Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

Updates are now at That Artsy Reader Girl

June 16: Bookish Wishes

1) I wish for more space for a big library with a cozy reading nook near a fireplace.

2) More time to read my TBR.

3) I need more energy to marathon read.

4) I'd like to go on a reading retreat!

Born with Teeth
by Kate Mulgrew

Raised by unconventional Irish Catholics who knew "how to drink, how to dance, how to talk, and how to stir up the devil," Kate Mulgrew grew up with poetry and drama in her bones. But in her mother, a would-be artist burdened by the endless arrival of new babies, young Kate saw the consequences of a dream deferred. Determined to pursue her own no matter the cost, at 18 she left her small Midwestern town for New York, where, studying with the legendary Stella Adler, she learned the lesson that would define her as an actress: "Use it," Adler told her. Whatever disappointment, pain, or anger life throws in your path, channel it into the work.

It was a lesson she would need. At twenty-two, just as her career was taking off, she became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. Having already signed the adoption papers, she was allowed only a fleeting glimpse of her child. As her star continued to rise, her life became increasingly demanding and fulfilling, a whirlwind of passionate love affairs, life-saving friendships, and bone-crunching work. Through it all, Mulgrew remained haunted by the loss of her daughter, until, two decades later, she found the courage to face the past and step into the most challenging role of her life, both on and off screen.

We know Kate Mulgrew for the strong women she's played--Captain Janeway on Star Trek; the tough-as-nails "Red" on Orange is the New Black. Now, we meet the most inspiring and memorable character of all: herself. By turns irreverent and soulful, laugh-out-loud funny and heart-piercingly sad, BORN WITH TEETH is the breathtaking memoir of a woman who dares to live life to the fullest, on her own terms.

I used to watch Voyager with my dad and I listened to Kate narrate the audiobook for NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. Which she did a great job with. And then Audible must have suggested her memoir and I bought it.

I finally listened to it to balance the historical fantasy fiction (The Unicorn Hunters) I'm reading. I can't read and listen to the same genre at once.

Kate did a great job with the narration and putting emotion into it. Sometimes a person can be reading their own story and it's so stoic. But because of her previous work I didn't doubt Kate.

Kate's life is very interesting and I was engaged (Star Trek pun!) to hear about her family, her mother's depression, her career and balancing it with motherhood. But what made me the most emotional was hearing the surprising story of the daughter she gave up for adoption and trying to find her again. I was crying at work when Kate and her daughter reunited.

I was so relieved that she didn't get the "a" word and chose adoption instead.
I was heartbroken by, disappointed in, and angry with the behavior of Catholic Charities. I don't like when Christian organizations don't live up to the call to be good Christians. I can also say that about non-religious organizations too. Do better. (I wonder if the couple Kate chose ever got to be parents. My heart broke for them to be disappointed twice.)

It was also truly sad to hear about her sisters who died so young and her mother's grief. It made my heart ache.

My only gripe is though her and her family are not practicing Catholics, they have to stop saying the Lord's name. I cringed every time the Second Commandment was broken. It's the main reason I deducted some points from my rating.

Oh and I guess I would also add that I wasn't that interested in her love life escapades. That could have been edited down.

I also liked that they added Kate's interview moderated by Rosie O'Donnell at the end of the book. It added some more context.

3.75 out of 5 Teeth.

Memorable quotes:
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Last Night in Montreal
by Emily St. John Mandel

Lilia Albert has been leaving people behind for her entire life. She spends her childhood and adolescence traveling constantly and changing identities. In adulthood, she finds it impossible to stop. Haunted by an inability to remember her early childhood, she moves restlessly from city to city, abandoning lovers along the way, possibly still followed by a private detective who has pursued her for years. Then her latest lover follows her from New York to Montreal, determined to learn her secrets and make sure she is safe.

