Megan

Jurassic Park is a fast paced, action packed, plot driven story full of fairly flat characters and annoying children. There is way more death than I expected, but honestly I was there for all of it. The short chapters are typical of what I consider “fast fiction” and help you fly through the book.

I had way too high of expectations for this book, and so it unfortunately fell short in most elements including world-building, character development, and delivering on the tagline of The Martian meets The Handmaid's Tale. I felt like it came so close only to not quite get there.

Going forward, the only acceptable way to consume this story is via audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis.

I'll be honest. I didn't get it at first. I was so bored the first time I read this story. I barely would've given it 3 stars. My second reread was better, but not by much. Solid three star. I didn't love how Tolkien addresses the reader. It pulled me out of the story and stopped me from connecting with the characters. Then I tried the audiobook narrated by Rob Inglis, and that was a flop for me (though I enjoyed him for LotR for some reason). But eventually I came to love the story for how it set up the world in LotR, and The Hobbit was officially a four star read for me. My humor also developed over the years, which helped me with Tolkien's writing a lot.

Then the disaster that is 2020 came along and Andy Serkis bestowed upon us the most wonderful gift to ease our suffering: Hobbitathon. He read the whole book straight through, live on YouTube. I woke up at 3 AM and watched/listened to the whole thing. He brought this story to life for me in a way I had never experienced, as cheesy as that sounds. Seriously, he made me absolutely LOVE The Hobbit. Teenage me would never believe it. Anyway, I love the journey, the characters, the writing, and I still can't get over ‘Gollum' reading Riddles in the Dark.

She Came to Slay is short and sweet. It's really straightforward and should be easily digestible for pretty much anyone. I really enjoyed the reading experience and learning so much more about such an incredible woman. I highly recommend it.

Very cute! The Kiki's Deliver Service inspiration is pretty heavy-handed, but I can see where the author is going and diverging from that initial inspiration by the end. I can see how this will be even better in the next book, which I plan to pick up. I don't love the rhyming incantations because it feels extra childish and bizarre to read an adult saying cute little sayings, but other than that the magic system was actually quite interesting! The friendships are wonderful too. The biggest problem I had was that almost everything and everyone felt developed at, or just below, surface level. I think as the series goes on this could definitely improve though!

I don't think Salinger's style is for me. Overall, the writing felt extremely pretentious. Our book club discussion put it into words for me. Salinger doesn't seem to care about the reader at all, and I don't particularly appreciate that.

Overall the book was both really bad and somewhat interesting. It's hard to bring those two things together. I like the discussion that's going on between the lines, but I'm ultimately not interested in religion or spirituality in the slightest. I honestly enjoyed the articles I read and videos I watched about this book more than the book itself.

Zooey was a thoroughly detestable character. He was disgusting toward his mother, and he seems like one of those guys who loves to hear himself talk and believes he's always right. He needs to expand his vocabulary beyond the words ‘buddy' and ‘my God.'

Franny ultimately surprised me. I really identified with her a few times. I didn't think I would. Overall I don't really understand her desire to do the whole Jesus Prayer thing, but I'm going to share a few quotes from her that made me say, “Girl, I feel you.”

“I actually reached a point where I said to myself, right out loud, like a lunatic, If I hear just one more, picky, cavilling, unconstructive word out of you, Franny Glass, you and I are finished - but finished.” (Page 143-4)

“And the worst part was, I knew what a bore I was being, I knew how I was depressing people, or even hurting their feelings - but I just couldn't stop! I just could not stop picking.” (Page 145)

“Just because I'm choosy about what I want - in this case, enlightenment, or peace, instead of money or prestige or fame or any of those things - doesn't mean I'm not as egotistical and self-seeking as everybody else.” (Page 148)

I enjoyed this for a large part of it, but the 3rd act conflict was so dumb. I genuinely couldn't believe someone would get mad about THAT. Kinda ruined the end. It was cute though!

Honestly I just found this book super boring.

This was exceedingly boring. I just wanted some mindless holiday cheer to get me through the work day, and it couldn't even manage that.

Reread #394, forever 5 stars.

Mostly light-hearted with a few touching moments. Worth a listen.

Biggest criticism is that some of the stories didn't translate well to audio, mostly because you needed to see the gestures the person was making.

What a great glimpse into the lives of teenage girls around the world. I think this book would serve well as a book for middle and high school Social Studies/Geography classroom discussions. It's an easy read and you will definitely find at least one girl with whom you relate to a great deal, if not many. Each entry would serve as a great starting point for discussing different cultures and countries.

