violet.booklover
My favorite genres include LGBTQ+ romances, memoirs, poetry, horror, and nonfiction đđ 25 / they/them đłď¸ââ§ď¸ / Free Palestine đľđ¸ fat, disabled, and pro-abortion
8793 points
0% overlap
My Taste
Reading...
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
violet.booklover wrote a review...
2h
violet.booklover
Jul 30, 2026
Jul 30, 2026
3.0
Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:
đ
đ
đłď¸ââ§ď¸
Queer Book Club Book #1 đđ
âBack in my 20âs I started my life essentially from scratch every single year. Youâre not even 20 youâre a baby. You have time to figure out who you are, honestly itâll be okay if you never figure it out , not everything you do has to have lasting life altering consequences. Sometimes you can do things just for the sake of it. This doesnât have to be your whole life forever, you can always change tracksâ
âI think youâll never know who youâll be even tomorrow. Iâm in my 70s and I don ât know that. There are going to be incredible and heartbreaking things in my future if Iâm luckyâ â¤ď¸âđŠš
âI live for me and me alone. That doesnât mean I donât care about people. All you can do is live right now and not worry if itâs the best life you could possibly be living, maybe it is maybe it isnât. But the best life you can live is the one youâre living right now. Thatâs it thatâs the secret to happiness, easy as thatâ
It can be hard to rate YA as an adult, because I am not the audience. I think I would have liked it more if I was <18. Things that feel juvenile and corny to me now probably would be deep and enlightening as a teenager. I have mixed feelings.
Itâs told in a back and forth timeline of Zoeâs first three months of college in New York vs their three day train trip across the country back to Seattle. Zoe is struggling at university both academically and personally. They meet a cast of characters on this trip that change their life in meaningful ways.
Things I liked:
- Intergenerational friendships. Zoe befriends a child half their age, a train attendant twice their age, and a senior woman. Becoming friends with everyone on train in 3 days is very sweet and sentimental.
- The theme of not needing to know who you are and what youâre doing to live with love and joy.
- Lesbian as a gender representation!!!
- Trains đ Iâve taken the trip before and can confirm it is a special experience. I love public transportation đŤś
Things I didnât like:
- So much religious talk. MormonismâŚ
- When Oakley says that Judaism and Mormonism are both âmarginalized religionsâ as if thereâs any equivalency between a less than 200 year old cult and a thousands year old cultural and religious minority who have faced centuries of persecution including being a primary target in a genocideâŚlike that was a WILD thing to say that went unchallenged. Mormons are not marginalized because they arenât oppressed.
- I just donât like Oakley very much in general and the romance didnât work for me.
- I didnât like the ending. The book felt incomplete. It wasnât what I expected at least.
Throughout reading I was engaged and curious about what happened next. I am interested in reading the authorâs other work âHow to Excavate a Heartâ. I wouldnât recommend this broadly but rather for specific audiences.
6
0Reply
violet.booklover finished a book
3h
Leaving the Station
Jake Maia Arlow
Nina LaCour meets Alyson Derrick in this cross-country journey of identity, love, and friendships as Zoe tries to figure out her life, one train stop at a time.
âSometimes, looking at him was like looking in a funhouse mirror.â
Zoeâs life has gone off the rails.
When she left Seattle to go to college in New York, she was determined to start fresh, to figure out what being a lesbian meant to her, to experiment with clothes and presentation away from home for the first time.
Instead, she lost touch with her freshman orientation friend group, skipped classes, and failed completely at being the studious premed student her parents wanted her to be.
But the biggest derailment of all? Her newly minted ex-boyfriendâand the fact that she had a boyfriend to begin with. When she met Alden, he made her feel wanted, he made her feel free. He made her feel . . . like she could be like him, which was exciting and confusing all at once.
So, Zoe decides a second fresh start is in order: sheâs going to take a cross-country train from New York to Seattle for fall break. There, no one will know who she is, and she can outrun her mistakes.
Or so she thinks until she meets Oakley, whoâs the opposite of Zoe in so many ways: effortlessly cool and hot, smart, self-assured. But as Zoe and Oakley make their way across the country, Zoe realizes that Oakleyâs life has also gone off the railsâand that they might just be able to help each other along before that train finally leaves the station.
13
0Reply
violet.booklover TBR'd a book
15h
A Sweet Sting of Salt
Rose Sutherland
Once a young woman uncovers a dark secret about her neighbor and his mysterious new wife, sheâll have to fight to keep herselfâand the woman she lovesâsafe in this stunning queer reimagining of the classic folktale The Selkie Wife.
