Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
REPollock

REPollock

Joined May 2017

author, milliner, blogger at La Bricoleuse, theatre-maker, demimondaine. Mx.
review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

Bear in mind that I cannot stand the memoir genre and rarely finish the ones I pick up when I make an exception to my no-memoirs rule.

I didn‘t hate it, and I actually finished it. If you are or were a fan of any of her bands or involved in riot grrl, it might be of interest.

Suet624 Beautiful cat. 💕 2d
REPollock @Suet624 thank you! He‘s a rescue, a breed called a Bengal. He loves the heating pad! 2d
julesG I'm so glad to find another person who loves memoirs as much as I do. 😁😁 1d
REPollock @julesG ugh solidarity. 1d
20 likes4 comments
review
REPollock
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story | Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Company
post image
Pickpick

A must-read. I enjoyed the audiobook narration by several contributors, authors, poets.

Suet624 I hadn‘t thought to listen to this. Thanks for the suggestion. And that cat!!!! So pretty. 2w
REPollock @sue1624 thank you! He‘s a rescue bengal named Lenni and such a sweetie. 2w
23 likes2 comments
review
REPollock
Carnelian | Jules Devito
post image
Pickpick

This author is in my writing group and I read several early drafts of this book.

Creative unique take on vampires, very contemporary, with deep roots in the Long Island setting.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

Great insight into leadership and management. I admit I was surprised by how much the author loves working in restaurants. I have never worked in food service but everyone I know who has didn‘t love it and viewed it as a job to pay the bills. This made me see how it could be enjoyable.

review
REPollock
Migrations: A Novel | Charlotte McConaghy
post image
Pickpick

I‘ll read any novel this author writes.

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks So pretty 🐾 1mo
16 likes1 comment
review
REPollock
The Royale | Marco Ramirez
post image
Pickpick

Wow, what a script! I hope to see it performed someday.

(Pix: my new rescue kitty Lenni, a senior bengal who had been at the shelter for almost 400 days.)

review
REPollock
The Wolves | Sarah DeLappe
post image
Pickpick

This script is as good as its buzz. What a good play.

JenlovesJT47 😻 2mo
REPollock @JenlovesJT47 this is our newly adopted kitty, a senior bengal rescue named Lenni. 2mo
JenlovesJT47 He‘s gorgeous 😻 2mo
REPollock @JenlovesJT47 thank you! He‘s a beautiful rascal. ❤️ 2mo
16 likes4 comments
review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

This hybrid narrative nonfiction/memoir is charming and engaging, and vaulted over my reflexive dislike of memoir. If the reflections of a woman who spent the COVID pandemic shearing a sheep, carding/spinning/dyeing the wool, and knitting it into a sweater sounds like your bag, check it out!

review
REPollock
post image
Bailedbailed

Bailing at 19%. I heard so much praise for this author but I can‘t stand the characters and don‘t want to spend more time following their stories.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

I love books that use an artifact as a touchstone for exploring history and material culture, and this one is fantastic.

julesG The hat is gorgeous! Did you make it? Would love the pattern. 2mo
REPollock @julesG one of my students made it! I‘ll ask them if they plan on offering the pattern as a PDF. 2mo
julesG That would be great! Thanks! 2mo
12 likes3 comments
review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

Fascinating and a surprisingly engaging read. The current state of sleep science is interesting to learn about and the benefits of sleep are so much greater than I would have thought. Honestly everyone should read this book, but especially parents and students. Highly recommend.

julesG It's an important book. If only my teenagers would listen to the advice. 🤷 Gorgeous dresses! 2mo
20 likes3 stack adds1 comment
review
REPollock
Horse: A Novel | Geraldine Brooks
post image
Pickpick

Wow, what a ride! I perhaps wouldn‘t have picked up this novel just based on a blurb or plot synopsis, but I know the author writes books I love to read and this one is no exception. My heart was captured by the characters, humans and horses. Highly recommended although not for the faint of heart—brutal treatment of humans and horses.

Deblovestoread Love the quilt! 3mo
REPollock @Deblovestoread thank you! My aunt made it from worn out clothes. It‘s huge! Like longer than a bed. 3mo
20 likes2 comments
review
REPollock
post image
Bailedbailed

Bailing at 70%. Her life is inspiring and engaging but the book turns into a history of the drama and machinations behind various political events of FDR‘s presidency.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

An important book. A lot of white Americans will find this a difficult read and many will dismiss it as hyperbole. Glad I read it although it‘s difficult, especially the details about brutality to enforce caste.

