Jessica Lux-Baumann was raised by a librarian mom and a historian dad.

As a child, she regularly hit the 15-item limit on her library card. To pay the bills, she is an aerospace engineer by day, but she devours literature at night. Jessica is a fan of children's literature, young adult books and modern literary fiction. Her main drugs of choice, however, are memoirs and autobiographies about trauma, addiction, recovery and purely strange lives.

Jessica enjoys making Amazon.com lists and guides, and regularly corresponds with her parents about their latest reads. On any gift-giving occasion, she looks to her review list to match a title with the recipient.

Reviews by Jessica include:

Books

Margaret Atwood
Cat's Eye

Will Beall
L.A. Rex

Andrew Beaujon
Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock

Jeremy Blachman
Anonymous Lawyer

Alex Boese
Elephants on Acid: & Other Bizarre Experiments

Peter Bogdanovich
The Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten, 1960-1980

David Borgenicht
How to Con Your Kid: Simple Scams for Mealtime, Bedtime, Bathtime, Anytime

Yvonne Bornstein, with Mark Ribowsky
Eleven Days of Hell

Lorraine Bracco
On the Couch

David Brin, editor
King Kong is Back!

Hillary Carlip
Queen of the Oddballs: & Other True Stories from a Life Unaccording to Plan

Linda Carroll
Her Mother's Daughter:
  A Memoir of the Mother I Never Knew & of My Daughter, Courtney Love

Michael Carroll
Awake at Work:
  35 Practical Buddhist Principles for Discovering Clarity & Balance in the Midst of Work's Chaos

John Carter
Sex & Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons

Kate Christensen
The Great Man

Marilyn Church
The Art of Justice: An Eyewitness View of Thirty Infamous Trials

Will Clarke
The Worthy: A Ghost's Story

Eden Collinsworth
It Might Have Been What He Said

Kerry Max Cook
Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit

Bernard Cooper
The Bill from My Father: A Memoir

Rita Cosby
Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death

John Crawford
The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq

Lionel Dahmer
A Father's Story

Phoebe Damrosch
Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter

Janice Dickinson
Check, Please! Dating, Mating & Extricating

Stephen Dobyns
Eating Naked

Elena Dorfman
Fandomania

Glen Duncan
I, Lucifer: Finally, the Other Side of the Story

Jennifer Egan
The Keep

Dave Eggers
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Stephen Elliott
My Girlfriend Comes to the City & Beats Me Up

Bret Easton Ellis
American Psycho

Ann Fessler
The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade

Janet Fitch
Paint It Black

Emma Forrest
Damage Control: Women on the Therapists, Beauticians, & Trainers Who Navigate Their Bodies

E.R. Frank
Wrecked

Lynn Freed
The Curse of the Appropriate Man

Stephen Fried
Thing of Beauty

Lonn Friend
Life on Planet Rock: From Guns N' Roses to Nirvana, a Backstage Journey through Rock's Most Debauched Decade

Debra Galant
Rattled

Stefan Gates
Gastronaut: Adventures in Food for the Romantic, the Foolhardy & the Brave

Deborah Godin
Papa Do Run: A Baby Boomer Looks (& Laughs) at Vintage Rock 'n' Roll

Robert Greenfield
Timothy Leary: A Biography

Adena Halpern
Target Underwear & a Vera Wang Gown: Notes from a Single Girl's Closet

Jake Halpern
Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truths Behind America's Favorite Addiction

A.M. Homes
The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir

Mike Horn
Conquering the Impossible: My 12,000-Mile Journey Around the Arctic Circle

Elisabeth Hyde
The Abortionist's Daughter

John Irving
A Prayer for Owen Meany

Kazuo Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go

Kevin Jennings
Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son

Terri Jentz
Strange Piece of Paradise

Ron Jeremy
The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz

James David Jordan
Something That Lasts

Carrie Kabak
Cover the Butter

Sue Monk Kidd
The Mermaid Chair

Anthony Kiedis
Scar Tissue

Josh Kilmer-Purcell
I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir

Barbara Kingsolver
Pigs in Heaven

Caroline Knapp
The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays

Jon Krakauer
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

Robert Kurson
Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II

Lori Lansens
The Girls

John Leake
Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer

Linda Francis Lee
The Devil in the Junior League

Susan Magee, with Dr. Kara Nakisbendi
The Pregnancy Countdown Book: Nine Months of Practical Tips, Useful Advice & Uncensored Truths

Wendy McClure
The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan: Classic Diet Recipe Cards from the 1970s

Richard Melo
Jokerman 8

Elizabeth Merrick, editor
This is Not Chick Lit: Original Stories by America's Best Women Writers

Mary Beth Miller
On the Head of a Pin

Christopher Moore
A Dirty Job

Michael Moynihan
Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground

Karin Muller
Japanland: A Year in Search of Wa

Haruki Murakami
After Dark

Justine Musk
Bloodangel
Uninvited

Chuck Negron
Three Dog Nightmare: The Chuck Negron Story

Jack Olsen
I: The Creation of a Serial Killer

Carolyn Parkhurst
Lost & Found

Kathy Passero & Beth Efran
Laguna Beach -- The Real Orange County: Life Inside the Bubble

James Patterson
The 5th Horseman

Cetywa Powell, editor
Underground Voices

Julie Powell
Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen

Laura Preble
The Queen Geek Social Club

Roy Ratcliff
Dark Journey, Deep Grace: Jeffrey Dahmer's Story of Faith

Dana Reinhardt
A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life

Mary Roach
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

Matt Ruff
Bad Monkeys

Jennifer Saginor
Playground: A Childhood Lost Inside the Playboy Mansion

Elyn R. Saks
The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

Hana Schank
A More Perfect Union: How I Survived the Happiest Day of My Life

Julia Scheeres
Jesus Land: A Memoir

Alice Sebold
Lucky: A Memoir

Amy Sedaris
I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

Nikki Sixx
The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star

Slash & Anthony Bozza
Slash

Irene Spencer
Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife

Michelle Tea
Rose of No Man's Land

Dave Thompson
Black & White & Blue: Adult Cinema from the Victorian Age to the VCR

Keith Thomson
Gus Openshaw's Whale-Killing Journal

Cathy Travis
Constitution Translated for Kids

Lisa Tucker
Once Upon a Day

Sarah Vowell
The Partly Cloudy Patriot

Adrienne Maria Vrettos
Skin

Annie Wang
The People's Republic of Desire

Marilyn Wann
FAT!SO?: Because You Don't Have to Apologize for Your Size

Wendy Wasserstein
Elements of Style

Kayla Williams
Love My Rifle More Than You: Young & Female in the U.S. Army

Gary A. Wilson
The Triangle

Philip Zimbardo
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil


Movies

American Psycho

Because I Said So

Bully

Candy

The Chumscrubber

Cocaine Cowboys

Dirty Pretty Things

High Times Presents The Cannabis Cup

Idiocracy

The Life of David Gale

Manic

Metal: A Headbanger's Journey

Sherrybaby

Star 80

The Warriors