about

Hi, I’m Rachel!

If you’re wondering what the heck my username is, it’s pronounced PAH-chay, a-MORE-ay, LEE-bree.  Or just ‘peace, love, and books,’ if you prefer.  It’s Italian.

Here are the basics:

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me hello
  • 29
  • Vermont
  • Book blogger
  • Cat enthusiast
  • Feminist
  • Rights Coordinator & Associate Editor at a children’s book publisher
  • B.A. in Italian Lit from Tulane University
  • Has lived in: New Orleans, San Diego, Bologna Italy.
  • Native English speaker; speaks Italian

I’ve been blogging since January 2017 and I’m having a blast.  I read across most genres, but mainly read adult/literary fiction, and my three main niche interests tend to be Greek mythology, Irish lit, and East Asian fiction.  All reviews are spoiler-free unless otherwise indicated.  All publication dates and publishers/imprints listed are U.S.-based unless otherwise indicated.

Please note that while I am not in the habit of listing content warnings in my reviews (unless a book strikes me as particularly graphic), I am more than happy to answer specific questions about content/triggers in any book that I have read.  If you’re comfortable doing so, don’t hesitate to get in touch in the comments section or via email.

More book related interests:

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cat friend #1 – percy
  • adult fiction
  • classics
  • literary fiction
  • mysteries/thrillers
  • horror
  • mythology
  • greek tragedies
  • feminism
  • nonfiction
  • historical fiction

Non-book related interests:

  • cats
  • tea
  • travel
  • tennis
  • theatre
  • bagels
  • feminism
  • vegetarianism

A few favorite books & plays:

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cat friend #2 – lily
  • Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
  • The Iliad by Homer
  • King Lear by William Shakespeare
  • Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
  • Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller
  • The Awakening by Kate Chopin
  • A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
  • Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
  • Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
  • Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
  • Oedipus the King by Sophocles
  • East of Eden by John Steinbeck
  • The Secret History by Donna Tartt
  • The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
  • Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  • And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
  • The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney

Come chat with me about books!

36 thoughts on “about”

  17. Glad to see all of the classics on your list. I highly recommend Christopher Logue’s War music if you haven’t already read it.

    And sorry to be so pedantic, but peace, love and books should be pax, amor, libri (all in the nominatve case. You have the first two words in the ablative).

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    Reply

      • Understandable! Probably misleading with all the classics faves too, but I studied Italian in school and lived there for a while so my blog title comes from that. Anyway, I studied Latin too so I get it, I don’t like to see incorrect noun cases either 🙂

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  18. Hi Rachel I’m happy to meet you and follow your blog as for now 😉 We seem to share a love for languages! My mother language is French but I’m totally fluent in English and Dutch. I speak some Portuguese (used to be fluent a long time ago) and I understand most latin languages (Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Romanian…) as they share the same roots. Thanks to Dutch I can understand 70% of written German (against same roots). I used to have a cat but became allergic and I am now the proud owner of a dog (she is a real clown). Of course I love reading, blogging and bookstagram! I will now go and follow you on Instagram. Book of the month… If I have time why not 😉

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    Reply

    • Hey, nice to meet you too! I love to meet another language lover! That’s so cool that you’re able to communicate in so many languages. I’m a native English speaker so I’ve had to rely on my high school and college classes for most of these – my Italian is definitely the strongest because I lived there for a year, but I sadly don’t get many excuses to practice it these days. German I’m attempting to self-teach, but I admit I’ve been lazy about it recently… it’s hard to juggle studying and reading! (I have no clue how some people manage to blog and go to school at the same time. I would have died.)

      That is very sad indeed about your cat allergy, but I’m happy you got a great dog out of it! I just followed you back on IG, your bookstagram is gorgeous! Time to check out your blog now 🙂

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      Reply

  26. Oooh, thanks for explaining your blog name! I was wondering what language it was in 😊 I think it’s amazing that you can speak so many languages — fluency in several languages would be a dream goal for me, and I’m slowly working towards that. I would love to learn French, German, and Spanish in the future too — I’m mostly familiar with Asian languages like Cantonese, Mandarin, and Japanese, and I only know 1 European language: Norwegian. Well, it’s a work in progress. 😋 Anyways, I can’t wait to explore more of your blog!

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    Reply

    • I wish I were fluent in all these languages! I also wish I had the opportunity to practice them all more, Italian in particular is especially hard to find a user for living in Vermont! That’s so wonderful that you’re familiar with so many Asian languages, I would LOVE to learn Mandarin one day!

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