Mollie

Required reading if McCandless' story fascinates you.

If you love basketball and more so, if you love humanity and it's complexities and stife and glory- you'll enjoy this. Hanif has such a way of weaving stories and uses such beautiful langauge along the way.

Just under an actual 4 star.

I think this book would have been excellent if it just got a bit more editing.
Kitty's chapters are far more interesting to the reader and Elise's feel like cardboard in comparison. Additionally, I felt there were some pacing issues and some more explanation to what happened to certain characters would have strengthened the overall effect.

However, Kitty's story is incredibly compelling and worth the read even with the other minor issues.

3.5
I just really enjoy reading Marchetta books whenever I need something a little easier to breeze through. The characters are always complex and interesting, and I thoroughly enjoy learning about Australian culture through the lens of teens.

Should be required reading for every single American.

I struggled with the audio version and found the book format to be much more impactful.

Statistical manipulation abounds! Despite the authors mentioning correlation does not equal causation, most of their assumption rely heavily on it. The authors come off as extremely confident in their claim yet, never offer issues with the statistics or other factors. I think if you have spent time doing data analysis, you'll spot the issues with this book 1,000 miles away.

ALSO WHY ARE THERE NOT IN TEXT CITATIONS??!! I mean for gods sake, at least put them with each chapter. I feel as if they buried the citations at the end just to make it harder to find the actual research (and thus discover issues with the methods or other possible explanations.)

This book is not for the squeamish or faint of heart.
But if you have a macabre fascination with the worst things that can happen to someone (for me, it makes the world a little less scary to know of all the bad things) and/or an interest in science, then you'll probably really enjoy this.
It is not a light read, but Melinek manages to make the moments of hope poignant. The latter half of the book is particularly affecting, as she was a medical examiner in NYC during 9/11. It is hard to fathom the things that she saw.
All in all, this book made me appreciate the work medical examiners do. It seems they often serve as a source of peace and comfort that few people realize.

I dunno 2.5 maybe, this one is a bit much for me (in just about every sort of way.) The serial killers falling in love premise is unique and grabbed my attention but once the will they/won't they is over, this loses all plot and turns into spicyyy scenes only. Why did the plot leave??? There's also some giant holes like/ how do serial killers find other serial killers? They act like they have some sort of social network that one can simply look them up on. It is easy to fly through and generally so fast paced, but.... It's something.

What an odd book. Unique & atmospheric, I've never read something quite like it. Gives me Shirley Jackson vibes in a good way. Really enjoyed how unique the storyline and these characters are. Grotesque and unflinching, yet sometimes soft and thought provoking.

It's fun, sure. But it's kind of tired. Everyone is either the worst or the best, no in between. Not one person feels authentic or lived in and you find yourself just reading with little regard to what happens to just about anyone.

2.5. Held my attention and was entertaining, but just didn't quite all add up and is pretty surface level/trope-y. The writing style was fairly jarring at times- just lacked flow and had too much obvious reveal in the sentences.

Admittedly got myself a little behind on reviews, so I can't remember as many talking points as I wanted to... solid though. The characters feel realistic, they have normal, adult conversations, fears, insecurities. It's not perfect, but I found it charming.

Might be just under 4 stars.
I did not enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed Lilac Girls, but it was still a good read.

It is a bit slowed paced at the beginning, despite extreme happenings- it just lags a bit until the author starts to move time more quickly. There were some actions by the characters that I found just a little incongruent. Overall, it's an interesting story though and I appreciate it being based on reality and the research the author did to make it come alive.

I also really wondered how one single skinny horse managed to pull a cart across countries?

If you are the type of person who is fascinated by Everest and the dichotomy between human perseverance and the worst things a human can do, then this is a book you'll enjoy. I thought I had a pretty good knowledge of how messed up things are on that mountain, but turns out it is way worse than I even understood. I wish there was an update to cover the last few years since this book was published.

I have a hard time rating this (why do I find myself saying this so often) because I had serious issues with the structure of the book which detracted from its searing eloquence about grief.

The topic is incredibly important and sometimes the author would pen a sentence so poignant that it would rouse deep sadness and anger for me about the state of this country. The section on her brother is heartbreaking and beautifully written in its sorrow. However, I really struggled understanding the timeline of the other sections and wish it the novel occurred on one solid timeline versus jumping back and forth.