I liked the quick facts that help introduce each girl at the start of their section. They made it feel a bit like a fun magazine article and will make the format accessible and very relatable to teens (especially things like discovering they share a favorite musical artist with girls all over the world... things like that). The reader then gets a brief intro about the following diary entry with helpful background info. The diary entries are quite short, about 4 or so pages, and reflect every day life for each girl. They discuss their hopes for their futures too, which I think was the most interesting for me. I enjoyed the format and especially loved the inclusion of all the photos. This isn't necessarily a book I think should be read straight through, but rather one that benefits from dipping in every once in a while. I feel it helps keep the girls distinct and unique in the reader's mind.

Similar to the first book, somewhere deep down buried underneath the supremely awful writing is an attempted story about loss and heartache (at least for the first half of the book). I still think the way Meyer shows the passage of time was clever and sad. The logic, as before, is nonexistent. There is next level abusive behavior coming from two sides now. Sadly, the likable version of Jacob (who is not without unlikable qualities), disappears all too soon. Bella is a horrible person to pretty much everyone around her, knowingly using them throughout the whole book. The only reason to read this book is the conversation Bella overhears between Alice and Charlie. On the other hand, the whole “he permanently disfigured her face when he got angry, but he couldn't help himself and feels reeeeally bad, don't you see how much he loves her?” is enough reason to burn the book and never speak of it again.

This is so stupid, silly, cheesy, unbelievable, and melodramatic. Yet I would be lying if I said I didn't have fun. But I can't, in good conscience, give this more than 2 stars. It's pretty terrible. Like reeeeeally terrible. That dialogue, woof.

This restored my belief that I can enjoy graphic novels. I was starting to feel like maybe the medium wasn't for me.

Wow, what a wildly inappropriate way to end a book about a serial killer who raped and murdered women: a spotlight of “dumb women” who write to Ramirez that the author can't help but define by how they look (one looks like Jessica Rabbit, one is overweight but “somehow” still attractive, and on and on). He even goes as far as to imply that a woman who wrote to Carlo saying she was a psych student interested in studying Ramirez was obviously obsessed with him and wanted to bone him like all the others. I understand being confused and maybe even grossed out by women who are sexually attracted to convicted serial rapists and killers, but to essentially end a book about one such notorious serial killer with “omg look at allllll these stupid women, here are their names and what they look like, the dumb bitches” is, as I said, wildly inappropriate. Oh and then to talk about how that killer is living it up in prison with all the ladies fawning over him and enjoying all his porn... You couldn't end a book about a rapist serial killer in a worse way.

As for the rest of the book, it's okay. I don't think I meshed well with Carlo's writing style or voice. He did that thing that I hate in true crime books, which is referring to the infamous killer whose name is on the cover only by pronouns. I mean, we know who the killer is, why the forced attempt at adding mystery? I don't think I would have finished this book if I didn't switch to the audio. The trial portion, which I normally find very interesting, was too detailed and included quite a few things that added nothing to the overall narrative.

I honestly couldn't remember anything about this series aside from the names of the books. I loved them as a kid. After rereading it as an adult, all I can say is there's no doubt in my mind where a lot of the beliefs I have about pet ownership come from. It's amazing how much the lessons and morals from this series shaped my life.

Aside from the obviousness and slightly dramatic moments that children's books almost always have, this book is fantastic. It touches on a lot of important topics and handles them well. The kids in this series are trusted and supported by the adults in their lives and even given a lot of responsibility. They work hard and care about everyone, and I think they set a great example for young readers. I love that there is a strong female protagonist, a close friendship between a boy and a girl, and a supportive family.

Favorite book of the year. I loved every second.

Seriously, everyone needs to read this book. If you love sci-fi, READ IT. If you hate sci-fi, READ IT. If you love children's books, READ IT. If you never read children's books because you think you're too old, READ IT.

The kids and teens in Orion Lost talk and act like real people. They act their age. They make mistakes. They struggle and they learn. There is so much to this book that I think would surprise a lot of people. Alastair Chisholm has a excellent ability to show and not tell. He shows the emotions and struggles so perfectly.

The story is action-packed without feeling rushed or lacking in development. It will keep you guessing to the very end, and even if you figure out every twist Chisholm throws at you, you will enjoy the journey. It's that good.

While I didn't laugh out loud like some folks, I enjoyed the introduction to these characters. It dealt with some heavy topics at times. The mystery was quite good and kept me guessing until the end!

