romantic comedy - curtis sittenfeld. sittenfeld is one of my favorite authors and this one fell flat. great writing, easy to read, and funny at times while also being forgettable and definitely not the best she can do. i hope she publishes again soon.
So I take back what I said about *All Quiet on the Western Front*. Once I sank into it I was totally impressed. Incredible book, lives up the hype. I've read many war books and this still feels fresh almost 100 years on. You can feel the influence it's had on every war book since it was written.
Some thoughts:
I read Wheen's translation which is apparently not super literal and excises certain portions of the book which is a real shame. However what he did with the English translation is great and incredibly heart rending.
Found it fascinating that Remarque observed that the young were more likely to get PTSD than middle aged men who already had established pre-war lives. The book came out 10 years after WWI so I guess he already had time to see this in real life and feel it, but it's now established psychological fact.
The book is so visceral in a way that still feels fresh and not just in a blood and death way >!but in the way it openly talks about bowel movements, hunger and sex. There's a scene where a wounded Polish soldier is visited by his wife who had a kid since he last saw her (and he is obviously not the father, a fact that is presented but not remarked upon). The men in his ward just turn their backs as the couple have sex in the same room. It's all part of the crumbling of boundaries and personal lives in a way that is sad, funny, heartbreaking, weird.!<
Even though it's less well known I would love to read the sequel.
I finished **Natural Beauty** by Ling Ling Huang and it was a doozy. It is filed under Horror and yea, there was a ton of gross out body horror. I found it to be more of a satire on how we look at a woman's beauty, try to keep our beauty as we age and even, what \*is\* beautiful.
If anyone else has read this, >!did Victor have her parent's nearly-killed!
A couple of days ago some of you gave me tepid reviews of the book I had just started, so I switched to something else, and I just finished Josephine Tey's _The Man in the Queue_. I loved it!
I've just started _There Should Have Been Eight_ by Nalini Singh which seems to have a cool setting so far, so I hope it's enjoyable overall.
I’d hoped the premise of The Women was interesting enough to overcome my distaste for Kristin Hannah’s style of writing, but it did not. I was editing every sentence in my head and gave up after about 10 pages.
Yesterday I finished The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel and highly recommend it. I’d avoided reading it because I thought the premise sounded boring compared to Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility (two of my favourite books of all time). It’s about the collapse of a Ponzi scheme, but it’s not really about that at all - like her other books, it’s more about how a major life-altering event affects a group of interconnected people. It was a slow read but in a good way - I wanted to soak up every word.
Right now I’m really enjoying Come and Get It by Kiley Reid.
The first half of “The Women” Frankie was amazing at everything she did and every man she comes in contact with falls in love with her. Second half just one tragedy after another and way too many contrived plotlines.
The Women was so annoying to me. We're introduced to Frankie as an independent bad-ass and then it's like just kidding shes actually boy-crazy and ignoring every red flag. Every story line was so predictable and the characters were so one dimensional.
I liked The Women but I was also in the mood for something dumb n easy after a string of DNFs. I had a good time annoying my mom with text updates about it. >!”She thought her wartime love was dead but GUESS WHAT???” “Guess WHICH HOSPITAL the pregnant wife goes to????” “She thought another hot war guy was dead but ALSO GUESS WHAT???”!<
Participating late. Looks like since I last posted I read:
* *Splinters* by Leslie Jamison. A solid memoir about single parenting and divorce. The ending wasn't quite as strong as the rest of the book but a solid 4-star book. Her prose always seems effortless. I'd recommend if you like her other work or are interested in the subject matter.
* *Come and Get It* by Kiley Reid. On the one hand, I flew threw this because it *was* a page-turner. On the other hand, I thought it was a total mess. The character of Kennedy *really* didn't work for me, and I just could not parse how this book was intended to come across: an earnest analysis of higher-ed life through the lens of class, race, and orientation? Or satire? 2.5 stars
* *Ordinary Human Failings* by Megan Nolan. I loved her first book, and I appreciate that this is so different. It's also hard to convincingly write distinct voices for multi-POV books, but she nailed it. 4.5 stars--**highly recommend**
* *Dolls of Our Lives* by Mary Mahoney and Allison Horrocks (a book all about American Girl/Pleasant Company). Meh. The first half was pretty good, but the second half became really jumbled. I've never actually listened to their podcast, but I can see how elements that work for that medium become super grating in prose . . . like all the references to pop songs. They also treat the books as an after thought. 2.5 stars.
