Zoë
This is a good book for anyone looking to simplify life with kids. There is some repeating of information from Becker's Simplify but I enjoyed both regardless.
Most excellent and absolutely gorgeous
read me
now
trust me
you'll love it
it will make your day better
the art is beautiful
thank you
3.5 stars
This was fun storytelling. The characters are immediately recognizable. There's the misogynistic boss, the stalwart best friend, the brooding love interest. The plucky and relatable main character whose insecurities and imposter syndrome must be overcome to be the hero in her own story. It's warm and fuzzy with a little bit of drama and subterfuge.
This book is a great primer. I think it would be appropriate for anyone who views life from a more spiritual/metaphysical place. This also is a great choice for someone new to the power of decluttering. It's inspiring; even for those of us who've been decluttering since we were kids.
This one is for the hyperactive and/or impulsive type. If you're inattentive you'll want to try elsewhere. Besides, Barkley comes off as self important and condescending which is very distracting.
I wanted to love this one because Neil Gaiman and fun art, but the story held no surprises and the art was not for me. One star for the art; three stars for the retelling, but only because it's decently written. It's not inventive or original in any way which is fine; it's just not worth a read unless you've never read the original version. The art is all in black and white, mostly black, lots of it. I love illustrated books, so I was excited to see a new one. It doesn't really work for a fairy tale. I don't see kids poring over it like I did with so many beautifully colorful books I had growing up which is a shame, but maybe this one is for the adults? In which case, WHY wasn't the story developed into a text for mature readers? It just didn't work for me, and I expected something better from Gaiman, frankly.
DNF'd on page 29. If you like your female characters portrayed as pathetic, spiteful, and/or stupid “adults” who are just waiting for a male character to validate their existence then this writer is for you! Reader beware. This is immature, lazy writing more on par with cheap, late 20th century porn than anything resembling a book by a bestselling author.
who doesn't want to know what their cat really thinks?
Scalzi always writes such fun, quirky stories. This one is chock full of quirk with cats and various sea creatures working in cahoots with a super secret cabal of villainous tycoons. Fast-paced, dialogue-heavy storytelling that propels the reader like a missile to the satisfying ending. 3.5 stars (I liked it!)
What a page-turner! When I started this gothic mystery I thought it was going to be a stand-alone. I really did not want to start another series. So often the stories are dragged out unnecessarily, leaving me annoyed at having my time wasted. I'm slow, so I was about halfway through before I realized this wasn't about to be all tidied up at the end. Ha! Instead, what we have here is a strong foundation for a supernatural ride through 19th century London and...Egypt? Maybe?
Ivy is our MC. She's meek. She's isolated. She's smart and determined and, despite all she's come to believe about herself, courageous beyond reason. After her mother dies, Ivy meets a mysterious woman who drops some heavy clues that her mother was more than she seemed. Ivy sets off to London from her country home to find out answers about who her mother really was. There are all the spooky themes one would expect in a gothic (soft) thriller. A book filled with more questions than answers paves the way for a potentially awesome series.
I read an ARC from NetGalley, so there were some unfinished aspects that I'm assuming will be cleaned up before the final is released at the end of the month. I noticed a hodgepodge of punctuation, spelling, and grammatical errors that I'm sure exist in most books before their final polish. I also noticed some continuity errors that were pretty glaring. I hope those were caught prior to printing. Nothing terrible—one moment someone has fainted and the next they're talking; another, it was 11:35 on one page and a number of pages later the clock is striking 11:00. So, not terrible, just distracting.
All told, I'd say this is a promising debut, and I look forward to reading the next in this series.
Never have I ever wanted to reread a book immediately upon completion. That changed with this book. I'd give it six stars if I could. This is a book meant for savoring. It's not your fast paced, page-turning, knock it out in a day kind of read. It's the difference between that bite you grab in a cafeteria and the six course meal you have prepared by an incredible chef you had to wait years to experience. This is a book for lovers of mythology, epic battles, slow burns, fully fleshed out characters, representation, worlds you just want to fall into. Get the hardback if you can because the cover and end paper artwork are a perfect match to the stunner Jimenez creates on the page. Gorgeous.
