Kristie
I can honestly say I have no idea what just happened in this graphic novel, but the world was so interesting I don't care. Giant cats! Families secluding themselves in mansions to avoid a 3 year long killer winter? Mysterious diseases and altered behavior (because of isolation or is it something else???)
Wow.
I enjoy these books. I actually have fun reading them, I just wish I remember them more when I'm done. Or maybe it's that I didn't read them back to back. I think I may have skipped one. I am really looking forward to the full length novel coming out.
That said, as a reminder to me: this one is number 4 in the series and Murderbot (should we start calling it Targetbot-as everyone and their brother wants it dead?) could take a vacation but it finds out Dr. Mensah is being held hostage by the evil GrayCris corp. Of course Murderbot does not have to help the humans, it just does. Also, Murderbot goes shopping and does not hate it.
It took me two weeks to get through this one. Let me be polite: it's not the worst book I have ever read (not even top 10 worst).
It started out okay. It had me questioning: what is success and what does it look like to different people?
Then, to sum it up, the book becomes “rich people problems”. If the reader identifies with that, great, I don't and have a hard time not rolling my eyes. Let's see someone living paycheck to paycheck having a breakdown and disappearing on her kids for 3 weeks. Let's see what happens in that situation. Breakdowns are a luxury.
I absolutely hated what Brodesser-Akner had to say about feminism, thanks for throwing my one of my core values under the bus. The worst part is, I don't believe SHE believes that- I think she's doing it for shock value and that sickens me. Look at me, I'm a female writer who writes from the POV of the establishment! There is not one female character in this story with any redeeming qualities (except maybe Joanie- who has enough brains to be a doctor and to avoid the hot mess that is Toby).
Fleishman is a too long novel about people without real problems who have no clue what life is really about and wander around in it's pages sorting out their hedonistic needs and bitching about their jobs.
I cannot believe the rave reviews it is getting. Most of those reviews claim the novel is funny. I didn't laugh once. It's not a funny book. It's not even satirical.
Should this have been on the TOB Short list? Hell no. I can think of 3 titles that would have been a better choice.
Also, I'm from New Jersey not via New York. Don't worry, we don't like you either.
Very cute, very smart book about an AI with a penchant for helping humans (and cat photos). This was very enjoyable, although it had a very similar plot to a book I read last year [b:Gretchen 40771626 Gretchen Shannon Kirk https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554859160l/40771626.SY75.jpg 63461334]. Once you get over how terrifying it is that anyone could reach you through all of the cameras and devices we use on a daily basis, this is a fun ride. Looking forward to the sequel. I also went back and read the original short story this novel sprang from: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_01_15/
I wanted to love Inland. It had so much going for it: strong female protagonist fighting the establishment and the patriarchy and the environment, camels conscripted to war!, the daughter of a mesmerist who holds weekly seances and a (possible) beast stalking them all! It should have been gold! Instead, I often found myself bored to tears and I lost patience with it. The writing is gorgeous but not absorbing, the story is pretty strong but not thrilling and these little sparks of amazing would happen and I'd expect “oh, now something cool is going to happen!” just kind-of pssssshhhhttted.
A non-spoilery example: the grandmother, confined to a wheelchair and paralyzed is suspected of moving when Nora's not looking. Surely that would become important at some point, right? Not really.
I think I just wanted more magical realism and it did not deliver. I wanted the novel to “go there”. It does not.
YMMV. I should have gone in with lower expectations.
I loved this. Devoured it! I love reading about daily life in a part of modern Russia. This is a story about two missing little girls and how their disappearance marks everyone around them. It's also a story about how people are treated based on where they are from, how more effort is put into looking for two missing “white” girls and almost no effort is put into looking for a missing native girl. It's a bit about the healthcare system (bring your own gown or be forced to march yourself to the operating room like Cersei Lannister in a walk of shame). It's about families, relationships and who you really are in this world and it all ends in a breathtaking, thriller-est ending that had my heart pumping so fast I thought I might pass out.
So, so very good!
