Mercer

This book is so lovely. I've read a lot of really trite content about mental illness. I've even written my own trite content about mental illness. This book is the first one to capture the simultaneous humor and pain with living with a mental disorder. I loved it. Super helpful sections for those of us that love people living with mental disorders, too.

Much better structured than past guides.

I lived this book. The ONLY thing I didn't like about this was how little she advocated for support as a career. It seems like she was constantly shitting on herself or her team for being disposable...it's just not the case.

The thing I appreciated most was just how much this book emphasized the depth of the ecosystem. For instance, “the analytics software” or “the open source start up” which anyone who had worked in the business would know. That said, I knew that people who hadn't wouldn't. Made me recognize how insulated this whole thing is. Very good.

This was fine. I really wasn't sure about it until maybe 60% through. It is nowhere near as good as midnight library, which was an instant favorite of mine. I also felt that some of the scenes with famous folks were overwrought and turned me off.

A very sweet, funny book. Probably more of a 3.5, but it was lovely enough that I gave it the extra .5.

Cute, fun, brain cotton candy.

I think I have read too many things in this genre and been a yoga teacher for too long to have derived too much value from this encyclopedia-style guide to self -care.

The one this I did enjoy was the horror movies were listed, and the author broke down the psychology and chemistry behind why that may be true for some people. That was a perspective that I hadn't heard before, and I think the only thing that differentiates this from other books of this kind.

This story is absolutely bonkers.

So lovely and tender and sweet. Very triggering for folks with: death of partner, death of parent. What I loved most about this book was the emphasis on shifting perspective. There was nothing magical: time travel doesn't change the present, but instead the perspective of the person.

Lovely.

Very good, but my gosh do I wish there were content warnings! The audio book version of this with recordings of the actual people being talked about was horrifying!

I appreciated the way that this ended and the arc (ha!) of the story, but I thought the treatment of Jeri/non-binary characters in the book was awkward, forced and uncomfortable.

I still think that the premise of this series is very good and artfully done for YA. Lots of great questions, musings and ideas around the philosophy of life and death.

This was good! Very dramatic, as all books by this author are. I am beginning to get tired of that as a trope. That said, the intrigue was good. The story was good. The characters were good. And the ending was chef kiss.

Giving it 4 stars because it was fairly overwrought and trite in places, but still I couldn't stop reading.

This was excellent. A return to his roots with Running Man, etc. Loved it. Will read it again, most likely. Truly thrilling, in-depth, and with an ending that felt fulfilling.

This was so, so, so, so good. I feel like I should read this again every few months.

Joy Harjo is a gift.

My new favorite book. A beautiful, drunken, intricate set of nesting dolls wrestling and rubbing up against one another. I want to read it again and again and again.

This was fun! There were some moments where the speaker said “I'm not going to tell you about it, because [xyz reason]” and then proceeded to expound on it for a long while, which annoyed me. Otherwise, though, this was a ton of fun and really beautiful.

Beautiful, unique, artfully drawn and told.

This book is like one big puzzle. I really appreciated being able to put together the pieces on my own and not having the book tell me what to think. S does astounding job creating a book that is almost completely plotless and characterLess but still having a somehow be interesting. The fact that it functions of the palimpsest on its own right really impressed me and I enjoyed the challenge that this book presented.

There is something so heartbreakingly human in Chambers' books. This is the second one I've read and I absolutely devoured it. I think to most it may seem boring, but the minutia is just so lovely. The details tear me to pieces in how close to home they feel. The ending of this was hard for me.

What a fun, weird little book. This felt more like poetry to me than prose, for which I loved it. I also appreciated how much was left unsaid, for the reader to fill in.

A nice snack of a book—perhaps would be more substantial if I reread it, knowing what was to come. But again, that feels like a poem!

This book creeped me out pretty extensively. In fact, in the first 90 pages I wasn't sure that I was going to keep reading because I found myself pretty frightened by some of the imagery. I finished it last night, and also had some extremely weird dreams! Lots of esoterica in here that, I think, maybe hit too close to home for me?

Either way, very well-written, though the plot resolution at the end felt like an actual hurricane in my mind. Perhaps intentional? Maybe I was just caught up in reading it and didn't notice how fast I was going? The set up for the next book was also a bit heavy handed. That said, I gave it four stars because the concept was well-done, well-researched and engaging.

Reallllly interesting. Did I get any actual answers to any of my questions? No. Do I have even more questions than I did to start? Yes. I feel reinvigorated around a story which has gotten so tired and gone over it isn't even funny. Lots of new information in this book. That said: I'm not entirely sure that the author isn't just a conspiracy theorist chasing something a bit farther than needed.

I appreciate the look into the other lives of Gilead that this book provides. I love that some of the characters from the first book are redeemed in these texts.

I do not think that this book has the staying power or impact that The Handmaid's Tale did, but I appreciate it as a continuation of that narrative.

This was good! 3 stars Becayse I don't know that I'd recommend it to anyone other than folks that were fans of SF and had read a lot of the genre. The premise is SUPER interesting.