About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Kristine S. Ervin
Rave Booklist This may be the best way true crime should be written, with nuance and unfettered compassion and with the words of the living victims or their families at the center.
Lisa Selin Davis
Positive Booklist Housewife provides both vindication and comfort for women tired of doing it all.
Su Bristow
Positive Booklist Underneath the grand illusions and slanted promises, Fliss finds a heartbreaking reality about lost innocence, rendered poetic in Bristow’s quiet but moving words.
Zibby Owens
Positive Booklist Owens...writes candidly ... She is at her best and most engrossing when writing about three major life events: losing a close friend during the 9/11 attacks, becoming a mother and connecting to her readers about motherhood, and falling in love with her second husband. Missing is the reverential treatment of books that Owens is known for. It peppers the pages and even the titles of each chapter but, alas, appears little in the overall narrative. Still, this is an endearing memoir reflecting on a woman’s defining moments in life that will likely resonate with Owens’ fans and also readers who enjoy stories about writers with a New York City backdrop.
Lauren Rankin
Positive Booklist [Rankin] does not shield the reader from the \'antis’ endless haranguing and uses clinic-escort and patient interviews from around the country—including her own experience as an escort—to stress the importance of this purpose-driven work. An ode to her fellow volunteers and a rallying cry for the fundamental rights that now hang so perilously close to abolition.
Mona Chollet, tr. Sophie R. Lewis
Rave Booklist Chollet’s English-language debut is a smart feminist treatise reclaiming the witch and her radical way of life as a path forward for women, as opposed to the death sentence it once represented ... She also spends time with less familiar ideas such as normalizing mothers who regret having children. Chollet’s informed and passionate treatment will appeal to readers looking for more substance amid the witch trend that’s otherwise been largely commodified and often scrubbed of its feminist origins.
Missouri Williams
Positive Booklist ... [an] grim and strange, but utterly unique, literary and gothic debut ... The novel dips in and out of several characters’ perspectives, melding the children’s strange images, visions, and dreams with the adult characters’ past memories, present regrets, and future fears. The effect is unsettling and adds to the novel’s dark atmosphere. The novel also examines women’s particular vulnerability in society through the young brothers’ violence, both sexual and nonsexual, toward their sisters. This is a gripping look at humanity’s treatment of women and questions whether human survival at all costs is worth it.
Freya Marske
Rave Booklist ... impressive ... Marske’s debut successfully combines the steamy romance of Casey McQuiston’s Red, White, and Royal Blue (2019) with enchanting magic and mystery à la Harry Potter. This trilogy opener is sure to capture the hearts of romance and fantasy readers alike.
Jessie Daniels
Positive Booklist Despite the serious subject matter, Daniels creates a very welcoming and a \'we’re all in this together\' tone by framing the narrative with her personal anti-racism journey, including her racist ancestry ... A welcome addition to the anti-racism canon; read alongside the myriad Black and POC authors, activists, and scholars listed in Daniels’ notes.
Deborah Tuerkheimer
Rave Booklist Harrowing survivor stories and the lack of easy solutions make Credible a difficult but necessary read urging individuals to start changing the way they think about allegations of abuse and the women who make them. Essential for public libraries.
Dolly Alderton
Positive Booklist ... a refreshing and clever meditation on a single British woman’s late coming-of-age ... It would be a mistake to pigeonhole Ghosts as just a novel about dating, since Alderton thoughtfully explores the ever-present uncertainty haunting adulthood, including aging parents, changing friendships, and contemplating children and myriad \'paths that lie ahead.\' Full of quirky characters, sardonic commentary, and millennial ruminations, Ghosts is for fans of the show Fleabag, Sally Rooney’s Normal People (2020), and Lily King’s Writers & Lovers (2021).
Kathryn Kolbert and Julie F. Kay
Rave Booklist ... passionate, informative ... A solid primer on reproductive rights litigation and the path forward. Readers will want to pair this with The Turnaway Study (2020), by Diana Greene Foster and Killing the Black Body (1997), by Dorothy E. Roberts for more perspective.
Carrie Vaughn
Positive Booklist ... a love letter to the fantasy and sf community ... Gamers will share Addie’s enthusiasm for the journey’s Dungeons & Dragons–like arc, though the story and secondary characters sometimes take a back seat to fantasy and sf references ... Addie, however, is an endearing, relatable character with whom readers will sympathize. This guilty pleasure will interest readers who’ve come to love Vaughn’s amusing writing style and strong female protagonists.