You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
alisarae's Reviews (1.65k)
Awesome thriller from the stalker’s POV. I normally don’t like first person perspective, but this was great. Would make a plane trip fly by. Warning though, lots of sex.
I like Mary Oliver because she finds tiny moments of grace and God and gratitude. She can find these things where she is, and she makes it look so simple. It is not simple because it takes discipline to turn off your phone, really turn it off and not just put it on silent, and sit down and be still, or go for a quiet walk, or contemplate a leaf or a bird.
This book has such an interesting concept: the Lie Tree is a plant that feeds on lies. But the lies have to be believed and spread by many people. When the lie is ripe, the tree produces a fruit that reveals a truth about an aspect of the lie. Imagine having the power of blackmail!
Set in rural Victorian England, Faith is fighting for her mother's attention and her father's approval. Her growing interest in researching natural history alongside her chaplain-cum-scientist father is thrown into the air when her father's sudden suicide is a little too suspicious for Faith to accept. And when she discovers her father's research on the Lie Tree, well, she might be able to finally get some answers in a world where women are kept in the dark.
Does anyone else like creepy books in the autumn?? This book is begging for cider and popcorn and spooky sounds from the trees outside.
Set in rural Victorian England, Faith is fighting for her mother's attention and her father's approval. Her growing interest in researching natural history alongside her chaplain-cum-scientist father is thrown into the air when her father's sudden suicide is a little too suspicious for Faith to accept. And when she discovers her father's research on the Lie Tree, well, she might be able to finally get some answers in a world where women are kept in the dark.
Does anyone else like creepy books in the autumn?? This book is begging for cider and popcorn and spooky sounds from the trees outside.
I can't remember how I first ran across this book, but when I saw on Goodreads that so many people I know had read it and given it a good rating, I got in line for the audiobook. The audiobook is a full-cast production and that was really fun. The story was good! It really was! But! I think I am too old for tween books. I think I would have enjoyed reading this a couple decades ago but now that I am nearly 30, I guess I grew out of being enchanted by this sort of story.
This is a very straightforward “just the facts, ma’am” telling of 1967 disaster on Mt. Denali, North America’s tallest peak. Seven out of twelve people on the team died in a crazy sudden storm that was estimated to have gusts of 300 mph in gulleys near the peak.
At 250 pages, this book doesn’t have a lot of room for character sketches or team psychology. It does detail some conflicts already at play before the team even set out, and does quote journal entries, but doesn’t spend much time there. That storm was fierce, no doubt, but this team had major communication problems from the get-go, and I would have liked to learn more about that. Give me the gossip!
At 250 pages, this book doesn’t have a lot of room for character sketches or team psychology. It does detail some conflicts already at play before the team even set out, and does quote journal entries, but doesn’t spend much time there. That storm was fierce, no doubt, but this team had major communication problems from the get-go, and I would have liked to learn more about that. Give me the gossip!
I'm a big fan of the "etherial teenage girl" sub-genre—Nova Ren Suma, Emma Cline, Maggie Steifvater—and I'm glad I found another author to add to this list. This story is atmospheric with a dusting of magical realism and revolves around some complex psychological manipulation. Even though Wink's character motivation as explained in the story didn't make sense to me, it still made for a good story.
Gosh, this is such a sad book. Author Matthew Desmond (originally from AZ, heyo), takes a deeply personal look at the heart of poverty in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Desmond spent awhile living in a trailer park in the white South Side and in cheap apartments in the inner city black North Side. He trailed two landowners—one white, one black—and a handful of their tenants, as he studied, listened, and learned about all the facets of poverty in contemporary America. What emerges is such a profound level of injustice, unfairness, and brokenness on all sides—landowners, renters, lenders, and the judicial system—that it seems this toxic cycle can never be broken unless housing policy is completely revolutionized.
