Nonfiction November Week 2: Book Pairing

I'm thrilled to be your host this week for Nonfiction November Week 2: Book pairings! This used to be my least favorite week since I don't read fiction anymore. Once I started hosting, out of necessity I began pairing nonfiction books and podcasts, and this year tweaked the prompt a bit to give you some... Continue Reading →

“The Undercurrents” of Berlin

British-American art history writer Kirsty Bell relocated from New York to Berlin, where she and her German husband later bought an apartment on the Tempelhofer Ufer along the Landwehr Canal to raise their two sons. The significance of this location is impressive: "The building has stood on the banks of the canal since 1869, its... Continue Reading →

Sinclair McKay’s Biography of Berlin

Berlin: Life and Death in the City at the Center of the World, by Sinclair McKayUsed or new @SecondSale.com Throughout the twentieth century, Berlin stood at the centre of a convulsing world. It alternately seduced and haunted the international imagination. The essence of the city seemed to be its sharp duality: the radiant boulevards, the... Continue Reading →

The “Dark Legacy” of the Nazi Billionaires

Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties, by David de Jong (published April 19, 2022 by Mariner Books) In the newly released and fairly jaw-dropping Nazi Billionaires, Dutch journalist David de Jong, a Bloomberg News reporter on wealth and finance, profiles five German-Austrian families (the Quandts, Flicks, von Fincks, Porsche-Piëchs, and Oetkers) whose... Continue Reading →

Three Memoirs About Moms

Mother-daughter stories aren't always my thing, but I somehow ended up reading three (!) recent memoirs (momoirs?) about just that. One of them you've certainly already heard of: It seems like every year there's one memoir that blows up and is absolutely everywhere (think Educated) and last year it was Michelle Zauner's Crying in H... Continue Reading →

21 New Release Favorites of 2021

Eking in at the veeeery last minute, I've compiled my new release favorites of 2021. Let's dive in! Unsurprisingly, nothing surpassed Elissa Washuta's White Magic for me. This memoir-in-essays is like nothing I've ever read before, although I've come across a lot of memoirs that attempt similar things less successfully. This uses a blend of... Continue Reading →

17 Favorites from the Backlist

It's the most wonderful time of the year: Christmas stresses are over and it's time for year-end favorites lists! I love dividing up my year's favorite books by new releases and backlist selections because it means I can include more books. Also, since my blogging has deteriorated into a truly awful state, I realized that... Continue Reading →

Nonfiction November Week 4: Stranger Than Fiction

Nonfiction November continues to fly by! I've been very excited for this week's prompt, courtesy of Christopher at Plucked from the Stacks: Week 4: (November 22-26) – Stranger Than Fiction with Christopher at Plucked from the Stacks: This week we’re focusing on all the great nonfiction books that *almost* don’t seem real. A sports biography involving overcoming massive... Continue Reading →

August is Women in Translation Month

I've disappointed myself massively this year in terms of one of my favorite book events, Women in Translation Month. The wonderful Rachel@PaceAmoreLibri introduced me to this event and initiative a few years ago and I absolutely love it. Books published in English translations by female authors account for less than 31% of translated literature every... Continue Reading →

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