beckykphillips's reviews
356 reviews

This book affirmed my feelings that I have no business going into its depths. 

I really enjoyed this though - another reviewer mentioned it's very much a vibes book, and I see that, but I also thought it was an interesting perspective on dealing with a partner going through a traumatic event or chronic illness and how it impacts both lives. I really liked the dual perspectives in the story as it allowed for the story to get peeled apart slowly. 

I am so glad I finally read The Ministry of Time. This was a great read and explored the idea of empire and colonialism in a way that I haven’t encountered before and found uniquely affecting. 

It was very interesting to see the narrator handle her identity in opposition to Simellia. Also how a seemingly good natured project of exploring time travel gets butchered into weaponry. And then we also get the snippets of Graham’s story and his perspective on life before his extraction. 

The ending is also surprisingly optimistic given how the book is written in our narrator’s voice, I definitely expected worse and was happily surprised at the turn when our narrator receives the package.

This is a fascinating and very information-dense look into The Met's storied history - we get to learn about all of the people through all of the decades of the Met's existence that shaped it into the institution it is today.  For the Met's inception, the sheer number of rich people who decided to get together for art was incredible, but equally intriguing was the amount of pettiness that went along with it. I appreciated the author contrasting the idea of these oligarchs with the idea of them being generous benefactors. Keeping that balance is interesting and there were several Met contributors (most of them) who came by their money or their family’s money in despicable ways. 

I learned so much through this book, but it is best served as a reference text rather than trying to read it all in one fell swoop. The information is broken up into different eras of the museum that often overlap, and the recent history is just as detailed as the past. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for the advanced copy. 

Simon Doonan, fashion and camp mainstay and the former creative director at Barney's, has written a delightful successor to Susan Sontag's Notes on Camp. He details 100 different Camp and campy figures and ideas throughout his book, which are brought to life in beautiful illustrations by Kenzo Hamazaki. 

Throughout the book, Simon covers historical figures ranging from Attila the Hun all the way up to Lil Nas X. I really appreciated all of his essays and his experiences with so many of these Camp figures made it all the more personal and informative. 

My one complaint is that Simon's age shows a bit, and I hope that this is corrected in the final printing, but there are a handful of times where transsexual is used rather than transgender for a few different folks, and using the wrong pronouns for Sam Smith where the entire essay is otherwise devoted to celebrating their non-binary campiness. I also bristled at making fun of the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial, but given that this is more recent, I don't know how I'd feel for the similar jabs at some of the historic feuds that were covered. 

This would make a really beautiful coffee table book for casual perusal and any time you need a bit more Camp in your life. 

Thank you very much to NetGalley and White Lion Publishing for the advanced copy.

I very much enjoyed A Bit Much, a collection of poems from Lyndsay Rush, aka maryoliversdrunkcousin on your social media pages everywhere. The collection is sorted into four categories so you can peruse at your leisure as the mood strikes you. I listened to this as an auidobook and really appreciated Rush's narration of her poems and always truly enjoy experiencing them as they were intended to be read out loud. 

If you enjoy Rush's sardonic sense of humor that also veers into tenderness, I definitely recommend this collection. There were several throughout that stuck with me - including the poem about an engagement ring and how..."the setting is delicate and we should be gentle with it...and f*ck me up if that isn't great relationship advice." Equally lovely are her poems dedicated to celebrating women's accomplishments that are not tied to their partners or children, although there are poems that celebrate that, too. 

Her poems around letting go and her affirmations poem are two that I could use taped above my dresser or on my work desk, motivating, tender, but with a good humor about them. If you need a little lightness in your life, get a copy of this collection. 

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy.

The Naming Song enters us into a world that sounds remarkably like our own, but one that's been changed after something fell from the something tree.  In this world, it is the named versus the nameless, the named attempt to restore order to the world by convening diviners to come up with names provided by the Sayers, while they chase out the nameless from the world. Except, our narrator is an unnamed who is a Courier, responsible for bringing names of things provided by sayers to the world. The Courier soon finds herself on a mission as she tries to make sense of the world as she knows it.

The Naming Song contains a unique world that I keep thinking back to and is so expertly crafted by Jedediah Berry. I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator is absolutely incredible - she really captured me and held me along this ride. She captured so many different voices and her emotions felt like exactly true to what the characters would be feeling throughout the story. The world took me a minute to get my bearings and she helped anchor me. 

While The Naming Song may be billed as a sci-fi/fantasy, it has a dystopian edge to it that I enjoyed.  The number 12 train in the story reminded me of Snowpiercer, with hierarchy present and constant movement. The Black Square also had hints of Station Eleven and its Shakespeare troupe that goes around telling stories so that people remember what happened before and have a connection to the culture despite whatever else may be going on. Of course, the book is so much more than just those connections I made. 

The importance of words, stories, and their meaning and what it means to name a thing is a theme that I'll continue to digest. Although one of the pieces that will stick with me most is how the world in The Naming Song runs on ghosts, as fuel for war machines, or as slaves, who are sometimes forced to continue the work that they did while they were living through their death. 

If you're ready for a world of dystopian adventure with a hint of coming of age and some sci-fi vibes mixed in - this is the book for you and is one of my very favorites of the year. Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy.

In The Courting of Bristol Keats, we meet the titular Bristol, as she works to repair her and her sisters' lives in the small town of Bowskeep after their mother disappeared and their father suddenly died after being hit by a car. Bristol has been receiving letters from someone claiming to be her aunt, although neither of her parents had siblings, and curiosity and poverty get the better of her once the most recent letter promises a rare painting in return for her presence. As you might imagine, the meeting with Bristol's aunt is not as simple as it seemed and she finds herself making a bargain with the Fae to try and help save their world and maybe even find her father. 

