with more mature eyes. I really enjoyed this book and finding out more about Christie’s real life. I’m excited to reread her books too!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Talisman Series by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Posted June 15, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Talisman Series by Stephen King and Peter Straub

Jack Sawyer, twelve years old, is about to begin a most fantastic journey, an exalting, terrifying quest for the mystical Talisman—the only thing that can save Jack’s dying mother. But to reach his goal, Jack must make his way not only across the breadth of the United States but also through the wondrous and menacing parallel world of the Territories.

In the Territories, Jack finds another realm, where the air is so sweet and clear a man can smell a radish being pulled from the ground a mile away—and a life can be snuffed out instantly in the continuing struggle between good and evil. Here Jack discovers “Twinners,” reflections of the people he knows on earth—most notably Queen Laura DeLoessian, the Twinner of Jack’s own imperiled mother. As Jack “flips” between worlds, making his way westward toward the redemptive Talisman, a sequence of heart-stopping encounters challenges him at every step.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (see below)

The Reason

For my Stephen King challenge and because the third book in this series is coming out this year!

The Quotes

“Everything goes away, Jack Sawyer, like the moon. Everything comes back, like the moon.”

“You don’t own a thing unless you can give it up, what does it profit a man, it profits him nothing, it profits him zilch, and you don’t learn that in school, you learn it on the road, you learn it from Ferd Janklow, and Wolf, and Richard going head-first into the rocks like a Titan II that didn’t fire off right.”

“A universe of worlds, a dimensional macrocosm of worlds—and in all of them one thing that was always the same; one unifying force that was undeniably good, even if it now happened to be imprisoned in an evil place; the Talisman, axle of all possible worlds.”

“That’s how craziness works. You make connections that aren’t real.”

The Narrator(s)

Frank Muller. He has a kind of inflection at the end of sentences that distracted me at first but I got used to them as I went further into the book and stopped noticing them. Other than that, I loved his narration! His voices and the way he portrayed the characters were amazing!

My Thoughts

These books were written years apart; The Talisman in 1984, Black House in 2001, and finally, Other Worlds Than These only coming out in October 2026 (so it’s not out yet at the time of this writing). I haven’t read many of Straub’s works (I very much intend to!), but everyone knows I’m a fan of King, and I love that he often writes stories where we see the protagonists as children and then later as adults (IT, The Shining and Doctor Sleep, etc.) and we still feel the continuity and consistency of the characters and their growth. This is my first time reading these books in The Talisman series so I’m seeing these characters for the first time. In hindsight, maybe I should’ve waited until the final book came out but I got caught up in the excitement and I wanted to be ready for it.

Book 1 – The Talisman
For the reading challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #9: Featuring a natural disaster)

As usual, the best part about King’s books is his characters. Meeting Jack Sawyer for the first time as a 12-year old, I love how realistic it feels to have a boy his age facing all the difficult things that happen, the way he handles them, and how he had to step up and grow up. I feel so much for Jack having to do difficult things but I also believe in the resilience and the adaptability of children his age. They learn fast, they adapt to new realities more easily, they bounce back and try again, and I loved seeing Jack do all of those things.

I also love the other characters; Wolf, Speedy, and even Richard Sloat. Wolf is the purest and best person in the world and if you’ve read the book, you won’t wonder why he has my heart. Richard was difficult to like at first but he grew on me, and maybe claiming love for him is a little too strong but I did like him in the end.

This book was such a journey. I love how King’s books transcend genres; it’s portal fantasy, which I love, but it’s also horror, epic fantasy, thriller, adventure. He just tells the stories and disregards categorizing them – as we all should. I also want to acknowledge Straub as co-writer, I don’t mean to ignore his contribution to the book, I’m just not familiar enough with his works and have no frame of reference to comment upon who he is as a writer in relation to this book. I mean to remedy that as soon as possible! I can definitely see the difference in voice with this book as compared with other King books though, and I’m attributing that to Straub’s contribution. I’m looking forward to more of this series, and more from both these authors!

Book 2 – Black House
For the reading challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #35: Character with a secret identity)

So many years have gone by since we first saw Jack Sawyer as a 12-year-old. He’s now 31 years old and a retired cop; he’s able to retire young because he’s got money from his family. He moves to a new place which is of course, in a crisis, from a serial child murderer, and is asked to come back from retirement to help catch the murderer. He resists but the killings are related to his childhood adventure and he is uniquely qualified to fix it.

