Lindsey Ziegler
Some new information, but it really talked about US History as if it happened in a vacuum. The worst offense was the lack of information about women. I mean, it talked about Susan B. Anthony for less than a page and was like, yeah, she's was a suffragette. It was very disappointing.
I really wanted to learn about the US after WWII, which is where most of my knowledge is lacking, but it barely talked about the rationale for Vietnam or Korea.
I couldn't finish this one. The school was so over the top and Frida was NOT a good mother, but she certainly was not deserving of what amounts to a year of torture.
Interesting take on magic in the current world. Likeable characters, slow pace at beginning, but then it really picked up.
Cute and fun. A little predictable, but it was nice to read something easy that still had good strong characters and character development.
Strong, interesting world building, with interesting characters. Quick and funny too.
3.5 stars
Good characters, but not a lot of development. The only character we really got to know was Woolly and his story was predictable (if depressing).
3.5 stars
The narrators were rather unreliable, leading to a lot of info not being shared with the readers.
Very quick read.
DNF
It was very much like this is Harry Potter, but with a girl and she's more like Hermione. Which, shrug. But the part that I couldn't get through was nothing happened and it was all just an info dump.
DNF
I only got through about a third of the book. Charlie and Dev hadn't yet got together, but it seemed eminent and there was still two thirds of the book left. Which tells me that it's going to be another two hundred pages of the same stuff, which no resolution until the end (because rom-com book). And it's not worth my time for all that.
Charlie has OCD and severe social anxiety (so he says... doesn't really seem that way to me...but...) and decided, with his publicist/best friend, that going on national TV as the Bachelor is going to help him improve his image. This is beyond ridiculous. Even if the Bachelor wasn't fake, the pressure of interacting with twenty different women in so many ways, no one thinks that is going to be good for his mental health. Well, not in real life. Also, he's a germaphobe, but only when convenient.
And Dev. Dev has worked on the show for years and somehow thinks that it ends up with true love. Ick and naive.
And no other character had more than a few sketches of them.
Just as good as the podcast, although the focus here was definitely a bit more on Nigel and Earlonne. It adds so much humanity to the prisoners.
A very quick and sweet read. Nothing mind-blowing, but it certainly fulfilled its promise.
I thought it would be different, more thoughts and less straight-up book reports. I've read the book, I don't need a report for it.
Funny and sad. Not as good as some of his others, but still very well-written and fast paced.
3.5 stars. A lot of the chapters seemed a bit repetitive, like binge watching the shows of Anthony Bourdain can be.
But, the heart of it, of a man trying to tell his story, while surrounded with memories of and the overpowering nature of Tony.
It made me cry.
3.5 stars. It was sweet and easy to read, but there wasn't much going on here. And it was utterly predictable from the first word.
There was a lot of promise here, but the main character didn't grow and nothing really happened. The twist was early in the book and was easily the most interesting part, but wasn't fleshed out enough.
Strong characters, although a bit more development of Hugo would've been nice.
As I got near the end of the book, I realized that Maddie was going to save herself and that really made the book for me.
Beautiful and terrible at the same time. You can tell the Clint Smith writes poetry as the stories flowed so smoothly, even while highlighting the horrific things that our countries has done over time.
The author gives a trigger warning - “This book contains a scene of medical violence. Characters also obsess about food and count calories.” What this warning misses is that the book includes the following themes: loss of bodily autonomy, human trafficking, forced pregnancy, abuse against children, murder of infants.
And that's not to mention that two of the three main characters have sex in order to reproduce, because Pendt says it will be easier if she's interacting inside herself. As if artificial insemination isn't a thing.
Just okay. Some parts were entertaining and well-written and others just went too long.
3.5 stars
It took a long time for me to get into this one. There just wasn't much happening. And the insights into the characters were few and far between.
That said, the first 100 and last 100 pages made a pretty good book.
A nice change of pace from the average romantic comedy book, but still predictable and a little too full of fluff and extra bits. It could have been 100 pages less and just as enjoyable, if not moreso.
3.5 stars.