When a sharp cry wakes Jean in the middle of the night during a terrible tempest, sheâs convinced it must have been a dream. But when the cry comes again, Jean ventures outside and is shocked by what she discoversâa young woman in labor, already drenched to the bone in the freezing cold and barely able to speak a word of English.
Although Jean is the only midwife in the village and for miles around, sheâs at a loss as to who this woman is or where sheâs from; Jean can only assume she must be the new wife of the neighbor up the road, Tobias. And when Tobias does indeed arrive at her cabin in search of his wife, Muirin, Jeanâs questions continue to grow. Why has he kept his wifeâs pregnancy a secret? And why does Muirinâs open demeanor change completely the moment sheâs in his presence?
Though Jean learned long ago that she should stay out of other peopleâs business, her growing concernâand growing feelingsâfor Muirin mean she canât simply set her worries aside. But when the answers she finds are more harrowing than she ever could have imagined, she fears she may have endangered herself, Muirin, and the baby. Will she be able to put things right and save the woman she loves before itâs too late, or will someone have to pay for Jeanâs actions with their life?
24
0Reply
violet.booklover TBR'd a book
16h
A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them
Neil Bradbury
A brilliant blend of science and crime, 'A TASTE FOR POISON' reveals how eleven notorious poisons affect the body - through the murders in which they were used.
As any listener or reader of murder mysteries can tell you, poison is one of the most enduring - and popular - weapons of choice for a scheming murderer. It can be slipped into a drink, smeared onto the tip of an arrow or the handle of a door, even filtered through the air we breathe. But how exactly do these poisons work to break our bodies down, and what can we learn from the damage they inflict?
In a fascinating blend of popular science, medical history, and true crime, Dr. Neil Bradbury explores this most morbidly captivating method of murder from a cellular level. Alongside real-life accounts of murderers and their crimes - some notorious, some forgotten, some still unsolved - are the equally compelling stories of the poisons involved: eleven molecules of death that work their way through the human body and, paradoxically, illuminate the way in which our bodies function.
Drawn from historical records and current news headlines, A Taste for Poison weaves together the tales of spurned lovers, shady scientists, medical professionals and political assassins to show how the precise systems of the body can be impaired to lethal effect through the use of poison. From the deadly origins of the gin and tonic cocktail to the arsenic-laced wallpaper in Napoleonâs bedroom, 'A TASTE FOR POISON' leads listeners on a riveting tour of the intricate, complex systems that keep us alive - or donât.
24
0Reply
violet.booklover TBR'd a book
16h
Repeal the 8th
Una Mullally
Abortion is illegal in almost every circumstance in Ireland, making it the only democracy in the western world to have such a constitutional ¡ Between 1980 and 2015, at least 165,438 Irish women and girls accessed UK abortion services. In 2016, the figure was 3,265.
¡ Any woman or girl who procures an abortion, or anyone who assists a woman to procure an abortion in Ireland can be criminalised and imprisoned for up to fourteen years.
¡ A woman may not procure an abortion in Ireland if she is pregnant due to incest or rape, or to prevent inevitable miscarriage and fatal foetal abnormality. The movement to repeal the Eighth Amendment and make abortion legal in Ireland has grown massively over the last few years. This anthology shares the literature, personal stories, opinions, photography, art and design produced by the movement that catalysed 2018âs momentous referendum. Featuring prize-winning novelists, critically acclaimed poets, cutting-edge artists and journalists on the front line, this anthology will be the definitive collection of the art inspired by the most pressing debate in contemporary Ireland, and beyond. Contributors Lisa McInerney, Anne Enright, Louise OâNeill, Caitlin Moran, Tara Flynn, Aisling Bing, Sinead Gleeson, Emmet Kiran.
18
0Reply
violet.booklover TBR'd a book
17h
The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and the Medical Miracle That Saved a Childâs Life
Rachel Clarke
A riveting and inspiring true story of two families linked by one heartâwritten by a bestselling author and palliative care doctor.
The first of our organs to form and the last to die, the heart is both a simple pump and the symbol of what makes us human; as long as it continues to beat, there is hope.
In The Story of a Heart, Dr. Rachel Clarke interweaves the history of medical innovations behind transplant surgery with the story of two childrenâone of whom desperately needs a new heart. One summer day, nine-year-old Keira Ball was in a terrible car accident and suffered catastrophic brain injuries. As the rest of her body began to shut down, her heart continued to beat. In an act of extraordinary generosity, Keiraâs parents and siblings immediately agreed that she would have wanted to be an organ donor.
