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422 ratings (4.18 avg)
112 reviews

Rachel

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Rachel’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (4564)
currently-reading‎ (3)
read‎ (415)

did-not-finish‎ (0)
gr-new-releases‎ (62)
anticipated-history‎ (26)

dnf-maybe-later-shelf‎ (13)
bootube-prize-2021‎ (9)
african-american-history‎ (7)

booktube-prize-2024‎ (4)
nonfiction-2026‎ (1)

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Rachel is Currently Reading

Rachel is currently reading

The Trial of Lizzie Borden

by Cara Robertson

bookshelves: gr-new-releases, currently-reading

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52 minutes ago

Rachel is currently reading

BUtterfield 8

by John O'Hara

bookshelves: currently-reading

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progress:

(page 40 of 274)
— 15 hours, 9 min ago

Oct 26, 2026 07:06PM

Rachel is currently reading

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family

by Robert Kolker (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: bootube-prize-2021, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in March 2021

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Rachel said: " 5 stars. This is one of six books for the Octafinals in the BookTube Prize that I was judging for this year. I actually read this book last , but this ended up being my favorite book out of the bunch. So I ranked it #1 ( 6 the worst, and #1 the best) 5 stars. This is one of six books for the Octafinals in the BookTube Prize that I was judging for this year. I actually read this book last , but this ended up being my favorite book out of the bunch. So I ranked it #1 ( 6 the worst, and #1 the best). I was pleased to learn that this has moved onto Quarterfinals. This book tells the story of the Galvin Family. Mimi and Don Galvin met as teenagers and fell in love. Mimi ended up getting pregnant, and they got married. That didn’t stop Don from trying to fulfill his own career goals, which was to get into the Military. I can’t remember which branch he was in when he first started out. But I do remember that he eventually ended up in the Air Force. Despite the fact that he was away for most of the time, this didn’t stop him and Mimi from having more children. They ended up having 12 children, ten boys, and two girls. The oldest born in 1945, and the youngest in 1965. Spanning the baby boom. Glavin’s were seen as this all American family. By the mid 1970’s all that began to change for the worse, six of the Galvin boys, one after another were all diagnosed with schizophrenia. I liked this book because Kolker was talking about the family and their dynamics, but another part of this book was a very detailed history of Schizophrenia. Before reading this book, I heard of Schizophrenia, but I’m not expert on it. So it was nice to read the history of it, along with reading about the Galvins. I kind of wish that Kolker would have talked more about how the Galvins came to be test subjects for one of the studies being conducted on families who have one then more family members who have schizophrenia. Considering how detailed he was about everything else, this had me scratching my head. I thought that the relationship between the sister was another interesting aspect. Though they experienced some of the same things they dealt with it in totally different ways. Overall, I thought this story was really good, and that's why I ranked it #1 ...more "

progress:

(page 1 of 377)
— Oct 21, 2026 08:20PM

Apr 05, 2021 05:19PM · see review

Rachel’s Quotes

“The ultimate logic of racism is genocide,
and if one says that one is not good enough to have a job that is a solid quality job, if one is not
good enough to have access to public accommodations, if one is not good enough to have the
right to vote, if one is not good enough to live next door to him, if one is not good enough to
marry his daughter because of his race. Then at that moment, that person is saying that that
person who is not good to do all of this is not fit to exist or to live. And that is the ultimate logic of racism.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

tags: genocide, martin-luther-king-jr, racism

20 likes

“The best way to know someone was to look at their library.”
― Eva Leigh, Scandal Takes the Stage

10 likes

“Let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons.”
― Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban

tags: inspirational

330 likes

“Do you enjoy reading, Lady Sarah?” he asked.
“Very much,” she answered. “Sentimental novels are my favorite, though I’m not supposed to say so.”
“Why not?” he wondered with genuine surprise.
“Because they aren’t edifying or educational. Because they teach me to expect things out of life that aren’t really possible.”
He made a scoffing sound. “Rubbish. Not the books, but those opinions. There’s nothing wrong with a little escape. And there’s certainly nothing at fault with teaching someone how to hope for a better life.”
― Eva Leigh, Temptations of a Wallflower

3 likes