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the perfect example of a dual perspective novel that doesn't really work for me. I probably would have liked it more without the grandparents storyline. I think the choice to use mixed media was a good one and was executed well. On the other hand, the use of that picture in fiction feels Extremely Wrong and Incredibly Tone Deaf.

I listened to the audiobook and found the pacing to be really good at 1.5x speed. I saw a lot of criticism that this book was boring, so perhaps the format I chose to consume it helped it be more engaging to me. I liked that the paranormal element was introduced early on, and I felt compelled to keep listening because I cared about the characters. I appreciated that everything wasn't saved as a reveal at the end too. Figuring out the connections and who people were didn't hinder my enjoyment either, since the story wasn't relying on the shock of those reveals. I really appreciated that.

I would have liked a little more explanation of the paranormal stuff and feel like it was missing a lot. It felt very surface level and like something more was waiting to be revealed that ultimately never was. I also don't love writing that says super obvious stuff like it's profound, like “Parents love their children and will do anything for them.” Yeah, we know. The end was pretty cheesy too.

All in all, I think this was a really good book with just a couple things that didn't work fully for me. I'll definitely check out more by C.J. Tudor.

The Last Olympian was a fairly good end to an okay series. I liked that Riordan expanded his formula a bit, but I felt he went a little too wild for my taste. I appreciated that the prophecy ended up meaning something slightly different than what everyone assumed for the entire series. In general though, I feel pretty neutral about this book and already feel the details slipping away.

I had such a fun time with this one. You know those movies that you'd never consider a favorite, but you've seen a bunch of times cause you land on them while flipping channels because nothing else is on? That's what this feels like it would be. It wasn't groundbreaking or unpredictable or full of shocking moments, but I didn't get the sense it was trying to be any of those things. I think the end was meant to pack a little more punch than it did, but it was what you'd expect if you've seen a movie or read a book like this before. It definitely follows a specific type of structure that's easily identifiable, and once you figure it out you can fill in the blanks.

I bet the authors had a fun time writing the timeline and mixing up the perspectives and time jumps to reveal details in a specific order. I think they did a good job with it and kept it interesting the whole time, even though it's a basic plot. I enjoyed actually liking a main character for once too - I'm getting so bored with unlikable main characters. Her obsession with stats was just the right kind of foreshadowing for me. I wasn't even annoyed at figuring things out early on. Instead, it was fun to find out if I was right at interpreting the hint or how the stat would come into play later. Overall, it was a good time.

The Girl Who Stole an Elephant did one thing really well: it was entertaining. There's action right from the start, and it basically never stops. I liked the use of appropriate terminology for local plants and such too.

One of the first problems I noticed was that the time period wasn't clear. Some people I spoke to thought it was contemporary, whereas I assumed it was historical because of the name the characters used for Sri Lanka. If it's set long ago, these kids talked way too much like today's kids. That kind of thing pulled me out of the books I read when I was 10, and it pulls me out of the story now.

I found everything to be too easy and quick. Instead of an extended fire scene with over-the-top villagers turning on children, there should have been more time given to the conflict with the King. As it stands now, it was so simple it was just silly. Chaya didn't learn anything despite almost getting herself and her friends killed.

The plot and story needed more depth and time you'd want from a middle grade book, but the writing and development felt aimed at young elementary schoolers. It resulted in a book that was unsure who its audience is supposed to be. If Farook pulled the plot and story back a bit, this would be an excellent children's book. If she gave herself another 100 pages to dive deeper into the development of the conflict and character arcs, I think it would be an excellent middle grade book.

I think Kiley Reid is quite skilled at highlighting subtle things that people do in a way that brings those things much needed attention. So much of the actions and reactions in this book made me uncomfortable, which was the entire point the author was trying to make. It was well-executed and the biggest strength of the writing. I also loved the complexity that was shown in how the characters responded to the same situation. There are massively differing opinions, and it shows that people need to educate themselves on racism, performative activism, and microaggressions. You can't read one book about slavery and ask the opinion of your one Black friend and call it a day.

This was a pretty straightforward and simple story. I wasn't really surprised at any point, I wouldn't say that's a bad thing though. That just means it was more of a quiet story for me, much more slice-of-life/crossroads moment than I was expecting. I kinda wish it was shorter, closer to 200 pages or so. I didn't love being in Alix's head most of the time, but I know people like her exist (and many, many people possess her and Nick's thoughts/traits). It makes sense that we'd be in her head to hear how she justifies her actions to herself. I look forward to reading more from Kiley Reid.