Sarah
Super cool stories of these innovations and it made me really want to read the regular version.
This book should be required reading for any girl who owns or drives a car. As someone who has always been made to feel intimidated by cars and all the maintenance and service that comes with them, I needed this book. I feel like I now have a good understanding of how my car works, when parts need maintenance, and just how to take care of my car in general. Plus, I'd feel comfortable changing a tire or jumping a dead battery. Please read this book if you feel at all intimidated by cars because it is a game-changer!
“This was in a country where everybody was expected to pay his own bills for everything, and one of the most expensive things a person could do was get sick.”
I've only read one Kurt Vonnegut book before this, Slaughterhouse Five. That one dealt more with the Vietnam war, and while I did like it, I wasn't as into it. This one, however, was much more general and applicable to me. Vonnegut had a lot of commentary about social issues like mental health and environmental issues. I really enjoyed his sarcastic commentary on everything. Vonnegut was extremely matter-of-fact about the issues and it was very enlightening and enjoyable to read. I highlighted so many passages throughout this book because I was just in awe of how brutally honest Vonnegut was. I enjoyed this book immensely and was pleasantly surprised. I also loved how Vonnegut put himself in the story and actually talked to the characters he created and discussed how he wrote them and created them. Overall, it was an extremely fascinating and enjoyable read and I liked this so much more than Slaughterhouse Five.
This might be my favorite of all of Gillian Flynn's novels. It was so twisted and creepy, and Flynn's protagonist was so messed up and so unaware of it that it was extremely interesting to read. I feel like this was the most disturbing of all of Flynn's novels, and the protagonist was extremely damaged and problematic, which made her narration of the story much more compelling. It was so twisted and gross and it really got under my skin. Flynn does an amazing job of making the most messed up of people seem normal and rational, especially when they're one's parents.
I'm growing more fond of this book the more I go back to it for class and analyze what Dabydeen was doing with language as he wrote this. It's kind of remarkable and amazing how he makes illiterate characters so fascinated with traditional English and have insight that native speakers really can't get to. He turns our traditional English on its head and messes with it in ways that create meaning in ways I would never have thought of. I originally disliked this book when I started it, and I'm amazed by how much I keep going back to it now and loving what Dabydeen did with it.
Can't believe I read this and liked it. To be fair, I listened to it so that I wouldn't have to look at the abomination of no quotation marks. If I read it, I'd probably have deducted a star. Consider yourself lucky, Sally Rooney.
That was a wild ride from start to finish. I was expecting a much trashier thriller/mystery and I was pleasantly surprised that this was actually a good book. The suspense was perfect and well done and the murderer was creepy enough to keep me interested. My only complaint was that it was a little cheesy at times and that got annoying, but overall it was a good read. I might end up reading more in this series!
Conflicting thoughts on this book. Overall, I loved the quaint atmosphere of the stories, as they took place in a small English town in the 1950s. I generally really like English mysteries like these, so I enjoyed that aspect of this collection of stories. However, I wasn't really keen on the main character being a priest who solved crimes. It seemed too far-fetched and it felt like the author struggled to make it work a little. It was still mostly enjoyable though. The stories didn't feel very original, and some of them were slow to the point where I was bored (especially the one with the ‘mercy killing'). It got a bit too philosophical at times, but overall it wasn't too bad. This book was a fairly quick and easy read, and was definitely enjoyable. It just wasn't as original and intelligent as I was hoping for, and it was a bit slow at times and some of the stories weren't resolved well. Overall though, I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who likes English mysteries for their summer reads.
I never thought I would enjoy this book as much as I did! It was hilarious and entertaining throughout, and overall just so much better than I expected. The protagonist is hilariously clueless at times, landing her in a variety of awkward situations that were surprisingly somewhat relatable today. Characters like the Captain, Sir Willoughby, and Madame Duval only made the book even funnier, as they were so crazy and ridiculous that it was very entertaining. Overall, I think this is by far the funniest book I've ever had to read for school, and it was awesome.
There's something about Japanese horror that is just so much more compelling than any other kind of horror. It's so different from the horror we're used to in the west where there's good vs evil and theistic themes of the devil and such that always imply that evil can be defeated. Good triumphs over evil and God beats Satan and the devil. But in Japanese horror, there is no theism. There is just evil; evil that can't be defeated by anyone or anything. Everyone tries but everyone fails. It's a refreshing difference and I think for me this kind of horror is more compelling and effective.
I really liked the past Henry James novels I've read, so I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, it was a major letdown. I could barely get through this novel and if I didn't have to read it for a class, I would definitely have DNFed it. I can see how it has some critical acclaim and the interesting facets of the story, but it was such a drawn-out and bland storyline that I was bored the whole way through.
I love the setting; I'm always a sucker for things set in the English countryside! Overall a great listen for my drives to and from work. I just cannot accept, though, that Flavia is only 11. It's just not believable in the slightest.
I loved Ernest Owen's performance of the audiobook. I could listen to him read for hours! I went into this a skeptic, but found that Owen's thesis made a lot of sense. What we call “cancel culture” today has been around in a variety of forms for pretty much the entire history of civilization.
My mind is so blown right now. This book managed to stay 10 steps ahead of me while making it seem like I had figured out what was going on. This book was so good, so hard to keep up with and so hard to put down. I really thought I knew what was coming every step of the way, and I really didn't. However, I think part of this stems from the fact that the twist at the end was basically a major plot hole because there was no way to see this coming. The more I think about it, the more I realize that it's just because the narrator was so unreliable and unobservant that she kept leading us in the wrong directions. She was still really messed up, even if she refused to see it, and allowed herself to be manipulated and pulled in many directions. I just think that the whole twist seems a bit over the top and impossible because it all tied up a little too nicely. I don't think that the people involved would really have had the patience to slowly ruin Julia's life over that insanely long amount of time. It just felt jumbled and over-the-top and I'm annoyed with how I'm supposed to believe that one character, in particular, was responsible for everything when we clearly had no reason to even think that.
This one felt really short and like not much was going on. Hopefully it picks up in the next book!
Just what I needed to read after a bad breakup. Life goes on, people change, and it's not easy to deal with. But it is comforting to know that others are experiencing similar feelings and pain and that you aren't alone. And that you'll find someone better who takes that pain away (thanks, D.A.
Cassandra Clare will never top this series. This, this, thiiiiiis is how you write a love triangle and a solid YA romance.
I totally forgot how great this book is and is so much better than the Mortal Instruments books!