Review 66: The Women's Guide to Overcoming Insomnia

The Women's Guide to Overcoming Insomnia: Get a Good Night's Sleep Without Relying on Medication by Shelby Harris
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I don't have insomnia, maybe a night or two here or there, or a week at most at a time, but nothing long lasting. But who doesn't want a better night of sleep? I definitely have a problem with Sunday night as during the weekends I time shift. It's automatic, I can't help it. I fit myself into a sleep schedule to fit work, but it does not fit my internal time clock. Actually sounds like a recipe for chronic insomnia, so the fact I don't, makes me feel lucky.

Yet, I do struggle at times, which is why this book looked interesting to me. I wanted to also understand why it was geared towards women and not everyone. The author, Harris, mentions several things that are particular to women: we tend to worry more, our brains are harder to shut off, then there's those things such as menopause, perimenopause and pregnancy. The hormones and cycles definitely play a role in our sleeping.

It's sometimes hard to rate self-help books, and this one definitely fits in that category. One reason for a lower rating is the repetitiveness that is here. I think authors of these types of books figure people may skip around and not read every chapter, but this book is geared for reading in the usual manner. Another reason I rated the book lower was for lack of examples. It felt like more examples for the situations would have made for a better book. If there was repetition due to padding out the book, more of these examples would have taken care of that issue.

In a moment of synchronicity, I received an email yesterday that discussed a new FDA Black Box warning for insomnia medications. The short article states that the best primary way to tackle insomnia is not medications but cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, known as CBT-i. I had never heard of this before reading the book, but the book is all about CBT-i.

Despite the flaws of the book it still contains a lot of useful advice. I will likely add some of these recommendations to my sleep routine.

Book rating: 3.5 stars

Thanks to W.W. Norton and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 65: The DNA of You and Me

The DNA of You and Me by Andrea Rothman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Another book that didn't do well for me. Had a few duds lately. I wanted to like this, a story about scientists and personal relationships, maybe love. But it was too odd really. The seemed to be no reason why our main character Emily fell for Aeden so quickly. And their relationship was odd too. Definitely needed more in that department.

As for the science there was definitely enough. The first large portion of the book was about the science and Emily getting into this new lab, and bickering. Too much of that. Perhaps it is realistic, I don't know.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did an excellent job of the book.

Review 64: Opioid, Indiana

Opioid, Indiana by Brian Allen Carr
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

This book was a good attempt at showing how a teenager deals with things he shouldn't have to. He is an orphan at too young an age and moved from caretaker to caretaker, the lastest being his mother's younger brother who is a drug addict. Our narrator, Riggle, never tells us the name of the town, instead naming it Opioid for all of the addicts.

The book takes place over about a week of time, and each day we get a little fable that his mom told him with using a hand shadow puppet they called Remote. I didn't like these asides. Also made it feel like the character is much younger than his 17 years, but that's understandable with his circumstances. He's had to take care of himself at too young of age.

During this week Riggle is suspended from school and he and Peggy (his uncle's live-in girlfriend) are trying, half-hardheartedly, to find the uncle. Riggle's only friend plays a small role in the story too, grounding us in the reality of kids living with the possibility of school shootings. There's a lot in this short novel, too much perhaps, and unfortunately a lot of it is lost.

There are interesting sentences and observations but somehow the book isn't pulled together well. It's hard to pin down exactly but the book didn't resonate with me. Perhaps for teenagers this will be a better read for them, yet I find it hard to call this young adult. (I did add the tag.) The book is grity and dark, but the language and main character does lend it to that YA genre. I wanted the book to work, but unfortunately, for me it didn't.

Book rating: 2.5 stars, rounded down


Thanks to Soho Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 63: The Warehouse

The Warehouse by Rob Hart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A dystopian tale that seems all too plausible, well mostly. As society crumbles with climate change and governments failure to do much, one company steps in and solves all of our shopping needs. After a deadly Black Friday massacre people just don't want to go into stores anymore. So now there is Cloud and nearly the only place to work. It reminded me a little of the movie Idiocracy, with the huge warehouse that everyone shops. As a worker you also must live there. It's a self-contained company store, with entertainment and everything. It's a bit creepy. The watch that tracks your movements and tells you were to go next when to wake up for your next shift.

We have two main characters, one a woman, Zinnia, who is undercover with a mission: find out their power source, it can't all be solar. The other is a discouraged inventor, Paxton, with prison guard work in his resume who ends up on security. We also get the founder's Gibson Wells voice in his blogs that he writes as he nears the end of his life.

The pacing of the book was great. I do like how we see the "other" side with Gibson's blog postings. He sounds like a down-to-earth guy, not a creep who has taken over just about everything.

