kae

3.75⭐️

Really loved that a lot of this book was about the mental journey to get yourself to the place you want to be. A very healthy narrative was framed around not hating yourself to make yourself lean, focusing on mindset and appreciation of your body, and building healthy habits. I really liked her process of putting in 20% effort to get 80% results by focusing on super attainable goals (1/2 plate of veggies, limit alcohol, get enough sleep, limit stressing, exercise in a way that makes sense for your body and be consistent). None of this is a rocket science and all of it makes sense. Thanks for being refreshing in that manner and providing that laid out in a very candid way.

The loss of stars came when addressing food for me. Although the food chapter ends on “there is no good or bad food” there is an insane amount if pages on what to cut out of your diet and only have seldomly. However, this goes against her talk about everything in moderation and you getting to choose your own level of fitness. She says at one point eat everything but eat less- which is way more sustainable and makes more sense- so what is it? What's your real take?

I feel like this book's view on nutrition comes from a shameless vegan plug. And please do not get me wrong- I think that her view on veg is spot on. We should all be eating way more veg and we should all prioritize plant protein, especially with how studies show it is better for your health. But no consideration was given to those people whose diets are limited in choices and her privilege does show. And to be honest, her view on protein I just don't agree with. Do I think everyone should be eating 150g per day ? No. But do I think her reliance on the FDA recommended amount of protein for women being 60g is accurate? Also no. Too much protein is just additional unneeded calories, but too little protein when you are working out will not help muscle growth. This should be researched by each individual and experimented on how much it takes for you to feel your best. Mine is around 130g as a strength trainer 4x a week and active 5-6 days out of the week. Yours will be different. It takes trial and error. In short; you cannot subscribe to the system (FDA recommendations) while also saying they are wrong (what is constituting as bad protein sources because they don't fit your dietary preferences).

Really solid information and a wonderful take on the mental prep it takes to shift focus to healthy habits, and I loved this book for that aspect. 1 chapter on nutrition knocked a star off for me. Again, this is not because I didn't want to hear what she was suggesting. I have been in various levels of ED for my whole life and know what it's like to cut everything out and also to gouge on everything. But finally in the stages of healing, we should not be triggering people to get rid of all foods they love. Because that acknowledges that your cultural, festive and traditional foods don't fit into the definition of whitewashed health. Michael pollen said it best: eat food, not a lot and mostly plants. Skip the chapter on nutrition particulars (beyond her veg comments) if you don't want to be triggered. Book would have been 5⭐️ if not for that section of the book because no one I've read has addressed mindset like she has.

3.5/5 stars. This book was a lot. Jia is incredibly talented and sound in her research. I appreciate such a delve into resources past and present to inform her opinion and feed into one another about the various topic she addresses in this book. “Reflections on self-delusion” is a correct title for this book because all of the essays address a surface level facade that an individual can put out into the world, but it is the tip of the iceberg and hides much trauma, self-absorption, scam and sadness. My take on this “Self-delusion” and the reason why I picked up this book was because I thought that the author was going to talk about all of the themes she did, but more clearly how they related to her life. While every chapter more or less did to a degree, I wanted more. More ‘I' and ‘me' and ‘my opinion' -s rather than a regurgitation of surgically constructed sentences strung together in a calculated “look at me I'm awesome at research” blanket. I listened to this book through the author's own narration. It fell flat for me because she did not even inflect her voice in those more analytical evidence based chapters, which led me to feel like I was sitting in a lecture class.

Overall this content is fantastic and Jia is an incredibly talented writer. But, to me, her arguments are more convincing when she brings more of her own life experiences into them (like the chapters on sexual assault and being a woman as opposed to say the internet {a chapter she should have not opened up with but rather worked up to... I would have preferred it at the end as a culmination of all discussed throughout the book, but I digress). For many chapters she referenced the same Peace corps abroad trip that she did. For themes of rape and sexual assault, her experience there was more convincing than when she threw it into other chapters. It made me feel like she chose from a select pool of self imagery that she wanted to project out for people to see her as rather than being totally vulnerable in her arguments. Was that on purpose? Yeah maybe. Was she entitled to do it as this is her book and her life she is exposing? Yes, totally. But did the selectiveness make for an unconvincing argument in a fair amount of places? Also, yes.

It is no joke that Jia's life is both colorful and abundant in her own right. I doubt that her experiences are limited to being on a reality show, attending UVA, Peace corps in the Middle East and Jezebel magazine. I really just wanted to hear about all the stuff in between. More of her parents, her partner's relationship with her, and the external things that shaped her and her views.