Just stop to think about how much of an impact an eviction has, not just on the family, but on the whole community:
- Kids miss days of school in the search for new housing, and often need to change schools in the middle of the semester;
- Families lose their possessions which usually end up getting thrown into the trash;
- Parents lose their job due to missed work or mistakes made on the job because of the stress caused by an eviction;
- Gov't financial programs and court-ordered programs get messed up because of frequent, sudden address changes (the parents don't receive notices to attend court hearings or CPS appointments, resulting in arrests, loss of program progress, punishments, more fines, and larger debt);
- Added burden on shelters and non-profits;
- Evicted families are not in a position to negotiate with potential future landlords about the condition of the property because they need to move in ASAP and they need a landlord who will accept their eviction history;
- A sudden loss of home and uprooting usually means that the next property after an eviction is treated with less care, and the family doesn't fully integrate into the new community. Thus, two neighborhoods suffer when one family is evicted—the original neighborhood loses a diligent member, and the new neighborhood gains a member who doesn't care.
This list doesn't even address the stress on landlords, social systems, or the judicial system. It's all so broken. And goodness, the odds are so stacked against single moms, especially black single moms. The most vulnerable in our society are the ones who get the most kicks while they are down.
This world is so far from my own. The level of poverty in this book is at the "one mistake away from homelessness" level—one medical emergency, one three-day bender, one funeral service and that is enough to cause these families to fall behind a month or two on rent and get evicted. But we know times are changing and the middle class is harder and harder to hold on to. There are so many stories in the news of people working three jobs and still qualifying for food stamps. Or that NY Times profile of a town whose unemployment rate is just like the rest of the country, <3%, yet people living below the poverty line is >40%. How can this be? We need to face the reality that strong morals and hard work doesn't cut it. Our country is broken and we are too selfish and divided to even talk about fixing it. How many of us love watching It's a Wonderful Life and shaking our head at Pottersville every year, but we are blind to realize that the lack of affordable housing and squeezing every legal cent out of the disadvantaged is exactly the problem with our inner city Pottersvilles of today?
I'm not saying that there is a quick-fix solution to the multi-faceted problem of urban poverty, but we have to break this idea that the church has the ability to fix it (it doesn't—how many of ya'll's churches were able to pay all the bills and have a surplus last year?), or that some sort of moral failure causes it (don't even the rich have moral failures?), or that stronger social services are the answer. It is so complex that a solution would need to address all of those things: strong, fair public policy; well funded, equipped, and well monitored social programs; private citizens volunteering their time, money, and lives; companies offering work pro-bono; judicial reform in terms of public defenders for housing court cases; businesses that have the spirit of George Bailey—out to make a living, not to suck the community dry; individuals who show patience, mercy, and humility.
If you ever read the Bible and think about the rebukes that God gives countries that take advantage of the poor, the widows and orphans, the disabled, and the foreigners, well, you should read this book to get a good idea of what God was referring to.
Just stop to think about how much of an impact an eviction has, not just on the family, but on the whole community:
- Kids miss days of school in the search for new housing, and often need to change schools in the middle of the semester;
- Families lose their possessions which usually end up getting thrown into the trash;
- Parents lose their job due to missed work or mistakes made on the job because of the stress caused by an eviction;
- Gov't financial programs and court-ordered programs get messed up because of frequent, sudden address changes (the parents don't receive notices to attend court hearings or CPS appointments, resulting in arrests, loss of program progress, punishments, more fines, and larger debt);
- Added burden on shelters and non-profits;
- Evicted families are not in a position to negotiate with potential future landlords about the condition of the property because they need to move in ASAP and they need a landlord who will accept their eviction history;
- A sudden loss of home and uprooting usually means that the next property after an eviction is treated with less care, and the family doesn't fully integrate into the new community. Thus, two neighborhoods suffer when one family is evicted—the original neighborhood loses a diligent member, and the new neighborhood gains a member who doesn't care.
This list doesn't even address the stress on landlords, social systems, or the judicial system. It's all so broken. And goodness, the odds are so stacked against single moms, especially black single moms. The most vulnerable in our society are the ones who get the most kicks while they are down.
