delaney

In Raven Wakes the Dawn, Stambaugh creates a uniquely mystical yet realistic world that intrigued me consistently. The characters feel as though they were pulled from an actual fairytale, with magical qualities that kept me on my toes. The storyline itself was overall a wonderful reading experience: during the slower plot moments, I found myself pretty invested in ideas of what I'd hoped would happen, and I just as often found myself enthralled with the scenes that were driven momentously to ends that I didn't at all expect. Some elements became slightly repetitive (such as the main character stating to herself what she must do repeatedly), but in the end everything tied together and was certainly enjoyable!

3.5 stars

I received a free advanced reader copy via The Niche Reader.

Through impressive research and composition, Matthew Desmond unveiled the reality of what it means to be trapped in the inescapable poverty-eviction loop rampant in our country. Evicted is an important read — I had no understanding of the role evictions play in poor communities until now, let alone the amount of people affected by them daily. Although this book was devastating, I am very glad to be a little more knowledgeable and much more empathetic to this issue that so many people face.

Knee Ability Zero was a great quick read! As a personal trainer, I spend a huge amount of time troubleshooting knee issues with 99% of my clients—I can't name anyone in my life who doesn't have knee issues. Ben Patrick's perspective reduces things down to a simple approach that really clicks for me, and I cannot wait to try this methodology out for myself & my clients.

Overall, the experience of reading this entire book vs the actual payout of the plot developments & twists was not quite worth it for me. The various ideas in The Three Body Problem are super intriguing, and the level of integration of abstract physics concepts is straight up cool. I enjoyed the twists and turns throughout.

However, the whole thing has a bizarre issue with pacing—the first third of the book felt painfully slow, while other moments that I believe were meant to be suspenseful ended up rushed. Many interesting moments are written in past tense format that makes them feel way less story-like and way more history-textbook-like. Most of the time, I just didn't know why anything was happening, and the moments that grabbed my attention were fleeting.

2.9 stars

This was okay. The story's main idea of a man mysteriously losing steady weight without losing mass grabbed my attention, but not much else developed, and the characters were one-dimensional. The ending was also the most basic possible way out of the situation. I did find the couple moments of appreciation for life endearing.

Too Late unsettled me. I do not think it's accurate to say I liked it, but I definitely could not put it down.

In general, CH's writing reliably draws me in, chews me up & spits me out in 24-48 hours. This reading experience was hardly different; however, I felt that the writing style itself makes the story feel cheap and unsatisfying. The characters are not developed outside of obvious tropes—they all sound like CH rather than clear individuals with depth and personality. Meanwhile, the events that take place throughout the book are dark. I found it emotionally challenging to read the “villain's” point of view at all given that CH uncomfortably blurs the lines of what's morally just or forgivable.

Hoover constantly approached that mysterious border separating incredible from mediocre here but never quite crossed it. I neither recommend reading this nor regret that I did.

2.6 stars

I mildly enjoyed the intermittent trials and almost-adventures sprinkled throughout Circe. The plot lines that I expected to blossom ended up leaving me with that feeling you get after eating a veggie burger when you were craving a real one. Miller's beautiful prose could not save the overarching blandness of the story.

Disclaimer: I do recognize that I set myself up for failure by falling head over heels for The Song of Achilles, which is a much better work by MM.

In The One, Heinrich Pas presents an impressive argument for a new [physics] perspective of reality. I seriously enjoyed challenging my brain to understand the various concepts and postulations expressed throughout this book — the explanation as to why we have been so focused on our current perspective of physics since Bohr and beyond, the deep dive into the historical context of the central idea, and the presentation of so many ways this theory fits into our current landscape.

My only negative note, which I see as a relatively significant one, is that this book is 100% not for a reader who does not have a background in physics. I have an entire degree in this stuff, and plenty of chunks of the text went right over my head. I wish there was a way to remedy that.

(3.5 stars)

This was just... not good. I am a firm believer that history can be and should be interesting and even entertaining — I was totally encapsulated by the title & book description, but the writing itself fell short at every turn. Cahill seemed to zoom in on a few main icons & their writings but failed to integrate them into a legitimate, cohesive narrative of the time period. He transcribed & translated a painful amount of practically meaningless passages that have left me feeling somehow more ignorant about this time period than I was before, and I knew nothing before...

