Welcome back!
We are inching ever close to 100. Should we throw a party? I have a couple non-fiction titles and two fiction. Lots of variety: Little Women, nature, history, and some Omegaverse to cap it all off.
Have you received any good recs lately? Let us know!
The Bluestockings
For all the history lovers out there, this is a dive into the Blue Stockings Society. I’m curious because, admittedly, when I read a historical romance, the term “bluestocking” lacks any context for me.
An illuminating group portrait of the eighteenth-century women who dared to imagine an active life for themselves in both mind and spirit.
In England in the 1700s, a woman who was an intellectual, spoke out, or wrote professionally was considered unnatural. After all, as the wisdom of the era dictated, a clever woman—if there were such a thing—would never make a good wife. But a circle of women called the Bluestockings did something coming together in glittering salons to discuss and debate as intellectual equals with men, they fought for women to be educated and to have a public role in society.
In this intimate and revelatory history, Susannah Gibson delves into the lives of these pioneering women. Elizabeth Montagu established one of the most famous salons of the Bluestocking movement, with everyone from royalty to revolutionaries clamoring for an invitation to attend. Her younger sister, Sarah Scott, imagined a female-run society and created a women’s commune. Meanwhile, Hester Thrale, who also had a salon, saved her husband’s brewery from bankruptcy and, after being widowed, married a man she loved—Italian, Catholic, and not of her social class. Other women made a name for themselves through their publications, including Catharine Macaulay, author of an eight-volume history of England, and Frances Burney, author of the audacious novel Evelina.
In elegant prose, Gibson reveals the close and complicated relationships between these women, how they supported and admired each other, and how they sometimes judged and exploited one another. Some rebelled quietly, while others defied propriety with adventurous and scandalous lives. With moving stories and keen insight, The Bluestockings uncovers how a group of remarkable women slowly built up an eviscerating critique of their male-dominated world that society was not yet ready to hear.
The Comfort of Crows
If you enjoy memoirs, nature books, or something in between, I’d suggest picking this one up. It reminded me a lot of Ruth Reichl’s non-fiction mixed with Sy Montgomery.
THE PERFECT GIFT FOR NATURE LOVERS, BIRDERS, AND GARDENERS, WITH ORIGINAL COLOR ART THROUGHOUT * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * AMAZON EDITOR’S PICK * INDIE NEXT PICK
From the beloved New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author of Late Migrations comes a “howling love letter to the world” (Ann Patchett): a luminous book that traces the passing of seasons, personal and natural.
In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons—from a crow spied on New Year’s Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring—what develops is a portrait of joy and joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer.
Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author—and from us. For, as Renkl writes, “radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world.”
With fifty-two original color artworks by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world.
Heat Clinic
This gives me Morning Glory Milking Farm vibes, but with an Omegaverse twist and slightly less “freaky but sweet” vibes. I believe a special edition is coming out and they also offer a “discreet” paperback edition if you don’t want to be seen reading a book with stirrups on the cover in public.
“It’s the literary equivalent of a bunch of fetish gear tossed into a dumpster and set on fire.” -A beta reader
She checked in at the free use heat clinic for some relief and found a pack instead.
Emily has had one lousy heat after another and is finally ready to break that cycle of hope and disappointment. When she goes to the nearby free-use clinic, she’s not sure what to expect. Breeding waivers, group activities, and restraints? Maybe this is all she’s destined for. What pack wants a thirty-six year old omega who might be past her breeding prime?
But then she meets her handsome heat minder, Sam. Young, flirty, and fun, the beta makes her feel a spark of something more. In the treatment room, her worries fade as her temperature climbs. There’s no faces, no names, just heavenly relief. Until an alpha named Marcus walks in and changes everything.
Money can buy everything but a scent-matched pack.
Marcus and his bonded beta Tom have been relentlessly sniffing out the rest of their pack for all their adult lives. It’s been a long and disappointing journey, but finally, there’s hope they haven’t missed their chance.
One thing’s for certain, this little omega and beta smell like pack. But how do they convince them of that? Because this omega thinks she’s too old and this beta thinks he’s not destined for forever. Their pack isn’t going to make it easy to woo them.
And woo they do. In bed, in the car, in public. Marcus and Tom are determined to show their new packmates how much they’re loved and wanted, body and soul, no matter how many times they have to pound that lesson home.
Can this pack put their doubts and fears aside to accept their happily ever after, or will old insecurities creep in and threaten what bliss they’ve built?
Heat Clinic is a sweet and ultra steamy contemporary MMMF omegaverse romance. There are no shifters or werewolves in this novel. A content guide is included in the beginning for readers with sensitivities. This book features multiple love interests and a heroine who won’t be choosing. If you enjoy nesting, an older plant-obsessed omega, a silver fox alpha with a breeding kink, a bratty British beta, a golden retriever gamer beta boyfriend, restraints, public fun, and 4 adults handling their business with minimal angst and no 3rd act break-up then this book is for you.
The Other March Sisters
This is a Little Women retelling, which instead focuses on the other March sisters. It’s an interesting concept!
Giving all the “Little Women” the stories they deserve at last, this imaginative historical novel and companion to the much-loved classic draws Meg, Beth, and Amy March from behind the shadow of Jo – Louisa May Alcott’s alter-ego and the “author” of Little Women – as vibrant and unforgettable characters grappling with societal strictures, queer love, motherhood, chronic illness, artistic ambition, and more.
A riveting reimagining for readers of March by Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Miller’s Caroline and Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet.
“An intriguing take on some of the most beloved—yet, paradoxically, overlooked—characters in fiction. ” —Shana Abé, New York Times bestselling author of An American Beauty and The Second Mrs. Astor
I’m sure you believe you know their story from reading that other book, which told you an inspiring tale about four sisters. It told you a story, but did it tell you the story?
Four sisters, each as different as can be. Through the eyes and words of Jo, their characters and destinies became known to millions. Meg, pretty and conventional. Jo, stubborn, tomboyish, and ambitious. Beth, shy and good-natured, a mortal angel readily accepting her fate. And Amy, elegant, frivolous, and shallow. But Jo, for all her insight, could not always know what was in her sisters’ thoughts, or in their hearts.
With Jo away in New York, pursuing her dreams of being a writer, Meg, Beth, and Amy follow their own paths. Meg, newly married with young twins, struggles to find the contentment that Marmee assured her would come with domesticity. Unhappy and unfulfilled, she turns to her garden, finding there not just a hobby but a calling that will allow her to help other women in turn.
Beth knows her time is limited. Still, part of her longs to break out of her suffocating cocoon at home, however briefly. A new acquaintance turns into something more, offering unexpected, quiet joy.
Amy, traveling in Europe while she pursues her goal of becoming an artist, is keenly aware of the expectation that she will save the family by marrying well. Through the course of her journey, she discovers how she can remain true to herself, true to her art, and true to the love that was always meant to be.
By purposefully leaving Jo off the page, authors Liz Parker, Ally Malinenko, and Linda Epstein give the other March sisters room to reveal themselves through conversations, private correspondence, and intimate moments—coming alive in ways that might surprise even daring, unconventional Jo.
