A Box of Darkness
The Story of a Marriage

I'm always grateful to Goodreads First Reads to have the privilege of reading a pre-pub book. I gravitated to this one because of the publisher's comparisons to Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking, a lyrical, unflinching highly introspective book about the death of Didion's husband, John Gregory......more

A tender and reflective memoir that is not always easy reading. Her husband's alcoholism and anger were really the big issues, more than his sexuality, although probably all those things were connected. The grieving process is distressing enough without complicated by discoveries about your deceased......more

This is one of those memoirs that most likely served as a cathartic experience for its writer, and is of such a personal nature that, while one can thus understand the writing of it, one really can't understand the need to publish it. Barely five pages into her narrative the author recalls an act of......more

WARNING: LOTS OF SPOILERS. I absolutely enjoyed reading this book because the author is quite adept at telling a story, and has a gift for detail. She definitely transports the reader to the particular time and place, and I thought the subject matter was absolutely compelling. That being said, I foun......more

This was a title I got through Goodreads First reads, and I put off reading it because it's not my usual fare. As a school librarian, I usually read children's and YA books, and if I actually read a "grown-up" book, I usually prefer fiction. But having devoured Sapphique and not being prepared with......more