Barb Natividad 🇵🇭🇺🇸
@barbnatividad.bsky.social
I’m always write! | Buckeye 🌰 | MFA - Poetry | Currently revising my Fil-Am contemporary fiction novel. | Mini book reviews. | Find me at: https://barbnatividad.substack.com where I write about mental health, writing, reading. | @barbflashes.bsky.social
November 22, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Name a non-English film.
Hard Boiled
Hong Kong (Chinese)
Hard Boiled
Hong Kong (Chinese)
November 21, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Name a non-English film.
Hard Boiled
Hong Kong (Chinese)
Hard Boiled
Hong Kong (Chinese)
5⭐️ THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans. 2025. Contemporary. An epistolary novel in which 73yo Sybil keeps correspondence with family, friends, and even strangers through letters or email over a span of 9 years. Poignant. 💙📚
November 20, 2025 at 1:41 PM
5⭐️ THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans. 2025. Contemporary. An epistolary novel in which 73yo Sybil keeps correspondence with family, friends, and even strangers through letters or email over a span of 9 years. Poignant. 💙📚
4⭐️ SHOW DON’T TELL by Curtis Sittenfeld. 2025. Short stories. What I love about this collection is that most of the protagonists are, like me, in their 50s. The stories touch upon friendships, relationships, dating, marriage, and divorce in midlife. 💙📚
November 17, 2025 at 2:10 PM
4⭐️ SHOW DON’T TELL by Curtis Sittenfeld. 2025. Short stories. What I love about this collection is that most of the protagonists are, like me, in their 50s. The stories touch upon friendships, relationships, dating, marriage, and divorce in midlife. 💙📚
I made a fall wreath, then locked myself out putting it up. 😅
November 16, 2025 at 12:37 PM
I made a fall wreath, then locked myself out putting it up. 😅
November 15, 2025 at 1:39 PM
4⭐️ NOT QUITE DEAD YET by Holly Jackson. 2025. Mystery. Jet is attacked with a hammer and an aneurysm forms in her brain, one that’ll burst in a week. She uses that time to solve her own murder and uncovers family secrets. Will she find the perpetrator in time? She was annoying at first. 💙📚
November 14, 2025 at 1:37 PM
4⭐️ NOT QUITE DEAD YET by Holly Jackson. 2025. Mystery. Jet is attacked with a hammer and an aneurysm forms in her brain, one that’ll burst in a week. She uses that time to solve her own murder and uncovers family secrets. Will she find the perpetrator in time? She was annoying at first. 💙📚
November 13, 2025 at 1:45 PM
4⭐️ SHE DIDN’T SEE IT COMING by Shari Lapena. 2025. Thriller. A wife and mother disappears from her luxury condo. Will the detectives find her in time? Un-putdownable and kept me guessing to the end! 💙📚
November 12, 2025 at 1:43 PM
4⭐️ SHE DIDN’T SEE IT COMING by Shari Lapena. 2025. Thriller. A wife and mother disappears from her luxury condo. Will the detectives find her in time? Un-putdownable and kept me guessing to the end! 💙📚
3⭐️ THE VERIFIERS by Jane Pek. 2022. Mystery. An amateur sleuth investigates the death of a dating app client. During the unraveling, things got messy and I had a hard time following along because of all the talk about algorithms. Just okay. 💙📚
November 11, 2025 at 2:29 PM
3⭐️ THE VERIFIERS by Jane Pek. 2022. Mystery. An amateur sleuth investigates the death of a dating app client. During the unraveling, things got messy and I had a hard time following along because of all the talk about algorithms. Just okay. 💙📚
November 10, 2025 at 1:17 PM
3⭐️ KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: THE OSAGE MURDER AND THE BIRTH OF THE FBI by David Grann. 2017. History/true crime. An account of Osage tribe members murdered in the 1920s and the subsequent investigation by the then-nascent FBI. Started slow, picked up, ended abruptly. But want to see the movie. 💙📚
November 9, 2025 at 2:03 PM
