Phyllis

I know it's not fair to compare an author's later masterpiece to his first novel.

But, I'll do it anyway.

“Norwood” was a slog despite being quite a slim volume. Even in the first few pages, I found myself not following what was happening. Sure, the characterization is interesting and there are sparkles of great dialogue, but this book goes a lot of nowhere despite mostly being set outside of the town from when Norwood came. Portis' later “True Grit” is absolutely amazing, so perhaps this book had to be shed to move on to future greatness.

At one point in time, I would have listed Stephen King as one of my favorite authors. In particular, I've song praises about his amazing ability to write compelling short stories and not just those that either keep you awake or give you nightmares. I'm not sure how much time King spent on these stories, but they seem not fully formed. Although I nearly gave up on King's books after reading the truly awful “Tommyknockers,” I will continue with other new releases as I've enjoyed “Fairy Tale” and “The Outsider,” amongst others.

The first story in “If It Bleeds” was odd. Just about everything in the story seemed set in the 1950s or 1960s except for the references to modern technology. I find it hard to believe that a man in his 60s who had been a major player in the business world had not used a cell phone or the internet by the late aughts. I was hoping the story might go the route of the cell phone turning against Mr. Harrigan in retribution for his years of harsh business practices, but no dice.

I tried to read “The Life of Chuck” and it was just boring. Shouldn't the end of the world be more exciting or would everyone go about their business?

After being disappointed by the first two stories, I flipped through the last two stories (Holly Gibney is not my favorite King character and she keeps showing up!) and then back the book went as this is the season of moving quickly to DNF when a book isn't doing it for me.

On the surface, “The House in the Cerulean Sea” is a heart-warning tale about people who find their place in a confusing and unwelcoming world. At some point, everyone has felt like an outsider, so I think the messages of acceptance, being willing to know each person , and celebrate their uniqueness were lovely, even if a few speeches hit one over the head.

The beginning of the book is set in a chilly, rainy, dark city in which Linus Baker plods to and from a routine job, only to return home to be insulted by a pipe-smoking neighbor and ignored by his cat. I could really imagine every room and feeling without feeling as through the author was over explaining. There is a great sense of wonder and atmosphere that TJ Klune weaves throughout the story that kept pages turning.

The author did a nice job creating memorable characters with my favorites being Chauncey, Lucy, Talia, Sal, and Theodore (all the children were magnificently drawn, but not as much attention was paid to Phee). Each had their own voice, although I did think some of the children's language needed to be leveled more towards their age (being magical doesn't mean you are born with a complete sense of the English language, right?)

The love story is also super cute.

So, why did I give a 3 star rating instead of 4?

After finishing the book, I learned that the author's inspiration was the Indian Residential School system in Canada. For decades upon decades, Indigenous American children were stripped away for their families and forced to not use their language, follow their tribal customs, and were abused, raped, or even killed.

The moral of the book seems to be that society can still segregate “different” children, but it's okay if they're allowed to garden or practice being a bellhop, etc. By no means do I think the author is suggesting that the residential school system was “good.” So, yeah, that information tarnished my initially positive reaction to the book. A part of me still really enjoyed the reading experience; if we knew other author's inspirations, I am confident there are many wonderful books we'd want to chuck into the river.

With all that said, this could be a good YA book, even though it isn't billed as such. I would like to read other books by this author to see if the same skill with world building and characterization shows up.

John Hodgman's podcast, “Judge John Hodgman,” is one of my favorites. And I always enjoyed his”Daily Show” appearances along with his ridiculous fake trivia trilogy. But, I found “Medallion Status” less than enthralling. It just doesn't seem that the esteemed Judge had his heart in this book and would have better spent his time writing a book about why a hot dog isn't a sandwich.

I'm glad I stuck with this book. At first, I didn't understand that the TV show construct wasn't real and couldn't quite get into the story. Once I understood that “Interior Chinatown” is an allegory, I was able to get into its groove. We get a glimpse into Willis Wu and his family members' everyday feeling of being walled off and not treated as American, of feeling lumped into the titular monolithic Asian-ness.

This book is really inventive and has me interested in reading one of the author's influences, “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” by Erving Goffman.

I wish Goodreads allowed half stars because this is really 3.5 stars, not 3.