Meanwhile nine-year-old Max Johnson had been in a hospital for nearly a year, valiantly fighting the virus that was causing his young heart to fail. When Maxâs parents received the call they had been hoping for, they knew it came at a terrible cost to another familyâin what Clarke calls âthe brutal arithmetic of transplant surgery.â The act of Keiraâs heart resuming its rhythm inside Maxâs body was a medical miracle. But this was only part of the story. While waiting on the transplant list, Max had become the hopeful face of a campaign to change the UKâs laws around organ donation.
Following his successful surgery, Keiraâs mother saw the little boy beaming on the front page of the newspaper and knew it was the same boy whose parents had recently sent her an anonymous letter overflowing with gratitude for her daughterâs heart. The two mothers began to exchange messages and eventually decided to meet.
This is the unforgettable story of how one familyâs grief transformed into a lifesaving gift. Clarke relates the urgent journey of Keiraâs heart and explores the history of the remarkable surgery that made it possible, stretching back over a century and involving the knowledge and dedication not just of surgeons but of countless nurses and technicians, immunologists and paramedics. The Story of a Heart is a testament to compassion for the dying, the many ways we honor our loved ones, and the tenacity of love.
15
0Reply
violet.booklover commented on moski's update
17h
violet.booklover TBR'd a book
17h
The History of Medicine in Twelve Objects
Carol Cooper
See the fascinating history of medicine brought to life, from its rather primitive beginnings, through to the lifesaving technologies of today.Award-winning author Dr Carol Cooper takes you on a unique illustrated journey through the 12 objects that have come to define medicine through the ages â from the barbaric and bizarre to the inventive and impressive, this captivating read is peppered with humorous anecdotes. In this complete history, discover how ill health has been with us for as long as humans have existed, as has the drive to treat and understand it. Over the course of centuries, the ways in which doctors have engaged with sickness has changed drastically, and so too have the tools at their disposal. And as these tools have morphed and evolved, our knowledge of health and disease has expanded. Medical theories have slowly advanced, allowing people to live longer and healthier lives. The groundbreaking tools explored in this illustrated collection  The X-Ray Leeches The Microscope The Mask Forceps The Bone Saw The Heart Lung Machine The history of these medical tools is truly astounding, revealing the true extent of human ingenuity, curiosity, and compassion. This is a book for anyone interested in medical history or looking for a fresh and dynamic take on their specialist subject. With her immense knowledge and dry wit, Dr Cooper delivers a history that is not for the faint of heartâŚ
15
0Reply
violet.booklover wrote a review...
1d
I appreciate Zaunerâs vulnerability in writing this memoir, but I didnât enjoy it as much as expected.
It felt like a chaotic diary rather than a structured book. I just donât think the writing style is for me. I actually do love the food descriptions thoughâbut they read more like image descriptions than poetry/lyrics to me
I have a hard time with books about loving your abuser. I understand the nuance and that there is love in their relationship tooâbut it is difficult for me to read.
I think the detailing of the cancer, caregiving and grief were so raw and impactful.
I have mixed feelings but overall found this to be an emotionally meaningful read despite it not being entirely resonant for me.
Also: go to therapy. There are culturally competent therapists. But a lifetime of abuse, mental illness, suicidal ideation, caregiving someone terminally ill, and grief, etcâŚto be like no I donât need therapy I can just cook/eatâŚShe has healing work that needs to be done and I donât like the messaging/implications of her saying that therapy is unhelpful and not necessary. Therapy is life saving and needs to be destigmatized and I think she contributes to the stigma.
25
0Reply
violet.booklover finished a book
1d
Crying in H Mart
Michelle Zauner
A memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.
Michelle Zauner tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her motherâs particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmotherâs tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.
As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling bandâand meeting the man who would become her husbandâher Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her motherâs diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.
18
0Reply
violet.booklover started reading...
1d
Crying in H Mart
Michelle Zauner
A memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.
Michelle Zauner tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her motherâs particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmotherâs tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.
As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling bandâand meeting the man who would become her husbandâher Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her motherâs diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.
29
1Reply
violet.booklover commented on violet.booklover's update
2d
violet.booklover DNF'd a book
2d
Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-Mile Adventure
Monisha Rajesh
When Monisha Rajesh announced plans to circumnavigate the globe in eighty train journeys, she was met with wide-eyed disbelief. But it wasn't long before she was carefully plotting a route that would cover 45,000 miles - almost twice the circumference of the earth - coasting along the world's most remarkable railways; from the cloud-skimming heights of Tibet's Qinghai railway to silk-sheeted splendour on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express.
