Read this on galpod.com. I've read this book for an online book club that meets in September. It's a fiction novel about what would have happened if Hillary Clinton hadn't married Bill. It's a fascinating take on American Politics, which I enjoyed tremendously. The theme of the book is sexism, of course. There were some astute observations sprinkled throughout the book which I liked. For example, Curtis Sittenfeld writes about having a family in the context of a career for wo

Read this on galpod.com. Look, I know if you identify as a man you're probably uninterested in makeup. It's ok; it's your prerogative. Or, shall we say, it's your privilege. Because women have to think about makeup, regardless of what they do, where they live, and who they are, even if they don't wear it. I've had a long relationship with makeup. I grew up in a rural community, so (obviously) makeup was something that cheap girls wore. My mom also grew up in a rural community

Read this on galpod.com. Another book from our reading group, this one I managed to finish on time for last week's meeting. It's a retelling of Homer's Iliad from the point of view of Briseis, a Trojan princess who is taken captive by the Greek and given to Achilles. The book is written in modern language, which I like. English is difficult enough as it is, and reading old language is fine, but I need to know what I'm getting into. So I was glad to see this book didn't requir

Read this on galpod.com. It took me almost two months to finish this book by Angela Saini. Partly because I read super slow in English and partly because it's non-fiction and that usually takes a little longer. I enjoyed it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have continued reading it. But I felt a little like there's no coherent message. There wasn't a single topic this book was about. It starts with research on brain differences between men and women, moves on to the idea that women had

Read this on galpod.com. If you haven't read Rebecca, all I'm going to say is, it's the mother of domestic noir, and you should go read it. When I finished reading it, I wanted to go back to the beginning and start again, so spoilers are critical here. Take that into consideration before you continue reading. The narrator marries an older man, Maxim de Winter, who whisks her away from her vulgar lady employer with hints of English upper-class elegance. But when she arrives at

Read this on galpod.com. I'm reviewing both books together because I got them together through Todd's very generous deal. I also read them one after the other on purpose because I knew they were related. That said, there's no requirement to read them together or even to read both of them. I would say that if you only read one, read The Unstoppable Creative, as it's a more comprehensive and detailed version of The Creative Curse, at least in my opinion. Here's the thing. I thi

Read this on galpod.com. The other night someone asked me why I call my partner "partner" rather than "husband". I've been asked a few times, but this time it was at the writers' group, and that caught me a bit off guard. It made me think about words, as usual. So this is partly a #WordTrail, really. The word husband comes from husbandry, which is the craft of tending herds of cattle and sheep. In the olden days, this made sense because a woman was her husband's property in m