Grady Hendrix nails life in South Carolina in the late 80s/early 90s. My family moved to upstate SC in ‘89; my parents were around the age of the parents in this book, I was 14, and my brother was 7. Some folks have criticized that Patricia cared too much about what other people thought of her, but that was exactly the experience my Mom and I had during the decade we lived there. There was a lot of pressure to conform to certain societal norms, certainly more than the Chicago suburbs we came from.

I enjoyed the author's sense of humor and references to the horror genre (not as prevalent as in “The Final Girl Support Group”).

The audiobook version was really well-done; now that's it's fall, I love going for long walks and listening to good books. This production and story made me itch to get out for a walk.

I don't go into a chicklit/light romance expecting the Next Great Novel; I merely hope for some entertainment and a few Calgon moments. And when an author has gained relative notoriety in these genres, I also expect that an editor may be involved prior to publishing.

With “Don't You Forget About Me,” none of these light expectations were delivered. The author seemed to have 4+ stories she wanted to write about and jammed them all into one book. Dead Daddy issues. Emotionally unavailable/manipulative semi-boyfriends. The (Nerdy-as-a-Teenager-But-Devastatingly-Handsome-as-an-Adult) One That Got Away. Wanna-Be Writers who fail at a series of short-term jobs (but don't write at all for 12 years or do much of anything but worry about a pink coat).

The story just did not make sense. Mhairi McFarlane is not without talent; the book starts off with a flashback that does its job of hooking you in. But, even at the end of the flashback, Georgina, whose supposedly head-over-heels in love with her secrete boyfriend and planning to lose her virginity that night, decides to leave the dance with the “hottest guy in school” because he said hi to her and wants to show her something. At the end, we learn that Georgina was sexually assaulted right after she goes into the bathroom with this guy. While I am not suggesting that it's her fault she was assaulted, why did she leave the room with him at all? It isn't as though she'd been dating him or was even friends with him and in the same room is the guy who she claims she's crazy about. Then, Georgina is super surprised and devastated that her secret boyfriend is making out with someone else when she returns to the dance. 12-years-later Georgina acts as though secret boyfriend should have know what happened and that he's basically at fault for not finding out why she let the dance with someone else.

The family side stories are strange, as is the semi-boyfriend storyline. The only consistent bit is that Georgina is flaky, has communication issues, and is hoping for a wealthy man to fix things for her. With editing, this book could have been an okay read, perfect for the beach. But, as it stands, it's rather awful.

Very cute romance! The author has come up with a really good way of framing the break-up and love story of Thea and Gavin.

I first heard about “Volume Control” on NPR's “Fresh Air.” It was one of my 15 pandemic checkouts in mid-March that took me a month a half to read because my brain just didn't want to read, oddly.

The book is easy to read and provides lots of interesting information, as well as reminding all of us that one rarely regains hearing after it is lost despite scientific advances. It also goes into developmental challenges children run into if their hearing loss isn't diagnosed at a very early age, as well as how the brain learns to get around hearing.

“The Institute” is built upon a decent premise, certainly one that I would have expected Stephen King to do much with. And yet the book feels like three stories mashed together, all at different stages of completion.

The beginning section, in which we are introduced to the mysterious Tim, is well-done; I was reeled in and ready to keep going. Then we move to the point-of-view of Luke Ellis, an extremely intelligent 12-year old with mild telekinetic abilities. He's abducted and finds himself in a facility full of other oddly-gifted children. This section moved along at a good clip, but gets bogged down after Luke's escape.

My complaints? The “bad guys” are all a little too bad and the kids a little too good. The last section, much like some of King's other books, is slapped on, especially the last 50 pages, which should have been edited out entirely (this section feels like a different story with little development).

One thing that really bothered me in this book is that the kids antiquated or odd language one might find in Baby Boomers, not those born after 2004.

All in all, an okay book for a snowy day, but not for the faint of heart.

Jacqueline Woodson truly has a gift for crafting and compacting so much into short, lyrical phrases and sentences. This is the second book I have read by her and was, yet again, impressed with her talent.

So, why only three stars? I felt that the switching of viewpoints from one family member to another was a great idea and interesting way of showing how a young girl's family influenced her and how the opening situation in the book came to be. Ultimately, although the voices were interesting and authentic, they ended up being a distraction instead of creating interesting layers.

I read the collection of letters between John and Abigail Adams in conjunction with my book club's discussion of David McCullough's “John Adams.” I highly recommend this approach because the reader only gets snippets (well-selected and enlightening, but snippets all the same) of the correspondence between two brilliant founders of the United States.