Tamra It‘s taking me forever to get to this one, despite the fact I know it will be enlightening. 4mo
REPollock @tamra it explained things that have puzzled me on a lifelong basis, as a person who grew up as a white girl with progressive parents in the south. 4mo
JamieArc @Tamra I feel the same way about The Warmth of Other Suns. I read Caste and while it is difficult content, she‘s such a great storyteller that you find yourself turning the pages like a wonderfully written fiction. 4mo
17 likes3 comments
review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

Almost more of a coffee-table art book in format, although it's an important reference volume and will go into the workroom library at my millinery studio.

Highly, highly recommend if you are interested in learning more about this niche topic

review
REPollock
Exit West: A Novel | Mohsin Hamid
Pickpick

A very odd, disconcerting novel. Structurally ambitious and melancholy.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

It‘s cool that Oprah Winfrey has partnered with scientific researchers and experts to co-author books on their areas of expertise. I‘m so glad I listened to the audiobook of this.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

Helpful insight into her experiences and priorities on many issues. I generally don‘t care for memoirs but the elements of memoir enhance and personalize this book‘s content.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

Decent true crime about a grisly USSR mystery.

review
REPollock
Hell of a Book | Jason Mott
post image
Pickpick

If I taught contemporary literature, I‘d want to teach this book. It‘s exactly what the title says.

Suet624 Oh! I remember really loving this book! 4mo
LiteraryinPA That‘s a great endorsement! I‘m stacking it! 4mo
22 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
REPollock
Making Silk Flowers | Anne Tomlin
post image
Pickpick

Highly recommended reference volume for millinery studios and couturieres/decorators with an interest in such things. Arranged for type of flower and when they seasonally bloom.

review
REPollock
Birnam Wood | Eleanor Catton
post image
Panpan

I absolutely loved this author‘s book The Luminaries. This one couldn‘t be more different and although I understand why the author might have chosen to end the story as it does, it makes me regret spending as much time reading it as I did. I should have bailed earlier.

review
REPollock
Memory Piece | Lisa Ko
post image
Pickpick

I can‘t begin to describe this book but I‘m glad I read it.

review
REPollock
The Hunter: A Novel | Tana French
post image
Pickpick

If you liked this author‘s other books, you‘ll probably like this one. I did.

Suet624 Hot, hot, hot!! And yes, I liked this book. :) 5mo
Darklunarose Stay safe. That‘s not fun weather. 5mo
15 likes2 comments
review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

A fun book and a quick read. It gave me an identity crisis because it‘s the first book where I identified with a character clearly coded as “an eccentric old woman,” which I guess I am now.

Tamra Embrace it! 🥰 So much better than boring or the angst of youth. 5mo
Cathythoughts Great pic. ♥️ 5mo
15 likes2 comments
review
REPollock
post image
Bailedbailed

Bailing—the audiobook narration is not for me.

review
REPollock
post image
Bailedbailed

I‘m bailing on this. My library loan ended before I finished and the line to get it again is so long, I just don‘t have the patience to do it again. Interesting and informative but also very depressing.

Cathythoughts Great photo ♥️👌🏻 5mo
19 likes1 comment
review
REPollock
Project Hail Mary | Andy Weir
post image
Pickpick

I liked this more than I expected to, but it wasn‘t described as “junior high science teacher finds alien life and saves the world” and that‘s basically it.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

I love Dolly. I have to get the physical print edition of this but I spotted the audiobook available through my library. Glad I listened to it and I can‘t wait to see the photos.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

Absolutely couldn‘t put it down. I admit have a personal attachment to the setting, having been an exchange student in West Berlin before the wall came down.

jdiehr It's like a magic wand 🪄 5mo
15 likes1 comment
review
REPollock
post image
Bailedbailed

Bailed at 30%. I keep trying to find memoirs I can get into but they‘re just not for me. I love cats and enjoyed the novels I‘ve read by this author. I‘m sorry for the abuse he suffered as a child. He clearly really loved this cat. If you like cats and memoirs, you might like this.

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Beautiful photo 😍 6mo
10 likes1 comment
review
REPollock
Vladimir | Julia May Jonas
post image
Bailedbailed

I bailed at 75%. I was all in even though I hated the narrator—I also empathized with her as a fellow academic and middle aged woman who grew up in a western patriarchal society. But she made a choice in the last section of the book that I found so dumbfounding and reprehensible that I had to stop reading it.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

Smart analytical music criticism, love stuff like this and voices other than cishet male are rare.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

Listened to the audiobook, illuminating and disturbing.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

I have read three of this author‘s books and I am surprised that this one has some ideas I want to bring up at work.

18 likes2 stack adds
review
REPollock
GHOSTS. | DOLLY. ALDERTON
post image
Pickpick

I found this book hilarious and couldn't put it down.

Despite being a generation older than the protagonist and her friends, I empathized with their online-dating exploits.

