Meagon
A heartbreaking journey through slavery coming straight from the lips of those that lived it, or were the close generations following. Lester has put together a phenomenal account that is made accessible to a wider/younger audience. It is important that children know these stories, that we teach them the truth of what really happened. Maybe, in time, the bitterness Lester chooses to focus on at the end of this book will be eased and mended; if we all work towards that goal instead of against it.
A beautiful collection of Irish lore. If you love fairytales and myths, you will love this book! Definitely written for a mature audience, as all the best folklore is a bit racy. Michael Scott has done a magnificent job collecting some of the best and most obscure lore from the people from the land itself. He heard the stories from the storytellers themselves, and I think it shows in the way their voice shines through.
These aren't corporate America's fairies and leprechauns. These elven and fey Folk will fuck you up...and laugh whilst doing it!
Boring. The reader needs to already have a working knowledge of the musical era of the early to mid 1900s to follow along. Could have been edited down to an essay instead of bloated into a 200 page book.
I have to say I really loved this book. It feels a lot like a Coen brothers movie or a Twilight Zone episode. The characters are really well written so that even for a short read, I feel like I can picture them all perfectly. Colleen is my favorite. I laughed out loud several times. The dialogue feels real and I love the author's descriptive style.
One of my favorite lines: “Empty plastic lawn chairs were scattered about the property, some of them clustered together and surrounded by discarded cigarette butts and half-empty beer cans, as if the occupants had been raptured mid-party.”
I like how there's not a pretty little bow tied up by the end. Life isn't like that, and I think this story does a fantastic job of showing how everyone is always on their own journey, doing their best from womb to grave.
A decent read if you just need some quick, good ol' guilty pleasure reading. Sexy vampires abound, and the heroine is fairly likable. One can't help but notice the single main female character; surrounded by handsome, hunky men; with zero other strong, sexy female characters. The only other women that feature are grey-haired maternal figures and a psycho dominatrix (who of course is described to be sexier than the main character, but is universally despised by all the male characters). Scared of competition much?
My odd quirk for falling for the bad guy; even amongst bad guys; has managed to strike again. Dragos' the biggest, scariest mofo that everyone's out to kill is the one male character I wouldn't mind reading more about.... Instead we focus on barely threatening Rurik with some smatterings of Tane, a.k.a Dragos Jr.
The series apparently continues to include some sort of ménage a trois; which while not inherently bad or even uninteresting; is still an odd way for this particular relationship to progress for me. This book was free, so unless someone gifts me the others in the series, I'm not looking to spend money to read further.
I am definitely a simpleton when it comes to physics, but Czerski's explanations in a story form; more often than not humorous or amusing; were easy for me to follow and understand. I've already noticed myself looking at the world around me a little differently now. Tea and toast will certainly never be the same, and I love this book for that. If you feel like you know absolutely nothing about physics, but have an interest to learn, I would certainly say this is a good place to get your feet wet.
What a spoiled, ignorant, hypocritical fool. I'm sorry for his family and that he had to choose the dumbest way to pursue a dream that was completely realistic. You can denounce how most of society lives and forge your own path, just be fucking SMART about it!
The foreword by Chopra should have really been more of a red flag to me. If an author feels the need to explain to you how you should read and experience their artwork, it's a bad sign.
There were some really good scenes and tense moments in this book that makes it that much more upsetting that Chopra couldn't just write the narrative and allow us to come to our own conclusions. The good bits are swallowed up by giant chunks of exposition or by Chopra interjecting explanations so that we “get it”.
The story is also hard to follow. I've read nonlinear storylines before and Pulp Fiction is one of my favorite films, so the out of sync timeline was certainly not a problem for me. What was a problem was the jumping around and use of plot devices to force the story along.
There's a moment where they find a character dead, someone resurrects them, they go ape shit and try to attack the group, the group runs away, pauses so Arthur can have a flashback to Merlin telling him about dragons being the evil inside people or some shit, and the group inexplicably goes back to find the ape shit character calmly doing chores again and ready to deliver another exposition dump. I've never had to reread so many sentences or even whole paragraphs SO MUCH in one book.
If you're looking for a unique take on the Arthurian legends, look anywhere but here!
Probably one of the most misrepresented books I have ever read. Touted as a book about the first dog and her owner; this rambling, nonsensical, soap opera, dumpster fire of a book is the first book I've finished that I will actually give one star to. Usually I reserve this low of a rating for books that drive me totally mad and that I can't bring myself to finish. This one had me pressing through, not because it's good in ANY way, but because I desperately wanted an answer to why the hell it's marketed the way it is. I have no answer, even after reading all of it, plus Cameron's Afterword, and his very own shining five star review that he left ON HIS OWN BOOK.