I just want to say that I don't really feel like I have a place to comment on the quality of this book. I will say it was extremely information dense and fascinating. I really enjoy all the work John Douglas has done for the field he is in. The psychology of a criminal is already very intense and the lens he uses for analysis is amazing. I read Mindhunter (because I am avid watcher of the Netflix show... I SOOOOO hope it comes back) which was also amazing. Jonathan Groff narrates this book and his voice is just what the hard facts needed to be in the delivery department. He plays the character that is loosely based off the author of this book and the audio includes a few pages with an interview between them which was really really wholesome and informative. I'm glad I got to experience it.

This book was fantastic. There was so much that I took out of it. I had to take so many breaks purely because every sentence was a separate journaling prompt. Which is EXHAUSTING at times! Emily Nagoski has such an awesome way with words, it was the perfect of scientific fact and down to earth analysis and comparison. I really enjoyed that the information was distilled to a level that was digestible for someone who is not in STEM. I would recommend to anyone wanting to understand stress: where it comes from, why we carry it, how we carry it, and how we can set it down for awhile or release it for good.

3.7s stars/5. This was a good book that was a little rushed at the end. The potential kidnapping of a kid and the author's tke on the process to wihich that kid is either 1. found dead, or 2. found, seemed very rushed. However, this beginning and middle sent chills down my spine and kept me up at night. A man coming to your house and whispering to you through your window in the middle of the night?? No, I'm real good, thanks. This was a really well done storyline that hit some bumps at the end because I feel like it just wasn't completely thought through. The climax was at 80% through the book and that 20% left was not enough pages to resolve the conflict and climax. I also feel like the rising to the climax had a lot more focus on things that did not so much matter to the plot than actual things that directly influenced the main plot.

This book was phenomenal. Translated from Swedish, this book follows an FBI equivalent in Copenhagen as they try to catch the culprits of many murders. The plot of the murder history was varying and did not make sense at times, while the reader was trying to figure out that story, the story of the main characters and their relationships kept evolving. Behaviors of both parties were incredibly intricate. Told from several ‘points-of-view' (not first person, but narrated as if telling a story about that person) from 5+ points of view. It was hard to keep it all straight but it was part of the development. I listened to this book, which was great. The narrator was awesome and played the part of several people perfectly. However, now that I know the ending, I am looking forward to reading my physical copy in the future so that I can observe how all the pieces fall into place and look for things i would not have noticed before. Highly recommend this book!!! One of the best books I've read this year. I loved the fact that the chapters were only 3-4 pages, which made the plot choppy and incredibly fast paced. The amount of information, false-leads, character involvement, and just overall character development made this book fantastic. It was so well-rounded and kept me guessing til the end. There is also prospect for another book in the series the way it ended. It doesn't beg for another book, but the potential is there!

This book man. I loved it. I have never read anything so unique and I fell in love with the characters. It had a little of everything. Ambition, desire, struggle, disappointment. And in the end I'm surprised to say it seemed like a love story. For the good of all that you ‘love' —people, places, experiences— and most of all, books, please give yourself the joy of this novel. Really awesome story that I will be happy to read again in the future.

This was a beautifully colored, quick read. The storyline way amazing and really original. I don't think I've ever read anything that involves moon magic and weaving of tapestries. I thought the characters were really great, and super likeable/ believable. It was brought to my attention before reading that is this technically YA, so it makes sense as to why the writing was a little rushed at times. I believe this is set to be a trilogy and although I'm not really into YA books as of now, I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

4.5 stars/5.

This was probably one of the best nonfiction books I have ever read. It was incredibly informative and I had a lot to take away from it. Dweck describes the differences between ‘fixed mindsets' and ‘growth mindsets' and how they can make or break literally everything in your life, especially when looked at through the lens of ‘success'. What does success mean to someone? Does it mean getting the grade (via cheating or cramming) or accumulating the knowledge through hard work and pacing oneself to get the grade? Is it looking at the shortest possible way to get somewhere, like fad dieting? Or is it looking at making the habits consistent for long-term success?

This book had me looking at all the areas of my life I jumped to wanting to ‘instant fix' rather than the longterm learning. While reading this book, I was studying for an exam, and although I did not pass, I would not say I failed. This book helped me really see and capitalize on the fact that all the time I spent studying was not wasted because I did not get the grade I wanted. It actually was time well spent because it made me better at my job and made it easier to understand the systems I am working with through a different lens. I expanded my knowledge through this in a way that may have not been so obvious in the beginning.

