Terri

I still have no idea what this book was supposed to be about and, in retrospect, I have no idea why I even started to read it. The irony of the author claiming to be a master of wit in a book utterly lacking in it was just too much for me to handle.

After having visited Versailles (and enjoying only the gardens), I was interested to learn more. While this book did teach me more than I had previously known, it wasn't enough to keep me interested and I gave up a few chapters in. The book didn't have a real flow to it, and I felt my interest wavering too often to convince myself to continue.

The concept covered by the book is interesting, but the bulk of what I read (21% on Kindle) felt like a drawn-out introduction, and though I told myself I was interested and would pick up where I left off, I never felt compelled to do so.

Might come back to it in the future.

This book was so awful. I felt absolutely nothing while reading this. I guess I was supposed to actually care about either character, but I felt nothing even with the “twist” ending. In fact, the characters were so bland and nondescript that I still can't form a decent image of what any of them were supposed to really look like. Apparently, Lovell was supposed to have some anger issues, or at least that's what the other characters tended to imply, but all I got from him was mild irritation. Hannah was just a cliché spoiled, disillusioned housewife. It had all the makings of a discount Gone Girl story until the ending, which was so lacking in suspense and emotion that I literally did not care.

The only character that was really memorable for me (and not in a good way) was Lovell and Hannah's truly obnoxious fifteen-year-old daughter, Janine, who was the physical embodiment of cringe. She sulked around spouting “snappy” retorts to her father, calling him “bitch” to which he barely even had a reaction. She did pretty much whatever she wanted with no repercussions. One of the worst moments was when she showed up with her head shaved bald and said something along the lines of “Can't handle that I don't fit your idea of what a girl should look like?”. I mean, who speaks that way? Seriously?

Even with the flashbacks, I did not understand why Lovell and Hannah got married. Lovell was a shitty father (barely knew anything about his kids) and a shitty husband (couldn't hold a mature discussion with his wife or take interest in her life) and a boring person. All he wanted to do was talk about his weather studies, and while Hannah's lack of interest in his field was a bit depressing due to her public insults against him, he seemed to have the belief that everyone should care about his work and when other characters didn't they were portrayed as heartless. Sorry but not everyone cares about your niche academic field.

All I wanted was suspense and mystery, and barely got that.

More of a coffee-table book than a sit-down read. Still, the photography is beautiful and if you're a fan of Jenny's channel you'll enjoy this.

While the narrative was engaging enough for me to complete this book, it isn't something I'd recommend to anyone or anything that really stuck with me. The author's narrative style is a bit much at times - overly dramatic in places, and the way she describes other women is odd. There's really no other way for me to describe it, but every description of another woman involved a strange layer of bitterness.

One thing that definitely ruined this book for me was the perverse description of Winter (her mother) as a 13-year-old girl. Just before a particularly disturbing scene with Lavern, the author describes Winter's body in oddly sexual tones. I didn't think this was in any way necessary, and as someone who was genuinely triggered by the inclusion of the following scene, the author's voluntary description of a child's body in that context felt as if she were promoting what was to come. It was just inappropriate and it definitely resulted in me speed-reading through the rest of the book to get it over with.

The book rounds off with an extra dose of cringe - the present-day description of the narrator's teenage daughter explaining the ins-and-outs of Snapchat while her son rattles off random, out-of-context slang. You know, the classic “kids these days” bullshit.

All in all, this read like a college entry personal essay, with unnecessarily dramatic tones, the romanticization of the mundane, and a general tone of narcissism.

This is the kind of book I'd recommend to anyone dealing with self esteem and self love.

I enjoyed this book, though I wouldn't read it again. I appreciated the imagery of Italy, the transformation that the author went through, and all the friends she made along the way. What I didn't like was the constant mention of her creepy Italian boyfriend's dick - not only did she describe him as basically an Italian Austin Powers (which scarred me enough as it was), but she insisted on detailing their sex life ad nauseam. He was a gross and abusive person, and as such, I felt that he didn't deserve the level of detail and focus that he received. Instead, the eventual love of her life got only a few chapters at the end - and even then it's rounded off by another sighting of Italian Austin Powers.

If you like Eat, Pray, Love and other books of that nature, this will be a fun read for you. But just keep in mind that there are a lot of unnecessary adjectives involved when it comes to her sex life.

“The Seventh Realization is the awareness that the five categories of sensual desire—money, sex, fame, overeating, and oversleeping—lead to problems. Although you are in the world, try not to be caught in worldly matters. A monastic, for example, has in their possession only three robes and one bowl. They live simply in order to practice the Way. Their precepts keep them free of entanglement with worldly things, and they treat everyone equally and with compassion.”

As someone with a lifelong interest and experience in raising orchids, I enjoyed this book. From a horticultural standpoint, it holds up. The anecdotes were entertaining, though I have a feeling a few were over-embellished.

All in all, enjoyable.

Update: 4.05.2020: I've downgraded this review to 2 stars simply because after thinking it over the past two years, I prefer the film to the book. That's not usually the case for me, but I found Andy's character to be spoiled, insufferable, entitled, and downright rude. She acted every bit the mean girl that she supposedly despised.

Not only that but the plot was slow. So slow that I found myself skipping pages ahead just to get to the damn point.