Last Night in Montreal is a story of love, amnesia, compulsive travel, the depths and the limits of family bonds, and the nature of obsession. In this extraordinary debut, Emily St. John Mandel casts a powerful spell that captures the reader in a gritty, youthful world charged with an atmosphere of mystery, promise and foreboding where small revelations continuously change our understanding of the truth and lead to desperate consequences. Mandel's characters will resonate with you long after the final page is turned.


I have read three books by Mandel. I got to meet her at BookCon 2026, and I'm excited for her new book, Exit Party coming out this autumn. I want to catch up on the other books she wrote, so I borrowed this from the library. Funny enough, I thought this was going to be a novella based in the same world as Station Eleven. I was wrong.

It starts mysterious and we get some answers but it ends mysterious. (I'll get into that in the spoiler section.) I wish we got some more answers because I'm left wanting some more.

I still really liked it. It's a real page turner (I read it in four days) with short chapters. But the words are very meaningful and pretty. I really liked the discussions about traveling, dying languages, and fake artists.

The basic story is ( SpoilersCollapse )

Overall, great story the way it was paced and the way the mystery unfolded.

3.75 out of 5 Roadtrips.

Memorable quotes:
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The High King's Tomb (Green Rider Book 3)
by Kristen Britain

Goodreads:
For Karigan G'ladheon, the call of magic in her blood is too strong to resist. Karigan returns to the Green Riders, the magical messengers of the king, to find she's badly needed. Rider magic has become unstable, many Riders have been lost, and the Rider corps is seriously threatened. The timing couldn't be worse. An ancient evil, long dormant, has reawakened, and the world is in peril. Karigan must face deadly danger and complex magic to save the kingdom from certain doom.

Audible:

A thousand years ago the armies of the Arcosian Empire, led by Mornhavon the Black, crossed the great sea and tried to conquer the land of Sacoridia —and during Karigan G’ladheon’s early years as a Green Rider, Mornhavon’s spirit, sensing weakness in his prison walls and seeking vengeance, began to wake. With the ghostly help of the First Rider, Karigan had managed to drive off the spirit of Mornhavon—but for how long, no one could know. And now, the descendants of those Arcosians are ready to strike, reaching out to claim the land their forebears had tried to conquer. Worse, these vengeful enemies had spent generations honing their powers of dark magic—a force against which the Sacoridians had no defense.

I really like this fantasy series so I am continuing and I hope to catch up soon. In book three we continue to get adventure, magic, history, and mystery.

In this book we meet new villains, and revisit ones from book one. We also meet old allies and Kari makes some new ones.

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I liked this a lot but maybe not as much as the first two. I'll still continue the series.

3.5 out of 5 Tombs.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

Updates are now at That Artsy Reader Girl

June 9: Books with Handwriting on the Cover (Or fonts that look like handwriting. Titles, subtitles, covers with letters on them, etc.)

1) The Greek Escape by Karen Swan.
2) Animal Farm by George Orwell.
3) Finding Jane Fairfax by Robbin J. Peterson.
4) Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio by Mario Giordan.
5) The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer.
6) The End of the Affair by Graham Greene.
7) Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon.
8) One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle.
9) The Secret Ways of Perfume by Cristina Caboni.
10) Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit.

TBR:
11) Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky.
12) The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza.
13) Kissing Kosher by Jean Meltzer.
14) The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain.
15) In Five Years by Rebecca Serle.
16) Rediscover the Saints: Twenty-Five Questions That Will Change Your Life by Matthew Kelly.

The evil GALACTIC EMPIRE has fallen.
Ex-Imperial Warlords remain scattered throughout
the galaxy, plotting the Empire’s return. The fledgling
NEW REPUBLIC has begun to reunite the galaxy.

In the Lawless Outer Rim, THE MANDALORIAN and
his young apprentice GROGU work to hunt down
these Imperial fugitives....

I went to see The Mandalorian and Grogu in theaters last Sunday.

I liked it. It was entertaining, fun, and the action was pretty cool. It's really accessible to anyone who has not watched the show. It's a side quest story and doesn't add anything to the overall plot of the series, nor to Star Wars lore. In fact, did you notice we never hear his name? Din Djarin. He's just Mando.