This book also called me out in terms of the limited ‘fixed' mindset I was displaying in my romantic relationship, as well as friendships/ familiar relationships. I now have some new strategies in my pocket to employ to work with another person towards success.

Also, Dweck highlights the fact that just because you start this does not mean that its done. If you think its in a good spot and you don't need to put more effort in, you are stagnant and that is where the trouble starts again. This was refreshing because there is this misconception that if you have to put any work into anything, whether it is a relationship, job, hobby, etc. then it something is wrong. How can we love the underdog story of those who put in all this hard work for whatever, but then when it is our turn we think that the needing to work hard is in indication of inadequacy?

All in all this book was great, however, there were things that Dweck discusses (particularly with parenting) that I would not agree with. Its all a balance. I have no children myself, but I tapped into how I would have reacted if my parents parented the way she suggested. I would have felt unseen and unheard, which would have backfired. This is the reason why I knocked off .5 stars. It is really because she pushes the envelope too far in certain directions, and many of these can be argued to be disruptive to overall growth. That aside, it was only .5 reduced not 1 because those situations just described are great opportunities for discussion and communication.

I would highly recommend this read to people who feel stuck and a little lost in life, or for those looking to improve themselves in ways that are considered ‘soft skills' (less about concrete credentials and more about how you as an individual perceive people, situations, yourself and success.)

FINALLY. After like a year of both reading/listening to this book I am finally done. I highly suggest listening to it vs reading, as the narrator Davina Porter (for the one I listened to) was amazing. She annunciated every sentence much better than reading it. Old English is hard at times to breathe life into (especially when just reading it). I have so much and so little to say about this book. First, when I was young reading tales of quests for Camelot I loved the story of Gwenivere and Lancelot. When I got to the second part of this book and the character of Gwenivere was introduced, I got very excited. However, as soon as she started to play a more major part I was sick of her. She was poison to the whole book. Though I think that was the point, for her to be a foil to so many other characters, I still thought she was the worst. I would that the book probably could have been 50 pages shorter just by cutting some of her banter out. I felt as though several situations involving her and a few others were rehashed so many times that it was like the author typed the same paragraph every chapter. The other part that stood out though was how complete this book was. The timeline for the book was very extensive and ranged about 70 + years with many many main characters. The organization and separation of chapters and parts were skillfully done and the writing was woven into a complete and very complex plot that spanned several theologies and large themes. I have so much to say about this (almost) 900 page book, but it's too much for a review. All in all a very solid historical fiction novel that possessed themes about the differing of religion and the faults of people that still ring true to the 21st century. 4⭐️/5

I am love love LOVING this series. It's like a funnier, wittier, inclusive version of GoT. I am actually really happy I watched the show first and would recommend. The author jumps around a lot and intermingles timelines and stories so getting used to that type of set up was nice for my literary digestion. There were so many parts of this story that made me laugh out loud. And Dandelion is my absolute fave. So funny! I'm SO stoked there are so many in the series! Would totally recommend to anyone who is partial to the Thrones/LotR/Medieval/Fantasy books!

This was an AWESOME read, I could not stop obsessing Truly captivating. I actually have to admit, I listen to most of my books because of the nature of my job, and this was a fantastic book to listen to. All of the characters in the novel did an amazing job getting into character and voicing over their parts. I don't think I would have gotten the same experience just reading it physically. I listened in by myself in my living room, falling asleep, lifting weights at the gym (that NEVER happens with books) but I could not stop thinking what would happen next The person who played Daisy was spellbinding and the voice of Billy put so much emotion into his part. I've never read anything by this author but I'm really impressed and I will be reading more. I didn't want this to end AT ALL. But fear not!!! Reese is making a show out of it YAY HOLLA. Super stoked because I think this will run for a lot of seasons... can't wait!

