Books like Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting — picked by fans

This novel made me giggle and made me think, too. It’s written from the perspectives of several very different people whose lives unexpectedly intermingle on a train. The one who steals the show (for me, at least) is Iona Iverson. She’s a middle-aged eccentric, equipped with an ever-ready handbag and French bulldog, and she is magnificent with it! She does not care what others think of her and has her own rules and routines firmly in place, but she has a huge heart. 

Some advice from Iona: "Your past experiences… are the foundations on which to build your future. Build them on pride, not shame."

I found it fascinating to read how play has changed over the past fifty years and beyond. I found many parallels between the changes to children’s play and changes to children’s reading. The influence of mass media on today’s children's play is undeniable and the authors did a great job of highlighting both the potentials and limitations of this influence. I was left with many questions and ideas after reading the book and really enjoyed how the book taught me to think about children’s play in a new way.

Can we talk about how amazing Nora Roberts is? I started reading her more traditional romance novels as guilty pleasures when I was younger and quickly realized she loves to write about strong women. The O’Dwyer trilogy is part of her supernatural books, focusing on an ancient curse, a long-held obsession and the enduring power of love. Tucked in a small village in Ireland are a brother and sister, their American cousin, and their circle of friends. Together, witches, warlocks, and humans battle an ancient evil to break a curse that has plagued their family for centuries. Two of the main characters are separated from each other by the curse and their longing is so palpable. I don’t do spoilers, so you will have to read the trilogy to find out what happens. 

The story is told as a memoir in first person. What I like about this is that it tells of a period in a Derbyshire working class home in the 1940s and 1950s.

The description of the family environment is very realistic and one is drawn in immediately and carried along by the love in the home is and the playful the antics of the children. However, it soon develops into a novel of a young girl who runs away from that home because her mother becomes mentally ill and her father doesn’t know how to help his wife and ends up severely beating her.

It continues into what she does on the streets of London and how she eventually ends up in a women’s refuge. It is a lesson on how things can dramatically change.

Jodi Picoult and Jenny Boylan have created a masterful novel on teenaged love and injustice.

Like an onion, the radiating relationships provide a platform for deep-dives into social issues. Woven throughout the book are detailed subplots on everything from beekeeping to gender discourse.

I love the story behind the book's title. There actually is Mad Honey, which can muddle people's thinking, and has been used to win battles in history. 

I especially appreciated the authors' notes. "What do I want the reader to take from this book?" Jodi asks rhetorically. "Nothing. I don't want the reader to take anything. But to give something, to give to the world." What an accomplishment, what a treasure.

Before even finishing the book, I'd ordered a copy for my beekeeper sister-in-law!

In trauma studies, Judith Herman is the GOAT. Truth and Repair follows up Herman’s landmark book Trauma and Recovery and cements her contribution to the study of sexual violence, healing, and justice.

Although The Body Keeps the Score became a surprise pandemic bestseller, it is Truth and Repair that updates trauma theory and clinical practice for the #MeToo era. Herman argues that justice is part of the healing process for individuals and communities.

Her feminist perspective on the real-world factors that enable sexual abuse is clear eyed and her prescription for how to connect healing and justice is ultimately hopeful.

I’ve never been to Wyoming, the setting of this book, and if I’ve read a book set in Wyoming, I can’t remember, but I won’t soon forget this story.

The landscape of Wyoming and all its flora and especially its fauna (hello, title!) are deeply ingrained in this moving and unique story where a little bit of magic (weirdness? nature? something wonderful, that’s for sure) adds a soulful twist to a story dealing with harsh realities.

I have read this book umpteen times. Every time, I am hooked by the second page. Eric “Moby” Calhoune is the best kind of friend every one of us needs—and he proves that in absolute devotion to Sarah Byrnes, whose childhood was the stuff of nightmares.

Eric is also a stellar swimmer, but he’s got no self-delusions. He says, “I’m not a great swimmer, but I’m good—a lot better than you’d think, looking at me…I also like the wake I create for the guy in the next lane.”

Who can’t love that guy? This is one of the saddest books I’ve ever read, and also the funniest—I cry; I laugh on almost every page. This is a powerful, horrible, beautiful story. 

Laura McClusky’s investigation of conjugal abuse among a Mayan community in Belize is one of the most ethnographically compelling books I have read on lived experiences of domestic violence.

McClusky was motivated to write this book because most domestic violence research had been clinical or sociological and had focused solely on the experience of violence, often approaching the phenomenon in a “peopleless manner.”

Refreshingly, McClusky decided to focus on the emotions, desires, motivations, and personal experiences of living women more holistically, thus overcoming tendencies to reduce women to the experience of violence and granting them the recognition as agents of actions that they deserve.  

This is a non-fiction book about how domestic abuse can easily turn into murder.

The author is an authority on cases of coercive control, stalking, and domestic abuse. Case studies are used frequently and the writing is clear and easy to read quickly. I found some of the concepts echoed some minor bullying that I was subjected to at school.

It begins with a typical scene where a victim of domestic abuse will not report the incident and will not get into the ambulance even though they are badly injured. The author says that it was this case which opened her eyes to the complexities of domestic abuse incidents.

The book debunks some common myths which perpetrators use as excuses, such as ‘crime of passion’. It describes eight stages of coercive control which can often lead to homicide. These are a whirlwind of commitment in the early stages of a… show more.