Even if I had known what this book was really going to be, I would hate it. Maybe slightly less, but I would still consider it lazy, middle-grade school level, repetitive writing that had me wondering how this book had possibly managed to receive such a high review score on Goodreads. Characters speak to each other in ridiculous ways that Cameron says was an artistic choice, there are repeated scenes written in slightly different ways sprinkled throughout, and there's only about 10-15% of the book that's actually about the first dog and her owner. Don't even get me started on how the characters names would be spelled differently several times on the same page. Which I suppose is more the editor's fault than Cameron's, but still infuriated me to no end.
If you want to read a story about the mom of the guy that first domesticated a wolf, another unconnected tribe (up until about 1/4 of the way through the book), and a TON about the Paleolithic version of Day's of Our Lives, this is the book for you. If you want to read a story about the first dog? Steer clear of this one.
I just can't anymore.
I wanted to LOVE this book. Dinosaurs + knights = a how-could-this-go-wrong epic. Right?!?
Nope. This book was TERRIBLE! So terrible I couldn't even finish it. If there was a way to give it zero or even negative stars, I would! Infuriatingly goes NOWHERE, with characters you care NOTHING for!
I am so disappointed. The premise sounded great, but when there's no actual plot, character arc, OR anything remotely realistic on behalf of the dinosaurs behaviors to keep you enthralled. WHY read on?!?
The absolute best book on explaining evolution to a layman audience. As visually stunning as the best coffee table books, yet full to the brim with information. A wonderful introduction to the subject if you've no idea where to start, and a beautifully done review for those that know their stuff. If I could hand copies out to people on every street corner, I would.
I do a terrible job of keeping up with Marvel and their ginormous stable of characters; which made the beginning of this book rather confusing. I was quite lost through a few of the first chapters. There are many moments where the timeline jumps from the past to the present with zero notification of a change. The authors/artists take the time to put a little box explaining WHERE you are, but not WHEN. Your few hints that maybe this is a different time, are things like Spider-Man being a completely different person, or a female character's hair being straight rather than wavy. I'm sure all of this would have been more understandable to me if I followed Marvel's mythology more closely. Thank goodness for my bestie/Marvel-Guru. If you don't have one of these, get one at your local comic book store, or get REALLY talented at reading Wikipedia without spoiling anything for yourself (unlikely).
That all being said, this story is phenomenal! I am blown away by the relevance to today's issues of whether thought and speech are a crime that is legally/morally punishable. Do we punish people for what we “know” they're going to do? Then of course, the age-old questions of fate and free will and whether either exist. Heart-wrenching, gut-twisting events made me flip through the pages in a single day. The story also finally fleshes itself out and things start clicking into place less than a quarter of the way through. So despite starting out hopelessly confused, I quickly started to gain enough of an understanding to enjoy the story immensely! I'm even chomping at the bit to read more about certain characters that really stood out; female Thor never intrigued me until now, and The Inhumans REALLY caught my interest.
Whether you're an avid Marvel fan, or just the casual reader; I'd most definitely recommend the Civil War series! It's a great snapshot of the Marvelverse, and gives a wonderful preview of what the franchise has to offer.
I am seriously shocked at how much I didn't like this book... because believe me, I wanted to.
Q ranks among my top five all-time favorite Star Trek characters. I squeal with glee when I recognize the start of an episode as a “Q episode”. I figured with the amazing talent of John de Lancie involved in the writing of this book, what could go wrong?
Apparently everything.
I don't even know who to blame, Lancie, or Peter David, the actual “novelist” involved with it.
The whole novel reads like a fan fiction written by a teenage boy that just recently read Douglas Adams' masterful work and is delusional enough to think he can be just as clever.
Picard and Data are walking plot devices that speak like cardboard cutouts of their true selves. Whether that was intentional because it's told from Q's perspective is debatable, but I feel it's more a lack of awareness on the author's part. Exploring Data's emotional chip results in basically a cartoonish display of anger and all of Picard's dialog sounds NOTHING like him.
Q's intriguingly arrogant, loner, mischief-maker characteristics are completely washed away by the inclusion and plot line of him having a family and going to rescue them. You have a character like Q and you give him the most basic, formulaic quest in all of storytelling history?!?! Any part in the story referencing his established characteristics on the shows is in flashbacks, stories Q tells you about “this one time”. Then there's stolen lines from works of literature that are MUCH better. They legit stole the “Inconceivable” bit from Princess Bride in an insanely unfunny and uncreative way.
I despise the ending.
One of the things I always loved about Star Trek was that any supreme being they came across, claiming to be a god, etc. was shown to be either a fake, or a being with the knowledge that it most certainly was not actually the end all, be all.
This book? This book strips away all that and boom, there's a god, or goddess, and the worst part? Q “prays” to her in the end.
Q.
Prays.
...
The only reason I didn't give it one star, is because I finished it and it wasn't as bad as The Dog Master, the worst book I've ever read, ever.
