Madison
I am in love with this book! Unlike pride and prejudice, I read this one blind and it has much improved my enjoyment of the story. However much I love pride and prejudice, the joy of reading it was dampened by already knowing the major plot beats, courtesy of the film. For persuasion, however, I had never seen any adaptation or been told of the events of the story, so all the emotions meant to be evoked by the fantastic writing were entirely unsuspected and entirely genuine. Wentworth is a joy. That letter! “Most ardently” has some competition, in my opinion.
This is a really wild play, even for a Shakespeare comedy. He's just throwing stuff in there and it's great.
While I admired the historical fiction and suffragette aspects of the book, I found Victoria frustrating and whiny most of the time. I did like the end, but I feel that's only because I tend to enjoy happy endings.
While I have this book a 5 star rating, I will say that it took me a bit of time to get into. After all, I managed to put it down for a little over a year. However, when I finally picked it back up I was completely absorbed by the story and read the rest of it in one sitting. Chen captures the characters of Obi-Wan and Anakin really well, and manages to write a compelling story with fantastic original characters (I loved both Mill and Ruug), something that can on occasion be difficult with the constraints of canon and the general style of Star Wars. Overall I think this is a story completely worth its praise, and it was just what I needed to balance out the mountain of classics I'm currently climbing.
“Because racism was alive and real as shit. It was everywhere and all mixed up in everything, and the only people who said it wasn't, and the only people who said, ‘Don't talk about it,' were white.”
“Our silence is another kind of violence.”
“I wondered if anyone thought that what we were doing was unpatriotic. It was weird. Thinking that to protest was somehow un-American. That was bullshit. This was very American, goddamn All-American.”
“Had our hearts really become so numb that we needed dead bodies in order to feel the beat of compassion in our chests? Who am I if I needed to be shocked back into my best self?”
These quotes provide all the reasons for five stars that anyone could think of. All-American Boys is an incredible book and, unlike some other books I've read, it's not just a call to action hiding behind mediocre writing. It is awe-inspiringly well-written and everybody should read it at least once in their life.
I can understand why many people might not enjoy this, but I'm a sucker for a happy ending. I know a lot of people only like to read books that make a statement or deal with some real-world issue, but why not just read some Th omg for the sake of reading a literal fairy-story, a happy ending for the sake of a happy ending? It's not as if it's poorly written.
all over the place and a little confusing. it felt very open-ended in a way, though the last few chapters were clearly intended to provide closure.
It's ok to read. It just feels like a good 2/3 of it was exposition and it felt really stagnant, despite the characters hopping all over the place.
This has to be one of the most well written books I've ever read. It's far too good. I don't have the words to describe it. Read at your own peril, people.
This book is one of those books that really affect one's perspective of the world, especially when one lives in the United States. The stories of these wrongfully convicted and wrongfully sentenced people are so well-written in a way that really makes a reader empathize with these people. I really loved this book and I hope that someday I'll be able to make a difference in the criminal justice system just like Bryan Stevenson does. (My only grievance is that the book doesn't really give the dates that these cases were happening)
This was good, and I'm always glad to read a book about fellow latinas, but I think I might have enjoyed it more if I read it during summer. Or listened to music. But yeah. It's nice.
I really really really did not like most of this book. I found the main character, Lia, unlikeable at best and overly selfish at worst, but as the book wore on I think I could understand her better. (It does seem kind of insensitive that I didn't like her but eh) I feel like this is a book that certain people should be very careful about and others shouldn't even read, because despite its bringing to light a very important issue, it does so I a way that is what I assume would be problematic ally triggering for someone going through that same issue.
I think I liked this book primarily because of the vibes rather than the actual plot but it's definitely not bad.
Didn't really like it that much, despite my love of poetry narratives like this. Something about it just didn't gel with me and I dearly wanted to put it down despite how fast I could read it.
Much Ado About Nothing is certainly top 5 Shakespeare ever, even if I haven't read enough of them to have a true ability to rank them. I love it nearly as much as I love Hamlet, if for completely different reasons. I will say, though, that this play is very much advantaged by performance; I don't know that I would like it near so much if I had read it without seeing it first. Being a comedy, the parts that are supposed to be funny can come off worse without the comedic sensibilities of whoever performs them. To read it is amusing, but to see it is hilarious. Even still, I love Much Ado.
The overall feeling I had when reading this book was a kind of sadness, I guess; a mourning for the culture that was lost during the years that Franco ruled the country. The other big feeling I had reading this was anger at the system and fascism in general. All in all, this was a great book, though the ending felt a teeny bit rushed. I also feel like there was a lot of backstory that went undiscovered and like there was just too much story for this one-off medium length novel.
Mr. Bradbury was very kind in that to make up for the the unsettled mood he's put you in for the first half of the book, the last few stories are much more comforting and end on sweeter and more pleasant notes.
This was a treat to read but when Lestat realized that his rock music literally woke the dead (Akasha) absolutely killed me
It's been a hot minute since I read this book but my opinion of it has stayed the same; it is well-written, and like watching a train wreck. It is gruesome and brutal but also enthralling and clever. All in all, a very good book, but definitely not exactly for the very faint of heart.
It was very meh. I could not for the life of me get into it and the only characters I liked were Neddy and Rose's father.