I love seeing him as an adult and still recognizing the same spirit in him that we saw in the first book. Again, the characters are the best thing about this book, and one of the things I love most is how the characters are portrayed; now that Jack is an adult and the victims are children, we initially see the children as helpless and vulnerable (which is still true in a case such as this!), but we are later reminded by a 10-year old Tyler that children are also smart, resilient, and powerful. I just love that. Obviously, I don’t like that any child was hurt by a serial killer or put in any dangerous situation, but I love that King and Straub write Tyler as having his own agency and power and not just as a helpless victim.

The other characters are amazing too, no surprise there; Beezer, Doc, Dale, Judy/Sophie, and my darling Henry. I love them all. If I had read this series before knowing the third was coming out, I’d have been satisfied with the ending but definitely filling in the blanks with my own ideas of what happens next. Now I’m just anxiously waiting for the next book so I can have some questions answered.

As of this writing, I have not read The Dark Tower series but I’ve seen references to it on Stephen King’s various fan sites, and I’m so excited to see that this story has some connections to The Dark Tower series. I can’t wait to read TDT series next and see what all the hype is about!

Book 3 – Other Worlds Than These
For the reading challenge(s):
TBD

Coming in October 2026!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this series? Would you read this series? Did you like the books or do you think you would like them?

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Book Review | The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

Posted May 1, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 4 Comments

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

The virus kills nine out of ten of its victims so quickly and gruesomely that even biohazard experts are terrified. It is airborne, it is extremely contagious, and it is about to burn through the suburbs of a major American city. Is there any way to stop it?

In the winter of 1989, at an Army research facility outside Washington, D.C., this doomsday scenario seemed like a real possibility. A SWAT team of soldiers and scientists wearing biohazard space suits had been organized to stop the outbreak of an exotic “hot” virus. The grim operation went on in secret for eighteen days, under dangerous conditions for which there was no precedent.

The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story in depth for the first time, giving an absolutely hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their “crashes” into the human race. From a remote jungle cave festering with deadly organisms, to an airplane over Africa that is carrying a sick passenger who dissolves into a human virus bomb, to the confines of a Biosafety Level 4 military lab where scientists risk their lives studying lethal substances that could kill them quickly and horribly, The Hot Zone describes situations that a few years ago would have been taken for science fiction. As the tropical wildernesses of the world are destroyed, previously unknown viruses that have lived undetected in the rain forest for eons are entering human populations. The appearance of AIDS is part of the pattern, and the implications for the future of the human species are terrifying.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD: TBD)

The Reason

It’s been on my TBR forever but I kept putting it off. People keep praising it though so I couldn’t put it off anymore!

The Quotes

“In biology, nothing is clear, everything is too complicated, everything is a mess, and just when you think you understand something, you peel off a layer and find deeper complications beneath. Nature is anything but simple.”

“To mess around with Ebola is an easy way to die. Better to work with something safer, such as anthrax.”

“You can’t fight off Ebola the way you fight off a cold. Ebola does in ten days what it takes AIDS ten years to accomplish.”

“The rain forest has its own defenses. The earth’s immune system, so to speak, has recognized the presence of the human species and is starting to kick in. The earth is attempting to rid itself of an infection by the human parasite. Perhaps AIDS is the first step in a natural process of clearance.”

The Narrator(s)

Richard M. Davidson. Really good, no notes.

My Thoughts

For some reason, I thought this was going to be a dry nonfiction read (maybe because of the cover!) but it turned out to be so well-written and reads like an actual horror/thriller novel. I had no idea Ebola and Marburg were so deadly. I knew they made you sick, of course, but I thought of them the way I would’ve thought about malaria, or dengue; dangerous and sometimes fatal but not incurable! And what a horrible way to go!

The issues with how the monkeys were handled, how information was shared, and how everything was cleaned up, have got me feeling torn because on the one hand, there were so many unethical practices, on the other, I have no idea what I would do if I was in that position. I’d probably be in denial too if I thought I had been exposed to an incurable virus that would eventually lead to a horrible, gory death for me.