It was funny. Especially involving Grogu and the Anzellan droidsmiths. Or the new friendship between Grogu and Rotta.

[Spoiler (click to open)]And when the explosives were about to go off and Grogu was nervously tapping Mando's helmet. The puppetry was excellent because for a character that can't speak we know his emotions and what he would say through his body language.

I liked seeing Sigourney Weaver [Spoiler (click to open)]fly an X-Wing and command a squadron. Her role is a good supporting one.

Martin Scorsese was so funny as the voice of Hugo Durant. LOL The face even looked like Scorsese and the mannerisms were spot on.

One of favorite parts was when Grogu was [Spoiler (click to open)]taking care of his dad when he was poisoned. Again great puppetry, because he doesn't speak. But we get to see how he's grown and learned from Season 1 of the series. He builds a hut for his dad, even though it wasn't long enough. He meditated. He made an ally to help his dad. It was a good point to slow down after all the action and before the finale. The calm before the storm.

Which that last action scene was pretty cool and did the Return of the Jedi thing of having three action sequences at once, only this was all in the same room.

There were a couple of things that I had to suspend my belief for but it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the film. [Spoiler (click to open)]Mando wears a helmet and can filter out the air. So how/why did he get poisoned so easily when Rotta calls for the guards?

And when the Twins take Mando's helmet off and say it's worth a lot of money but then give it back to him when he's in the snake dragon pit. Then why bring up its worth? Is that for the benefit of viewers who don't watch the show and therefore don't know that?
This one I can let go more easily because the Twins probably figured Mando was a dead man anyway because the snake dragon bit him. Also, they don't need the money.

The music - EXCELLENT! Ludwig Göransson is a fantastic composer who continues the Star Wars score's legacy.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

Updates are now at That Artsy Reader Girl

June 2: Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read

1) Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
2) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
3) East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
4) Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
5) The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. (A friend recommended this.)
6) Antigone (Theban Plays No. 3) by Sophocles. (This inspired Pierce Brown to write Red Rising. And I have yet to read it.)
7) The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle.
8) The Secret History by Donna Tartt. (My sister keeps recommending this.)
9) The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer.

Tarkin by James Luceno

He's the scion of an honorable and revered family. A dedicated soldier and distinguished legislator. Loyal proponent of the Republic and trusted ally of the Jedi Order. Groomed by the ruthless politician and Sith Lord who would be Emperor, Governor Wilhuff Tarkin rises through the Imperial ranks, enforcing his authority ever more mercilessly…and zealously pursuing his destiny as the architect of absolute dominion.

Rule through the fear of force rather than force itself, he advises his Emperor. Under Tarkin's guidance, an ultimate weapon of unparalleled destruction moves ever closer to becoming a terrifying reality. When the so-called Death Star is completed, Tarkin is confident that the galaxy's lingering pockets of Separatist rebellion will be brought to heel—by intimidation…or annihilation.

Until then, however, insurgency remains a genuine threat. Escalating guerrilla attacks by resistance forces and newfound evidence of a growing Separatist conspiracy are an immediate danger the Empire must meet with swift and brutal action. And to bring down a band of elusive freedom fighters, the Emperor turns to his most formidable agents: Darth Vader, the fearsome new Sith enforcer as remorseless as he is mysterious; and Tarkin—whose tactical cunning and cold-blooded efficiency will pave the way for the Empire's supremacy…and its enemies' extinction.

This was a giveaway at New York Comic Con 2015. It's been on my TBR for a long time. In this galaxy. LOL.

Anyway, I put it off for so long because I'm not a big Tarkin fan. (Team Admiral Piett!) My sister and I call Tarkin "Coin Face" because his profile could be on a Roman coin.

For May The Forth I decided it is finally time to read it. It's not long and it's a standalone. And I really enjoyed it. I have no criticisms.

It's Tarkin's origin story mixed with the present day dilemma. I didn't think I would care about his backstory, but it was compelling. You can see where his ruthlessness comes from.