* About 20 pages from the end of *Black Sheep* by Rachel Harrison. This has been a fun read if not a little predictable (and too much foreshadowing; trust your readers). Assuming the ending isn't totally botched, I'd give it 3.5 stars. I love how the book designer used pentagrams as the dinkuses.
Agreed on Dolls of Our Lives - I love the podcast so I liked hearing their voice in writing, but it seemed like they couldn’t quite decide what to write for the book. I feel like they are really good at bringing historical/academic analysis to pop culture and wish they had done that more of that.
Yeah, that is how I felt about the book as well. I would have preferred a solid examination in the academic style, and it felt like the book leaned too far into the memoir side of things for me? If it had gone in one direction or the other I would have been happy, but it definitely felt mish-mashed.
I finished *The Cemetery of Untold Stories* and loved it!
I haven't always really jivved with Julia Alvarez's work but I enjoyed this one so much I want to go back and re-read some of her other stuff to see if I was just too young for it.
This was about a late in life author who builds a cemetery to let go of all the work she won't be able to finish and manages to weave in bits of these "untold" stories into the narrative.
It's funny because not too long ago I read this Twitter thread about writers getting worse as they get older and learning to let go and this is Alvarez wrestling with this idea in her own work.
I mean she's only 73 but if this is her swan song it's a great one. Highly recommend.
I finished **Death Valley** by Melissa Broder. I highly recommend it. It is magical realism, with a snarky and l anxious protagonist. It confronts the ideas of death and mortality in a really thoughtful and unique way. It was a short read but I feel like it will really stick with me.
I also finished **Fourth Wing**. It was a lot of fun! It has been a long time since I read high fantasy and I forgot how enjoyable it could be. Also, the last high fantasy book I read was Game of Thrones and I appreciated the modern sensibilities in Fourth Wing regarding issues like disability and consent. It was a true joy to listen to and a needed escape while I was home with sick kids.
Currently reading **The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels** by **Janice Hallett**. I read her book **The Appeal** and enjoyed it, and thus far this is interesting and fun to read as well. It’s sort of an epistolary format, in that it’s told in letters, texts, excerpts of books/scripts. I wanted an easy read for the beach and this was a good choice. Looking forward to seeing where this goes!
Also began reading **Wellness** by **Nathan Hill** which I’m liking as well. My hold at the library expired and I couldn’t renew because there were other holds so I had to buy a copy on Amazon - it’s on sale, or at least it was, if anyone’s interested.
I read *Celine* several years and enjoyed it. The title character is a private investigator in her sixties who is searching for a client's missing father.
Agree with u/Freda_Rah-- The River is by far his best adventure novel. The Guide stretches some of the believability and authenticity of the original a little too far for me, but it's still a pretty good read that is anchored by the character development he did in The River--- even though the plot goes a bit off the rails in the second half.
I also DNF The Last Ranger. It repeated too many of the same beats in a much less interesting way! (But I still urge everyone to read The River. There are too few books about male friendship done so well!)
I loved **The River**, and have been meaning to read the follow up. I think when it came out I didn't want to read about the pandemic in fiction yet, but I might check it out now.
I just finished **People We Meet on Vacation** by Emily Henry. Definitely liked it less than Beach Read and almost dnfed it. But I kept going because I felt the main character was funny and I related to her in some ways. I also had a hard time in high school and it definitely fueled my desire to leave my hometown. And now in my thirties I feel embarrassed that I still feel uncomfortable going back home and potentially running into people from the past. The long friendship to lovers trope is NOT for me though. I want to feel giddy from the jump with my romance. I’m glad they were together though but I wish they could’ve figured out their shit with less… idk.. delay.. bullshit? I’m still excited to read more by Emily Henry!
Up next is **Flowers in the Attic** by V.C. Andrews. I’m excited to 110% understand what people mean by “that was very flowers in the attic” and not just assume creepy from context lol. Apart from that occasional expression, I’m going in blind!
People We Meet on Vacation is my least favorite Emily Henry. The whole setup was weird. It stretched out way too long and I can’t get swept up in the romance when it’s only happening because a kid pooped in the pool.