I'll take the movie over the book any day, and I'm genuinely pleased with the changes they made in the movie EXCEPT for her boyfriend. As anyone who has seen the movie will know, Nate in the film is a complete douchebag and should have been dumped immediately. However, Andy in the book seems to encompass all of movie-Nate's horrible qualities (along with almost every other movie-version character's horrible qualities), meaning that the book would have been great if she weren't the main character.

If you're interested in learning more about what goes into learning Latin, this may be a good way to dip your toe into the water. However, proceed with caution if you have a low tolerance for secondhand embarrassment because this book definitely provides.

Overall I enjoyed following along with the author's language learning process, but I found myself cringing at many of her observations towards her peers. I can't help but wonder if she put any thought into how these professors, students, and her loved ones would feel about the way she was describing them in this very public book. I felt uncomfortable with how often she was describing young college freshmen as “oozing sex” - if this were a male author describing young female students the same way how would people feel? She also included statements from professors talking about the private lives of their students in regards to learning disabilities etc. - which is downright illegal.

I also felt bad for her boyfriend, George. While her previous husbands were given practically glowing anecdotes, George was constantly pushed to the side and described as if he were a blundering, unintelligent fool. At one point she even compared him to her previous husbands to point out how “unrefined” he was.

Her self-professed need to constantly have at least one gay “husband” in her social sphere was also cringey and outdated. I understand that the author is coming from a different era, but you'd think someone along the publishing lines would have pointed out her lack of self-awareness on occasion. Though perhaps the fact that the author herself is in publishing is what caused this.

While the only Tatcha product I've ever used are the rice paper oil blotting sheets (because nothing else in the line is $10), I found myself intrigued by the prospect of learning some skincare secrets. Tsai's book is well-written and enjoyable, and I left with a deeper knowledge of Japanese skincare practices. I would recommend this to anyone interested in skincare.

Surprisingly funny, this is a very approachable translation of The Panchatantra. If you're a fan of fables and folklore, you'll enjoy this.

Lack of willpower, decision fatigue, sleep deprivation. According to this book these three are essentially the same thing. An entire book to get the simple point across: get enough sleep, nourish your body, and focus on important work early in the day.

I enjoyed this book purely for the descriptions of Kyoto's gardens and the peacefulness of nature. I will stress that this was in spite of the author herself. I did not find her likable and her lack of social skills was cringey at the best of times, and often downright distracting.

There are many characters in this book, but they all serve as secondary players to the author. Not once is anyone given substance, even the author's boyfriend. I think that serves to illustrate the point - in all her time working with others she never bothered to get to know anyone. However, she does attempt to cheat on her boyfriend with a coworker and then sulks when he rejects her.

She also frequently pouts when she's asked to follow the traditions and procedures of her employers, as if that were the most tragic thing a person could endure. In all her time in Japan she barely attempts to learn the language yet has the audacity to moan about how no one speaks English... in Japan.

If this was supposed to be a book about character development, it failed.

My favorite part was about the tiny bonsai tree, mainly because the focus was on something other than her for a change.

New personal rule: whenever someone cites Gwenyth Paltrow as a client, coworker, or guru, just stop reading.

I guess this was supposed to be somewhat of a parody of her predecessors' work. While I enjoyed parts of it, I found the scenes in Bath to be drawn out and frustrating. The ending did not satisfy me because the relationships between each of the characters were never fully explored, and as such, I never connected with anyone.

I understand this novel's value in literary history. As an enjoyable read, however, it failed.

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

TW: mentions of gun violence, allusions to sexual harassment/assault

What Flies Want by Emily Pérez focuses on themes of womanhood, motherhood, violence in America, and the speaker's experiences as a bicultural Latina. Each poem glitters, though there is repetition in theme there is never repetition of the poems themselves. Every piece feels fresh and from the heart.

My favorites included ‘Before I Learned To Be A Girl', ‘Your Mood', ‘What Flies Want Is Not', ‘Corrección/Correction', ‘Out of the Wood-‘, ‘Once I Learned To Be A Girl', ‘You Have All Day', and ‘Vows'.

In these pieces, Pérez skillfully expresses the frustrations girlhood/womanhood, the tensions that arise in a long-term relationship, and the melancholy of straddling two cultures in a world that prizes one over the other. In short, these poems made me feel seen in many ways.

I enjoyed these for the most part, though some of them I found myself skimming through. My favorites were The Diamond As Big As The Ritz, Benjamin Button, and The Russet Witch. The Lees of Happiness was also good, but it didn't capture my interest as deeply as the others, and I didn't like Mr Icky or Jemina at all.

This is a quiet book, easy to immerse yourself in. In some ways it reminded me of the film Mona Lisa Smile.

I'd say this is a good book to read if you enjoy stories about universities or an academic atmosphere in general. The plot is focused on what it means to be a good teacher, and how a teacher's actions can affect their students.

A fun, pleasant children's book. I wish I had read this as a child, but even now I found it enjoyable.

This would've been a three star read for me, but the final twist at the end set it apart.

This is an adorable illustrated children's book. The creatures are unique, amusing, and it's just plain cute. Brings to mind Shel Silverstein's Don't Bump the Glump