When I was in school, not much was made of Abigail Adams and her support of the second President; theirs was a true partnership. The letters also provide glimpses of home front life during the Revolutionary War. From our modern perspective, in which communication is instantaneous, and often thoughtless, reading beautifully-written letters that may take months to reach the recipient is a marvel. Would we all not benefit from handwriting more than an annual Christmas letter (I don't even do that) both to document our thoughts and to slow down and express thoughts to our friends and family?

The editors provide enough context to the collection so that readers unfamiliar with John and Abigail or that period of history have enough information to understand outside events without getting in the way of these two wonderful people.

Not even 50 pages into “The Assassin's Apprentice” and Robin Hobb has taken my heart and punctured it straight through. And again twice more later on, leading me to cry, lose my breath, and immediately vow to read more of this amazing 16-book series.

The characters live and breathe, whether people or animals. The court intrigue twisted and turned, made even more unpredictable by the two sets of magical abilities (the Wit and the Skill). On top of that, mysterious and menacing red ships lay waste to the coastlines Forging people into near zombies.

There are beautifully written passages, so well done that I can smell the salt spray of waves crashing against the cliffs outside Buckkeep or smell the herbs in the chandlery.

The 25th Anniversary illustrated edition is a real pleasure and I was lucky to get it from a local library. Even without the lovely illustrations, the book would be amazing.

So stupid and such a boring waste of time.

The second book in the “Heartstopper” series is okay, but isn't as poignant as the first book. There's some nice discussions about what it means to come out and how hard it can be, but the ending of this book, in which Nick walks away from almost all his friends, comes out, and decides to make things official with Charlie, moves too quickly.

Wow, this book really knocked my socks off! Don't be thrown by the premise sounding silly or childish. While young adults might also enjoy this book, it is for any adult.


I hate to write too much so as not to wreck others' enjoyment. I look forward to more from this new author.

Oh, dear. I just did not enjoy anything about his novella and I know I'm supposed to. While there are moments here and there that almost remind me of Fran's Kafka's “The Trial,” “The Chase” ends up being really boring.

I forget where I heard of this title, but I do remember being attracted to the idea of the movements of Beethoven's “Eroica” being woven through the story.

While pages and pages of paragraphless prose worked in Joseph Conrad's “Heart of Darkness,” they do not work here. Certainly, being on the run is less than glamorous and would contain long stretches of extremely tedious and hungry times, but I don't really want to read about it. I can't know if the translation has any impact on the quality of this work when read in English.

Several reviewers compare this novella to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's work, to which I can find little comparison. This wasn't magical realism from what I e experienced of the genre.

The story sits on top of a great premise and starts out relatively well. But, as we move along, the story gets sloppier and sloppier and I found myself rather bored by the end of the book. I was disappointed as I think the very talented author, Denise Mina, May not have taken the time to polish this book as she did with the Garnethill series. I also wish her publisher had taken the time to get a proper copyeditor to fix the many typos, omissions, etc.

“The Deep” is built on an excellent premise. The Story is built upon a song by the group clipping, also listed as authors.

In the book, we learn of a civilization of merpeople adapted from the babies of slave women thrown off of ships going from Africa to the Americas. The story is told from the perspective of the Historian, who is the one member of the civilization who carries the weighty and painful memories of their origin.

So, what went wrong? Rivers Solomon definitely has a gift. However, they seemed to get lost in a rather angsty and whiny viewpoint of the Historian who should be in her 30s, but acts about 12 years old. And, for a book under 170 pages, the pacing is incredibly slow and murky. The few pages by clipping at the end of the novella are the best part of the entire book.

After about a year of learning, I'm an advanced beginner at watercolor thanks to Let's Make Art.

As a supplement, I thought it would be nice to find books that contain simple exercises to use as warmups to more involved projects or subjects for watercolor cards I've been sending to friends and family.

I checked this book out from the library based on how pretty the flowers were. The first week I had the book, I read most of the introduction, which was well laid out and good for beginners and more advanced painters. Like many watercolor books, this book included intros to color theory, suggested materials, basic techniques, etc. The book seemed aimed at beginners to slightly more advanced watercolorists, so I thought I was in for a treat.

When I got to the “step-by-step” sections that group , I was extremely disappointed. What drew me in to begin with was the large, beautiful flowers. Those continued being really pretty.

