I watch a lot of murder-y shows, but I don’t read a lot of murder-y books. Ruth Rendell was unknown to me before I read The St. Zita Society. Apparently, she’s a beloved novelist of almost a hundred murder-y books, so it appears to be bad luck that introduced me…
Author: Q.
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The Q Review | Go Ask Alice | “Anon”
This book is a complete and utter piece of shit. I only finished it because it was so short and because I occasionally indulge in a hate-read. For those who are unfamiliar with the lore, Go Ask Alice is purported to be the posthumous diary of a teenage girl whose…
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The Q Review | Next to Heaven | James Frey
(And no, I don’t think these two statements are contradictory.) The result is a fast-paced, surface level story about a bunch of terrible, gorgeous, insanely wealthy and super horny white couples who live in the rarified air of New Bethlehem, Connecticut and whose relationships begin to unravel immediately after a…
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The Q Review | Twilight | Stephanie Meyer
It is the year 2025 AD, and I, a fifty-one-year-old woman, have read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer for the very first time. It should also be noted that I have never seen any of the films based on this series. Any prior knowledge I had of this book and its…
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TQL Podcast | S3E19 | Rita Toikka
Support The Qreative Life podcast through my Patreon, or via Paypal or Venmo (@AmandaQ555). S3E19 | Rita Toikka | LISTEN NOW In this episode of The Qreative Life podcast, Q reconnects with Rita Toikka, an artist who has followed an unconventional path – first as a frontwoman of an L.A.-based rock band, then…
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The Q Review | Algorithms of Betrayal | Anat Deracine
I found Algorithms of Betrayal by Anat Decine on NetGalley. This book took a while to grow on me, but once I got into it, I was hooked. I’m chalking my initial reticence up to my baggage working in and around technology for 20+ years. Initially, it felt like this…
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The Q Review | Yours, Eventually | Nura Maznavi
Nura Maznavi’s Yours, Eventually is a combination of a Pakistani television drama and a Jane Austen novel. Neither of these things on their own is particularly compelling to me, but put them together and set the action in the Bay Area, and I’m in. Like, really in. I am so glad I got the…
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The Q Review | The Grand Scheme of Things | Warona Jay
A couple of months ago, I read Yellowface by R.H. Kuang. While I enjoyed it for all the juicy drama (and gave it four stars), part of my critique was that the characters felt two-dimensional, making the book seem less about people and more about the issues on which the…
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Wanna save the world? Touch grass.
It’s a beautiful afternoon in Austin, Texas. I just returned from a six-mile walk through our neighborhood. The sky is a cloudless, fathomless blue that hurts your eyes when you look at it for too long. Riots of wildflowers have crowded the empty lots and undeveloped fields. I paused momentarily…
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The Q Review | Outlive | Peter Attia, MD
Last November, as I lay in my bed recovering from foot surgery, my husband came home from a doctor’s appointment and told me that he needed surgery, too. A quadruple bypass. He’s 52. Needless to say, this experience has lit a fire under our asses to re-examine our diet and…