The Overbooked Bibliophile

My Rating :⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “In life, there is a savage side and a beautiful side.” Set in Chillicothe, Ohio, On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel revolves around twin sisters Arcade ”Arc” and Farren “Daffy” Doggs. Raised by their addict mother Adelyn and their Aunt Clover both of whom are prostitutes, Arc and Daffy spend their time dreaming of a life away from the hell they call home, drawing on the cement floor of their home with markers gifted to them by their maternal grandmother, Mamaw Milkweed. The time the sisters spend with her listening to her stories full of magic, life lessons and words of wisdom is only bright spot in their miserable childhood. “Wings were the one gift we kept giving ourselves. Each year we would draw them with more feathers, hoping they would be big enough to be real. No matter how hard we wished, or how large we drew the wings, we never got more than a foot off the ground, the highest we could jump on any given day.” Their childhood comes to an abrupt end after th...

My Rating:  3.5⭐️ “Human memory is unreliable, that was one thing all subfields of psychology agreed on. An individual’s life story was a morass of fragmented recollections, other people’s narratives, unconscious incitements to direct one’s attention this or that way. Experiences and events were forgotten, invented, merged and warped.” Almost fifteen years ago, thirty-three-year-old Cecilia Berg noted historian and translator left her family and was never heard from again. Her husband, publisher Martin Berg, co-owner of Berg & Andrén, which is about to celebrate 25 years in the publishing business, was left to raise their children, ten-year-old Rakel their daughter, and their son Elis who was only three at the time. Cecilia’s family – her parents and siblings and Martin’s best friend, renowned painter Gustav Becker have been stable fixtures in the life of the Bergs. Martin was once an aspiring novelist who, though having published short stories in the past has been unable to fi...

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Crying releases stress hormones. Swearing increases pain tolerance. Fury can motivate us into action. Feel what you feel. Silence and smiles aren’t the only way to respond to pain. Sometimes it is good to howl.” I read this one slowly, deliberately spaced apart over two months. I reached for this book during a particularly stressful time. I wasn’t reading much during that phase but I kept this book close to me. I usually don’t read self-help books because in most cases I find them a tad “preachy” (no offense intended, personal opinion). Having enjoyed Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, I decided to give this book a try. Matt Haig’s The Comfort Book   is a short book filled with thoughts, reflections, stories, lists and much more written in simple words that are insightful, thought-provoking and yes, comforting! While I didn’t find all the passages/entries equally inspiring, I was moved by more than a few that I read and reread multiple times. I’m happy to have The C...

My Rating: 4.5⭐️ “My life always appeared rather insignificant, without remarkable events, apart from my marriage and the birth of the children. Instead, ever since I happened to start keeping a diary, I seem to have discovered that a word or an intonation can be just as important, or even more, than the facts we’re accustomed to consider important. If we can learn to understand the smallest things that happen every day, then maybe we can learn to truly understand the secret meaning of life. But I don’t know if it’s a good thing, I’m afraid not.” In November 1950 forty –three-year-old Valeria Cossati purchases a black notebook from a tobacconist – a “forbidden” item as the tobacco is not permitted to sell anything but tobacco to his customers. Her journal entries give us a window into Valeria’s home, her family, and Valeria herself as documented over the next six months. Valeria’s life revolves around her family – her husband Michele, and her two grown children Riccardo and Mirella. Fi...

My Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Women of Myth: From Deer Woman and Mami Wata to Amaterasu and Athena, Your Guide to the Amazing and Diverse Women from World Mythology by Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy celebrates fifty women from the myths, religion, and folklore from all over the world with not only familiar figures from the classics but also many dating back to ancient civilizations such as the Aztecs, Mesopotamia and the Incan civilizations - from traditional maternal figures representing the elements and creation, to brave women breaking away from traditional gender roles to genderqueer figures that commanded awe and respect and fantastical figures whose legends have stood the test of time. The authors divide the text into three segments. The first segment, "Goddesses", features female deities worshipped by different cultures ranging from warrior goddesses, to those representing elements of nature to goddesses of sex and sexual agency. Among the women featured in this section are A...

My Rating: 4.5⭐️ “Booby trap. Incendiary device. Gelignite. Nitroglycerine. Petrol bomb. Rubber bullets. Saracen. Internment. The Special Powers Act. Vanguard. The vocabulary of a 7-year-old child now.” Set in 1975 Northern Ireland, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy revolves around Twenty-four-year-old Catholic schoolteacher Cushla Lavery, a resident of a garrison town near Belfast. She teaches primary school while also taking up shifts in the family pub, run by her brother Eamonn. She lives with her mother Gina, who is grieving for her late husband drowning her sorrows in alcohol. One evening she meets Michael Agnew a Protestant barrister in the family pub. He approaches her to assist him and his friends to learn the Irish language, inviting her to an “Irish language night”. Initially uncomfortable among Michael’s elite friends, she finds herself drawn to Michael and his circle eventually falling in love with him embarking on an illicit affair despite the age difference and the fact that M...

My Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐ When her famous screenwriter boss decides to make big changes in her own life and step away from the limelight, personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy finds herself unemployed and unsure of what she wants to do next, Georgie decides to head home to the small town of Darentville, Virginia, where her parents still reside, to take some time for herself and make plans for her future . Georgie is more that a little surprised to find that she has a temporary housemate. It appears Georgie's father forgot to inform her that while they are away, they have invited Levi Fanning (who was also unaware of Georgie's plans to visit) to housesit while Levi’s house is undergoing some repair. Levi (the older brother of Georgie's teenage crush) was known as a troublemaker in his youth and is a loner, estranged from his influential family, running his own business. Needless to say, Georgie and Levi are opposites but as the story progresses we see how these two very different people...

My Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Reading clients and reading juries was my bag. This case wasn’t normal. There was nothing remotely normal about it.” Two frantic 911 calls - one each made by Alexandra Avellino and Sofia Avellino reporting the gruesome murder of their father, millionaire and former New York City Mayor Frank Avellino. Two sisters, each of whom are blaming the other for the murder of their father. Who did it? Who is telling the truth? Is one of them truly guilty or are they both? The sisters’ relationship has been strained for years and each of them stands to gain if the other is found guilty. It has been heard that their late father was planning to make changes in his will- changes that would result in one of the siblings losing their share of a sizeable inheritance. Was it greed that motivated the killer or was it more than that? Eddie Flynn, Sofia’s defense attorney has his work cut out for him. With both sisters on trial, each with a fifty-fifty chance of being guilty, it is up to Ed...

My Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A library is the only place you can go—from cradle to grave—that is free, safe, democratic and no one will try to flog you anything. You don’t have to part with a penny to travel the world. It’s the heartbeat of a community, offering precious resources to people in need. It’s a place just to be, to dream and to escape—with books. And what’s more precious than that? So, here’s to all library workers. We need you.” -From The Author’s Note, The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson During WWII, the unfinished Bethnal Green Station not only provided shelter to five thousand people who slept in the bunkers constructed in the tunnels – a safe haven amid the devastation caused by the Blitz but also housed a theatre that hosted opera and ballet, a coffee shop, doctor’s quarters and a wartime nursery and a library. Set in 1944,  The Little Wartime Library  by  Kate Thompson  follows twenty-five-year-old Clara Button, a young widow working as a librarian in ...

My Rating :⭐⭐⭐⭐ Twenty-nine-year-old Darcy Clipper returns to her childhood home in Murbridge, Massachusetts after her husband leaves her for another woman. An only child of loving parents, she is confident of their support and care while she nurses her broken heart. Much to her surprise she discovers that her parents have moved to a retirement community in Arizona. Darcy spends the first sixty-five days in self-imposed isolation in her childhood home, surviving on her mother’s stock of canned food, wallowing in self-pity, cyberstalking her husband’s new girlfriend, reading old issues of National Geographic, drafting cryptic emails to her husband (thankfully, not sending them), writing emotional messages to her parents trying to guilt them into returning (which she does send) and perusing the online community message board. The message board is a kaleidoscope of information – from notices for missing pets, Board Meeting notices, heated interactions between residents, proclamations of l...

My Rating : 4.5⭐ (Audio Narration: 5/5; Story : 4/5) “Infinity means nothing to me. How could it? Nothing is neither finite nor infinite. Nothing is neither a null set nor a member of that set that contains all things that are not something. Things are matter, some things matter, nothing is never matter, nothing matters.” Percival Everett’s Dr. No revolves around thirty–five–year–old Wala Kitu, a distinguished professor of mathematics at Brown University whose area of expertise is “nothing”. The name Wala Kitu (both first and last name) also means nothing. He is essentially a loner, brilliant, perceptive, and logical, on the spectrum, never having learned to drive nor ever even kissed a woman ( as the narrative progresses he does manage to do both, sort of!) with his one-legged bulldog Trigo as his constant companion (with whom he converses in his dreams). His research and in-depth knowledge of “nothing” attracts the attention of a wealthy aspiring supervillain (with a complete origin ...

My Rating: 3.5 ⭐ A young woman sits at a table in her favorite café with her nose in a book ( unfortunately, she isn’t quite enjoying the book) while also observing the people around her. She spots an attractive man sitting at another table reading the same book and decides she has found her soul mate! But there’s a catch! Victoria, our bookworm is married, albeit unhappily, to Eric, an affluent and successful lawyer who is on the verge of being promoted to Partner. Victoria works as a masseuse and spends most of her free time reading, which isn’t something her controlling husband ( who would rather spend his evenings watching television ) is too happy about. Everything about Victoria’s life revolves around Eric’s preferences - from her reading eBooks as opposed to physical books, grocery lists and dinner menus to their sex life. Her parents, her mother in particular and her best friend Holly never fail to remind Victoria how lucky she is to be with Eric. She finds solace in her books ...