3⭐️ KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: THE OSAGE MURDER AND THE BIRTH OF THE FBI by David Grann. 2017. History/true crime. An account of Osage tribe members murdered in the 1920s and the subsequent investigation by the then-nascent FBI. Started slow, picked up, ended abruptly. But want to see the movie. 💙📚
November 8, 2025 at 1:36 PM
3⭐️ DON’T YOU CRY by Mary Kubica. 2016. Mystery. Quinn’s roommate in Chicago goes missing and she searches for her. A stranger appears in a small Michigan town and Alex, a local teen, is intrigued by her. Will these two stories converge? Just okay. 💙📚
November 7, 2025 at 1:41 PM
3⭐️ DON’T YOU CRY by Mary Kubica. 2016. Mystery. Quinn’s roommate in Chicago goes missing and she searches for her. A stranger appears in a small Michigan town and Alex, a local teen, is intrigued by her. Will these two stories converge? Just okay. 💙📚
November 6, 2025 at 1:00 PM
The Kinks: Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
November 6, 2025 at 1:57 AM
The Kinks: Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
3⭐️ THE BOOK OF REPULSIVE WOMEN: 8 RHYTHMS AND 5 DRAWINGS by Djuna Barnes. 1915. Poetry/art. Dark drawings accompany these languidly rhythmic poems. 💙📚
November 5, 2025 at 1:48 PM
3⭐️ THE BOOK OF REPULSIVE WOMEN: 8 RHYTHMS AND 5 DRAWINGS by Djuna Barnes. 1915. Poetry/art. Dark drawings accompany these languidly rhythmic poems. 💙📚
3⭐️ LOVE FORMS by Claire Adam. 2025. Literary. 58yo Dawn gave up her illegitimate baby in Venezuela when she was 16. Originally from Trinidad and now living in England, she embarks on a journey to find her daughter, retracing her steps and decisions made along the way. Slow. Not compelling enough. 💙📚
November 3, 2025 at 1:12 PM
3⭐️ LOVE FORMS by Claire Adam. 2025. Literary. 58yo Dawn gave up her illegitimate baby in Venezuela when she was 16. Originally from Trinidad and now living in England, she embarks on a journey to find her daughter, retracing her steps and decisions made along the way. Slow. Not compelling enough. 💙📚
Fall has come to Chicago
November 2, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Fall has come to Chicago
November 1, 2025 at 12:26 PM
October Reads 💙📚
November 1, 2025 at 12:25 PM
October Reads 💙📚
If you see this, quote with a robot that isn’t from “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Doctor Who,” or “Transformers".
November 1, 2025 at 12:18 PM
If you see this, quote with a robot that isn’t from “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Doctor Who,” or “Transformers".
4⭐️ ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy. Trans. by Larissa Volokhonsky, Richard Pevear. 1878. Classic. Two stories: Levin is a jilted suitor and Anna is in a love triangle (whose story I preferred). Both are 19th-century, upper class Russians. To say more would spoil the novel. Excellent translation. 💙📚
October 30, 2025 at 1:44 PM
4⭐️ ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy. Trans. by Larissa Volokhonsky, Richard Pevear. 1878. Classic. Two stories: Levin is a jilted suitor and Anna is in a love triangle (whose story I preferred). Both are 19th-century, upper class Russians. To say more would spoil the novel. Excellent translation. 💙📚
Post something random or you’ll have an awful November.
October 29, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Post something random or you’ll have an awful November.
5⭐️ EVERYTHING EVERYTHING by Nicola Yoon. 2015. YA romance. Madeline has a disease that doesn’t allow her to go outside as she must breathe filtered air at home. A boy moves in next door and they begin an online relationship. Will she ever get to meet him in person? Didn’t expect the twist. Cute! 💙📚
October 27, 2025 at 1:55 PM
5⭐️ EVERYTHING EVERYTHING by Nicola Yoon. 2015. YA romance. Madeline has a disease that doesn’t allow her to go outside as she must breathe filtered air at home. A boy moves in next door and they begin an online relationship. Will she ever get to meet him in person? Didn’t expect the twist. Cute! 💙📚