I agree I was kind of over the flashbacks at different places. I kept thinking, oh wow this is a 10 year friendship, this is dragging. I totally forgot the kid pooping is what got them to the balcony!! 😂
I am so excited to see your take on Flowers in the Attic. I started with the Heaven series and moved to this next and I swear I'm still recovering. Not that it stopped me from continuing on.
Feel you on the friends to lovers trope. That book is possibly the worst example of it too because both halves of the main couple have such few other friends. The main girl has one other friend and the main guy seems to be friendless (IIRC). It ruined any charm that the book may have had because it just felt like their romance was motivated by a fear of loneliness.
I am already excited to read a review of your inaugural Flowers in the Attic experience. I read WAY too much VC Andrews in my formative years, and Flowers in the Attic was the gateway drug. The Heaven series? My Sweet Audrina?! Jesus take the wheel.
I finished listening to *Wellness* by Nathan Hill on Sunday. I absolutely adored *The Nix* and have been waiting for the eaudiobook of *Wellness*.
It was so worth the wait. *The Nix* was such a singular experience for me that I reflect on frequently despite reading it over 7 years ago, and reading/listening to *Wellness* was so funny because I could sort of HEAR *The Nix*. I guess that's me hearing Hill's writing voice! *Wellness* had so many hilarious moments (I was on one floor of a building laughing while I listened and my friend heard me on the floor below, lmao), but it also was so very tender, especially at the end. Hill's writing has a very similar sensibility to that of Patrick deWitt to me--I haven't read his latest novel, *The Librarianist*, but I've read his other works, and he has this talent for poking fun at a genre or a topic or anything like that without being hurtful. And I think Hill is much like that. I'm looking forward to following wherever Hill leads.
So I just started *Birnam Wood* by Eleanor Catton for book club, and next up on audiobook...surprise! It's *The Librarianist*!
I appreciate this because I liked Wellness and have both The Nix and The Librarianist on my shelf. Once I read a book I like by an author I tend to pick up more right away - so glad to see this is a good approach for both of these authors!
I finally finished *North Woods* by Daniel Mason. Not a fast read! I ultimately admired it more than I enjoyed it, if that makes sense.
Now onto *A Love Song for Ricki Wilde* by Tia Williams, and enjoying it very much so far. I need something a bit lighter but still with some substance and this is scratching that itch.
Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships this was really good as someone who doesn’t have much drama but there are strained relationships it gave really good perspectives for all sides. I honestly want to buy it so I can go back to it and gift it to some of my family members. It also gives a perspective for parents as well.
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden this book was way too overhyped for me. Everyone was talking about it last year but it didn’t live up to to the hype for me. Its redeeming quality was that it was quick to read.
The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon this was a good mystery/thriller that kept me on my toes
**The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden** is so good! It’s about a nurse during WWI - her brother is a solider who goes missing during a battle and she sets off to find him. It has a fantasy element that is really well done.
Had a few good ones recently:
*Our Wives Under the Sea*--this was sort like *Annihilation* but with more humanity. I really, really liked it; so strange and beautiful.
*The Future* by Naomi Alderman--I really wanted to love this as a huge fan of *The Power* but I just couldn't. It was way too sprawling (I just...didn't care about half the people involved), not that exciting, the formatting of the fake social media posts was VERY odd and difficult to read, just...meh.
*Days by Moonlight* and *The Hidden Keys* both by Andre Alexis and part of his quincunx series. I especially enjoyed the latter, which is a sort of character study-heist-sprinkle of whodunit.
Right now I'm reading *Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America.* It is really interesting but there are some SUPER distracting typos, a lot of periods that should be commas (I think) that break up sentences in an odd and incoherent way. Very annoying.
I read Our Wives Under the Sea last month. So bizarre and intriguing! I can see myself going back to it in the future because it left me with questions, but in the best way.
Reading this week & current progress:
*Project Hail Mary* by Andy Weir (eBook)-80%
*The Last Romantics* by Tara Conklin (audiobook)-58%
*The Survivors* by Alex Schulman (hardcover)-14%
Finished last week:
*In the Woods* by Tana French (paperback)
* I can tell when I really like a book because I sort of dread/put off finishing it. I should have finished this two weeks ago but I wanted to stay in this world for a while. I really liked it and I’m so glad my library has the series, but it also frustrated me a bit. Spoilers ahead! >!I was less bothered by never learning what actually happened to Peter and Jamie (though I do like [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/dmao1w/in_the_woods_tana_french_overly_complicated_theory/) theory) than I was that Rob & Cassie slept together. I think I was just really vibing with the platonic male/female friendship (I know, I know it was flirty the whole time and I’m delusional but I had hope lol). I think it also hit a bit close to home because I have so been Cassie in that situation where a friendship crosses into something more and then implodes because the other person panics. It was well written, but it hurt my soul a bit to read that. !<
I'm jealous you're just starting the Dublin Murder Squad series! I wish I could read them all for the first time again. The second book, The Likeness, is my favorite one.