Recommend even if you aren't generally a fan of what used to be called "chick lit."

Tamra Love the colors! 6mo
REPollock @Tamra thank you! Mixed seed pack FTW! 6mo
19 likes2 comments
review
REPollock
post image
Bailedbailed

I had to stop because the audiobook reader began to attempt various bad British accents as direct quotes from historical figures began to appear, and I just couldn‘t take it seriously anymore.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

I don't know what I expected of this book but wow, what a wild ride through history, science fiction, psychological warfare and even alternative libraries. Fascinating, thorough, and one of Newitz's more compelling nonfiction adventures. Recommended for anyone who's lived through recent events and wondered whether they or the world had gone mad.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

19 likes3 stack adds
review
REPollock
Black Cake | Charmaine Wilkerson
post image
Pickpick

My new best read of the year. A structural tour de force.

JenniferEgnor I just checked this one out from the library yesterday. Is the show of the same name on Hulu based on this book? 6mo
REPollock @JenniferEgnor I didn‘t know there was a show with the same name, maybe! 6mo
LiteraryinPA This was so good that I had my mom and sisters read it too! 6mo
REPollock @LiteraryinLawrence it‘s been awhile since a book was so good I bought copies to give as gifts but this one is it for the forseeable future! 6mo
20 likes1 stack add4 comments
review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

Wow! This book was recommended in a female empowerment workshop I attended and I ran right out and bought it (after reading the sample and watching the author‘s TED Talk). Highly recommended, not only for women with corporate ambitions but honestly any woman who has ever been catcalled by a stranger on the street or hit on by a boss.

review
REPollock
post image
Bailedbailed

Bailing at 80%. Too much brutality and violence.

review
REPollock
Blue Ruin: A novel | Hari Kunzru
post image
Pickpick

Thought provoking, a fantastic Covid novel and one that in flashbacks captured the Y2K London art scene in what feels like a ketamine dream. I‘ve read one other novel by this author and I will seek out more.

I read an ARC of this novel from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

Absolutely couldn‘t put down this compelling graphic memoir. And I generally don‘t stick with a memoir through the whole book but this one is 💯

jlhammar Great book! And pretty photo. 7mo
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks So pretty 😍 7mo
REPollock @jlhammar thank you! These were originally from my great grandmother‘s yard. 7mo
REPollock @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks thank you! These were originally from my great grandmother‘s yard. 7mo
23 likes4 comments
review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

I wish I‘d read this earlier in life.

review
REPollock
Chain-Gang All-Stars | Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
post image
Pickpick

Best novel of the year for me. A difficult and disturbing book. Audiobook highly recommended for keeping all the plot threads and characters straight via several narrators. I think it would have been harder to follow if I‘d read it as text.

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Pretty 😍 7mo
Tamra So jealous of your flower pots! 7mo
REPollock @Tamra thank you! I just put them out this past week. 7mo
21 likes4 comments
review
REPollock
post image
Pickpick

The narrative structure of this book is fantastically creative and hooked me on the storylines, the way they braided together and it was fun to look for all the connections between the plot-streams--reappearing objects and legends and history and lore. Some of it is deeply brutal and violent. Recommend but maybe read it in small doses. I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

review
REPollock
Tom Lake: A Novel | Ann Patchett
post image
Pickpick

Absolutely loved this book. Despite the fact that I have not loved some of the author's prior novels, and despite the reviews that make valid points about the simplistic tokenism of the one Black supporting character, I nevertheless read this book voraciously and was all in for the whole ride.

AmyG Same. This is my favorite of hers. 8mo
LiteraryinPA I‘m in the middle of it now and I‘m loving the storytelling. 8mo
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks So pretty 💜 8mo
See All 6 Comments
TheBookHippie Ack this is why I haven‘t read it plus the fact that northern Michigan 😵‍💫😵‍💫is not a nice place. I keep flip flopping on to read or not to read. 8mo
REPollock @TheBookHippie I listened to the audiobook which is read by Meryl Streep. I think her narration really added to the experience and I often thought that if I had been reading a printed copy I would not have enjoyed it as much. 8mo
TheBookHippie @REPollock now that‘s a good plan!!! Thanks! 8mo
26 likes6 comments
review
REPollock
post image
Bailedbailed

I should accept that I really don‘t care for memoirs.

Tamra I don‘t usually either, though I wish I did because there are so many! 8mo
REPollock @Tamra same. I just always get so impatient and irritated with the authors. 8mo
16 likes2 comments
review
REPollock
King Nyx | Kirsten Bakis
post image
Bailedbailed

A plot twist near the end strained credulity to the breaking point.

review
REPollock
post image
Bailedbailed

The audiobook narration was too precious, like she was a children‘s librarian at preschool story time.