Quite the introduction to Physics! The only reason it doesn't get five stars is due to my own limitations of absorbing the material put forth. Feynman is a fantastic educator and communicator, and even my poor excuse for a brain was able to glean a much better understanding of the subject.
I didn't do well with Science in school. Looking back, I can honestly say it was an equal mix of my not trying hard enough, and my writing off scientists as ‘evil people against my religion'; a detrimental state of mind inherited from my family. I've never studied Physics at all, and still enjoyed this book immensely.
I would suggest only reading this if you truly have a longing to understand the universe more. It's not something to pick up as a ‘light, entertaining read' for a vacation or airplane ride... And be prepared for SO many equations.
I'll admit, I'm definitely a Feynman fangirl now. I never paid nearly as much attention to any other science than Biology, and I'm glad I've found more areas of interest to expand my horizons. I have Mr. Feynman to thank for that. His words have lit up a passion in me similar to how I felt when I read Darwin and Dawkins.
I'm not a scientist, a teacher, or particularly clever by any means, but having people who are all of those things; and that are able to explain mind-boggling things to me so succinctly; is a truly marvelous feat. I am forever grateful to the great minds of this world.
A great read for a “quick and dirty” explanation for how our brain works. Recommend strongly for anyone with an interest in neuroscience. It won't teach an expert anything new/groundbreaking but is amusing enough to be worth the twenty minute look through.
Another epic installment to the series. There is SO much that happens in this one. Still loving the in-depth character development and world building. I can't help but worry about the battle-hardened people these young men and women will grow into. The tense, multi-layered relationships surrounding many of the friendships, and love interests makes everything seem genuine. I care about what happens to them, good or bad.
I am so invested in these girls! I cannot wait to read the next one. I really loved the subtle world-building. Templer knows her characters, knows their struggles, and communicates it all beautifully. The artwork is stunning, especially the two-page space scenes!
Chuck has done it again. When I'm reading his work, I wonder where the hell is this all going? And find myself in great need of a shower to wash the unseen filth from myself. Then I get to the end and think “Holy shit. I'm rather glad I read that.” He has a way of making one face the darkest, most grotesque parts of one's own psyche, without judgment. For many, I think they take his writing too seriously in that they get put off and don't understand that that's the whole point. You shouldn't be comfortable when you read his work. This isn't casual beach read fluff. It's meant to change you.
Maybe not forever, but for now.
Omg!!! Superb!!! The best in the series so far! Eren is AMAZING!!!! I don't know what this “coordinate” is that Reiner mentioned, but I'm glad Eren's badass enough to possess it!! Not really understanding Ymir's thought process or what truly motivates her, but I'm sure that will end up being explained sooner or later. Was hoping for a Mikasa/Eren kiss finally, but the damn titans had to ruin that too! Aaargh!
You get a good look at what the characters went through in training in this volume. The ending has a sad surprise.
Not really knowing what this story was going in, I really hated it for about the first quarter. The only thing that kept me going besides a morbid curiosity was Gregory's talent for storytelling. She made it fun to read about one of the most sickening political environments I have ever heard of. That takes talent.
The story follows Mary Boleyn from just after she's married at about twelve years old, all through the ups and downs of her life, which for much of it, was barely her own. Taken from her marriage bed to be flaunted before and then bedded by the king, then to be cast aside for her sister, reunite with her cuckolded husband who the gets sick and dies, and finally to find true love. She manages to barely get through the sludge of court and come out happy and with her three children.
It's a heartbreaking story of what can happen to family, love, and sanity when an entire country is dancing to the whims of a vain, power-crazed tyrant. At the same time, a beautiful story of a woman's love for her children and the man she finally comes to love protecting and loving her as a husband should.
5 ⭐️s An absolutely amazingly well researched book that goes into the eight remaining bear species, their past, present and mostly bleak future. I cried several times. Had to stop taking it to work as my break time read. The bit about the sun and moon bears was especially hard to read. I knew the future of bears (like most things that share this planet with us) was dire, but this was certainly eye-opening. April's #Naturalitsy read.
I absolutely love this book! Sloan channels a Douglas Adams vibe that had me feeling nostalgic and comfortable from the offset, not to mention laughing my head off at times. Jannon is incredibly relatable and nearly all the characters are extremely lovable. I adored the equal love given to the old and the new, like books and e-readers. Mr. Penumbra's has become a fictional place that I would give a great deal to visit in real life.
I honestly can't help but love this series. 😅 This one really started to branch out the multiple POVs a lot more than the previous ones. I always enjoy that. I'm so glad I saw through the bs at the beginning or I would have been awfully upset. I still adore Richard and Kahlan. Even though he is still a big doofus a lot of the time. Zedd was fun as always. The supporting cast continues to be fleshed out more and I love many of them as well.