Hum. This one will be hard to review. It's gorgeously written, a little over-written in my opinion. I found myself losing patience with it often as I just could not get invested in the story. Here we have two very independent, strong-willed people who built a family out of convenience and now we, the readers, get to watch it all fall apart on a road trip. In addition to that there were sections I literally felt I was sitting in a lecture hall in a class I was forced to take.
That said, the book absolutely came alive for me when the boy took over as narrator and the last quarter of the book is a whirlwind of breathless action. Two stories merge in the desert and it is incredible to experience. Honestly, the last quarter of the book made me so glad I read this.
Is it life altering? Maybe. I'll have to wait until some time passes before I see what I absorbed and what I will carry with me.
So, it's strange. While it is clearly one of the best novels I have read this year, I didn't enjoy it. I'm not sure I'd recommend it to patrons.
I want to note that I did a mix of audio book and physical copy on this one, and I'm glad I did. There are pictures, maps and lists in the book book that need to be seen, I feel.
This is my first time reading Whitehead, which is ridiculous as I have had The Underground Railroad on my night table for months. Despite not being an epic, I think this is as close to the perfect American novel one can get. I was, in turns, filled with hope and horror and shame. I see Elwood Curtis as a hero of the people. My review cannot do this novel the justice it deserves. When I wasn't reading I was looking up information about the Dozier School for Boys, looking for Elwood in the pictures. Whitehead's storytelling chops are peerless.
I loved this and parts of it really spoke to me. Several times, while reading, I was reminded of the same feelings I had while watching Fleabag. Part of me still wants to put my arms in the book and give Queenie a hug. A large part of me wants a grandmother to love me as much as Queenie's loved her.
I think we need more novels like Queenie, novels that feature a struggling female lead.
Well, I didn't hate it. What's the opposite of a reader's wheelhouse? This book falls into that category. I have such a hard time with rich (well, here they are upper, upper middle class) problems and grown adults who still blame all of their problems on their parents not loving them enough. I'm going to paraphrase a line from the book: Dad was bad. Mom was cold. Nana cooked. Something like that. It's really hard for me to grow empathy for kids who 1. had Nana and 2. had law school paid for. Maybe I have just read too many “death of the patriarch” books lately. I don't mind them. I just prefer they be a little more The Royal Tenebaums. [b:The House of Broken Angels 40603634 The House of Broken Angels Luis Alberto Urrea https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529592536l/40603634.SY75.jpg 57042177] was a fabulous read on a similar theme. Here's the thing, almost at the very end is a chapter about Sharon, a New Orleans native who is battling an overgrowth of vegetation in her garden because of an absentee Airbnb landlord's property is encroaching on her personal paradise. That is the story I wanted! I wanted to read about Sharon!!!!! Instead she is very mildly connected to the story and the chapter just feels thrown in there.
I loved this. Ironically, I could only get an ebook from the library and tried reading it on my phone but got frustrated trying to read the small print, so I waited until I could get a physical copy. This is hilarious considering what happened to the Mofo's.
I loved S.T., Dennis, and all of the bird champions in the story and have a true admiration for Genghis Cat (I really looked forward to her chapters). I was never into animal books when I was a kid (I skipped Homeward Bound and the like). Come to think of it, I did read the Jack London stuff...
anyway, it's an adventure to me to have an animal as a protagonist. I certainly developed a stronger respect for the animal world and their survival traits.
It was a wild ride.
I predict that, when I think back on all of my reading of 2019, the Sundial is going to stand out as one of the greatest books I read all year (and, maybe ever). That's not to say I didn't lose patience with it at some points, I did, but the WOW is worth the WTF.
“I wonder what nonsense we would be engaged in if we were not doing this.”
I wonder indeed.
We have a family so wealthy the literally do nothing all day, a governess, a gigolo, and some hangers-on waiting around for the world as they know it to end. They have been guaranteed that they shall survive “The End” and that no one else will. The elephant in the room, of course, is WHY would people who have everything desire the world to end? Because, despite being at the top of the food chain, they are very unhappy people. One of them is a murderer (not a spoiler).
