Does listening to audiobooks count as reading? Here it does. Let’s discuss your favorite reads — or listens.
Expectation: Small town secrets brought to life in a queer take on “Friday Night Lights.”
Reality: You can’t write a synopsis without giving away the twists, but it has the tone of “American Horror Story” with the bonkers plot twists of the best Blake Crouch and Stephen King novels.
Expectation: A quick read about those early moments when you start to accept that you might be gay.
Reality: A beautifully drawn, impeccably written and emotionally raw graphic novel that many queer people will find relatable.
Expectation: A story of outcast teens saving Niagara Falls from what lurks in the shadows – basically a Canadian "Stranger Things."
Reality: The only ghosts present are the ones that haunt us, but the story hits enough of the right notes to keep you interested.
Expectation: An historical fiction epic with an enthralling main character giving us a window to the realities of life in Communist Russia.
Reality: A pretentious and emotionally distant experience, possibly hindered by the audiobook format.
Amanda, Clay and their two teenage children have barely begun to enjoy the secluded AirBnb on Long Island when the home’s owners show up late at night after fleeing New York City. Seemingly cut-off from the rest of society, the group must navigate a sequence of stranger and stranger occurrences while questioning if they are entering the end of times.
I’m not going to tell you anything about this book other than it is the worst one I’ve read this year and probably in the top three worst books I’ve actually finished.
In “Sitting Pretty,” – a candid, raw, funny, accessible and incredibly eye-opening memoir of essays – Rebekah Taussig expertly breaks down this intersectionality and leads the reader/listener through the multiple ways culture – sometimes in well-meaning ways – has cultivated bias against a population that makes up 26 percent of adults in the United States.
What drove Maggie Holt and her family to flee Baneberry Hall after three weeks? Her parents refuse to say, but the best-selling account of the experience - written by her father - is an American horror story of vengeful ghosts and never-ending tragedy. Decades later, Maggie returns to Baneberry Hall determined to uncover the truth and redirect her narrative. But as she slowly unravels the mystery, she finds that her father’s book may not have been a lie after all.
Immortality? Time traveling? Reincarnation? Honestly, I have no idea what this novel is about.
A gorgeously written but heartbreakingly real portrayal of a woman grappling with mental illness who desperately wants a way out – either by her own hand or through treatment.
A group of four friends are starting to reconcile the mental and emotional scars of their experiences growing up Native American when an entity sets out to avenge the events of a hunting trip that happened 10 years prior.
Chasten, who had the potential to go from middle school teacher to First Gentleman of the United States, was an omnipresent yet restrained presence on the campaign trail. In this memoir, we learn more about the affable and relatable political spouse.
As a gay, Black Southerner, Wallace feels like an outsider at the predominately white Midwestern university where he is earning an advanced degree. Over the course of a weekend, a flurry of situations proves that even the best of intentions for inclusion, understanding and meaningful connection can fall short.
A four-novel collection of Stephen King’s earlier work, writing under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Each story is focused on a single main character, and the scares are more psychological than supernatural.
When Samuel Andresen-Anderson’s estranged mother Faye makes headlines for, literally, throwing stones at a political candidate, he’s provided an opportunity to jump start his stalled writing career by telling her story, and in the process learn the motivations behind her departure decades earlier.
A sweeping and detailed account of the first efforts to formally organize the gay rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, primarily lobbying against a formidable foe: the United States federal government and its discriminatory hiring and firing practices.
Story aside, which is rather enthralling, the execution is stilted and some of the emotion feels forced. Not to mention many situations are not historically accurate even though “based on a true story” is used heavily in the marketing. Proceed with caution.
If you read “Rebecca,” watched “Get Out,” “Hide and Seek” or “Rosemary’s Baby,” then you’ll have déjà vu at various points in “Mexican Gothic,” which is a shame because the pursuit of cheap thrills overshadowed the best part of the novel – Noemí Taboada.
What can you possibly say about Harry Potter that hasn’t already been stated? Overall, I'd give the series 4.5/5 stars. There were parts of each novel that could have been cut, but, this world and these characters are ones that have stayed with me for years.
Six years ago this week, I began reading the Harry Potter series for the first time. Being in my early 30s, and facing one one of the most challenging periods of my life, I didn’t expect much. What I got was everything I needed.