There are a few aspects to the story-line that was kinda weird, seemed unnecessary. Some parts maybe not explored well or overdone, otherwise a decent book. It looks like the book has Ron Howard interested in the movie rights, so we may see it on the big-screen sometime. I'll definitely see it if that happens.


Preview of the book: https://youtu.be/lh4jJk4rBJc
Like a movie trailer! Wow, looks exciting!
The book was exciting...and may become a movie. So the trailer makes sense.


Thanks to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 62: Vox

Vox by Christina Dalcher
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

I listened to this book on audio and it propelled me forward with such strength that I could not stop the book. Now that it is all over, looking back well, the book was not so fantastic.

The first problem is that the basic plot has been done before. Sure there are some twists to it, but it is not anything new. I normally do not compare to other books, but this one lends to that too easily. First you take The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Then add a bit of All Rights Reserved by Gregory Scott Katsoulis for limiting speech, but just women. Then you throw in (nearly any) medical thriller, say Next by Michael Crichton.

This book is a dystopian future where the Christian right goes way overboard on their "Purity" movement and wants women at home and not speaking. The main character was a neuro-linguistic scientist that happens to have a "cure" for aphasia, which the President's brother gets from a ski accident.

Part of the problem with the book is way too many people seem to be getting aphasia from various reasons. Lacks believably. The thriller part, the action, was overdone. The main problem really is that the story line just doesn't hold up well enough. Not really. The romance? That was incongruous and didn't belong.

Best to stick with Atwood's book, it was done much better. This book is too similar in idea that no need to branch out further. Unless you just must have more.


Book rating: 2.5 stars, rounded up because yes, I was hooked in.

Review 61: The Last Redwoods and the Parkland of Redwood Creek

The Last Redwoods and the Parkland of Redwood Creek by Philip Hyde
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this short book even though it's a bit heartbreaking. This was a Sierra Club book written and published 50 years ago now. It was a call to save the last of the virgin Redwood forests. Some areas had been saved already but not nearly enough to really save the trees.

There are many full page color photographs taken of the forests. There's a few of the areas after a clear cut as well. There are more of the ferns and other plants than of the actual trees themselves, which surprised me, but all (excepting the clear-cuts) the photographs are beautiful.

I did learn some interesting aspects about the trees, such as their range used to be much wider than just the Western Coast of California and Oregon. Way wider, nearly across the globe. There is also still (well at least 50 years ago) a stand of Redwoods in China.

A previous version of this book published in 1963 did wonders to help establish some parks and saved some groves. I haven't looked further into the park boundaries and areas of redwoods, but I hope this book also made a lasting impression and help the conservation efforts. I do know we still have redwood trees, but how viable the forests are that we have so far saved, that I don't know. These trees take so much time to grow and too quick to chop down. I hope they remain and can survive in our warmer climate that's coming our way. That was one part not addressed in this book, as it wasn't known at the time.

Review 60: Doxology

Doxology by Nell Zink
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a generational book, that covers the late 1980's to today. Pam is the main focus, for the first part, a young rebellion who leaves her hometown of Washington DC as a senior in high school to do "art" in New York City. Along the way she stumbles into a coding job and two life-long male friends for life. One, Daniel, becomes the father of her child. It's years before she reunites with her parents, but they end up being important . The child Flora becomes the focus of the later part of the novel.

A lot of ideas are pumped into this novel, and symbolism as well. Look at the title of the book; Doxology: a liturgical formula of praise to God. Then you have Daniel's last name of Svoboda which is a political party in the Ukrainian and also means "freedom". Anyway, undertones abound in this book. At first the art project is music, then it shifts and perhaps the daughter is the ultimate project. Yet she doesn't live her life like theirs.

There's a lot to like and enjoy in this book, the focus on music then on climate change and resting on politics, particularly the Greens. Yet...I think it's the writing style that gets me, makes me reluctant to wholeheartedly embrace this book. I'm not a fan of the writing style. The sentences are short and clipped, and somehow it reminds me of Neal Stephenson. It feels more like a bunch telling and not much showing. I think there's a lot missing, that could have made it better.



Thanks to the publisher Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers. I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own. Somehow I also got a copy on NetGalley, so double thanks to the publisher.

Review 59: We Are All Good People Here

We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an enjoyable book that spans two generations.

First we are firmly placed in the South in the early 60’s then slowly go through the years. At some points many years are jumped. The book is about two friends, Daniella and Eve, who meet in college as roommates, and quickly become best friends. We end up in the early 1990's.

Their friendship and lives are shown through the changing of racial prejudice and attitudes. The Vietnam war is important for a while as well. The girls want society to change and as Eve was the most naive about the prevailing situations she also became the most dedicated.

