Nora
This one's for all the feel-good rom-com lovers! It's about Kelsey, a New Yorker and editor who lives a busy life in the big city and always says ‘no' to everything, resulting in an unsatisfying life. But she's so stuck in her ways and struggles to open up, until she ends up in the hospital and meets the older famous makeup-mogul Georgina Tate, who is so much like Kelsey. Georgina is dying and has no relationship with her family, which makes Kelsey realise this is not the life she wants for herself. So Kelsey convinces Georgina to embark on a summer of saying yes, which ends up changing both of their lives. The result is an easily digestible, cute, summery, inspiring, slightly cliché popcorn-read of a story. Perfect as a palate cleanser between heavier books or as a vacation beach read.
This was such a fun read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and could not stop listening. It's nicely paced, really intriguing and quite a classic type of cozy murder mystery. We follow Annie who is, through the will of her great-aunt Frances, tasked with solving her great-aunt's murder in order to inherit her estate. Based on a life-long prophecy made by a fortune teller in her youth who foretold that her death will be a murder, great-aunt Frances has spent her life trying to solve her own, not yet happened, murder. In her will she creates a game where the person who solves her murder first wins her wealth. Annie thus sets out to do just that, and we follow her journey, whilst also getting glimpses into young Frances life through her diary, which involves another mystery. Side by side the past and present unravels as we go along, culminating in a big reveal at the end. The audiobook narrator was fantastic, and I just really enjoyed myself.
Thanks so much to the publisher for the ARC provided through NetGalley!
“She loves and hates this lung, a mystery to her, a tiny lung that carried her son way past his expected life span. She wants to thank it, and also spit on it for not having carried him further.”
I'm leaving this review at a 4-ish for now but this is very hard for me to rate. I want to say I loved it and I enjoyed it but I don't know if those are the right words. This is a disturbing and graphic story of a monster turned boy (?), grown from a mother's grief. Grief is the overwhelming theme here, and it is palpable. Normally I rate based on my enjoyment of the book, the writing, the characters, and the plot, but my overall enjoyment of reading the book usually stands tallest. I can't say that I enjoyed this book, but it is definitely a story that will stick with me. And as disturbing as some of the characters were they were also realistic somehow, in all the surrealism. I felt for Monstrilio towards the end, he's really just another victim of grief as well, whilst also its result in a way. I wonder if he became what he is because of how others viewed him? As unrealistic as this story is it somehow feels possible that immense grief could do what it did in this book, and that is a feat of Sámano Córdova. It's definitely the story that's made me reflect the most lately, so I'm putting a 4-ish for now, but I may bump it as I sit on this for a bit.
Bottom line: read it.
“They are happy to believe I forgot how they maimed me.”
What a great little book! Read in one sitting, went by in a flash! Every chapter focuses on a different person, all in transit from one airport to another. Each chapter is named after the airport connections, and each chapter, each person, is connected to the person before in some way. Either they met while in transit or they already knew each other, but those connections make it flow beautifully and tie each chapter together.
It was an inspiring read. It made me think of all the times I've sat in an airport or train station, passing time by people-watching and making up stories in my head of where each person was going, where they came from, what their life was like, what they were thinking. This book felt like those thoughts come to life, where we're actually given a little glimpse into the lives of the people we run into while traveling. 4.5 stars.
This was a pleasant surprise! I knew nothing about it going in, and picked it up on a whim while looking for an audiobook with a narrator I could tolerate. The narration is fantastic and the different voice actors for different characters made it come alive that much more.
I can't quite put my finger on why I loved this book so much. It's not my normal type of book, and I'm not sure how to explain it. It's about Greta, a transcriber for Om, a sex coach, who becomes infatuated with one of Om's clients who she calls Big Swiss. As the transcriber she gets to hear all Big Swiss' secrets, and soon Greta meets Big Swiss at the dog park, and in a panic introduces herself with a fake name. What ensues is a quirky, funny, sad, and downright odd story. It is rare that I laugh out loud at a book. Greta is definitely an unhinged mess, yet still manages to be endearing and emotional. Very excited for the TV adaptation!
Heartbreaking, tender, passionate, loving. A beautifully sad story about a love that could never be.
“I'm seventeen years old. I don't know then that one day I won't be seventeen. I don't know that youth doesn't last, that it's only a moment, and then it disappears and by the time you finally realize it, it's too late. It's finished, vanished, lost.”
Hard-hitting memoir with a confronting title by McCurdy about her experiences with child acting, a mentally ill and abusive mother and eating disorders. Having never watched iCarly or Sam & Cat I never knew McCurdy any more than as a name heard in passing but I don't think that's a requirement for reading this book. The easy to read language, short chapters and captivating storytelling made this a page turner for me and I finished it in two sittings. Growing up with shows like toddlers and tiaras and movies like little miss sunshine I always had my concerns about putting children in the lime light and this was a very insightful book to read on the topic and only confirmed my suspicions.
