faintingviolet

“…the glorious Republic cannot rise unless the monarchy falls and the monarchy cannot fall unless two women bring it down.”

A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire by Emma Southon

May 17, 2026 by faintingviolet 9 Comments

When I read Emma Southon’s A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum I was pleased by the way Southon’s immense understanding of the available primary and secondary sources historians have available to work from regarding Roman history impact the ways in which we can know anything at all about things that happened so long ago. That same nuance in explaining the sources – and how much they can or cannot be trusted – is utilized to great degree in A Rome of One’s Own as Southon begins […]

“The sun is up, the skies are blue, and murder is in the air.”

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

May 13, 2026 by faintingviolet 2 Comments

A few years ago, it felt like everyone and their neighbor were reading The Thursday Murder Club. I was intrigued but hadn’t pulled the proverbial trigger. But here we are and the time has arrived for me to dig in to the story of a group of friends in a retirement village who investigate cold cases for fun, and the new member they invite into their ranks, and the murder that happens that lets them jump into their first in real time crime solving. This was just the right book to break a two-month reading slump. It […]

“The truth is that the truth is almost beside the point.”

The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family by Jesselyn Cook

March 16, 2026 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

I begin the year hunting through my very long TBR looking for books for the various Read Harder Challenge tasks. Some of those tasks are easier than others, and some I think will be easy to pick out a book for from my TBR and find that I don’t have any that fit… or maybe only one. That was the case with reading a book about cults – I thought for sure I had plenty of options for it but in fact only The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the […]

“It was like reading a book, she decided. You read the book and the words became scenes, the characters became people and they lived inside you.”

The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

March 12, 2026 by faintingviolet 5 Comments

Reading epic fantasy isn’t really a thing I do that often, but sometimes, you just need to listen to your book friends when they fall in love with something. It has proven to be a good method for me previously, so why not try again with a beautiful purple covered book and plot synopsis that grab the attention without giving a whole lot away. It should be noted that I loved this 650-page book. It’s a five-star read for me, easily. But… I have struggled for weeks to figure out how to review it, so I’m sort of throwing my hands up […]

“When you love someone who deserves it, you have to be willing to adapt a little.”

Nobody's Baby (Dorothy Gentleman #2) by Olivia Waite, Blair Baker (narrator)

February 13, 2026 by faintingviolet 1 Comment

The second book in the Dorothy Gentleman series by Olivia Waite was one of my most anticipated books of 2026. I’m pleased to report that Nobody’s Baby lived up to my hopes. The book continues in the world that Murder by Memory began last year. The world Dorothy lives in is that of 10,000 people living on a generation ship sailing through space on their way to a new home. The Fairweather has been sailing through space for three centuries already and its passengers live ,and age, and when it’s time to die they are provided a new body aged 20, and their consciousness and genotype are loaded in from the saved files in the Library when they are ready. […]

No One Despairs Quite Like a Well-Loved House Pet.

Woe: A Housecat's Story of Despair by Lucy Knisley

February 8, 2026 by faintingviolet 2 Comments

I feel as though my reading year is starting off very slowly. I have a couple books on hand from the library that I’m having trouble sinking into and should probably return and try again later, I have been waiting for other things to come off holds, and had to wait for a book I purchased to be replaced since pages were falling out of the binding. Plus, my attention span hasn’t really been great, either. So, I decided to lean a bit into some of the short works I had selected for some […]

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