This world is so far from my own. The level of poverty in this book is at the "one mistake away from homelessness" level—one medical emergency, one three-day bender, one funeral service and that is enough to cause these families to fall behind a month or two on rent and get evicted. But we know times are changing and the middle class is harder and harder to hold on to. There are so many stories in the news of people working three jobs and still qualifying for food stamps. Or that NY Times profile of a town whose unemployment rate is just like the rest of the country, <3%, yet people living below the poverty line is >40%. How can this be? We need to face the reality that strong morals and hard work doesn't cut it. Our country is broken and we are too selfish and divided to even talk about fixing it. How many of us love watching It's a Wonderful Life and shaking our head at Pottersville every year, but we are blind to realize that the lack of affordable housing and squeezing every legal cent out of the disadvantaged is exactly the problem with our inner city Pottersvilles of today?
I'm not saying that there is a quick-fix solution to the multi-faceted problem of urban poverty, but we have to break this idea that the church has the ability to fix it (it doesn't—how many of ya'll's churches were able to pay all the bills and have a surplus last year?), or that some sort of moral failure causes it (don't even the rich have moral failures?), or that stronger social services are the answer. It is so complex that a solution would need to address all of those things: strong, fair public policy; well funded, equipped, and well monitored social programs; private citizens volunteering their time, money, and lives; companies offering work pro-bono; judicial reform in terms of public defenders for housing court cases; businesses that have the spirit of George Bailey—out to make a living, not to suck the community dry; individuals who show patience, mercy, and humility.
If you ever read the Bible and think about the rebukes that God gives countries that take advantage of the poor, the widows and orphans, the disabled, and the foreigners, well, you should read this book to get a good idea of what God was referring to.
I am such a huge fan of Blair’s. I love her Twitter stories and her life is so wild and fascinating. So, I decided to read her book.
This memoir has very little sled dog action. Almost no mention of individual dogs and their quirks, just a couple stories of particular runs. This is mostly about Blair’s time in rural Norway and two summers on an Alaskan glacier. It is also very much about how her relationship with her own psyche and body, her decision-making process, and her relationships with other people were deeply affected by abuse from men.
Now, when you hear her story—the casual unwanted touches, the sex jokes, the pushy boyfriend—you might think, “Really? Isn’t her PTSD a bit of an over reaction?” (I guess it could be called PTSD? I’m not really sure what the correct name is for the long-lasting ill ease that every woman faces when she is in a room with men). But these questions plagued Blair, plague every woman, and fill us with self doubt that infects every level of our psychology and relationships. I am convinced that Blair’s story is universal for 100% of women (the parts about interactions with men.... not the arctic living), and she does a really awesome job of unpacking those interactions to show how they completely shaped a decade of her life. It is hard for many of us to put into words how unwanted sexual banter or attention makes us feel. Uncomfortable? Ok, needing to pee is uncomfortable. So what? But it’s so much deeper. For example, Blair went through a whole see-saw of reactions in a single day on the Alaskan ice after a breakup with her abusive coworker: from wearing men’s clothes to hide her body in shame and to deflect male attention, to posing for photos in a bikini to prove self-ownership and provoke anger in her ex, and back to retreating into blankets and self-loathing. Why does she boast to a group of men about a sexual escapade that was in reality a rape? To earn the men’s respect and convince herself to not think about the R word. Why does she go along with situations where she is uncomfortable and potentially in danger? Because keeping quiet is less exhausting than trying to convince people that she is in the right; because she tried asking for help already and was turned away; because other people saw and said it was nothing; because to speak out is to ostracize yourself from the group (all the more in rural and remote places... there is no “I’ll just make other friends”); because participating is to earn acceptance; because she agreed to something and thus had an obligation to see it through, etc etc. I understand all of this. I think all women do.
So yeah, this is a great book for talking about what consent is, what abuse looks like (quiet abuse—the most dangerous kind), and what a healthy relationship does and doesn’t look like. I would read this with a young person over a lot of other books because it is THAT full of conversation potential. Plus, ya know, Blair just qualified for the Iditarod this week, so she’s a badass.