Perfection
This book has ruined me for all others. It will forever live under my skin, like a reed attempting to break free. Reader beware.
Gorgeous
I loved every bit of this book. Harrow's books make me want to luxuriate as long as possible and start them all over again when they end.
Harrow hits another one right out of the park.
What can I say? Alix E. Harrow writes the most gorgeous, feminist, pocket-having, touching stories that stick hard and fast to one's soul. Each time I finish her latest book I get antsy for the next. She deserves all the accolades and more. (This review is freely given. I received no compensation other than a fulfilling read. Again.)
Pretty good book. Probably more appropriate for first timers. Lots of suggestions for creative ways to express your thoughts, feelings, fears, etc.
This book was pretty good for upper elementary. If you're choosing between this and the Van Gogh Deception I'd pick the latter. Regarding another reviewer's claims that there is some kind of political agenda, here is the reference quote from the book, “The museum was filled with portraits of women who had shaped and continued to shape the direction of the United States. Portraits of women such as Rosa Parks, Gertrude Stein, Lena Horne, Billie Jean King, Toni Morrison, Denyce Graves, and Helen Keller filled the museum. There was even a massive portrait of all the women who have served as justices of the United States Supreme Court.” Just in case anybody wants to see the lengths The Gay Agenda™️ will go to in an effort to indoctrinate our kids to be authors, elite athletes, boundary-breaking singers, equality-seekers, or Supreme Court justices. The audacity.
I have NO idea what's happening. The prose feels disjointed as the story hops from character to character without any flow. I wanted to love it, but ultimately dnf'd at 11%.
This book is excellent! What a gift to pass on to others, the roadmap to financial freedom.
Fatphobic farce
Perhaps this book doesn't have a wide demographic, a deeper message (beyond life happens—take the good with the bad), or the complex, interesting characters readers might care about. What it does have is a little bit of a train wreck quality that makes the reader want to know what happens—something that is encouraged by the sprinkling of gossiped conversations about the sisters throughout the book. It meets all of the requirements for a white female with a stable, dysfunctional family looking-for-love/success/self whose only real struggle is some unresolved feelings from that time her parents got divorced kind of book. It was too much about the need to be with a man with literally everyone being matched up by the end. Most of the characters are unlikeable or unrelatable; all of the female characters are portrayed as petty, bitter, controlling, or flighty. Don't get me wrong. There were aspects of this story that felt almost insightful. I laughed, I cried, I gasped once, I think. I wanted to know what happened in a fast-forward the movie kind of way. Now that I think about it, it's not too different from Friends...if it had taken place in Australia, the characters were just a smidge older, and the women were triplet sisters with a shared trauma. If I could've given it 2.5 stars I would have. I rounded up because it wasn't terrible. It just wasn't great.
Boooo. I was told this would be scary.
This book, while perfectly fine as a retelling of Judeo-Christian creation mythology, is entertaining, if not compelling. The circuitous route by which the reader is taken to meet all the players is bland. I kept going with the promise of horror and was met instead with some gore. I almost DNF'd so many times, but it was recommended in a list of scary books by a number of people, so I persisted. Arriving at the end with gratitude, I'm off to find something that lives up to its reputation.
It was OK. There are a few gems in here - the takeaway being keep what you love and discard the rest.
ew
This was a hot mess. I need to go recover. It just kept getting worse. If you're bothered by love bombing and rapidly accelerating the relationship despite not actually getting to know each other then feel free to skip this one. smh
This is the best cookbook and one I've relied on for well over a decade. There are recipes for a wide variety of tastes. Some use dairy, some are vegan. Madison is thorough in explanation of selection, storage, and preparation of each vegetable.
We also use her recipes for bread, pizza dough, and other quick breads.
I've found this book to be indispensable and even purchased the new edition on my kindle to replace the very well used and loved hard copy we had in our kitchen. As minimalists I can say this is definitely one worth having - we have given away countless cookbooks over the years and this one has always been too precious to give up. Yay for Kindle versions!!!