One of the sentiments I found most interesting from the book is how viruses like Ebola and Marburg are the “predators” of humans, to cull humans when we become so overpopulated and start encroaching into animal habitats, and you know what, that’s actually really fair. We like to think we’re at the top of the food chain but we’re really not, and these tiny microscopic viruses will prove it to us any time we start thinking otherwise. I do not like the thought, but it’s what will keep me humble and wary of too much outdoor activity! I loved this book but I have decided I’m going to be a stay-at-home bookworm forever.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Educated by Tara Westover

Posted April 29, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Educated by Tara Westover

Tara Westover grew up preparing for the End of Days, watching for the sun to darken, for the moon to drip as if with blood. She spent her summers bottling peaches and her winters rotating emergency supplies, hoping that when the World of Men failed, her family would continue on, unaffected.

She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate. She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in doctors or hospitals. According to the state and federal government, she didn’t exist.

As she grew older, her father became more radical, and her brother, more violent. At sixteen Tara decided to educate herself. Her struggle for knowledge would take her far from her Idaho mountains, over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d travelled too far. If there was still a way home.

EDUCATED is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty, and of the grief that comes with the severing of the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has, from her singular experience, crafted a universal coming-of-age story, one that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers – the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes, and the will to change it.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #18: Provokes strong emotion)

The Reason

This has been on my TBR forever and it recently went on sale in Audible. The audiobook is narrated by Julia Whelan, whom I love, and so solidified my reason for buying and reading the book!

The Quotes

“You can love someone and still choose to say goodbye to them,” she says now. “You can miss a person every day, and still be glad that they are no longer in your life.”

“My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.”

“It’s strange how you give the people you love so much power over you.”

“Whomever you become, whatever you make yourself into, that is who you always were.”

“An education is not so much about making a living as making a person.”

The Narrator(s)

Julia Whelan. The GOAT! She can do no wrong in my eyes(ears)!

My Thoughts

I finished this book just before bedtime and was unable to sleep the rest of the night because I was so worked up and emotional about it. I did not expect to relate so hard with the author because we have pretty much nothing in common, but all that control and abuse disguised as familial love is unfortunately all too familiar to me. So is the difficulty in leaving and letting go, dealing with lies spread about you, and despite all of that, the yearning for change, love, and acceptance anyway.

The way the author articulated her experiences and her feelings about them was matter-of-fact and direct, yet at the same time felt raw and emotional. Perhaps I was projecting as well, but either way, it got me reflecting on my own experiences and wanting to articulate them too.

I love that education is the key to her liberation, and I love that it was her curiosity and love of learning that led her on the path to higher education. I am inspired by her courage in going to university when she barely had a high school education, and forging ahead even when she felt stupid after making a huge faux pas out of ignorance.

It took me such a long time to finally read this book but I’m glad I did. All the praise for it is well deserved. It’s a powerful story with a powerful message and I’m sure I’ll come back to it again one day.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Posted April 27, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

From Chuck Tingle, author of the USA Today bestselling Camp Damascus, comes a new heart-pounding story about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead.

Misha is a jaded scriptwriter who has been working in Hollywood for years, and has just been nominated for his first Oscar. But when he’s pressured by his producers to kill off a gay character in the upcoming season finale―”for the algorithm”―Misha discovers that it’s not that simple.

As he is haunted by his past, and past mistakes, Misha must risk everything to find a way to do what’s right―before it’s too late.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD: TBD)

The Reason

A bookclub friend recommended this book and author very highly, and I finally got around to reading it!

The Quotes

“On a long enough timeline, endings are inevitable. Tragedy is inevitable. Fortunately, so is joy.”

“It’s not just about telling queer stories… It’s about telling all kinds of queer stories. Yes, there can be tragedy and death and darkness. There’s an important place for that. But don’t forget about queer beauty and queer catharsis and queer joy. Every gay character doesn’t need to die in the first scene, or in a third act blaze of glory to save everyone else. Support queer heroes, not just on screen, but off screen, too.”

“This is how scary stories work, how horror works. We’re all still here, safe and alive. We’ve had that primal rush and exercised those muscles to remind us death is eventually coming for everyone, but not today.”

The Narrator(s)

André Santana, Charlie Jane Anders, CJ Leede, Georgia Bird, Liz Kerin, Mara Wilson, Mark Oshiro, Sarah Gailey, Stephen Graham Jones, T. Kingfisher, TJ Klune. I loved the narration and it all felt very seamless.