Alright. So, I'm going to get a lot of flack for this. But, alas... this book was not as I intended it to. For making headway as one of “the best books of 2019” I really intended more hype for this. I'm gonna give it to your straight. There are 2 types of people in the world. People who have read this book, “The Silent Patient” first, and those who read “Behind Her Eyes” by Sarah Pinborough first. I'm gonna tell you, that book MESSED ME UP, but it was so much better developed, darker, deeper. I know that reviews should not be straight up comparisons, but sigh. I read this book in 3 days (do to adulting I could have finished it earlier). I'm left with a wanting for more. A deeper plot, a better organization (besides relying on a diary). I wish there were more characters that were unreliable, so that you didn't know who to trust. All deception seemed surface level to me. And FYI that's not to say this was a BAD book by ANY means! I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I ran through it rather quick. But do I think it contends as “Best Book of the Year 2019” ? Ehhhh......... no unfortunately. 3.75⭐️/5

3.75 stars/5. Alright guys I'm going to give it to you straight. For all those people who said “this book changed my life”: I emplore you to seek professional help in dealing with your traumas. Here is why: I have been working with a holistic healer/therapist and dealing with my underlying trauma for over 12 weeks now. I originally came to her to because I wanted to lose weight, and as of 2 weeks ago we are finally getting to a place where that is happening (addressing my relationship with food) because I had to wade through all of the bulls hit before then. When I say I “emplore you to seek professional hellp”, is it not because I think that you are delusion, actaully quite the opposite. I think that you are brilliant, and if this book speaks to you, you need to carry that out. I say get professional help becuase this is really hard to do on your own, and if it is hard to do on your own in the seemingly “easy” parts, think about how hard it will be during the “hard” parts. You need a soundboard. This for some people may not be paying a therapist bi-weekly to talk about your problems. It may manifest for you by this book being just the tip of the iceberg. As Dooner discusses: this is the start of the journey. Get more information, seek more knowledge. Listen to podcasts and join communities on social media. In sort: this is not your one stop shop to fix your problem. This isn't the only resource you need to unlearn the years of diet culture forced upon you by friends, family, the media, big corporations, doctors and big pharma. And this is what Dooner states in her book time and time again.

For those of you saying this is a hoax: read the above statement again. You need to do more research in this topic. If something doesn't work for your body truly (after putting your limiting beliefs aside) then dude, don't freaking do it. Use this as a resource, not a bible. Your body is your bible. Listen to it. It may take a bit after being suppressed for so many years, but your hunger cues will start to come back. This is going to take WEEKS people. This is NOT a diet. This is HOW YOU LIFE YOUR LIFE BECAUSE YOUR BODY NEEDS SUSTENANCE. The best part about your life is it is your life. You don't want to do this? Fine, but don't project you limiting belief into someone who wants to try it. You want to incorporate some things into your life but not others? Cooooool, do it and listen to your body every step of the way.

PSA: This is a journey. This is not a get skinny in 3 months diet. This is learning how your body talking to you and what it feels like to have presence, be present and make the most of it.

This was a phenomenal book. Let's say you're at a buffet. You take a large slice of murder mystery for your protein, add some medieval fantasy as your homey carbohydrate of choice, then portion out a hearty helping of mythology. To top it off you sauce up your plate with a juicy portion of love-story to tie everything together. Yum.

Forreal tho this story was amazing. It follows a family of cursed sisters, all dying of mysterious causes on an Island kingdom in a map not unlike Game of Thrones. One by one. They are against time to try to stop it and as the novel progresses, it is hard to tell what is reality and what is imaginary. The author's focus on plot and leaving little clues for you along the way to try to figure out what is happening was pure gold. Although I kind of guessed the end as it was happening (drats to the years of murder-mystery experience), it was a real whirlwind of emotions. Everything was woven together so vividly and colorfully. I was very impressed with this debut novel. I would highly recommend as one of the best books I read in 2020.

This book was trash. Liane Moriarty is trash. The next Paula Hawkins..... TRASH. These authors start with such potential in their storylines and character execution and then just throw all that out the window. Liane moriarty's author style is the equivalent to writing a vocabularily rich sentence then getting THE WORST hand cramp on the last few words leaving the structure integrity of the sentence compromised. Good grief.

Pretty standard Sarah Pinborough. She definitely has cornered the psych thriller market, but on some of her novels I just don't think the follow-through does the plot justice. A lot of this book was easy to guess, but it was better than Dead to Her (also by her). Not living up to ‘Behind Her Eyes', which was executed great. I listened to this and I am glad that I did. The narration was excellent and it made the novel easier to get through. I don't really have to much to say other than it was pretty solid. Wasnt the best thing i've ever read, wasnt the worst. Good start into the genre. 3.5 stars/5

“Who knew words could hold so much?” -Kya

I liked this book a lot and dove in after the Reese Witherspoon hype on the internet. I'm glad I did. At first i said id never read it, however, it was actually very well written and the story was very creative. Very sad start, I'm glad that the ending held some happiness and creative closure for the readers. Short, smart read, that kept me interested until the last page. Many inter-lying themes of love, loss, mystery and forgiveness mashed many genres together. I hope they make a movie about this!

