This is the true story of Elizabeth Packard who's husband had her put in a mental hospital because she dared to have ideas and opinions that were different from his. At the beginning she befriends the head doctor at the hospital but later he turns on her and she has to experience terrible conditions. The story revolves around how she gets released and then goes on to fight for the rights of women wrongly placed in these institutions and improves the conditions of those who have to stay. She also has to fight to regain her family of 6 children. It is very interesting but also incredible that such things were actually considered normal at one time.

This was an interesting book mainly set in Cambridge University in England. The Maidens are a group of students who are devoted to a particular professor. Some grisly murders take place and the aunt (and former Cambridge student) of one of the girls who attends the college attempts to solve who is committing them. There are lots of plot twists and I did not guess who did it at all. Definitely a page-turner until the end.

This was a good book for facts but didn't tell me a lot that was new

After getting into a fight with her roommate and abandoning her at a party, Charlie Jordan has become known on campus as "the girl who let her roommate get murdered." Though few will come out with their blame towards Charlie, the same can't be said for her roommate's family. You see, Charlie was at the party her roommate was last seen at, and she's pretty sure she saw the man who killed her. Unfortunately for Charlie, she has a tendency to get lost in her thoughts and hallucinate, so she's not sure what the man actually looked like - just what the figment of her imagination looked like, and he was something out of a Hollywood movie. Unable to deal with the guilt of being useless in the investigation, Charlie decides to use the local ride board to hitch a ride off campus and go home. Cue Josh Baxter, who just so happened to be at the board at the exact same time, and who is going in the same exact direction as Charlie needs to go. It seems like a perfect match! Unfortunately for Charlie, the further along the ride she goes, the more certain she is that the man she's with is not actually Josh Baxter. And he's probably not actually going to where she needs to go. And he seems to know things about her roommate's murder that he shouldn't know, things that were never released to the public. Stuck in the car with him for the rest of the night, Charlie has to do whatever it will take to survive. This is a great quick read, but there's nothing really spectacular about it. The main character getting "movies in her mind" was kind of weird and didn't really seem necessary to the plot at all. I really loved the idea of this book, but the execution of it wasn't there. It's definition something I couldn't put down, but it's not something I'd be likely to remember in a year.

Fixie loves her life, but her mom needs a break. So her brother and sister help her take of her dad's prized possession his store. Fixie realizes that her siblings do not see the store the way she does. Which causes some friction. A chance meeting in a coffee shop. Fixie saves Sebastian's laptop, he gives her an IOU. Will she ever use it and how. Will this chance meeting help her life. Great Quick read by Sophia Kinsella.

The Benefits Of Being An Octopus brilliantly captures the story of Zoey, a middle schooler charged with the task of taking care of her three baby siblings. So when a teacher notices her ability to speak up when it matters, Zoey is encouraged to join the debate team. At home, Zoey deals with an overworked mom being verbally abused by her boyfriend. Explaining topics such as gun violence, verbal abuse, and finding friends, The Benefits Of Being An Octopus follows Zoey as she speaks up for the things that matter to her and those she cares about.

This book is by a woman for women. It is about feminism and being the person you were meant to be, not the one society tells you to be. It is a memoir about one woman’s journey through this process and the lessons she learned along the way. Fast read!

I have been waiting to read this book! So glad that it taught me the dangers and advantages of being sick with a disease.

Amazing book, parts are a little hard to understand when they are not given a backstory such as kanji, ochimusha, and moonfolk.

I read this book but wish I had not wasted my time. It had a surprising ending but the whole story really annoyed me. It is taken from the point of view of two parents and the dilemma concerns one of their children and also a huge family party. I did not empathize with the characters and that is probably why I was not gripped.