Packing up her rucksack - and her fiancďż˝, Jem - Monisha embarks on an unforgettable adventure that will take her from London's St Pancras station to the vast expanses of Russia and Mongolia, North Korea, Canada, Kazakhstan, and beyond. The ensuing journey is one of constant movement and mayhem, as the pair strike up friendships and swap stories with the hilarious, irksome and ultimately endearing travellers they meet on board, all while taking in some of the earth's most breathtaking views.
From the author of Around India in 80 Trains comes another witty and irreverent look at the world and a celebration of the glory of train travel. Monisha offers a wonderfully vivid account of life, history and culture in a book that will make you laugh out loud - and reflect on what it means to be a global citizen - as you whirl around the world in its pages.
19
3Reply
violet.booklover DNF'd a book
2d
Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-Mile Adventure
Monisha Rajesh
When Monisha Rajesh announced plans to circumnavigate the globe in eighty train journeys, she was met with wide-eyed disbelief. But it wasn't long before she was carefully plotting a route that would cover 45,000 miles - almost twice the circumference of the earth - coasting along the world's most remarkable railways; from the cloud-skimming heights of Tibet's Qinghai railway to silk-sheeted splendour on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express.
Packing up her rucksack - and her fiancďż˝, Jem - Monisha embarks on an unforgettable adventure that will take her from London's St Pancras station to the vast expanses of Russia and Mongolia, North Korea, Canada, Kazakhstan, and beyond. The ensuing journey is one of constant movement and mayhem, as the pair strike up friendships and swap stories with the hilarious, irksome and ultimately endearing travellers they meet on board, all while taking in some of the earth's most breathtaking views.
From the author of Around India in 80 Trains comes another witty and irreverent look at the world and a celebration of the glory of train travel. Monisha offers a wonderfully vivid account of life, history and culture in a book that will make you laugh out loud - and reflect on what it means to be a global citizen - as you whirl around the world in its pages.
19
3Reply
violet.booklover commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum
2d
vulpecula
Edited
Never Have I Ever: Book Edition (Part II)
Check off the things you have and haven't done and give us your total score!
- Hugged a book
- Lied about what you're reading (or hid a book)
- DNFed a book
- Dog-eared a book
- Complained about the movie/TV adaptation
- Pulled out your book at a party
- Attended a book club meeting
- Dropped a book on your face while reading
- Smelled a book
- Stared into space after finishing a book
- Gotten a book-related tattoo
- Lost a book you borrowed (from a friend or library)
- Posted about your reading on (non PB) social media
- Picked up a book someone else abandoned somewhere
- Skipped an event or appointment to read
- Read when you expressly were not supposed to be reading
- Gone into a bookstore "just to browse" and came out with books
- Re-read a whole book just because you forgot what happened so that you can go into the sequel fresh
- Gotten an ARC through NetGalley
- Got second-hand embarrassment by a character's actions
63
119Reply
violet.booklover wrote a review...
3d
DNF
Omggg so meandering, aimless, and dullâand way too many personal anecdotes. I got an hour and a half in and it didnât get any better. It feels like rambling and party stories not a scientific historical book.
24
0Reply
violet.booklover DNF'd a book
3d
I Told You So!: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right
Matt Kaplan
An energetic work of popular science about various scientists who have had to fight for their revolutionary ideas to be acceptedâfrom Darwin to Pasteur to modern day Nobel Prize winners. The Contrarians is a critical history of the scientific community, past and present, as Matt Kaplan shows how scientific breakthroughs often occur in spite of, rather than because of, the scientific community. Alternating between the past and the present, the book is anchored by the story of Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis, who helped discover germ theory by realizing Puerperal feverâa devastating infection that most often strikes women who have recently given birthâwas spread by doctors not washing their hands. Semmelweis was met with overwhelming hostility by those offended at the notion that doctors were at fault. Semmelweis as a prime example of the inefficiency of scientific progressâhow hard the scientific community fights new ideas and new research, even when the facts are staring them in the face. In snappy, accessible prose, Kaplan presents the cases of Galileo being threatened with torture, Charles Darwin facing social ostracism, and more recently, Katalin KarikĂł losing her job and her funding on the brink of discovering uses of mRNA â a discovery that would directly lead to the fast creation of a vaccine for Covid-19, and to a Nobel Prize for KarikĂł. With decades of first-hand reporting under his belt as the lead science reporter for the Economist, Kaplan makes the argument that science is hampered by the communityâs resistance to younger scientists and new ideasâmaking it exceptionally difficult or outright impossible for critically important findings to gain recognition. Employing persuasive examples spanning history, The Contrarians makes a compelling argument that the scientific community can work faster and better, if only it is open to change.