3.5. My first Stephen King. Interesting premise, all they really do is walk, but it deals with topics so much deeper than that. I would have liked more background information about the walk, how it came about and why. Quite slow-moving, some sections haven't aged so well but overall an interesting read.
4.5 Really interesting and unique take on a whodunnit with lots of twists and turns. One of those stories where everything is confusing until it slowly starts to unravel and everything makes sense in the end. I really enjoyed it. If you can accept the confusion and go along for the ride it's a really intriguing story. Bit of a slow burn but kept me wanting to keep picking it up to figure the story out which I was surprised by. Unlike anything else I've read.
An odd little book all about the love of books, with a talking cat and labyrinths of lost books and book lovers waiting to be saved. What more could you want? Quite simple, but effective. Very quotable and heartwarming.
“Reading isn't only for pleasure or entertainment. Sometimes you need to examine the same lines deeply, read the same sentences over again. Sometimes you sit there, head in hands, only progressing at a painstakingly slow pace. And the result of all this hard work and careful study is that suddenly you're there and your field of vision expands. It's like finding a great view at the end of a long climbing trail.”
Denna bok gav mig minnen av min barndom på min alldeles egna sommarö, med min alldeles egna farmor och alla våra äventyr. Vi hade ingen spökskog men vi gjorde barkbåtar och djur av kottar och pinnar som farmorn gjorde djur av träden i spökskogen. Vi letade knollror och vaknade till brasan i eldspisen. Jag kunde se alla scener från boken framför mig på vår ö, med klarröda solnedgångar, sälar och ugglor, trasmattor, blåbärsbuskar och berg. Det gjorde boken mycket levande för mig, det gav mig också en saknad för det som var men aldrig är mer.
Tack farmor för alla dessa minnen och tack Tove Jansson för denna bok.
Well, I never thought I'd enjoy a super scienc-y sci-fi this much.
Ryland Grace wakes up alone in a space ship, and he has to figure out how to save Earth. Along the way Spoiler he meets Rocky, an alien from another planet with the same problem as Earth. I absolutely loved Rocky and the relationship he and Grace formed. I also enjoyed the way they approached their communication issues. Just goes to show that we can always figure out a way to communicate with one another. This book was funny, emotional, hopeful and action-packed all at once. As much as I didn't understand the science, it felt plausible and still somehow enjoyable to read, considering there's so much of it. I never knew a sci-fi in space could be such a feel-good story.
“All my rage seethes inside me and there's no place for it to go. I thrash. I scream. I snarl and bite. I let it course through me. I let it take me.”
This book is a heartbreaking yet important story about human suffering, different types of pain, and two Pakistani teenagers trying to survive the cards they've been dealt. The love between Noor and Salahudin was a beautiful respite amongst all the awfulness.
Wonderful book. It's a great read to get a better understanding of the Deaf community and the diversity within it. My favourite story was Charlie's as I felt I could relate the most to her in this kind of in between state of not quite part of the hearing world or the Deaf world, though mostly in the beginning. It's a feel good story, with educational elements, that I found myself not wanting to put down.
I definitely prefer this one over Daisy Jones, and I appreciated the story of Evelyn. In the beginning I found myself not wanting to stop listening, but after a while I just didn't find myself being so interested in how it ended. However, at the end it suddenly got interesting again. It's a good book, an enjoyable listen, I just felt the middle was a bit too slow and uneventful in a sense, despite all the different husbands, it was all for the same reason which made me feel less engaged in the story. This type of story and setting (Hollywood) just tends to not grip me as much as others, but I can see why people love it.
A wide array of short stories, some more impactful than others. Neither story was bad, yet neither was intensely gripping to warrant a 5 star for me. A solid 3.5 stars from me, an enjoyable read and a nice way to spend a day, but won't stay with me for very long.
All in all this collection of short stories taught me to be appreciative of what we have, how we can only go forward, never back. It taught me to appreciate a story and how you can, with simple measures, change the narrative of it, whilst also making me understand that a story is not enough, it is never the same as the lived experience. It made me sing Christmas songs in May and shed a tear of the loss of my grandmother and want to hug the people I love. To me, this book is about loss in many different ways.
My favourite stories were frozen windmills, how to make spinach-artichoke lasagna three weeks after your best friend's funeral, and the man who lives in my shower.
Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
I've always been a fan of these types of stories, if there is a mystery to be solved I'm into it. So for that reason, I loved it. It was well-written, the story unfolded in a way that didn't give away too much too fast, yet just enough to keep me intrigued. It takes a more emotional connection to the story, pulling at my heartstrings, for me to give it 5 stars, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
For you, a thousand times over.
I love stories that span a whole life. There is so much richness, so many teachings and experiences. Both heartbreak and happiness. This book is exactly that. Heart shattering, tragic, yet stunning. Beautifully written, gorgeous.
“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime”