Karen J

https://www.goodreads.com/pugglemom

Karen’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (385)
currently-reading‎ (2)
read‎ (588)
did-not-finish‎ (0)
fiction‎ (128)
historical-fiction‎ (128)
adult-fiction‎ (106)
contemporary‎ (105)
thriller‎ (105)
wine-book-club-books‎ (105)
mystery‎ (90)
coming-of-age‎ (62)

crime‎ (59)
psychological-thriller‎ (42)
suspense‎ (42)
bbc-book-club‎ (36)
romance‎ (34)
paranormal‎ (21)
literary-fiction‎ (20)
family‎ (19)
ww-ii‎ (19)
magical-realism‎ (14)
fantasy‎ (12)
couldn-t-finish‎ (11)

bookclub‎ (10)
lgbt‎ (10)
chick-lit‎ (9)
novella‎ (8)
first-reads-giveaway‎ (7)
humour‎ (7)
memoir‎ (7)
ireland‎ (5)
net-galley-arc‎ (5)
beach-book-club‎ (4)
dystopia‎ (4)
legal-thriller‎ (4)

poetry‎ (4)
witches‎ (4)
women-s-rights‎ (4)
italy‎ (3)
magic‎ (3)
viet-nam‎ (3)
ghosts‎ (2)
non-fiction‎ (2)
time-travel‎ (2)
true-crime‎ (2)
africa‎ (1)
horror‎ (1)

Stats | More…

Karen is Currently Reading

Karen J is currently reading

Everyone But Myself: A Memoir

by Julie Chavez (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Apr 25, 2026 07:55PM

Karen J is currently reading

The Medicine Woman of Galveston

by Amanda Skenandore (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Apr 25, 2026 12:03PM

Karen’s Quotes

“She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn't boring.”
― Zelda Fitzgerald, The Collected Writings

3155 likes

“Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.”
― Nora Ephron

tags: courage, empowerment, self-determination, women

6528 likes

“Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness.”
― Allen Ginsberg

tags: be-yourself, self-expression

5078 likes

“His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide. He heard what her eyes said to him from beneath their cowl and knew that in some dim past, whether in life or revery, he had heard their tale before.”
― James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

1296 likes

“Like any child, I slid into myself perfectly fitted, as a diver meets her reflection in a pool. Her fingertips enter the fingertips on the water, her wrists slide up her arms. The diver wraps herself in her reflection wholly, sealing it at the toes, and wears it as she climbs rising from the pool, and ever after.”
― Annie Dillard, An American Childhood

462 likes

More of Karen’s quotes…

recent posts
Karen’s Groups

¡ POETRY ! — 22532 members — last activity 20 hours, 15 min ago
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more

Language & Grammar — 2163 members — last activity Mar 13, 2026 04:49AM
This group is for word lovers and has topics both serious (grammatical questions and concerns) and not so serious (word play and word games of all sor ...more

The Smoking Poet Fans — 218 members — last activity Mar 01, 2019 05:53AM
"Words that turn the page to flame." It's all about an ambiance. The smoky, dim light when you enter, the jazz quartet playing smooth and easy in th ...more

Poetry Readers Challenge — 645 members — last activity Jan 08, 2026 06:18AM
Let's talk about poetry books. This group's members read poetry collections, with the goal of reviewing twenty in a year. C'mon. Do it. It's good for ...more