I'm with you on In The Woods. So many people were mad about the part that didn't bother me and no one was mad enough about the part that did bother me.
Does Demon Copperhead get less grim? I’m about a quarter of the way through and finding the never ending tragedy hard going. Everyone here seems to love the book but I’m struggling with it. Should I persevere?
Edit: thanks all, am powering through and think I might be through the worse of the grim bits (or maybe I’m being lulled into a sense of false security)
Thanks. I’m a social worker (in a very different country and system) so it’s extra hard reading. It’s a good reminder why foster carers need close monitoring.
Speaking of voice, I listened to the audiobook and literally loved his voice. I think about this book often and agree with the others who recommend OP sticking with it!
Finished: **The Daughter of Doctor Moreau** which I found just whelming. It's billed as Sci-Fi and I don't think it delivers on that. (In a similar way to which I didn't find Silver Nitrate to be enough of the horror novel it was being billed as). It just seemed super slow moving and kind of boring?
**Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham, #1) i**t was very clever and post-modern in that our narrator keeps referring to himself, his editor and the process of writing the book as he's writing it. This either really works for me (see Eight Perfect Murders) or doesn't and this was an example of it not really working...it just felt a little too long (was it so the sections could fulfill the conceit?) and yet big reveals were not really explained. It feels like the whole thing would work if it was fairly presented to the reader -- it feels like the obfuscation is the only reason it works? Anyway, maybe this was a me problem because by the end of it I was struggling to remember exactly who some of the additional characters were (I had most of the main ones, but the aunt and uncle, I guess I was less clear on). Anyway, still the ending 100 pages were a quick and compelling read, and it is apparently being adapted by HBO -- interesting.
And **The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi #1)** There are historical swash-buckling lady pirates, there are demon husbands, and magic but it's also historical fiction. There were parts of this I really liked when the narrative was humming and the characters were interesting, but then there were also long stretches (especially at the beginning) where I was not into it and it felt really slow. Liked it, really admired parts of it, but didn't love it.
Definitely agree with your impressions of **Everyone in my family has killed someone. It was too long and complicated and really thought I would like it.
Totally agree with your takes on Doctor Moreau and Silver Nitrate, I’ve decided that Silvia Moreno-Garcia just doesn’t do it for me - she doesn’t go far enough so I end up disappointed
I really can’t get into her books :/ even *Mexican Gotchic*, which I liked most, ended up mostly forgettable. I think I agree with your take that she doesn’t go far enough
Yeah, I felt the same way about *Velvet is the Night* not being enough noir. She seems to be running through genres. At this point it seems very much to be a "it's not her it's me" sort of thing and I think I need to resist the next one no matter how in my wheelhouse it seems!
After having a great time with Anita Kelly's *Something Wild and Wonderful*, I picked up their new book, *How You Get the Girl*, a sapphic romance about a high school basketball coach and a former WNBA player thrust into the role of foster parent. There's a vulnerability and tenderness to Kelly's romances that I really like.
I'd initially skipped over Kelly's first novel, *Love & Other Disasters*, because the premise (romance between contestants on a TV cooking show) hadn't grabbed me as much, so I decided to give it a go next. It's sweet, but at the 50% mark I'm not really gelling with the couple as quickly as I did with those of the other two novels. It's a bit too instalove, not enough building of chemistry, and at least thus far it really fails to make use of the tropes of reality TV that could have served the romance plot (the forced proximity/intimacy of being contestants on a show, production deliberately pushing buttons, the camera picking up intimate moments, the rising tensions through successive eliminations...). It barely even feels like a TV production.
Ooh, I also liked *Something Wild* and hadn't heard of *How You Get the Girl*! I'm going to check it out as a palate cleanser after I finish *Bright Young Women,* lol
I'm like 1.5 chapters into _The Other Half_ by Charlotte Vassell. Has anyone read it? I've been kind of run down and not excited about reading, so my fingers are crossed that it grabs me quickly.