18
0Reply
violet.booklover commented on violet.booklover's review of Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World
4d
violet.booklover
Jul 26, 2026
Jul 26, 2026
5.0
Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:
đ¨ââď¸
âď¸
đĄ
Definitely an amazing and infuriating read. Cleghorn weaves together history, politics, literature, science, her own personal experiencesâtogether so beautifully.
Believe women about their pain.
24
2Reply
violet.booklover wrote a review...
4d
violet.booklover
Jul 26, 2026
Jul 26, 2026
5.0
Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:
đ¨ââď¸
âď¸
đĄ
Definitely an amazing and infuriating read. Cleghorn weaves together history, politics, literature, science, her own personal experiencesâtogether so beautifully.
Believe women about their pain.
24
2Reply
violet.booklover finished a book
4d
Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World
Elinor Cleghorn
A trailblazing conversation-starting history of women's health--from Ancient Greece to hormones and autoimmune diseases--brought together in a fascinating sweeping narrative
In thirteenth-century Europe, Roman Catholicism decreed that menstruation was the curse of Eve, part of the punishment issued by God to all earthly women. In the 1860s, female circumcision was considered a respective cure for misunderstood diseases including endometriosis and epilepsy. At the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine, between 1950 and 1954, three women aged twenty-eight, thirty-two, and forty-three and identified only as housewives, underwent prefrontal lobotomies as cures for ulcerative colitis. Initial clinical trials of birth control were conducted in Puerto Rico, on some of the poorest residents of the United States. Of those who participated in the trial, many suffered debilitating side effects and three died--but their deaths were never reported in the subsequent release of the pill. In Unwell Women, Elinor Cleghorn explores this almost unbelievable history of how medicine has failed women, and shows how the legacy of disenfranchisement and discrimination is alive and well in the contemporary relationship between women and sickness.
When Cleghorn was finally correctly diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after years of being told her symptoms were anything from psychosomatic to a possible pregnancy, she was inspired to unpack the roots of the perpetual misunderstanding, mystification, and misdiagnosis of women's bodies. The result is an authoritative and groundbreaking history of the relationship between women and medical practice, from the wandering womb of Ancient Greece to the rise of witch trials across Europe, and from the dawn of hysteria as a catchall for difficult-to-diagnose disorders to the first forays into autoimmunity and the shifting understanding of hormones, menstruation, and menopause. Packed with character studies and case histories of women who have suffered, challenged, and rewritten medical orthodoxy--and the men who controlled their fate--this is a revolutionary examination of the relationship between women, illness, and medicine. With these case histories, Elinor pays homage to the women whose bodies were sacrificed to make strides in this still-evolving area of medicine and to show how far we still have to go in terms of understanding the female body.
19
0Reply
violet.booklover DNF'd a book
4d
The Great Shadow: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, Believe, and Buy
Susan Wise Bauer
A compelling investigation of mankindâs struggles to understand what it means to be ill Anti-science, anti-vaccine, anti-reason beliefs seem to be triumphing over common sense today. How did we get here? The Great Shadow brings a huge missing piece to this puzzleâthe experience of actually being ill. History chronicles lives and deaths, but thereâs too often a blank spot in those stories. What did it feel like to be a woman or man struggling with illness in ancient times, in the Middle Ages, in the seventeenth century, or in 1920? And how did that shape our thoughts and convictions? The Great Shadow uses extensive historical research and first-person accounts to tell a vivid story about sickness and our responses to it, from very ancient times until the last decade. In the process of writing, historian Susan Wise Bauer discovered just how many of our current fads and causes are rooted in the moment-by-moment experience of sicknessâincluding wellness trends, the search for a balanced lifestyle, Tupperware containers, plug-in Glade air fresheners, bare hardwood floors, individual Communion cups, antibacterial hand soap, and anti-Semitism. We canât simply shout facts at people who refuse vaccinations, believe that immigrants carry diseases, or insist that God will look out for them during a pandemic. We have to enter with imagination, historical perspective, and empathy into their world. The Great Shadow does just that with flair and entertaining detail.
16
0Reply