This dude is a psycho-killer sex-crazed maniac. No forreal, is manic behavior and thought processes make this work so much worse than the Netflix show. Obviously watching him make decisions vs hearing all the stuff that went into those decisions is bone-chilling. The author did a good job with foil characters, they feed off each other and contradict each other. But unfortunately this was just a little too much for me in the sex-department. I listened to this on audiobook while walking outside to get some quarantine sun and felt so dirty and embarrassed though no one could hear it. This is like 50 shades soft porn, I don't get it. Shout out to the narrators for of the audiobook, he did a great job with tonal variation to induce panic and unsettlement in the reader's processing of the book.

So I picked this book up knowing it was in the mystery/thriller drama but without knowledge of the plot. I read a lot of books in this genre so I felt like I knew what was coming but I was pleasantly surprised that this did not turn out exactly the way I had expected. Reminded me big time of the action movies you see your dads watching on late night tv mixed with a Netflix prison documentary. All in all was a pretty good and quick read! I hope Catherine Steadman continues to write for this genre because I enjoyed it.

This has got to be my top novel by Chuck. I really don't read things more than once unless they're a force and let me tell you this is. The story of a model whom undergoes a tragic event and loses all instance of her beauty (and success as she produced an extensive career fro her looks). Besides the moral “you don't know what you have until it's gone”, this book really dives into the rawness of that feeling. The main character, misunderstood, haunting, and blank after the accident is a complete twist. Basically what I'm trying to say is that the development of character history in this novel is shocking and confusing and fruitful and haunting all at once. The best part is that there so much to take in, reading it for a second time you see things you hadn't before and begin to redevelop your position as the voyeur lead by the spunky narrator. One of my favorites for sure.

The book was incredibly written, but incredibly sad. I think the tone of the book was “fighting an uphill battle” and rejection. I would have loved to have read this as part of a club because there is literally just so much to discuss. The fight in the main character, Circe, and her ‘relationships' with all the other gods/demi-gods was refreshing. they were all painted in a bad light, showing the selfishness and vanity of power. I appreciated that because when learning about mythology or polytheistic religions, most god/goddesses are portrayed positively. I think that her hardships, personal growth and trust in herself made this book great, but it wasn't without many sad events. My only gripe was the ending... not horrible, but for all the depth and love put into the book I think that it was wrapped up too quickly without a ton of thought. Rather cliche actually. and that was just the last 20 pages. After so much emotion for feeling for this woman and her life and wanting to love her.... I think the end did not do her character development justice. It seemed very out of character for her. So readers, beware! But this book was good, especially for those who know a lot about mythology and want something like a “deleted scene” of a novel.

This was a weird a** book my dudes. I've read a lot like it, but the ending just kinds of blurs with others if I am being honest. Psychopaths stealing kids and then using them to achieve the life they want? Ugh. This is a true testament to treating your kids with love and respect at every stage of their life, do not degrade them, or make them feel inadequate, because those who don't grow up to be obviously insecure will internalize it and end up as psychopaths. Cool and calm on the outside, maybe a little quirky, but an absolute shite show on the inside.

That aside, there was a good portion of this book that is completely far fetched. How do you make a girl pregnant in a basement with a donors sperm? You would have to take the sperm from the bank, keep it at a precise temp, drug the girl, twist her limp body into a crazy shape and then implant it into her??? What the fork???? I just didn't think this was really all that convincing. There was a lot that was weird about this book. The people in it weren't really convincing and it made for a boring read because I wasn't super invested in the characters (because of the author's development, etc.) All in all, this did not stack up to her other ‘The Family Upstairs' at all. This was just okay.

This was a very in depth HEAVY character driven storyline. There were not many external impacts upon the plot, it was all about the people and their relationships/ interactions with one another. This did not make the book good or bad, it is just an observation. That being said I did really like this book. Even though many of the things that did happened were heavy, if you look at the progression of the plot, not a tonnnnn really happened. BUT the author was very skilled in making this enough to fill a novel and weave together a literary drama. I can totally see why Reese decided to pick this up for a show. This very much reminded me of ‘Little Big Lies', which I also enjoyed for the character links and intense interactions. Can't wait to analyze this and read again with my girls for book club!

Very good plot, even story arch and emotional and conflicted characters. A heartwarming story of love and loss and all the things inbetween. Kept me guessing until the epilogue.