Present day takes place five years after the Clone Wars ends. A band of rebels manage to steal Tarkin's ship. (First time seeing the term shipjacking) and they can hijack the HoloNet feeds with forged holos and real holos of what the Empire is really up to. That was a good plot.

I like the Tarkin and Vader dynamic. Especially since they have history from The Clone Wars.

I loved the Vader and Sidious scenes. SOO GOOD.

James Luceno is a good writer and I like his other SW novels, so I'm not surprised this was also good.
It checks all the boxes: good pacing, character study, action and plot.

5 out of 5 HoloNet Broadcasts

Memorable Quotes:
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H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

As a child Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer. She learned the arcane terminology and read all the classic books, including T. H. White's tortured masterpiece, The Goshawk, which describes White's struggle to train a hawk as a spiritual contest. When her father dies and she is knocked sideways by grief, she becomes obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She buys Mabel for ?800 on a Scottish quayside and takes her home to Cambridge. Then she fills the freezer with hawk food and unplugs the phone, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals.

I first heard of this story when I saw Claire Foy on Graham Norton promoting the film. It sounded good and I had a long wait with the library to borrow the book. Of course a copy was ready right when I was going away on a cruise. So I took it with me on vacation.

I always kind of dreamed of being a falconer, even though I know nothing about taking care of birds. My high school mascot was a falcon and I love the Millennium Falcon. (Yes, I know Mabel is a hawk.) But I have always wanted a falcon. Who knows, maybe one day. Never say never.
Anyway, I learned a lot about hawks after reading this.

I really felt for Helen through her grief and depression. She's really descriptive when talking about her bond with Mabel, and nature, and becoming like a hawk herself. Then I also cared for Mabel too and felt like I also was bonding with her.

Helen is not just poetic about her musings and nature but she also goes deep into T.H. White and his failure with his goshawk, Gos. I'm not sure all of those musings about him were necessary, but I did learn a lot about him. And it is also clear that Helen really connected with his book, The Goshawk, at different stages of her life.

I really connected with Helen through her grief over her dad. I cried when she went to his memorial and heard the stories from his friends and co-workers. I was reminded of my dad's wake, meeting his co-workers and hearing their stories about my dad. It sounds like her dad was a funny and likable man, and so was my dad. That was very cathartic.

4 out of 5 Goshawks.

On the way home from my trip I watched the movie on the plane. Good adaptation. It got the tone and the most important parts of the book. It's not the kind of adaptation that is a scene for scene copy because the book is very internal. So to convey those emotions and explanations the movie had to create a scene. I also cried by the end of the movie.

Memorable Quotes. (This is just a few that I copied in my notebook. I wasn't going to type them all out so I found a few on Goodreads to copy and paste.
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Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

Updates are now at That Artsy Reader Girl

May 26: My Favorite Books by My Favorite Authors. (Pick your ten favorite authors and your favorite book written by each one of them.)

1) Pierce Brown- It's a toss up between Golden Son and Light Bringer. I go back and forth.
2) Katherine Arden - The Bear and the Nightingale.
3) Ruta Sepetys - Toss up between Between Shades of Gray and The Fountains of Silence.
4) Jane Austen - Toss up between Pride and Prejudice and Emma.
5) Ann M Martin - The Baby-Sitter's Club: Claudia and the Sad Goodbye.
6) Edgar Allen Poe - "The Cask of Amontillado".
7) Erin Morgenstern - The Night Circus.
8) Claudia Gray - Star Wars: Master and Apprentice (Although I hear Star Wars: Lost Stars is excellent and I still have to read that.
9) Sarah Beth Durst - The Queen of Blood (The Queens of Renthia Book 1).
10) Deborah Harkness - Shadow of Night (All Souls Book 2).
11) Nicola Yoon - Everything, Everything.

ETA:
12) J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
13) Emily St. John Mandel - Sea of Tranquility
14) Stephen King - The Shining
15) Susanna Kearsley - The Winter Sea
16) Agatha Christie - And Then There Were None