Man I wanted to like this one more than I did. I get what it’s doing it just did not land for me!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this book, it is a great jumping off point for anyone beginning their radical journey to self love. Or anyone trying to deprogram their brain from white supremacy ideology. It’s extremely accessible.

Allison is an inspiring writer who moves to 

L. A. in hopes her life will all fall into place. Shes spent the last few years drenched in the grief of her brother’s untimely and unexpected death, forcing her to deal with her unpredictable parent’s feelings on her own. Shes ready to be her own person again, no longer tied to the twister that is her families emotions. But there is something so isolating in L. A. and her brother’s life and death keep coming back to her. After a chance encounter with famed radio personnel Reid Steinman, Allison becomes enticed by his spell. Quickly falling in step with each other’s lives, Allison never admits to Reid that he’s both her brother and dad’s comedic idol. Allison gets so entangled she befriends Reid’s daughter forcing her to balance her romantic feelings for Reid and a gnawing passionate desire for his daughter. 

First time, long time is a gruelingly relatable tale of trying to find yourself after living your life for everyone, but your self. It’s about taking up space of your own instead of shrinking yourself to uplift those around you. The stories are pragmatic and clever leading you to empathize with the characters. I very much enjoyed this read, the flashbacks read seamlessly to me braiding the present with the past. 

This is a perfect meditation on depression and how it’s passed through generations especially while untreated. We see so many slices of Allison’s life until finally she is a whole person. 

I recommend this book to readers who love messy characters, familial dramas, books by Melissa broader and Anna Dorn. 

Thank you Grand Central Publishing and netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.  

Bitter Texas Honey takes us on a wild romp through Austin Texas in 2011. Joan is trying to find her place in life, she’s not like her evangelical conservative family or her liberal peers in Austin. She’s tried both political parties on and feels above them. Her main goal in life? To be a writer, an artist, a creator. She finds inspiration anywhere she can, or desperately tries to. 

Joan’s biggest muse in her life is her wild and free cousin Wyatt. Wyatt is a soft dreamer who believes in the Texas classic nuclear family life, but he’s held back by his demons. His debt, addiction and mental health issues. As Joan’s biggest inspiration she wants to move the world to help Wyatt when he’s in crisis, but Joan can’t see outside herself enough lost in her own haze of addiction. 

This is a story of addiction, the many roles it can play and sizes it can take while destroying lives. We learn how deeply generational the compulsion for drugs, sex, love, politics and validation are. We watch Joan traverse through a cycle of men she thinks can appease her as she tries on masculine traits. The whiskey drinking writer, always comparing her latest novel to Hemingway or Kerouac. Socialized with femininity she purposely chooses masculinity not realizing it’s just as harmful. 

This book isn’t going to be for everyone, it’s full of very complicated characters that are very of the time. There is flawed language and ideals. I see a lot of my younger self and my family wrapped up within this story. The rhetoric her family has on politics, religion and mental health painfully mimic my live experience. I’ve dealt with generalized anxiety disorder and depression disorder my entire life whether I knew the name for it or not. I know what it’s like to not be heard by your conservative god loving family. 

Thank you Dutton and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review. 

In this comedically open memoir Carla Sosenko shares her experiences of living in a different body and what that has done to her self image. She also recalls how her image impacts her mental health and navigating relationships. It’s ultimately a memoir on bodily autonomy, as Sosenko recalls memories when she had none. Starting as early as 8 years old, getting liposuction for a rare vascular disorder she was born with. She discusses her lifelong feud with diet culture as a means to make herself smaller and more palatable. Sosenko’s privilege is also meditated on often in this memoir. She knows she’s different, but often feels she’s not apart of the disability community because she’s more able bodied than most. She knows she’s skinny fat, but has lived her life in a bigger body knowing the loneliness that comes with fatness. She knows she has pretty privilege and is a fair skinned Jewish woman. Her privilege is in the forefront of her mind as she tries to reclaim her autonomy. 

I liked pieces of this memoir, the diet culture aspects being so normalized as a young girl is something I could relate to. I did definitely think this was going to be a bit more disability justice based than it was, and there are a lot of snippets of it sprinkled throughout that I appreciate. I did enjoy the journey of watching Carla getting to the pieces of body joy she does achieve. I loved her candor and humor and frankness she approaches these topics with and think it will resonate with a lot of audiences. 

Thank you Random House and netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. And thank you Carla for your honesty.