I recently celebrated my birthday, and to mark that milestone I hung out with friends and family. We commemorated the occasion with good food and drink while sharing stories of
Questions
1. I’d like to read one or more solid but entertaining history books or memoirs to help me understand the War of 1812. I’m especially interested in how it played out in Prince George’s County, MD. I keep seeing all of these historical markers, and I don’t really have a concept of the war. I did enjoy Chernow’s Hamilton and Goodwin’s No Ordinary Time, so I can handle a pretty hefty read.
-Krista
2. I’ve gotten into romance lately and I like historical fiction so naturally I wanted to try out historical romance. I tried some books but I disliked the unequal power balance between the female love interest and the male love interest. I also disliked that the women do not seem to have a life or interests outside of the ballroom. I really liked The lady’s guide to celestial mechanics and the follow-up, The care and feeding of waspish widows by Olivia Waite. These books have women who live great lives without men and have interesting jobs/skills. Do you know of m
The Bachelor for bookworms
Book Riot, a website for book lovers, releases a Read Harder Challenge every year with 24 reading tasks to tick off throughout the year. To kick off the new year, I decided to check off my first task: read a fat-positive romance.
One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London fits the bill perfectly. In Stayman-London’s debut novel we follow the romantic journey of Bea, a plus-sized fashion blogger living in L.A., as she stars in America’s favourite reality TV show,
Main Squeeze. Bea agrees to star in this
Bachelor-like show in order to boost her career, not to find love, like the show is designed for. But as we know, there wouldn’t be an excellent novel here if the story played out in that fashion. Through juicy plot twists and multimedia coverage, we watch along as Bea experiences love and loss for all of America to see.