I had a good time throughout this book, although the beats of the story will feel pretty familiar to anyone who has been in the fantasy/romance genre for even a little while. I did find myself rather overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters throughout the book. I listened to this as an audiobook and wished I'd had a cast of characters to be able to keep everyone straight. 

We have a host of recruits, who are all folks from the mortal realm who have been recruited into Danu, the area of Elfame where Bristol finds herself. These include Avery, Julia, Hollis, Sashka, and Rose. We have Tyghun, the current king of Danu and eventual love interest of Bristol, and his band of knights including his sister Melisand, her girlfriend and merperson Costa, Cully, Glynniss, Quin and others I know I haven't forgotten. We have the Tyghun's advisors including Eris and Madame Chastain. Tyghun's brother, Cale, has been taken by Cormik, our big bad of the story and leader of an undead army. Additionally, we have the council of Danu including Sorba, a lord who keeps wanting to kill of Bristol, Lady Berrington, Lord Alistair, and Sloan. Not to mention some others that pop up here and there like Fritz, a mysterious ferret shape shifter, King Roderick of one of the other Fae lands, Georgina, his daughter who also happens to be the mayor of Bowskeep, and Lord Fentley, who is Julia's brief love interest. 

The sprawling cast of characters made it tough to understand where the story was going and felt like there were several loose ends that got abandoned throughout - like what's going on with the Council these days? Where are the other kings that weren't Roderick? 

The audiobook narrator does a fantastic job though with a giant cast of characters being able to give a unique voice to each one and I really appreciated her stewardship throughout the book. 

I'll likely check out the next one in this series - unlike some of the other folks, I was actually pleased with how it ended and thought it was a nice change of pace from some of the other books out there that leave you with massive cliffhangers. 

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy of the book.

I can confidently say I have never read anything like The Coiled Serpent before and this collection of sixteen short stories embodies a vibes book where the vibes are both classy and gross. Camilla Grudova's writing is incredible with lush descriptions of all of the different horrors that occur in each story. Even when the stories do not necessarily go into stomach-churning territory, there's always something just a little bit wrong with everyone there. 

The book starts off strong with Through Ceilings and Walls, where a woman ends up on a mysterious island trying to discover what’s going on there. She finds that all of the inhabitants worship The Crown, struggles to figure out the food situation and...somehow the plumbing is all…poop. It’s poop all the way down. Further into the book, in The Green Hat, we meet Angelica who works for a chemist responsible for making a particularly deadly, green poison and get to know the chemist and his motivations better as well.  But perhaps my favorite story was Madame Flora's, both a tonic and a person, who restores menses in a world where women aren't allowed to eat meat or go to the bathroom in public. 

If any of those tastes even begin to pique your interest, I would recommend the book - it made me literally feel sick to my stomach with the descriptions at times, but I couldn't help but keep going. 

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Unnamed Press for the advanced copy.

I am a diehard Parks and Recreation fan, it is my ultimate comfort show and I have watched it countless times, so when I saw Jim O'Heir (Jerry/Larry/Gary)  wrote a book on his experiences while he was on the show I jumped at the chance to get to read it. What you get is a lovely memoir both of his career and experiences in general combined with recollections of Parks and Rec itself. Jim is joined in his memoir by familiar faces like Chris Pratt and Retta, along with folks who were more behind the scenes like Mike Schur and Allison Jones. 

It was really great to get to know Jim better and this book made me want to give him a big old hug. Some of his experiences surrounding the show with being othered really broke me - particularly being left out of the men of Pawnee shoot. Additionally, the fact that both he and Retta weren't in the main credits until the final season was something I'd never noticed before, but I found ridiculous that they weren't included sooner as they were both such important and excellent characters. 

Overall though, you get to learn so much about the family like cast and the ups and downs of being a network show that was constantly on the cusp. Seeing the show come together through Jim's eyes was a unique opportunity and I definitely need to check out his podcast to get even more of his lovely insights. 

My only regret is that my eARC did not include all of the wonderful photos that will be included in the final book. If you're a fan of Parks and Rec and specifically want to learn more about the loveable Jim O'Heir I definitely recommend it. 

Thank you so much to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced copy. 

Without expecting it, this was probably the best self help book I’ve read with actually hopeful and helpful advice. Maybe the best scam was the scams we made along the way. And in this book we get all the scams from Scam Goddess, Laci Mosley. Body scams! Confidence scams! Family Scams! Romance Scams! Both directly from her life and from the public realm. 

I have really enjoyed Scam Goddess the podcast, but did not expect to find myself relating so hard to Laci's people pleasing tendencies at the outset of the book, a theme that repeats itself throughout. She talks about her days as an over-achieving student and how she feels that in order for people to like you, you need to have something to offer them. I had never thought about it that way and that really stuck with me, and is also part of how someone find themselves more likely to get scammed.

While I think it would be incredibly easy to become cynical in the face of scams, Laci advocates for the exact opposite. Empahsizing throughout that while "This book is about how to spot scams, but it's not about becoming cynical to the world, it's not about turning away from an opportunity to pay it forward...Everything is a scam, but not everyone is a scammer. Be vigilant, but don't close yourself off from the world and the people in it." 

I had the distinct pleasure of listening to this as an audiobook and obviously Laci is an amazing narrator of her own book. I love her as a podcast host and she does not disappoint in reading her own memoir either. 

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Hachette Audio for the advanced copy of the audiobook.