pickWow, what a great book. I was immediately hooked, and it never let go. The concept is fantastic, the emotions are raw, and even though I predicted the ending from the start, it still had me teary-eyed at the end. Beautifully written, inspiring, loved it.
pickI don‘t think I‘ve read books in the “for dummies” series, but this was quite good. Helpful explanations, humor, and good-sounding recipes!
pickNot too many recipes in here, but it‘s more about explaining how to adopt a new lifestyle of eating. DASH is recommended by doctors for lowering inflammation and blood pressure, and Mediterranean is supposed to be the best for health and long life. This is a combination to give you the best chance for healthy ways of eating. Explained well, lots of examples. Lots of vegetables, lean meats and fish, nuts, dairy, fruit.
so-soIt‘s the story of a girl who goes out to be a governess because her father didn‘t invest his money well and they became poor. It was a fictional expose on what it was really like to be a governess. Spoiled kids, parents that don‘t help and just blame, away from home, little recognition by society in general. It turned into a subtle love story, and I enjoyed that. I definitely wasn‘t as impressed in writing style as Charlotte and Emily.
so-soThe author takes a very narrow, specific approach to a Chopin biography by solely focusing on his life in the years he wrote his funeral March. There were a lot of interesting tidbits I enjoyed, but overall the wandering narrative of other people and politics and culture in Chopin‘s life as well as the author‘s travels and thoughts became too unorganized for me.
pickI enjoyed these poems and Sara Teasdale‘s style. The introduction mentioned that it was a bit old-fashioned for the early 20th century, but I quite enjoyed it for whatever time it was in. Definitely an overall melancholy tone and a lot of repeated themes. She really loved the month of April, the star Arcturus, and Sappho. I liked 48 of the poems. Pictured is one of them.
pickI‘m not religious but I am a fan of vampire stories, and this one was really quite unique. Basically, Christianity saved Raven‘s soul, and he gradually (through good deeds and faith) became human again. Physiologically, not sure that makes a whole lot of sense but you know. I was pleasantly surprised that the romance between Raven and Calandra was so chaste throughout. I think Luco turning out to be a vampire actually dampened the story a bit.
pickThis is one of the best graphic novels I‘ve read. The author built this alternate world where wishes are commodities that are mined and sold. It is so thorough and the philosophical musings of whether someone should use a wish or not and what would be the best wish is fascinating. There are three first class wishes that the book is basically divided up into, and it‘s set in modern-day Egypt. I was really impressed.
panDefinitely reminded me of Nausicaa, but it seems this was published in the 80s in Japan, so that makes sense. The story wasn‘t super riveting to me. Pretty, watercolor, blurry artwork. Narration style was odd.
so-soAs was the case with The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, Zevin‘s writing style is so engrossing. Definitely kept me reading but was rather dark throughout. A lot of depression. Centers around Sam and Sadie‘s friendship through time. Enjoyed the video game maker and player themes. It ended up not being a book I‘d want to keep but was interesting to read.
so-soInteresting concept but I‘m not sure it really drew me in by the end.
bailedThat was absolutely the worst book of the series. It was all over the place, where narration and plot it concerned. It was disgusting and disturbing throughout. I‘ve come to the conclusion that this author is a misogynist a-hole. The ending fizzled out ridiculously, like reading that whole series was a waste of time. Very unhappy.
pickAbsolutely adorable, ughhhhhhhh. As a cat parent and mostly ex-gamer, this manga was perfect. The story of a woman who works in an office by day and games by night who adopts a cat. She‘s never had a pet before so she approaches having her cat, Musubi, like she would a game. Hilarious and cute to the max.
so-soWell, I loved the concept. The intro just hit me over the head with the fantasy of monarchy in America and the what-if of George Washington being made king instead of president. There were bits of originality in the setting beyond that, but then the author just copied themes of the real British monarchy‘s family. It really became a story of young romance with couples that aren‘t “supposed” to be together but are. The ending was very abrupt.
panFirst of all, the cover is an overt rip-off of Twilight. Some writing things that annoyed me: Shivers or chills that had nothing to do with the cold or Alaska. Text shorthands. Feelings ‘deep inside‘. Why did it take half the book to reveal the magical secrets? So obvious. Grace is so annoyingly desperate. Goes way more in depth on the romance of the story than world-building.