Even in a fantasy setting, SJM managed to capture one of the best/realest stories of triumph and friendship I've ever read. Nesta was definitely my most misunderstood character for a long time, but now I see and feel her clearly. It meant a lot for me as a reader that I could relate to her in multiple ways and feel inspired by her revelations. While her romance was wonderful, her journey with friendship moved me significantly. I loved it.

spoiler I think F's pregnancy plot line took away from the ending. Nesta proved enough, and I found the birth scene tie-in quite odd and unnecessary.

I really did not like this book – the second star is because even with all the [in my opinion] shortcomings, the writing itself was simply beautiful.

I kept getting the feeling that I must have been missing out going into this read without much knowledge on the time period and place. Most historical fiction immerses the reader so thoroughly that I typically close a book feeling like I've just had a crash course on said culture, but I did not have that experience with this one. I wonder if it would have been more enjoyable if I went into it with more knowledge prior...

HOWEVER... I know that even with more prior knowledge, I wouldn't have been any more satisfied.
The majority of this book was about a pathetic affair fronting as some kind of steamy “relationship” that I grew woefully tired of as it progressed. I wish with all my heart that (1) a 50yr old, married-with-child man sleeping with a woman half his age wouldn't be painted as seductive or mysteriously complicated ((4 affairs? He's not a good dude??)) and (2) a young woman living in a complex environment wouldn't be painted as a damsel totally incapable of making positive decisions that may have actually reflected some level of self-respect or dignity. Instead of giving Cushla an opportunity to find a solution to this mess, Kennedy gave her a tragic yet remarkably easy way out [from a plot perspective] that had me rolling my eyes and ready to DNF.

Sadly, I do not recommend and don't really understand the positive experience other readers have had.

I was so excited for this one, but in the end it was a let down. The characters were not written in a way that makes you feel anything for them. Every time I sensed a spark of some development happening it flickered out just as quickly. I had trouble even staying engaged with the story because a lot of it dragged on and on and on. While this group of men were waiting for things to pick up along their journey toward battle, so was I... for the majority of the book. Rather than the anticipation building throughout the entire plot, I was simply bored and barely made it to the end. Pretty disappointed.

It doesn't feel right to give this book a rating.

I will say, it was beyond shocking & heart wrenching... many times over! My heart goes out to brittney—it's easy to forget that underneath all the superstardom, she is simply another human being who has been through things I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

While the technical elements that usually make writing breathtaking were lacking, I don't think that was at all the point, and I am very glad I was here for the story regardless!

I did not expect to love this book nearly as much as I did. Initially, the lighthearted nature of the characters and dialogue made it seem like it would be a fun, comfortable read all the way through. However, I believe you'd be hard pressed to make it through this story without reflecting on your own experiences with grief & the big choices you've made regarding how to live life. Somehow Mikki Brammer's writing actually welcomed this reflection entirely without fear and instead with open (& comforting) arms.

I felt deeply connected to the main character because she was so clearly...human... I also appreciated that no part of this book felt like it was trying too hard to be convincing or epic in it's attempts to elicit an emotional response from the reader; yet, here I am drying tears well after turning the last page. Highly recommend.

Unfortunately a huge disappointment. This book severely lacked in anything of substance and primarily came across as one huge complaint outside of a few key moments. I was hoping to get a better insight into the nuances of Autism in women, but I found the author really missed out on this in making it so intensely personal that it felt like an inner monologue and nothing more.

It would have been nice to read more explanations and explorations of the commonalities of autism in other women rather than hearing one long rambling train of thoughts that just sort of end up painting a really frustrating picture of how autism affects adult women... Really displeased with this reading experience.

I really liked this book. It was pretty difficult to push through on an emotional level & yet still enlightening. There is a lot of anecdotal discussion that is interesting/captivating. I found that the biggest value of reading this was definitely being fully convinced that the title is indeed the truth – the body remembers everything in a very painful and intriguing way, and I believe that having this insight can shed light for numerous people who are knowingly or unknowingly coping with trauma.

I wish that there was more discussion of the nuance of trauma throughout the book. Many times the author noted how common trauma is across the population, but there was a lack of exploration of the various degrees; the examples seemed to be lumped into categories without much room for recognizing the individuality of everyone's experiences. This did not take away from the value I mentioned above but could've made it more meaningful for a lot more people.

Every single human I know needs to read this.

The second star is only for the last handful of chapters. This book had a ton of potential out the gate, but ended up dwindling into pages and pages of internal and external dialogue about absolutely nothing. There is such a thing as too much woe-is-me, and unfortunately this book really crossed into that territory.