This Korean novella explores LGBTQ issues in modern day Korea through the POV of a woman in her 60s whose 30something daughter is in a lesbian relationship. The MC works as a caregiver in a SNF; the story also explores topics themes of aging and end of life care as well as discrimination and domestic violence.

YA Enemies to lover romance book. The FMC was insufferable at times. I thought the pacing was slow too. Anxiety and OCD representation, LGBTQ, POC, dealing with parental abandonment.

I thought this book handled a cancer diagnosis very well including the treatment and side effects. Other themes were racism, immigration, wealth inequity, single parenthood, sexting and non-consensual sharing of the sext.

This is a good self reflection book. Each chapter gives a topic and questions to consider in making your own ethical will for your loved ones.

I liked and recommend this book despite its many flaws. It was too long and tried to cover many different and complex topics and didn‘t do any of them justice. It went into the minutiae of Beaton‘s day to day in the oil sands; conversations between coworkers that had some significance to Beaton but not to the reader. Despite all that, as one of few women in the oil sands, Beaton‘s voice gives a unique perspective to that environment.

This novel felt like being wrapped in a cozy blanket. The chapters are loosely related, each centering around a different library patron who seeks book recommendations from the mysterious and intuitive librarian at the local branch. As someone who loves books, I loved how this novel emphasized the life changing power of the right book at the right time 🥰🥰

This is really about mindfulness, tuning into each of our five senses and living in the present. The exercises Rubin did to tune into her senses won‘t be practical for everyone but you can adapt them to your life and circumstances.

I found the book comforting. I enjoyed Leder‘s style, how he wove personal experiences into sage advice and wisdom.

Loved this book all the way up to the last chapter. I did enjoy the last chapter but felt like tone and story wise it didn‘t fit the rest of the book. Still highly recommend it. Beautiful writing overall, it felt like sitting around a campfire.

Behavioral economics book and updated version of the authors‘ 2008 edition. I enjoyed the insights into how people and companies manipulate environments and therefore our choices/decisions for better or worse. There are a lot of stats in this book but the writing is not dry.

There was good advice in this book. However, I wish there was more discussion of things to consider as next steps when family ignores discussions. I find it hard to believe that most people haven‘t tried talking to family about their actions. But if they don‘t listen, what next. Her other book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace was better in this regard.

This book complements Orenstein‘s book Girls and Sex. Through interviews with high school and college age boys/men as well as research, Orenstein explores how the interviewees perceive masculinity, sex, porn, girls/women, hook-up culture. As always Orenstein provides a lot of research and her own analysis of current trends. CW discussion and description of rape and sexual assault.

This is a graphic novel memoir of the author‘s life from leaving Vietnam as a refugee as a young child to his move to the US soon after and through adulthood to mid-life. The story was good and I liked how each chapter focused on a different developmental age or life transition. Overall the art was good; only complaint is that it was very hard to tell the author apart from the other children until you get to the teen years.

Informative book and a good resource for mental health professionals on how to be inclusive of different lifestyles. The last chapter provides resources for those looking for mental health and other professionals that will be accepting of their choices.

I‘m conflicted about this book. I feel like it had potential and some good bones but needed more work and fewer buzz words and pop culture references (like seriously does every sentence need one??!!). It‘s very much like Devil Wears Prada despite repeatedly telling you in the early chapters “this isn‘t Devil Wears Prada”. Points for having a SWANA main character.

I didn‘t like the plot and was not drawn to the characters or the world building. I really disliked how gendered the roles in this post apocalyptic world were and how the female mc always needed protecting. But the sex scenes were good and I liked that consent was a big part of them. I also liked how the author played around with the dynamics of withholding and giving in/allowing.

This book provides secular ways of introducing ritual into one‘s life. So many good ideas and practices in this book. I plan on starting with the sacred reading ritual and seeing how that goes.

This book spoke to my soul 🥰 I‘m all for jomo! Burkeman brings up great points about needing to work on saying no to the things we want to do so we can be more present and happier in the fewer activities we do choose. I also liked his point about how deciding not to settle is in itself settling for a life without an imperfect version of X because you‘re waiting for the perfect, which doesn‘t exist.

Scattered through out this book are some interesting or helpful points. But most of the book is about vibes and past life stuff which is not how I see the world. If you do, this book is perfect for you. I think Emotional Vampires: Dealing with People Who Drain You Dry by Albert Bernstein was much better and recommend that book.

Claire needed to grow a spine and stand up for herself. I get the author trying to show us different family dynamics, but Claire‘s sisters were able to live their own lives so it was really people pleasing Claire that was the problem here, she couldn‘t stand up to her aunt and sisters and live her own life. I didn‘t feel Claire‘s passion for wanting to start her own business. And her constant self doubt was exhausting. The romance was meh.

Cozy mystery set in West LA. The amateur detectives are 2 Cantonese cousins: Yale and her visiting cousin Celine. Cute easy read with some recipes at the back.

Great book in verse about a 7th grade girl dealing with survivor‘s guilt and PTSD. Discusses cultural differences in views on antipsychotic meds and therapy (Iveliz‘s Puerto Rican grandmother with Alzheimer‘s throws her meds away and says therapy‘s a waste).

