en-US Wed, 26 Mar 2025 18:19:06 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7438291834 Wed, 26 Mar 2025 18:19:06 -0700 /review/show/7438291834 Erin gave 1 star to Juniper Bean Resorts to Murder (Happily Ever Homicide, #1) by Gracie Ruth Mitchell
I mean, this isn't my genre, so take my review with a grain of salt, but I couldn't get over the ick factor of the fact [spoilers removed]. Just kinda gross, to be honest. ]]> UserFollowing323625309 Fri, 14 Mar 2025 20:39:24 -0700 /user/show/88163338-rebecca-russavage Erin is now following Rebecca Russavage ]]> Review7321827978 Tue, 11 Mar 2025 07:59:13 -0700 /review/show/7321827978 Erin gave 4 stars to The Boughs of Love: Navigating the Queer Latter-day Saint Experience During an Ongoing Restoration (Kindle Edition) by Nathan Kitchen
bookshelves: mormon, nonfiction, memoir, panel
Kitchen is very effective at doing what he set out to do � translate the experiences of queer Mormons for the larger LDS community and make his case for extending membership privileges towards 2SLGBTQIA+ members that marry according to their orientation and live according to their gender identity. Yes, it is technically a memoir, but the memoir elements serve to advance his advocacy efforts. It captures how his life fits within the cultural currents of the queer Mormon experience.

That isn’t a bad thing. It keeps his focus razor tight. Every bit of his life that he shared ties into his theme, and it gives his arguments the emotional impact that only good storytelling can accomplish.

Kitchen crafts this book well. He deftly weaves his personal experiences with different eras of the church’s approaches to the LGBT community. He creates powerful frameworks for understanding the queer Mormon experience. My two favorites were his discussions of the rise and fall of different "dominant narratives� the church has used over the years when creating policies and rhetoric for its queer populations, and how he cracks open the problems with the church interacting with LGBT communities through the religious freedom lens because it treats LGBT and religious groups as distinct entities, and queer Mormons inhabit both realms.

Kitchen knows his audience and frames his chapters with the vivid, tangible, and memorable metaphors and personal experiences our favorite conference talks utilize so effectively. It’s a smart rhetorical choice because it squarely places the queer Mormon experience inside the framework of the faithful, rather than outside of it, and places the reader in the same frame of mind we slide into every Sunday when we come for instruction.

A beautifully crafted and emotionally resonant portrait of the realities, hearts, and resilience of queer Latter-day Saints. ]]> ReadStatus9172186019 Mon, 10 Mar 2025 18:55:43 -0700 /review/show/7252243538 Erin started reading The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore
]]> ReadStatus9172185107 Mon, 10 Mar 2025 18:55:29 -0700 /review/show/7393284159 Erin is currently reading I, Claudia: The Life of Claudia Lauper Bushman in Her Own Words by Claudia Lauper Bushman
]]> ReadStatus9152304139 Wed, 05 Mar 2025 19:55:25 -0800 /review/show/7379475508 Erin wants to read Weyward by Emilia Hart
]]> ReadStatus9145511236 Tue, 04 Mar 2025 07:35:25 -0800 /review/show/7374728832 Erin is currently reading Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson
]]> Review7330042295 Tue, 25 Feb 2025 10:57:43 -0800 /review/show/7330042295 Erin gave 3 stars to Black Beauty (Mass Market Paperback) by Anna Sewell
bookshelves: childrens, classics, audiobooks
I mean, 3 stars is actually pretty high for me for a book written from the perspective of an animal. They aren't my thing. Very Victorian children's book sensibility, but it does a good job of helping children gain empathy and value courage, and I liked how people from all walks of life were both heroes and villains in this tale (and given opportunities to choose to do better when they knew better, or not, depending on their character). ]]> Review7213992549 Wed, 19 Feb 2025 07:48:21 -0800 /review/show/7213992549 Erin gave 4 stars to Oathbringer (The Stormlight Archive, #3) by Brandon Sanderson
bookshelves: mormon, audiobooks, fantasy
4.5 stars, rounding down because I do feel like it should have been about 100 pages shorter (which is less of a criticism for a 1300+ page book than a 300 page one, but still), and I'd gotten used to the tight plotting of the previous two installments. Still, the world building is as rich as always, the characters have great growth arcs, the philosophical questions it wrestles with are interesting, and I loved its message about learning to carry the painful parts of who we are and what we've done instead of numbing ourselves so we don't have to feel it. This series earns its hype. ]]> ReadStatus9081796204 Mon, 17 Feb 2025 11:11:55 -0800 /review/show/7115241778 Erin wants to read The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism by Jen Gunter
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