My Thoughts

I pretty much went into this blind and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was! It came highly recommended but I had no idea what to expect because the author has written several books with risque titles and while I was open to trying new things, I was also prepared for maybe some NSFW content within the story.

It turned out to be quite an interesting sci-fi futuristic horror story, and I absolutely loved how creative it was! I also love the commentaries about how queer characters should be represented more without needing queerness to be a part of their identity in the stories, and the one about why we love horror stories and how they often serve as cautionary tales to make sense of why certain bad things happen.

It was all very thoughtful and well-written, humorous and yet also thrilling. I got really anxious near the end. There was also a reference to Camp Damascus, another book written by the author which I haven’t read but is on my TBR. He’s got a couple of other books with “normal” titles I’d like to read, but if I’m feeling brave enough I might try his risque titles one day.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

Posted April 27, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram,* “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel.

The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl’s fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere.

*pangram: a sentence or phrase that includes all the letters of the alphabet

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #3: Written without quotation marks)

The Reason

I’d been wanting to read this for a while but never got around to it. I saw that it fit one of the prompts for the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge, so I decided to finally read it.

The Quotes

“Today we queried, questioned, and inquired. Promise me that come tomorrow, we will not stop asking why.”

“The Council is wrong. Yet, observe that none of us will risk telling it so, for fear of the consequences.”

“Any one of us could have come up with such a sentence. We are, when it comes right down to it, all of us: mere monkeys at typewriters.”

My Thoughts

This book surprised me; I thought it was middle-grade, and it sort of is suitable for younger readers, but it was deeper and darker than I expected. I thought it was going to be a fun and light-hearted take on the idea of letters falling off the alphabet and only being able to use the letters that were left, but it turned out to be quite a serious exploration on the absurdity of going along with ridiculous ideas because people are too afraid to fight back. The result of losing your “voice”, losing the ability to communicate clearly, because of those missing letters, is such a strong metaphor for being censored and silenced by the powers that be. It’s very well-written and such a powerful story, especially for impressionable young readers, and I wish I had read this book a long time ago!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

Posted April 25, 2026 by Haze in Book Reviews / 3 Comments

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

The incredible true story of the women who fought America’s Undark danger

The Curies’ newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.

Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” are the luckiest alive—until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women’s cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America’s early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights that will echo for centuries to come.

Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the “wonder” substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2026 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2026 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD: TBD)

The Reason

It’s been on my TBR forever and it felt like it contained important information.

The Quotes

“We’ve got humane societies for dogs and cats, but they won’t do anything for human beings.”

“That was the tragedy. Radium had been known to be harmful since 1901. Every death since was unnecessary.”

“The cynical would say there was only one reason a high-profile specialist finally took up the cause. On June 7, 1925, the first male employee of the United States Radium Corporation died.”

“Thousands of women helped with the study, through their forties, fifties, sixties, and beyond; their contribution to medical science is incalculable. We all benefit from their sacrifice and courage, every day of our lives.”

The Narrator(s)

Angela Brazil. No complaints, I was completely immersed and forgot I was listening to an audiobook.

My Thoughts

I love reading about medical science but I also inevitably get a little paranoid when reading about illnesses and all the ways the human body is susceptible to so many dangerous things around us. I happened to be having a toothache while reading this book and even though I never got anywhere near any sources of radium, as far as I know, I still got paranoid about my teeth falling out when the women in the book started losing their teeth.

It was really painful to read about how the women suffered, and I think it’s especially hard when they didn’t know, in the beginning, why they were suffering. They had no idea radium was dangerous and didn’t understand why they were sick. It was horrific to read about their bodies slowly deteriorating and so humbling to see their strength and resilience in the face of that kind of pain.

The worst thing is that the companies who hired these women didn’t take any accountability for what they did. It’s one thing if they didn’t know about the dangers of radium and then took accountability once they knew, but they continued putting their employees at risk after knowing the dangers of radium, and kept telling lies to avoid facing any kind of responsibility. It is sad and infuriating to see this kind of evil in the world. Even now.

However, if there’s one thing we can take away from this, it’s that these women continued to fight to be seen and heard, against their pain, against all odds, against these evil corporations, and their fight made lasting changes in workplace safety laws. It is inspiring.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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