Parts of the novel are laugh out loud funny. Some of it is terrifying. Jackson is the queen of writing dialogue in which two characters are talking “at” each other, but having two totally conversations (I have since seen this again in her short fiction and it's incredible). I'm sure there is some literary term for it, I just don't know it. It's a hell of a thing to read and experience.
I was already convinced of Jackson's magic before picking this up, but this just knocked my respect up a few more levels. Incredible.
I didn't love this. I had a real problem with Edie. She's a bit of a brat and if she had just talked to her mother earlier on, instead of at the very end, the author would have had more time to explore the culture and the specific conflict being presented here. What was an pretty great story kind of dissolved mid-book into typical tween tripe about friendships falling apart. I did appreciate the tour of Seattle (consequently, I am reading Hollow Kingdom right now and getting a totally different tour of Seattle).
I think the problem is me. I got very excited at the firework scene with the woman who was wearing the Find Our Missing Daughters tshirt and I though the story was going there.
Overall, it's not a bad read. It reads like a first novel. I'm sure Day will grow and grow with practice. I am thankful for a fictional voice that represents the tribal nations of the Coast Salish region.
Despite having the most narcissistic and privileged characters of any story I have read lately, I was all into this Twilight-Zone-feelie story of two siblings on the hunt for their missing parents.
I have to agree with most reviewers that the ending of this book is most dissatisfying, hence the 3 stars.
I listened to this on audio and loved the narrators.
I'm not one of those people who grabs a new King the second it comes out. In fact, I think I've missed quite a few of them. There was something about this one though that caught my attention. First, I forget (I read a lot of literary fiction) what it's like to be in the hands of a truly talented storyteller. Just because someone can smith some words does not mean they can control the story and the plot. Here, the pages- they turn themselves. I was so absorbed in this story. Truly excellent experience. I wish I had read this and Josh Malerman's [b:Inspection 41058632 Inspection Josh Malerman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534202983l/41058632.SY75.jpg 64119390] closer together. It would have made a great compare and contrast review. My only problem with it, and the problem is all mine, is that I couldn't get passed the idea of so many adults being okay with hurting children (I'm trying to stay spoiler-free here, but the reader must know that the children are being held against their will from jacket copy). I had a hard time buying into that. Second, I was thrown out of the story a couple of times by Tim's thoughts that Wendy was a bad cop (not bad as in on the wrong side; rather, bad as in not cut out for the job). It is mentioned multiple times, so much so that I started to get offended for her.
It took me a minute to get through this. It's a long book. Actually, I began to think of it as multiple books. First we have, at the beginning of each section, an excerpt from Over The Woodward Wall (don't skip them if you are reading this!) Then we have the story of little Dodger and little Roger who find friendship when they need it most, then we have them as teens, and then we have them as grad students. Finally we have a showdown between Good and Evil. It was quite a ride.
I listened to the audio book, which was narrated by Amber Benson and I have to say she did an amazing job. I loved Leigh and Erin grew on me.
What I forget, continually, is how funny Mira Grant can be and there were some laugh out loud moments here that were great for breaking the tension.
I read these out of order, but I don't think it mattered that much in the end. Honestly, I can see why kids are so obsessed with these poor characters who get thrown into dangerous (actually life-threatening!) situations and, by sheer force of having a good attitude meet some characters who get them out of trouble. As an adult, I can't help but cringe. Children being abandoned in motels! Children running away and then living with strangers! But I understand why a child would love it because I found myself cheering them on. Go, Louisiana, you can do it! Sing yourself into a new home (at the same time I'm thinking can someone please get this kid's lungs checked?)
If I step back and say, hey, this isn't any more dangerous than two kids running away and living in a museum, I get it. I loved characters like that when I was little. My Side of the Mountain? Yes, please.
Anyone else wish they could meet Raymie, Lousiana, and Beverly (especially Beverly- she's my favorite) as adults? I hope they turned out okay after all of this happened to them.