Second in the Perfectly Parvin series. Don‘t need to read the first. Though marketed as YA, felt more like MG. MC is 14 and the teamwork moral was blatant, more like how MG novels are written. This isn‘t a bad thing, just an FYI going into it that it‘s more MG than YA. The story was cute and fun and full of POC rep. MC also has an invisible disability and is demisexual so it had those reps as well.

The first book was better. Not sure why a second was needed. You don‘t need to have read the first to read the second. In this one, Darius is figuring out juggling work, school, family, soccer, friends, and a boyfriend while also trying to figure out what he wants now and that sometimes when we finally get everything we‘ve been wanting it wasn‘t what we thought it would be after all.

Engaging coming of age story. Darius is half Iranian on his mother‘s side. His family goes to Iran for a brief visit to say their good-byes to his terminally ill grandfather. While there, Darius learns to accept himself and his clinical depression.

This definitely could have been a listicle. She goes into stories of her past that, while sweet, are not necessary. If you want a short read about someone‘s memories, then read this book. If you‘re curious about the “advice” but don‘t want to spend the time, then just read the chapter titles and you‘ll figure the rest out.

Cozy read with suggestions on how to make your home and life a little more hygge. Loved the pictures 🥰

I liked the period positivity message this (very short) book promoted. Some of the ideas are pretty out there (no thank you, I will not be bleeding directly onto the ground in the moonlight) but some of the other ideas are basic self-care we should try to incorporate into our lives anyway. Ch 1 is an “intro”, ch 2 is just a list of 105 ideas with no elaboration (wish there was for some), ch 3 is recipes.

There were a lot of statistics in this book, most of them were no surprise if you‘re even remotely familiar with the topic. But I would have liked more research (maybe it just hasn‘t been done) on ways to counteract the negative impacts of this Disney Princess pink explosion culture the book focuses on. I thought the author had a limited view of feminism or maybe it‘s changed that much since publication. I liked the personal sections the best.

Nice prose but lacking on story. It seemed like such an interesting world the author created, too bad they didn‘t really explain any of it to us.

A lot of information on gut microbiota. A lot of the recommendations are pretty much what you‘d expect: eat the rainbow, less processed foods, more fiber less protein. Important thing is to go slow with adding fiber to your diet otherwise you risk gi symptoms. Interesting section on importance of probiotics vs prebiotics.

Second in the London Highwaymen series. I didn‘t read the first. This was a fun enemies to lovers romance book with two lgbtq+ leads. The cast of characters was fun and they played off each other well.

I was introduced to thinking about some emotions in ways I hadn‘t thought of before. For example envy coming from feeling you don‘t deserve something.

Very interesting look into 3 plants/drugs (opium, caffeine, and mescaline). Pollan also provides background on botany, neuroscience, history, and politics while discussing these plants.

I‘ve often wondered why some people stick with difficult things and others don‘t. From what I‘ve seen, there aren‘t many books on this topic. I thought this book had some interesting findings but I also thought there were leaps of logic or inaccurate generalizations made. But overall, worth the read.

Interesting look at how trauma is internalized by the body. Provides case studies and suggestions on how to rewire the connection between the two.

I thought this book would be more about everyday things that desensitize our dopamine receptors rather than mainly focused on addictions.

Heartwarming book but all the long math equation parts took me out of the moment. I understand the professor is a mathematician but we don‘t need all that detail in this book. I listened to the audiobook so maybe it‘s different with the book since it‘s easier to skip over those parts compared to the narrator reading it all.

This was a very quick read. The writing flowed very well and real life stories were expertly woven in with scientific findings. Every chapter ends with a TL;DR section. Most chapters include work or questions for you to consider on your own.

Book 3 in the IPB series. Tells Kiera‘s story. I liked it less than Georgie or Liz‘s stories but still found it enjoyable and it moved the overall plot of the series along.

Book 2 in the Love Hypothesis series. This book is completely independent from the first one. Enemies to lovers romance book. The field of neuroscience is very dear to my heart so I loved all the references and chapter titles. The misunderstandings between Bee and Levi were a bit frustrating at times but overall I enjoyed the book.

Book one of a trilogy and ends in a major cliffhanger 😭 now I need to read the other 2. Spicy book with mfm and dom/sub.

Moore‘s non-fiction feels like fiction because she has a way of focusing in on the feelings and thoughts of the person at the center of the events. The book included quotes from Elizabeth Packard‘s own writings and other first hand accounts of the events of the time.

I liked Schafler‘s style of writing and the comparisons she made to make her points more understandable. I learned a lot from this book, like that there are 5 types of perfectionists and adaptive and maladaptive traits of each. It‘s already helped me see things in a different way.

Useful exercises to help you process past events.

You get all the feels with this novella 🥹

Sweet book. Pacing is on the slower side. Chapters are loosely connected to each other.

Explanation of the connection between the gut/microbiome and various bodily systems (nervous system and immune system).

OMG molasses moves faster than this plot. I was ready to give up on it but was told I was at a point where the plot picks up. It did not. If you decide to read it, definitely listen to the audiobook. 2 narrators alternate reading for the main characters and they read in Caribbean accents which is helpful since the book is written in Caribbean English.

Read this after reading My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She‘s Sorry since Britt-Marie was first introduced in that book. If you liked Backman‘s other books, you‘ll enjoy this one too. I liked learning more about Britt-Marie and seeing another side to her character. Poetic writing as always.