pickLove it. Of the crystal guides I‘ve read, this is the one for me. Succinct on the background information of crystal healing and a huge encyclopedia of crystals which also contains succinct but a broad range of information.
bailedToo sarcastic in tone for me. It was funny and entertaining at first, but then it grated on me. These are real women who did interesting things, and it seems like she‘s almost making fun of them. Weird tone.
pickI think this is one of my favorites of the series. The author jumps around in time and jumps between groups of people because Geralt is with his own band of followers from the previous book, Yennefer is on her own, and Ciri started with the Rats, then captured, then with Vysogota and then on her own. This story is just told in a more engaging and riveting way with less of the tedious politics compared to previous books in the series.
Myrkvid, huh? Sounds a lot like Mirkwood to me 🤨 Copying Tolkien, are we, Sapkowski?
panThe writing style started out really promising, and then about a quarter of the way in it started to feel tedious. There was next to nothing about his personal life and his family, it was all professional. He had the Benny Goodman “ray”, his glare when he wasn‘t happy about someone. He hired and fired constantly, usually out of egoistical reasons. Very standoffish and had a hard time communicating.
Mozart is still the boss 🎶
so-soInteresting introduction for me to the world of healing crystals. Some of the magic descriptions seemed kind of vague, but I appreciate that the basics of chakras, energizing, and uses were explained. I have saved the crystals that I think would be most relevant for me! Very approachable way of writing.
panIt took a while for this book to gain some momentum. And then when the characters made their team, it seemed forced. The objective of the team didn‘t seem compelling enough and the female and male dynamic of the team was very stereotypical. It got more interesting with the twist in the last fifth of the book, but overall I was kind of disappointed. Plot seemed promising but the delivery didn‘t grab me.
panI probably should have gathered from the title and summary, but I thought this was going to be more about cats and his relationship with them versus an autobiography. It was about his struggles with addictions of all kind, his early life as a musician, and how he started to develop his philosophies about cat behavior. You can tell he‘s a songwriter because he used too much figurative language. Nice that he narrated the audiobook.
pickThere were an embarrassing number of women in music that I didn‘t know about. Here they are: Alexina Louie, Gaelynn Lea, Isabella Colbran, Jada Watson, Kassia, Mary Youngblood, Odetta, Quilla, Selena, Tanya Tagaq, Ulali, Valerie Capers, Wendy Melvoin, Xian Zhang, Yuja Wang, and Zenobia Powell Perry.
panWhew, I made it. It was interesting for a while but then it just dragged. It almost seemed operatic to me in its melodrama and dialogue. I have enjoyed the philosophical musings in other Russian novels but the musings in this one did not keep my interest; I ended up skimming them.
pickCuuuuute. Nice manga version of her tidying up book. So funny when she gets mad in manga form because she doesn‘t get mad on the Netflix show. And that Chiaki referred to her as a fairy. I don‘t remember her explaining that clutter is often either holding onto the past or fear of the uncertainty of the future. Even though the idea of holding onto things that “spark joy” can seem silly, it works!
pickAwesome, very funny! Enjoyed it as much as the first. Obviously the author had a kid when writing this sequel.
pickThe author kind of throws you into this Inside/Outside world without much information at the front end. But it‘s quite fascinating. The Teacher Outsider creature is so nice to Shiva. Some of the illustrations were so dark I couldn‘t see what they were trying to show, so a little more contrast in some of the art would have been helpful since it‘s already all in black and white. But I want to see what happens next!
bailedAlright, I only got 39% of the way into this book, and I couldn‘t do it anymore. I didn‘t like the narrator at all. Robin William‘s life choices were increasingly upsetting. I only knew of him through his dramatic/comedic movie roles like Jumanji, Mrs. Doubtfire, Aladdin, What Dreams May Come, etc. So hearing about his cocaine and alcohol use, excessive infidelity with his wife, and depraved stand-up routines was too much for me.
pickAwesome collection of poems, one of my favorite in the series I think. I really liked quite a lot of the poems. My only hang-up was that the editor didn‘t include dates of the poets, so I didn‘t have a reference of their era, and they do that in all the other collections.
pickAwesome collection of poems, one of my favorite in the series I think. I really liked quite a lot of the poems. My only hang-up was that the editor didn‘t include dates of the poets, so I didn‘t have a reference of their era, and they do that in all the other collections.
