Reviews and Comments

sarah

wynkenhimself@bookwyrm.social

Joined 4 years, 1 month ago

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

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Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (2022, Cengage Gale) 2 stars

What holds more secrets in the library: the ancient books shelved in the stacks or …

surprisingly horrid

2 stars

My BookishBookClub chose this as one of our fiction reads and wow we did not like it, and wow do I feel badly for my Fisher Library friends. Just not how libraries work and even worse, really bad about depression, and everyone is mean. Also, did I mention that libraries don't work this way and her account of the key Plantin polyglot is just weird? two stars because there's some nuggets in there but ymmv

Satisfaction guaranteed (2021, Forever) 4 stars

For fans of Casey McQuiston and Abby Jimenez comes a bold, hilarious, and out-of-the-box novel …

sex positive queer women in love

4 stars

This was delightful, hits all the spots, if those spots are wanting to read a fun and sex-positive romance. One of the leads runs an art gallery and those details seem patently ridiculous, but the more important thing is that the other lead is a sex educator and they jointly inherit a failing sex toy shop. Will they fall in love? Will art gallery woman learn to enjoy sex? Will sex educator accept herself and her artistic talents? Of course!! And that’s one of the joys of reading this.

Hokuloa Road (2022, Little Brown & Company) 3 stars

On a whim, Grady Kendall applies to work as a live-in caretaker for a luxury …

Hawai'i is gorgeous, but be wary of saviors

3 stars

This was good! I'm generally a fan of Hand. Loved the atmosphere--just gorgeous lush descriptions of Hawai'i's culture and wildlife--and enjoyed a protagonist who wants to be doing good but always feels like he's messing up. There's a Cass Neary-ish-ness to this, but a lot less gore. Also, a lot less mysticism than I usually expect from her

Old books, rare friends (Paperback, 1998, Main Street Books/Doubleday) 4 stars

You'd think a book about antiquarian bookselling wouldn't be loaded with suspense or keep us …

Charming and insidery

4 stars

I’m pretty taken with these women, important rare book dealers and a tightly bound pair of friends. They’re the ones who dug about Louisa Alcott’s sensational pieces! Leona traveled to Strasberg by herself in 1936 to study books after Columbia refused to grant her a PhD! Their accounts of book rummaging and feminist takes on history are fun. Their family stories and their devoted friendship are delightful. Apparently they have a number of other co-written books that cover similar terrain. Good for book nerds and for asexual (and maybe aro?) companionship.

Homicide in hardcover (2009, Wheeler Pub.) 3 stars

murder is always a bestseller...first in the new bibliophile mystery series!The streets of San Francisco …

Ridiculous but fun for bibliophiles

3 stars

Ok I made fun of the glitches but also I had fun reading the book, and that’s the big thing. Details into conservation work! A faux Huntington Library! A commune that sells wine! Ridiculously handsome and gorgeous people! Next up she goes to Scotland so I am of course reading that.

The Truants (Paperback, 2021, G.P. Putnam's Sons) No rating

A thrilling debut novel perfect for lovers of Agatha Christie and The Secret History, exploring …

I'm truly hating this! It's not that it's bad but the depiction of university life is just weird and am I supposed to be heartbroken for the white South African journalist whose paper refuses to print his story about a massacre of minors? Not even sure that has anything to do with anything, tbh. But 1/4 in and this book is zero fun so I'm just going to quit

Women Talking (2019, Bloomsbury Publishing) 4 stars

Gorgeous and complex on an unimaginably horrid situation

5 stars

I’m still wrestling with this! She writes so sensitively and often affectingly obliquely about the tragedy that was forced on these women and their efforts to work through agency and safety and faith and love. I would not recommend this for anyone who has suffered sexual abuse without a great deal of preparation ahead of time