However, Ms. Rainey neglected to include a list of the colors used in each tutorial. If you read through the three-four step project, the author only mentions about 2 of the 4-6 colors being used. She doesn't explain, for example, whether she's using warm and/or cool reds in a project and just instructs the reader to throw in some reds. Depending on the paints the user has, there can be a dizzying array of each primary and secondary color. The projects rarely talk much about approaching color mixing to achieve the end result, either. On the Hellebore project, there is no explanation of arriving at the soft peach on the example.

The instructions gloss over or ignore steps that I see happened in the progressive pictures include a lot of information that I could based on each picture. Given the level this book seems to be aimed at, there should be more explicit instructions.

Jenna Rainey is a relatively well-known YouTube watercolorist. After checking out this book and being disappointed, I thought I'd see if any of her videos corresponded to the book's projects. Her recorded tutorials do fill in some of the holes in the book, but there's no series related to the book, which I think would have been smart.

So, if you want to see some pretty pictures, check out this book, but don't expect to learn how to paint them. If you are looking for a more useful guide on painting flowers, see “Watercolor Botanicals” by Eunice Sun.

This book just isn't that good. It's not because everyone is sad or screwed up in some way. It's not because Jess's-Lynn imagines women she's attracted to being dismembered and taxidermied. It's not because the author has okay writing skills. It's just trying way too hard to be weird and gross without getting anywhere interesting. Bleh.

This is a nice book to introduce western folks to many different important concepts in Japanese culture. I was familiar with some of these through movies I've watched or art classes, whereas others I did not know anything about. The book is filled with many beautiful pictures that transport you too Japan, and give a glimpse into another culture.

The author includes a very personal and touching anecdote at the end that ties the book together nicely. I appreciate the author taking time to put together this book.

After hearing so many glowing reviews of this book, I thought I was in for a real treat.

Welp, no. It was so stupid that I sped up the audiobook by 1.5x.

Did I know it was a romance and probably something of a modern-day fairy tale? Sure, so some suspension of disbelief and schmaltz is expected. The romance was okay and there were a few comic moments early on.

But, Texas going Democrat in 2020? Basically no security on the First Son of the US or Prince Henry? A Democratic Presidential candidate removing her son from her campaign team when trying to keep said son's relationship from the press?

Plus, the female characters, even those central to the story, were cardboard.

And, as left-wing as I am, the politics in the book were overdone and bashed you over the head.

For the record, books filled with text or email exchanges recreating email headers with time stamps is really boring. I'm sure this filer was why the book was over 400 pages and way too long.

What a mess! At first, Montag does a decent job of world building and depicting a post-flood apocalypse works in which little land is left. But, the book devolves from there.

How is it that there are only a couple of ports when there are many mountains over 10,000 feet above sea level? Also, how are any of the remaining ports producing crops when the tops of mountains are not good bases for agriculture? I hat happened to all of the aircraft carriers and other types of boats? However, let's say we can suspend disbelief on the “science” in this story.

The characters are either sloppily sketched or just stupid and annoying. Myra consistently makes the most idiotic choices available; I find it hard to believe she'd survived 6 years on a ship with just her daughter being that ridiculous. Pearl would also not have made it that long by being so disobedient and bratty. But, who wouldn't be with a mother whose entire focus is on her other daughter?

Then there's the crew of the Sedna; as soon as they get into a port, they immediately head for a bar and split up, never bothering to look around for raiders, which were everywhere.

The plot could have been interesting, but it's really just boring and I found myself skimming the last 100 pages.

Sometimes, you happen across a book at a library or bookstore you might not otherwise find. “The Traveling Cat Chronicles” was sitting on an end cap and I thought, why not?

The book is at times hilarious, keenly, observant of life, poignant, sad, and uplifting. Each character is so well drawn from our hilarious (and I think accurate) cat narrator, Nana, to the friends and family of deer Satoru, who we meet along the way.

I was drawn into the book right away and didn't read it as quickly as I thought I would because I accidentally misplaced the book for two weeks and found myself, not wanting to leave the world of this book. A day after finishing the book, I find myself thinking back to different portions of the story. My Mom also read this book because she saw it sitting on my coffee table and absolutely loved it.

I highly recommend this book for older kids and up and look forward to reading more books by this author. For people who enjoyed this book, I recommend “Sweet Bean Paste” by Durien Sukagawa.