dorking around with old books for work and reading new(ish) books for fun with strong opinions but an inconsistent rating system | you can find me most places as wynkenhimself including as @wynkenhimself@glammr.us | she/her
This link opens in a pop-up window
Two exes. One pact. Could this holiday change everything?
Harriet and Wyn are the perfect …
It's hard to read a romance when the main character is so obviously in need of therapy but it also made me cry so ymmv
I love Ruth and all of them, and this book felt true to the stories its been telling the whole series. I will miss it!
Hazel has just moved into a trailer park of senior citizens, with her father and …
honestly had to look this up to refresh my memory of it, and now that it's coming back, yeah, "funny and v dark" was my original mini-review on insta and it still sums it up
Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure …
Content warning This was tolerable until it became clear how the tension was going to resolve and then I was furious.
I knew that the maid who looked just like her was doomed, but that there didn't seem to be any hesitations about inventing a poor woman who could be sacrificed to save the rich woman just is infuriating.
It’s spring 1971 and Vera Kelly and her girlfriend, Max, leave their cozy Brooklyn apartment …
If you thought dealing with a failed coup in Argentina and a Dominican mob was tricky, rich Califorians are at least as bad. No notes, I love her, I will read anything about her.
The “splendid genre-pushing” (People) Vera Kelly series returns in full force as our recently out-of-the-spy-game …
What's not to love about a Cold War lesbian spy who is trying so hard to navigate so many disasters and also find a good girlfriend? The whole series is great.
At first glance, Jellicoe Close seems to be a perfect suburban street – well-kept houses with pristine lawns, neighbours chatting …
You are a prophet and seer with the brightest mind in an age. Your blood is that of the man …
When Mr. Dashwood dies, he must leave the bulk of his estate to the son …
Juliet Stevenson really is the queen of reading Austen. So much nuance in both her narration and in Austen's prose. I listened to this mostly while riding a bus around New Zealand, zero notes, would do it all again.
Drawing on Maggie O'Farrell's long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare's most enigmatic play, …
Fucking hell. I put this off for years because I wasn’t sure I was ready for its sustained grief (and because as a one-time Shakespeare professor, I usually stay away from fiction about him). The grief is hard and circles everything. It’s not easy, but it’s beautiful and I’m glad I read it and I’ll be thinking about it for a long while.
A perfect storm of comedic proportions erupts in a DC bookstore over the course of …
It’s a very bookish book written by someone who actually knows bookstores and events and authors. It was a fun read! Did it stick with me in any sort of way? Nah, but it didn’t need to.
At a busy festival site on a warm spring night, a baby lies alone in …
I'm generally a Jane Harper fan, and this is no exception.
After a storm has killed off all the island's men, two women in a 1600s …
the book is not nearly as facile as my review title! I enjoyed this--the powerful writing and the story it was telling. James VI/I has a lot of fucking evil to answer for with his witch hunts.
I read it and I enjoyed it but I also judged it hard. Power play can be a fun dynamic but actually fucking your daughter’s best friend while they’re in your house and without telling your kid is just wrong. But you might feel differently if you don’t have young adult kids.
In this exhilarating novel, two friends--often in love, but never lovers--come together as creative partners …
I liked this. I might not play enough games to fully appreciate it? But I was very into the complicated friendship and the emphasis on the rarity of that connection.