I can't really rate this book so I gave it an average just because it does not translate to kindle editions well and is more of a collection of quotes you'd give as a gift or use as a coffee table.

Now, I will say, that Dear Sugar/Tiny Beautiful Things will always be one of my very favorite books to read when you need a good heart to heart. Buy that instead, it makes a great gift, too.

Raw & searing poetry. Some of the quotes from this will stick with me for awhile. There are certain books you read as a teen that just stick with you forever, and Speak was certainly one of those for me. I wish I had more exposure to poetry like this when I was younger. “Censorship is the child of fear the father of ignorance and the desperate weapon of fascists everywhere”

Some of these stories are really great (especially the last four autobiographical ones) but some felt like they were just missing something. I'm inclined to think that was on purpose, but I found them all depressing too, so it prevented it from being what I'd refer to as an enjoyable read. Still good and insightful, though.

This one kept my interest well. The author reflects on her experiences in the White House (in a role I've literally never even thought about before) with honesty, even when it clearly potrays her as not making great choices. It feels repitive at some points with a toxic relationship, but I only think that adds to the honesty of this book. Not life changing or shattering thoughts by any means, but I did enjoy it and the reflections of the Obama administration.

I struggle to rate this one, but somewhere between a 3.25 and 3.5

It was still very compelling to me, but this one didn't fly by as seamlessly as the first. I'm still looking forward to the next, but just wasn't quite as fun to breeze through. I will say the last chapter really soured me a bit (not even because of the ending itself) but that the chapter from Xaden's point of view sounds exactly like Violet- they do not have seperate enough feels/tones.

The first half of this one is worse than the worst, the second half is better, so all in all, it ends up at 3.5 rating just like the other.

For much of these, it's hard to understand the gods and their motives. This one provides more context but it feels as though one is complex and nuanced, and the other is a caricature of evil. It doesn't quite match at points to me. I did appreciate how the storylines tied up.

There's nothing mindblowing about this series, but it was a fairly quick read that did feel unique in a place where many fantasy novels are basically the same plots over and over.

It's hard for me not to compare this to Circe, but I believe they both stand strongly in their own right.
I immedaitely was invested in Circe, but this was more of a slow burn for me.

This one feels more feral and desperate than Circe does- two characters bound by the fates and the pressures of the gods intervention. The last quarter of this book is heartbreaking in a way that is quite hard. I'll admit I was crying on an airplane for the last chunk of this one.

4.5

I really liked this. It's incredibly unique- I've never read a book set in the Spanish Inquistion, let a lone one with magical realism. Nothing feels cheesy here- it feels so grounded and I gained perspective on history that I was not expecting.

I know a lot of people seemed to dislike this book- I think if you go in expecting more of what Bardugo has written in the past, you might find this one slower. But I found it just to be a different style- still really great, intelligent, and keeps you guessing.

I had to keep thinking on this one and update my rating.
Here's the thing- this book made me thankful. Thankful I have a supportive family, thankful it took me well into my adulthood to figure out (or become at peace with the inability of labels to really encompass a person) relationships. Growing up in a small town, I'm glad I didn't try to figure that out sooner, or ever really even feel the need to.

But that's different than the book being good on it's own merit, so upon some reflection, I did move my rating down. There's good stuff in here- the pressure of society to organize people into neat little boxes when humanity is just so very messy, and how that really can feel like such a torture to navigate. But there's also some stuff I didn't jive with. Everyone in this book is pretty much a terrible support system and the only person the reader is guided to like is Astrid. Everyone else feels a bit one dimensional as they all are just pretty awful to her, including her girlfriend (who has no respect for boundaries.) I also didn't quite understand why the author chose to have Astrid “see” Socrates. I couldn't tell if it was meant to be SO literal (which would be majorly concerning...)

Hannah's books have become solid for me- I can rely on them to be good reads.

This one is certainly stronger in the first half of the novel, but still overall, a really interesting and impactful novel that delves into the complexities of service in the Vietnam War. The women who remained unrecognized and denied for so long have such powerful stories and they deserve and need to be told. I gained appreciation for a group of people I had never considered, never knew that their service was diminished and denied for so long.

This novel does a good job at showing how public outrage though deserved, morally correct, and necessary can still create incredibly damaging scenarios for many folks who ultimately were not aiming to be evil. It's the government's shortcomings to blame, but human nature can lead to a labeling mentality that is hard for any side to heal from. I think Hannah handles the fragile and complex nature of these intricacies.