My Rating:  3.5⭐  Galatea  by  Madeline Miller  is a brief reimagining of the Greek myth of Pygmalion. In the original story (found in Ovid’s Metamorphosis) Pygmalion is a sculptor from Cyprus who falls in love with his ivory sculpture of a beautiful woman. Goddess Aphrodite grants his wish and bestows life on his creation. Pygmalion marries Galatea and they are assumed to live happily ever after. The myth has inspired numerous works of art, literature and productions on stage, on television and in movies. The Pygmalion Effect, a psychological phenomenon that links high expectations to increased productivity is also named after the Greek myth. “Everyone looked at me, because I was the most beautiful woman in the town. I don’t say this to boast, because there is nothing in it to boast of. It was nothing I did myself.” Madeline Miller’s feminist reimagining of the myth is dark and disturbing. Narrated from Galatea’s PoV, the story begins with her confined to a hos...

My Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Old Babes in the Wood: Stories  by  Margaret Atwood  is a collection of fifteen short stories that feature a variety of themes and genres. A few of these stories have been published in the past among which are “Impatient Griselda” (featured in The Decameron Project, 2020), the title story “Old Babes in the Woods (published in New Yorker Magazine, April 2021), and the short story “My Evil Mother” (Amazon Original Stories, 2022). Divided into three segments, Parts I and III (a total of seven stories) feature Nell and Tig, a married couple with the latter segment focusing on an older Nell as she adjusts to being alone after Tig’s demise. My ratings for the stories in the first section are as follows: In “First Aid” (3/5), A domestic mishap triggers Nell’s memories of a time when Nell and Tig were training in First Aid. Nell expresses skepticism on whether they would have reacted differently had they possessed this knowledge in the different risky situations ...

My Rating:  4.5⭐ “It’s your life, and you have to make sure you keep enough of it for yourself.” She and Her Cat: Stories  by Makoto Shinkai , Naruki Nagakawa ,(translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori ) is a collection four interlinked short stories featuring cats and their humans. The narrative is shared from the alternating perspectives of the cat and his/her human. The cats have struggles of their own from dealing with territorial counterparts, separation from their own, and witnessing the ups and downs in the lives of their human(s) who in turn are dealing with their fair share of troubles relating to love, work, friendships and loss. The first story  Sea of Words  features Chobi, who was rescued from a cardboard box by Miyu. His infatuation with Miyu (his referring to her as his “girlfriend” is adorable) and his concern for her when she is upset or heartbroken is beautifully portrayed as is his helplessness when he admits that all he can do to help he...

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “When school kids are shot by a random shooter, nobody asks whether the victims should have taken more precautions. Nobody suggests that maybe the victims should have skipped school that day. Nobody ever blames the victims. So why is it that when women are attacked, the onus is on them? “If only she hadn’t walked home alone.” “If only she hadn’t cut through the park.” “If only she’d taken a cab.” When it comes to rape, it seems to me “if only” is used all the time. Never about the man. Nobody ever says “if only” he hadn’t raped her. It’s always about the woman. If only …” Rachel Krall hosts a true crime podcast “Guilty or Not Guilty” with a wide fan following. The third season of her podcast takes her to the small town of Neapolis where she is reporting on a rape trial in real-time. A popular local boy, Scott Blair, a talented swimmer with Olympic potential is on trial for brutally raping a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl. We follow Rachel as she explores the town of Neapol...

My Rating: 4.5⭐ Number One is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions marks the second collaboration (the first being A Wealth of Pigeons : A Cartoon Collection ) between the inimitable Steve Martin and renowned The New Yorker illustrator Harry Bliss. In the first segment of the of the book Martin takes us through his career as a standup comic and his Hollywood career sharing anecdotes from his personal experiences, some behind the scenes stories about some of his movies and his interactions with his co-stars and other celebrities including Paul McCartney and the late Robin Williams. The stories are shared in cartoon format with Harry Bliss’s brilliant illustrations bringing Martin’s memories to life. Martin also shares some hilarious exchanges between himself and his collaborator, with both himself and Harry Bliss appearing as cartoon versions of themselves along with Harry Bliss's pet dog Penny who is absolutely adorable. The latter half of the book features The New Y...

My Rating : 2.5⭐   NYPD Detective Leigh O’Donnell returns to her hometown of Copper Falls, Ohio with her daughter after being suspended from her job with the NYPD, which also puts a strain on her marriage (for reasons that are divulged later in the narrative). She joins her brother Ronan at the local PD investigating the mysterious death of three local men who apparently died from drowning in the Falls- suspected homicides, the cause of death being uncannily familiar to the death of three high school students years ago. As she progresses with the investigation it becomes evident that there are secrets in this small town that more than a few people would like to keep buried. The Hunter   by  Jennifer Herrera   has an intriguing plot, as far as the mystery element is concerned. I was impressed with the beginning of the novel and the build-up of the mystery, the historical context of the small town and the mysterious occurrences in its past. However, there are multiple ...