Author: sbhowell
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The Invisible Hiker by Kira Harland
Rating: 4/5, good Full disclosure: This is my cousin’s book and I edited the first four chapters. The Invisible Hiker is the autobiographical tale of Kira, a woman in her 20s who suffers from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), hiking the John Muir Trail (JMT) with her father, John, and her cousin, Melissa. It’s called The…
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Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw
If you’re looking for a comfort read with supernatural characters, look no further…
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The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Rating: 3/5, average TW: sexual assault If this book wasn’t chosen for book club, I would have never picked it up. I’m Jewish and not terribly religious, so when I hear a book is about Catholic priests, I’m immediately turned off. I got in the habit of tuning out Christian stuff by skipping out on…
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Thoughts on Buying a Used SUV + Tips and Resources
Recently my Subaru Forester bit the dust (head gasket failure at 270k miles) and I embarked on a quest of car shopping. I wanted a small SUV-type vehicle that I could lay the back seats down and sleep in if need be and would be large enough to move small furniture. I did a ton…
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Lightning Strike by Catherine Asaro
Rating: 3/5, average This one I read with the local book club. I probably wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise, and I might have even skipped it if I didn’t know it was by a woman writer with a PhD in Chemical Physics. The cover on Amazon looks really cheesy, but the writing isn’t too…
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The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Rating: 4/5, good I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It reminded me of how fun fantasy novels can be! When I was reading this, I was reading it only at night and I was super excited to go to bed because I could read it before going to sleep. It was a little intimidating at around…
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Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis
Rating: 2/5, bad WARNING: ALL OF THE SPOILERS!!! I love Lindsay Ellis’s channel and was super hyped for this book but I thought it was extremely boring, if intricately conceived. Here’s a basic summary: Axiom’s End is about a 21-year-old woman named Cora who is aimlessly drifting through life working temp jobs. Her dad, Nils,…
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Year in Review 2020
Oy, this was a long year… I had originally planned to read only female authors this year to see if I could go a year without reading men, but I ended up reading 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson on my Dad’s recommendation and Chthon by Piers Anthony on unfinished business and spurred by…
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Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump
Rating: 5/5, excellent It feels odd writing this after Trump’s been voted out of the presidency. I want to be done talking about him, but this book was fantastic and deserves the attention. Too Much and Never Enough is Mary L. Trump’s memoir/biography of the Trump family. Mary analyzes how Donald came to be the…