snaggletoothd
rural queer in Appalachia 🌄 they/them and pushing 30 (through gritted teeth) mood reading with whimsy
5653 points
October 2026
3.93 average · 218 reviews
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What am I supposed to do, huh?? Read a Vera Valentine short story and NOT leave a review? Never speak to me or my balloon polycule ever again 🎈
The ending blew me out of the water. To me, this book reads so much as a conversation with the source material while (naturally) centering James in the narrative and making adjustments accordingly. I think what this book accomplishes with pace and tone was no mean feat, and I felt out of my mind at the end. Truly a "babe, wake up" moment where I had to finish the book late at night and make my spouse hear about it before I could go to sleep.
What a special thing, to feel reflected in the media you are interacting with. There has always been a part of me that shies away from stories with trans characters that try to interact too much with the arc of self-discovery - especially, perhaps, for nonbinary stories, as they tend to leave me feeling exposed and kind of defensive if I don't feel like they got the representation quite right. Living in the US, it's already so hard to justify the space I'm taking up.
I did not feel that way with Gender Queer.
While my experience is naturally not identical to the one described by Kobabe in eir memoir, the story e told was very resonant. I appreciated eir humor and honesty, as well as eir insight into better understanding asexuality. If I didn't think my diet puritanical Appalachian family would be scandalized out of their senses by the parts about masturbation, everyone would be getting a copy in the mail.
The Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion
Boy, this book (to this point) holds up so much better on the grief front than I had thought it would. I really appreciate Didion's candid approach to describing her thoughts and the subconscious nature of some of her grief. In my work, I hear so many people disturbed by the fact that they "can't really believe" in their loss, or that it is in some way unreal. Didion illustrates this feeling very beautifully, I think.
I can't help but view the "magical thinking" described in this book as in conversation with Mary-Frances O'Connor's The Grieving Brain, which also touches on this experience.
Canon
Paige Lewis
snaggletoothd commented...
Just wanted to chime in to say that even if someone is in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere (as I am 🫡), you could check your local library to see if they host a book club! If they do, it's a great way to support your library, broaden your reading horizons, and meet your neighbors :)
That being said, my library book club is mostly made up of sexagenarians so the club name is incredibly corny lol. Shout out to the Life Lessons Book Club, where I don't think I've learned even one (1) life lesson 🫶
So I’m sure (unless you’re in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere) you have at least one or two book clubs that meet regularly in your area. I know for me, I’m in Fresno, CA, reading meet ups have proliferated in my area due to social media. Just last night the “Bookish Mom’s Club” I’m a part of on FB had a bingo night I attended. I’ve also been to a couple silent book reading gatherings within the last year. My question is for those who love Pagebound like me, have you found yourself a bit of a Pagebound evangelist in these groups, or even outside of them too?
I know as soon as I hear that someone is a reader, I’m telling them about Pagebound and sharing my profile with them.
Also, what are the names of some of your favorite book clubs/reading groups in your area?!
snaggletoothd commented...
I was going to weigh in but now that I know this happened with "The Forgotten Book" I actually think this may have been a feature not a bug. Some sort of ensorcellment or perhaps a book-based bewitching 🔮✨
Hello Boundlings! I am planning to reread some of my books next year and was going through my read list to plan out which ones I want to for sure reread. I came across a book that I can't remember despite reading it only 2 years ago 😅 I rated it well, 4/5 stars, and read my reviews and journal entry on it but cannot for the life of me actually remember what I read or what the book was really about.
In this case, what would you do? Would you reread it since it was rated decently and seemed to be enjoyable (based on my own words)? Or would you pass on it since it apparently wasn't memorable enough to remember?
Edited to add: OMG y'all, this didn't click in my brain when I made the post but.. the title is literally "The Forgotten Book" 😅
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