Chris
I love the movie, and I really enjoyed this book. The law school characterization - the broad strokes - is funny and pretty spot on. Law school is weird, and the weirdness is similar from school to school. I like what they took of that from the book and incorporated into the movie. I suspect, given the gobs of folks here who were 'meh' about the book - they're not picking up on the insider humor regarding law school. What can I say, you had to be there. Elle spends a lot of time skipping class - which doesn't jibe with law school (esp 1L) - but that fictional quirk works for the story and I easily forgave it. She studies and she's smart - so she's working through the material on her own time. I liked the characterization of the trial attorney also - (he's turned into a bit of a villain in the movie) - he's at a point in his career where a lot of the shine has gone off the job and he's got an idiot for a client - and that's nicely sketched out without being heavy handed. I'll add this one to my beach re-reads and will probably loan it out to my friends with JDs. Thumbs up!
I’m so bummed. This one has been on my to-read list for years. To my delight, I found it tucked away in a used bookstore. The reviews plastered all over the cover are glowing – it’s a Hugo and Nebula Award Winner! I bought it and took it home, and immediately started reading.
I am not feeling the love for this one. I really had to work to finish this rather short book. It’s not particularly funny ha ha… mildly amusing, perhaps? The world-building was interesting. The style of writing made for some confusion and heavier wading than I was expecting. The pacing is weird – then I figured out it was published in serial form, so I could forgive some of that oddness. And, it’s a product of its time – so it’s just so very many many men (even the aliens are men) and the two women that crop up either are either the sex interest or in need of being rescued.
This one was hard to put down. If you weren't alive at the time and never got to this era in high school history class, this is a good introduction to the issues and culture during the Vietnam War era. I found myself doing a fair amount of side-reading on the issues while I was reading the book. Thumbs up!
Loved this. It's a nice companion to the The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. As noted in the intro of SBCGSV, both books take place in the same community at around the same period of time. They're both horror. The common theme with both is friendship - SBCGSV is about adult female friendships - and My Best Friend's Exorcism is about teen girl friendships.
This one leans hard into 80s teen culture - which I really enjoyed.
I enjoyed this - but it's not my favorite in the series.
Flavia is on the cusp of transitioning into a teenager...and I'm not sure the series will survive the transition. There's so much potential here...please don't screw it up.
I dislike the annoying and unfunny cousin <s>Oliver<-s> Undine - her introduction to the series felt rather jump-the-shark and unnecessary to me. Someone needs to dispatch her to boarding school or off to other relatives.
This has been on my to read list for a few decades. I probably should have read it back in the '80s when the 1960s scifi/fantasy misogyny wouldn't have bothered me so much.
The book is a series of vignettes. Some are better than others. Some are a little hard to follow because of the dated style of the writing. Interesting concept that doesn't really get into the moral decision of how Helva came to be wired into the mainframe of a ship and encased in a titanium tube. I really liked the world building in the first vignette. I found the vignette involving the actors extremely hard to follow - this section really dragged for me.
Happy to check this one off of my to read list. Enjoyed it... I was entertained...but I'm not going to continue with the series.
I really enjoyed this slice of life story about teenager Mary Jane and her summer job nannying for a neighborhood family. The story does a good job of describing that point in time where households were beginning to transition away from the Donna Reed housewife era. I grew up in this era, and the descriptions of little Izzy's feral Gen-X upbringing were pretty spot on. Loved all the references to the music, I'll have to look up the author's playlist.
Really enjoyed this, the world building is well done and fun. The fourth son of the emporer finds himself unexpectedly on the throne. As he's learning the ropes, so are we.
The character names are an absolute bear to learn and get used to. I finally had the Wiki opened on the phone to keep everyone straight. Found at the 3/4 mark I was rarely cross checking. I will probably reread this at some point.
The story involves time travel and a toxic workplace. I like time travel stories and enjoyed this take on the time travel trope. What was difficult was remembering who all the characters were and who they were related to or directly connected to. This was an issue right up until the end for me. If I'd been reading this in book form instead of on my Kindle, I'd have been mapping out a family tree on the inside front cover that I could flip back and consult. I think the issue was, with the exception of Margaret and Bee, there wasn't a huge difference between the different characters. There also wasn't a massive difference between time periods when the story skipped ahead or back into the past. What was enjoyable for me was the world building for the rules of time travel. This one is just a sliver shy of a 4 for the world building.