Overall the book was decent, but sometimes I felt it was too ambitious for the scope. There are moments of detail, of specific situations, but they are fleeting and brief, and may not have been the best scenes to highlight. Perhaps I’m someone who enjoys generational novels to be longer and more in depth. This is not the first book that bothered me in this way, seemingly too cursory.

Also, the book has several characters (not just Eve) changing their fundamental beliefs rather easily. It didn’t help me with the believable factor.

The book for me was a solid 3.5 stars, rounded up.


Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review 58: Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy

Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy by Alexandrea J. Ravenelle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is more a sociological text than a popular reader such as Ehrenreich’s books, like Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, but the book is along the same vein. It’s a look into how are trying to make it work in this “new” gig economy.

The book looks at four app based services and how well they do for the workers: Uber, AirBnB, Kitchensurfing and TaskRabbit. Other app based services are mentioned but not in the detail and the interviews were done with people who worked with one of those four services. Ravenelle uses sociological methods of a standard interview and elicits the information which is detailed and summarized in this book.

There are parts that are very readable, and a few sections that feel more like a text book, overall it’s fine. I found myself highlighting a lot in this book, because there was so much that seemed to define the work.

There are some interesting stories in here. It definitely opened my eyes up to some of these services, even though I’ve used very few. I can understand what it is like to be on the worker side instead of the consumer, or client.

The stories of the people trying to make it, to have the flexibility, and still earn a living, the personal aspect made this book remarkable.


Thanks to University of California Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 57: Stay and Fight: A Novel

Stay and Fight: A Novel by Madeline Ffitch
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

What attracted me to this book was the aspect of self-reliance and living off the land. There was a little of that, but the three main women seemed to have no real clue how to do that successfully. The first person we meet, Helen, came from Seattle, checked books out of the library to read and reference. The other two women were from the area in Appalachia, had history of the place, but didn't seem to do much better. And do they ever argue.

At several points I considered not continuing because the three main women characters do fight. I didn't like them, nor the arguing. The book is written from different POV's one for each of the women and Perley, the child.  The young boy is raised by the three women, and I loved his character and I stuck with the book.

The title of this book fits so well, the fighting then staying with each other, and my own experience with the book, staying and fighting through the discomfort. This is not the easiest book to read. Yet I found at the end of the book it paid off. I'm happy to have stayed with the book.

Book rating: 3.5 stars


Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 56: The Glass Woman

The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a quick read! This book took hold of me and wouldn't let go until the end. Caroline Lea certainly wrote the tension right. Yet I didn't feel that the characters were true to themselves throughout the book.

This was an atmospheric book. Set in 1686 in Iceland during the last few months of that year. We have Rosa who is newly married and her husband that demands and expects with harsh looks, but doesn't hit. Yet Rosa cowers.

This is a time of changing religions, the old ways must be put aside now known as a crime of witchcraft with a punishment of burning. Yet the comfort is hard to let go.

All is not as it seems on the surface. There were a few turns in the story I found were nearly unbelievable. Perhaps I was expecting too much. Certainly it read fast, yet my experience felt discordance with portions, which amplified at the end.


I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.

Review 55: In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch

In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch by John Zada
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Here's a book with a great cover. The title fits the image and perks my interest, then we get to the sub-title...Sasquatch? Well, why not. My personal belief is much like aliens visiting Earth, so not likely. We would know if any of this was real, the cover-up is too much. I don't like conspiracy theories too much either. Anyway, I thought the book might be a fun read.

As I read the book it felt like we, reader and author, are sitting around a camp fire and he was telling stories. Zada has a lot of stories. This book is a collection of those tidbits her learned and he also writes of how he got those stories. The book has these short exciting stories, between longer periods of what's going on with the author and the people he meets.

The book takes place nearly entirely in the Great Bear Rainforest, which is located in British Columbia, on the west coast near the central and northern coastal region. It is one of the few areas where old growth still exists. There are small towns populated by people of different First Nations who have lived in the area for thousands of years. This area has the most Sasquatch stories, but also it is part of the oral history for the people.

Zada goes into the project with an open mind, trying to truly determine if Sasquatch is real or not, despite his boyhood fascination with the subject. There is only a little review of the history of "Sasqualogy" and some of the most important "Sasquoligists." Perhaps Zada believes people reading this book already knows all that came before. I didn't, but it doesn't really matter too much.

The book was entertaining enough, the writing well done. The story line got a little distracted and sometimes not very focused. For myself, the most interesting parts of the book to me where of the landscape and the First Nations people.

Book rating: 3.5 stars


Thanks to Atlantic Monthly Press/Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.