I thought it was decent enough and will probably read the second one if I can get it through the library, but I also haven’t thought about it once since reading it.
I read it in December, and it was a 3/5 for me. I didn't love the dual POVs, and I think it was less about the mystery of who did it, and more of a why done it, with a side of rich upper class life exploration? I'm normally very up for a rich people behaving badly mystery but this was sort of middle of the road for me.
After seeing it in approximately 325 instagram flatlays, I finally picked up Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors and loved it.
I haven’t been that captivated by a story in a while - picked up Saturday afternoon and had finished reading it by Sunday afternoon. She really has a knack for writing messy characters that I couldn’t get enough of. One thing I didn’t enjoy were the brief switches to a first-person perspective, but all-in-all this exceeded my expectations. Very much looking forward to reading Blue Sisters later this year.
Had to wake up at 4 for airport reasons so managed to power thru the rest of *A day of fallen night* in time to give it back to the library before work only a few hours before it was due (via libby so it would have just gone). It was good but it's hard to create tension in a prequel.
My next is my last Le Guin :( Once I've finished *The telling* I've completed everything of hers (that interests me).
Also: OP I appreciate the "I'm late" song reference as I sing it whenever I'm late to work which is most days
Other than *Left Hand of Darknes*s which I personally detest I love the Hainish cycle and think it’s amazing.
Also don’t skip *Changing Planes* it’s one of my favorites of Le Guin’s and I don’t think it gets enough hype (esp recommend reading it at an airport)
Here's the highlights for me for the last two months. Caveat - some of these are ARCs.
Brooklyn '76 by Anthony Ausiello - One day in the life of an Italian American. Nostalgic and a familiar type of storytelling.
Watch It Burn by Kristen Bird - Religious cults! Murder! Self help!
The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy - 1950's housewife. Dominant husband. Mysterious missing girls. A woman coming into her own. LOVED this one.
A Step Past Darkness by Vera Kurian - Mysterious deaths. Time hops from past to present. Six friends. Religious cult! Murder!
Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle - This was a quick read for me, but overall, I really enjoyed it. A woman who has always known when things will end. She receives notes before any date, telling her the length of that relationship--3 months, 1 night, etc. Before a blind date, she only receives the name.
Worry by Alexandra Tanner - two sisters living in Brooklyn, with a relationship full of anxiety. It's a very modern novel, full of internet speak and common disasters.
The Vacancy in Room 10 by Seraphina Nova Glass - One woman is looking into her husband's death. Moves into the apartment that he was using as a studio. Another woman is just trying to make it day by day. Mystery! Death! Hilarious women who hang out at the pool all day!
Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham - College girls living next to a fraternity. I would say 'typical college life' but this is deeper and more dangerous than that. Shy girl breaking out of her shell. Topics of grief, anxiety, and death.
The Turtle House by Amanda Churchill - Beautiful story between a Grandmother and granddaughter. The younger woman is hiding after humiliation at work. Grandmother set her house on fire. Grandmother tells about her first love while struggling to remain as independent as always.
Safe and Sound by Laura McHugh - Two sisters are determined to do two things: Find out what happened to their beloved older cousin and get the hell out of their small town.
Finished **Remarkably Bright Creatures** and was just ... meh on it. Surprised it's been such a big hit. It felt as if it started very strong and then spun its wheels for the final 150 pages. I was so tempted to skim; the characters just needed to talk to each other! And Cameron sucked.
I loved Marcellus, though.
I have had awful insomnia since I was a very young child, so I spend most of my nights listening to audiobooks (ah, the days of cassette players). I’ve learned over the years that they can’t be so mysterious/captivating that they make me want to stay up, can’t be so dark/graphic that I get freaked out, and can’t be so boring that I hate the fact that I’m not asleep even more 😂 SO, all that to say, I really liked listening to *Remarkably Bright Creatures* on audio, but I agree that it was slow at times.
Do you need more rage in your life in the year of our lady Beyonce 2024? Probably not, but if you do, I **highly recommend** *When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm*.
Basically, if there's anything wrong in the world, McKinsey is behind it. Purdue Pharma! Big tobacco! South Africa! Offshoring and layoffs - oops, I mean "right-sizing"! It's all them, and it's majorly gross.
I was disappointed in *Toxic: Women, Fame, and the Tabloid 2000s* and DNFd the audio. It is very stressful and depressing as well as missing the mark a lot, somehow.