This memoir has very little sled dog action. Almost no mention of individual dogs and their quirks, just a couple stories of particular runs. This is mostly about Blair’s time in rural Norway and two summers on an Alaskan glacier. It is also very much about how her relationship with her own psyche and body, her decision-making process, and her relationships with other people were deeply affected by abuse from men.
Now, when you hear her story—the casual unwanted touches, the sex jokes, the pushy boyfriend—you might think, “Really? Isn’t her PTSD a bit of an over reaction?” (I guess it could be called PTSD? I’m not really sure what the correct name is for the long-lasting ill ease that every woman faces when she is in a room with men). But these questions plagued Blair, plague every woman, and fill us with self doubt that infects every level of our psychology and relationships. I am convinced that Blair’s story is universal for 100% of women (the parts about interactions with men.... not the arctic living), and she does a really awesome job of unpacking those interactions to show how they completely shaped a decade of her life. It is hard for many of us to put into words how unwanted sexual banter or attention makes us feel. Uncomfortable? Ok, needing to pee is uncomfortable. So what? But it’s so much deeper. For example, Blair went through a whole see-saw of reactions in a single day on the Alaskan ice after a breakup with her abusive coworker: from wearing men’s clothes to hide her body in shame and to deflect male attention, to posing for photos in a bikini to prove self-ownership and provoke anger in her ex, and back to retreating into blankets and self-loathing. Why does she boast to a group of men about a sexual escapade that was in reality a rape? To earn the men’s respect and convince herself to not think about the R word. Why does she go along with situations where she is uncomfortable and potentially in danger? Because keeping quiet is less exhausting than trying to convince people that she is in the right; because she tried asking for help already and was turned away; because other people saw and said it was nothing; because to speak out is to ostracize yourself from the group (all the more in rural and remote places... there is no “I’ll just make other friends”); because participating is to earn acceptance; because she agreed to something and thus had an obligation to see it through, etc etc. I understand all of this. I think all women do.
So yeah, this is a great book for talking about what consent is, what abuse looks like (quiet abuse—the most dangerous kind), and what a healthy relationship does and doesn’t look like. I would read this with a young person over a lot of other books because it is THAT full of conversation potential. Plus, ya know, Blair just qualified for the Iditarod this week, so she’s a badass.
This is a good thriller that plays on that idea of “you never know the person you married until after the wedding.” The plot is well structured, entertaining, and made time pass quickly.
Non-plot-specific spoilers below (but skip if you like to start a book knowing absolutely zero)————
If you read a lot of thrillers (like I apparently do these days??), you might want to know the following info:
- not sexually graphic or explicit
- no four-letter words
- no physical beating or sexual abuse
- first person, reliable narrator (yesss I was so worried the narrator would be unreliable and I hate when that happens)
- happy ending
I know how hard it is to find a thriller with the above characteristics—a “happy” thriller—so I wanted to tip you off if you are searching for a certain type.
Non-plot-specific spoilers below (but skip if you like to start a book knowing absolutely zero)————
If you read a lot of thrillers (like I apparently do these days??), you might want to know the following info:
- not sexually graphic or explicit
- no four-letter words
- no physical beating or sexual abuse
- first person, reliable narrator (yesss I was so worried the narrator would be unreliable and I hate when that happens)
- happy ending
I know how hard it is to find a thriller with the above characteristics—a “happy” thriller—so I wanted to tip you off if you are searching for a certain type.
I really dislike reading plays, but I am branching out and making an effort. This play was easy for me to visualize and wasn't too much torture ;)
I recognized so many American characteristics and myths that we pass on to our kids to this day. Arthur Miller was visionary in being able to recognize those myths and their consequences.
I recognized so many American characteristics and myths that we pass on to our kids to this day. Arthur Miller was visionary in being able to recognize those myths and their consequences.