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A hurricane of jacarandas, strangling figs, hanging vines.

Nature Obscura: A City’s Hidden Natural World by Kelly Brenner

January 5, 2022 by baxlala 5 Comments

I’ve always been intrigued by (OK obsessed with) nature. Stick me next to a window and you’ll find me staring outside, looking for signs of wildlife. Come spring, you’ll find me kneeling on the sidewalk next to every snail and slug I see, trying to get the perfect picture. When I worked at a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, a spider made a web on the light in my office and we named him Stanley and fed him mealworms meant for the baby birds. When I moved […]

“It turns out life isn’t a puzzle that can be solved one time and it’s done. You wake up every day, and you solve it again.” – Chidi Anagonye

Life's Too Short by Abby Jimenez

December 28, 2021 by baxlala 9 Comments

The only other review I’ve written this year was way back in January, when things maybe didn’t feel altogether shiny and new and possible, but they at least felt shinier than they do right now. At the time, I was recovering from surgery, radiation, and chemo from a touch of cancer, and looking forward to getting to whatever the new normal was going to be. The best laid plans, eh? Unfortunately, the cancer came back just a few months later. Not only did it come […]

Our pets’ HEADS are falling off!

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

January 3, 2021 by baxlala 22 Comments

In 2013, it looked like Allie Brosh had disappeared off the face of the Earth, or at least the face of the internet. In reality, she was (of course, duh) still around, but she was in the midst of a years-long struggle to grieve and get a handle on her health, both physically and mentally. During all the years she was gone, I did periodically wonder what was going on with her. I know I wasn’t alone. Her blog, Hyperbole & a Half, was wildly […]

I bet just you love that Mr. Darcy, and your sentimental heart beats widely at the thought that he and, well, you know, whatever her name is, are truly, honestly going to end up together.

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett

February 14, 2019 by baxlala 7 Comments

Tell me there’s a book based on You’ve Got Mail and I’m pretty much going to read it immediately. Which is what I did with Alex, Approximately and I found it UTTERLY DELIGHTFUL. (Sidenote: I don’t know of any other books based on You’ve Got Mail/The Shop Around the Corner/Parfumerie but if you do, why haven’t you told me about them yet?) I digress. Back to Alex, Approximately. Bailey is a classic film loving teen who moves across the country to live with her dad, […]

Is butter a carb?

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

February 12, 2019 by baxlala 1 Comment

I’ve been trying to make a conscious effort to read outside my wheelhouse. Somewhere along the way, I got stuck in Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Dystopian/Romance/YA, or WHATEVER MADE UP WORLD GENRE I could find because why read unless you can escape to a better or more interesting world than the one you’re currently inhabiting? The problem there is that I sometimes fall into a book rut and need to dig my way out by way of something different. At that point, I usually decide to read a book […]

It feels like somebody took my heart and dropped it into a bucket of boiling tears.

My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan

January 29, 2019 by baxlala 2 Comments

I’m so torn on this book. I was all set to rip into it for not being the book I wanted it to be, which was a story about a young American woman’s lighthearted romp through the English countryside while she led a Harry Potter-esque existence (keeping the book magic, losing the outright magic) during her tenure at Oxford. Who wouldn’t want to live vicariously through such a character? This is what I got for the first half of the book. Ella arrives in England […]

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