Synopsis:
Callously ravished by the man she hoped to love, an 11th Century Norwegian woman shapes her life around dreams of vengeance.
Review:
Gunnar’s Daughter is an early novel from the Sigrid Undset, author of the Nobel Prize-winning Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, and it is no less of a powerful, shocking work not just for a book set in [...]
Popularity: 41% [?]
Tags: Norwegian Literature
Synopsis:
3 young women meet in the typing pool at Fabian Publishing, 1952, hoping for love and finding that life has more to offer than they ever imagined.
Review:
I haven’t done much rereading since starting this blog, mostly thanks to the TBR tsunami that Bookmooch yielded out of a few boxes of discarded books my mom cleaned [...]
Popularity: 35% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
When Clay receives a box of cassette tapes recorded by a girl who recently committed suicide, he wonders why he was chosen as one of her thirteen reasons.
Review:
Compelling premise ultimately founders on muddled execution. Asher throws in at least four separate social problems as part of Hannah’s reasons for her suicide, and the construction [...]
Popularity: 37% [?]
Tags: On Reading
Synopsis:
A dissection of hook-up culture on college campuses and in high schools, including anecdotal accounts.
Review:
More hand-wringing than Last Night in Paradise, less high-minded than Unprotected, Unhooked is more likely than either to provoke fear and consternation in the hearts of parents of teenagers across America–particularly if they’ve read I Am Charlotte Simmons and their daughter [...]
Popularity: 24% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
Despite being both beautiful and smart, former teen beauty Sasha’s love life is a shambles, and–even worse–she’s approaching 30 with rapid speed.
Review:
I usually don’t say blank is the new blank, but I’ve never been more glad that 30 is the new 20 than after reading this depressing book. When I was in my 20s, [...]
Popularity: 33% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Well, I’m in my third trimester. Not long to go, really, even though it’s hard to conjure “November” in steamy August. And I feel like I need to read everything I’ve ever wanted to read, right now, just in case I never get to read again, or at least until Superfast Baby goes [...]
Popularity: 9% [?]
Tags: On Reading
Synopsis:
A comprehensive, non-judgmental overview of labor and delivery.
Review:
I have a dear friend who is a doula and a childbirth educator, and she gave me this book when I became pregnant. The Big Book of Birth is written by the woman who runs Realbirth, where my friend used to teach (before she moved) and where [...]
Popularity: 15% [?]
Tags: American Literature
I’ve been doing a ton of reading on pregnancy and childbirth, but haven’t blogged about any of it, mainly because I only blog when I finish a book, and I’m not going to be finished with any of these until the baby arrives. Since blogging will not be a postpartum priority, I’ll let you [...]
Popularity: 10% [?]
Tags: On Reading
Synopsis:
Hoff Sommers debunks “gender feminism” and the scare tactics its proponents use to promote their radical agenda.
Review:
Susan Faludi’s Backlash came out when I was in college, and had a tremendous impact on me. Today, I consider myself a feminist with reservations. I’ll speak out wherever I can against injustice against women, but where [...]
Popularity: 35% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
A survey of the state of affairs in campus counseling, presenting the argument that sexual activity is being left out of the equation with disastrous results.
Review:
The full title, Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in her Profession Endangers Every Student, offers a very good sense of the writer’s agenda, and she provides a [...]
Popularity: 24% [?]
Tags: On Reading
