Veronica

2.5 stars. This book is written in a 100-tip format that was unnecessary and in fact a hindrance to its success as a book. Several of the tips are repeats of things said earlier in the book. Possibly a subjective opinion, but I think fewer tips and more elaboration on the ones that matter more would help this book feel more substantial and comprehensive. The tips also aren't organized in any particular way, which wouldn't be the worst thing on its own, but it just makes it difficult to get through.

That said, there are genuinely good tips in here, some better written here than in other places. So if moseying through self-improvement books is your thing (as it so often appears to be mine), you still ought to find value in this one.

Wow. This was an incredible read. I read de Castell's Spellslinger series first, which I enjoyed very much, before moving on to the Greatcoat series. Joe Jameson is an excellent narrator for both series.
But Greatcoats is impressing me in a way that Spellslinger didn't. The depth of characters is shared between the books, but this book routinely took turns I didn't expect. de Castell leads you to thinking one thing will happen and following a very different path indeed.

There is a detailed graphic scene near the end that I had to skip through (CW: sexual assault & violence). Honestly ordinarily that would be a deal breaker for me, and I understand if it is for anyone else. But the narrative really pushes me forward to keep reading and seeing what's going on down the line for this cast.

I really liked this book. I was concerned it would be too young for me, but the writing was really excellent and pulled me in. This was my first Kingfisher book and I'll definitely be reading more of them.

I really enjoyed the format of this book. I struggle with depression and general lack of motivation and the structure of this book (the bucket metaphor and the strategies offered to fill them) was really easy for me to take in. I read this book in about a day because I checked it out from Overdrive and only decided to actually read it with 2-3 days left on the checkout timer, so I took notes on each strategy for each bucket.

I'm not sure how or if I'll implement all of the strategies, but I vibed well with this book.

Well-written; motivated to read about someone we would all rather not think about anymore.

There aren't really any words for how unfortunate the events described in this book were and are.

I want to come back to this book, but I was struggling to get into it and encountered a chapter with a third character I didn't expect and I had to return it to get to other books. I'm in a reading funk. This is not the book's fault, just my own attention span's.

I read this book the summer before last for an English class I was entering. It was (and is) not the type of book I would ever read for myself, and I'll probably not read it again. That being said, I deeply enjoyed [b:In Cold Blood 168642 In Cold Blood Truman Capote https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1365125582s/168642.jpg 1940709]. Heartbreaking though it was, you go into the novel knowing that the Clutters will die - and it's incredible to see their lives and then the lives of Richard & Perry after the fact. This book puts a firm but encircling frame around a period of time and people and really rocks your emotional world. Definitely recommended. If you're squeamish, you'll be able to flip past the worst bits and still enjoy a quality true-crime novel.

I'm very confused by this book.

I really loved Outline. It made sense even though its narrative style is the same: explorations of different characters and their mannerisms and stories as told to a third party, our protagonist.

Despite Outline being about someone traveling to teach in a new place, there was more consistency and connectedness in that book than in this one. The events of this book felt incredibly disjointed and random. I had a hard time following where our protagonist was going or what she was doing.

Then there's the ending... I didn't even realize it was coming. There's just nothing to follow here.

I don't know. I'm shocked by how different this feels next to Outline.

This book is a little tough to follow because it's written in third person present tense. That said, I really enjoyed the character development throughout, and this is largely about the interpersonal relationships of the characters. It is a good depiction of living with depression. Very real.

Took me a little while to adjust to the structure of the story but once I picked it up I couldn't put it down. A remarkable amount of story in so little space, and nothing feels cut or skipped.

[b:The Catcher in the Rye 5107 The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1349928703s/5107.jpg 3036731] is about being a teenager. One who happens to have at least one (if not more) mental disorder. It's okay to dislike Holden or to not love this book, opinions are opinions after all. But I take issue with people who fail to realize that he writes from a mental hospital. He's messed up. And to think he's a whiny spoiled brat ... well, yeah, he's spoiled, but the reason he is the way he is is because he's got a mental disorder. Those who like this book either know what it's like firsthand to be depressed (or even different in general) or know someone who has felt the adverse effects of it.

What a wild book. I enjoyed the half-nonfiction, half-memoir writing style employed in this book. I am impressed by all the things I learned in such a compact book, read over the course of two days.

Beautiful, sweet, messy, I loved a lot about this book. I didn't love the present tense or the constant referring of our two primary protagonists by their first and last name together. I call people by their name so infrequently I'm half-afraid my friends think I don't know their name - I'm certainly not calling em First Last all the time, and I doubt anyone else does either lol.

Seriously, there is so much to love in this book, and if anything from the summary or even one review sticks out to you, I can't recommend it enough.

This was a quick read, a blessing and a curse: I was able to read it quickly (helpful, when I'd been putting it off for the past three weeks and it's about to expire this evening), but I am left craving more ideas and examples to employ what was talked about in the book. I think it would be enriched by more examples of practice that the author didn't necessarily do himself.

I think there's a lot of wisdom in this book and I will be rereading when it comes off hold again, taking notes and hoping to absorb more and apply more to its teachings.