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Rachel

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Rachel’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (4565)
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did-not-finish‎ (0)
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anticipated-history‎ (26)

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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

Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War

by Catherine Grace Katz (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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13 hours, 49 min ago

Rachel is currently reading

BUtterfield 8

by John O'Hara

bookshelves: currently-reading

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(page 40 of 274)
— 13 hours, 8 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

“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”
― Franz Kafka

4780 likes

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

tags: 1970, inspirational, stories, writing

31663 likes

“When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time.”
― Maya Angelou

tags: oprah-s-thank-you-game, people

9415 likes

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

tags: inspirational, politics, presidential

8633 likes