Barb Natividad 🇵🇭🇺🇸
@barbnatividad
I’m always write! | Buckeye 🌰 | MFA - Poetry | Currently writing micro memoirs and revising my novel. | Mini book reviews. | Find me at: where I write about my mental health, writing, reading.
4⭐️ THE MIDNIGHT FEAST by Lucy Foley. 2024. Thriller/mystery. Opening weekend at a luxury resort. Class warfare. Secret identities among guests, owners, and staff. Lots of twists—tense! Recommend. 💙📚
4⭐️ MARATHON MAN by William Goldman. 1974. Thriller. Graduate student Tom “Babe” Levy is being chased by hired killers for information they think he has. Tense! Can't wait to watch the movie. Recommend. 💙📚
3⭐️ THE QUITTERS CLUB by Jessica Strawser. 2025. Contemporary. Four college friends, about to turn 40, make a pact to quit the things in their lives making them unhappy, with the hopes of turning things around. Somewhat predictable. Just okay. 💙📚
Post a random picture or else everything will go bad in July. 🖤
4⭐️ THE LIONS OF LUCERNE (Scot Harvath #1) by Brad Thor. 2002. Thriller/mystery. The President of the United States is kidnapped and former SEAL/current Secret Service Agent Scot Harvath must find him. Lots of action, political intrigue on an international scale. Recommend. 💙📚
Saw this on my walk this morning. It’s going to be a humid, sunny day 🥵
4⭐️ 14 (Taylor Jackson #2), revised ed. by J.T. Ellison. 2008/2026. Crime fiction. A serial killer called Snow White (because his victims resemble the character) is killing again after lying dormant for years. Is it a copycat? Lt. Jackson must catch the murderer before he kills again. Recommend. 💙📚
Read three of my micro-memoirs at the Rizal Center Mental Health and Wellness Fair today!
#ThrowbackThursday Maeve when we brought he home with us. She experienced anxiety in the car, drooling and panting. She’s much more relaxed during rides now. #dogsky #dogsofbluesku
5⭐️ THE KEEPER (Cal Hooper #3) by Tana French. 2026. Literary/mystery. A young woman’s death rocks the small town she’s from. Rumors abound about the cause. Which is the truth? I hope French writes more in this series because it’s so good. Highly recommend. 💙📚
if you see this post a female superhero: Erlinda Arce Ignacio Espiritu, Filipina, first woman to graduate from Harvard Law School
4⭐️ A LONG GAME: NOTES ON WRITING FICTION by Elizabeth McCracken. 2025. Nonfiction/writing. Bite-size pieces of advice on novel writing. Because of that I read this over time and not cover to cover. Contains some good stuff. Recommend. 💙📚 #writingcommunity
4⭐️ THE ENDING WRITES ITSELF by Evelyn Clarke. 2026. Thriller/mystery. Seven writers compete for a publishing deal but must first ghostwrite the ending to a famous author’s last novel because, unknown to the public, he has died. They have 72 hours, then a winner will be chosen. Recommend. 💙📚
5⭐️ LAKE EFFECT by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney. 2026. Literary/historical. A mid-life crisis, and its consequences, rock two neighboring families over a span of twenty years. Excellent. Highly recommend. 💙📚
5⭐️ KIN by Tayari Jones. 2026. Literary/historical. Two motherless friends who met as babies grow up together but then go on two separate paths: one for a life of ease and the other for hardship. The paths converge into a reckoning. Excellent read. Highly recommend. 💙📚
I would have been the Empiricist in early modern Europe, which seems accurate.
4⭐️ THE SECRET LIVES OF MURDERERS’ WIVES by Elizabeth Arnott. 2026. Mystery. In the 1960s, three wives, whose husbands were jailed because they were serial murderers, team up to solve the new serial killer murdering young women. Fast-paced and entertaining. Recommend. 💙📚