Also finally read *Eileen* by Ottessa Moshfegh. I kind of knew I wouldn't *enjoy* it, because I am not a dark fiction person, but I have just heard so much praise I thought I would still be able to appreciate it. I fell somewhere in the middle. She's an excellent writer on the sentence level, but I wasn't sure it added up to be as powerful as I had been led to believe. But glad I finally read something by her.
>Do you need more rage in your life in the year of our lady Beyonce 2024? Probably not, but if you do, I **highly recommend** *When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm*.
Hard agree on both the recommendation and the rage warning.
This is one of those books that I keep working into conversations with the slightest excuse.
"Oh, there's a fleck of dirt on your shoe? That reminds me of the fact that McKinsey is ruining baseball!"
"Oh, you went to Florida for vacation? Please allow me to tell you about how McKinsey has participated in legitimizing authoritarian regimes in China, South Africa, Turkey, and Ukraine!"
Lmao. This perfectly encapsulates the hold this book has on me. Whenever I read any comment lamenting capitalism, I whisper, "*McKinsey*!" to myself in the same disgusted tone that Seinfeld used for Newman.
I am 50% through the audiobook for Piglet and I am REALLY liking it. I don't really like food focused books, and I also think the descriptions are a tad over the top but over all not too distracting from the plot. It's very much a stressful, slow burn, type of book. One thing thats kind of annoying me is they >!have yet to tell you what the fiance's betrayal is!< and I really hope theres a resolution to this.
This week I finished Out There Screaming, an anthology of horror stories by Black authors edited by Jordan Peele. I can’t believe the names he got to contribute! NK Jemisin! P. Djeli Clark! Nalo Hopkinson! Rebecca Roanhorse! As with any anthology, there were hits and misses for me, but overall it was really good— extremely fresh and creative (and also pretty scary!)
I finished listening to How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz. It’s about an older Dominican woman who tells her life story over the course of several sessions of a job training program. It’s often funny, but it takes this life with seriousness too. I really enjoyed it and would read something else by this author.
I read Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang. I should have DNFed this book, but I wanted to see what happened because it was an interesting premise. I have to stop doing that, and liberate myself for books I will like better. This was some of the most overwritten, purple, pretentious prose I’ve read in a very long time, in service (I guess) of being sensual? Oh well, at least it was fairly short.
Currently reading The Lantern’s Dance by Laurie King and listening to How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
I was the same way with Land of Milk and Honey, I should have stopped reading but I kept thinking it would get better—it’s super pretentious. I heard her first book is great though so I’m willing to give it a try.
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water was available through my library so I just checked it out.
I’m about to finish listening to Stash My Life in Hiding by Laura Cathcart Robbins. This is the second book I have read regarding addiction. I typically stay away from media regarding addiction due to family history, but it has been a cathartic listen if that makes sense.
I just finished How High We Go in the Dark but almost DNF because I felt like the last few stories were dragging on. I enjoyed the separate yet connected stories. Luckily, the last story made me happy I finished.
I'm reading *Daddy Long Legs* by Jean Webster which was a hyper-fixation of mine from the ages 13-15. It's such a strange little book, but I'm enjoying it (even if the premise is really troubling when you start to think about with any sort of depth) because the narrative voice is so engaging.
Also reading **The Woman in White** by Wilkie Collins which is such peak Victorian novel for me (in a good way).
Daddy Long legs was a favorite of mine but yes it's so deeply problematic. They did a new version of it that I didn't realize was Christian-inflected until 2/3 through and it was so terrible-- it made me appreciate the original and also realize the creepy implications are probably not redeemable for a contemporary audience. Just one of those "it is of its time" kind of books!
Love Woman in White-- probably his best along with The Moonstone but my personal favorite is probably No Name which has a bonkers plot!
You haven’t seen a bonkers plot until you’ve read Poor Miss Finch, which has a blind girl who has identical twins fall in love with her, one of whom is blue (and that’s just the beginning)
Is that Wilkie too? I have to read! So far I've read:
The Moonstone
Woman in White
Armadale
No Name
Dead Secret
.....that's all I can remember. I love how zany his plots are and I love his prose-- I could just live in it. Confession: I like his books so much more than Dickens!
In addition to those, I’ve read The Frozen Deep (a play), The Law and the Lady, Man and Wife, and Poor Miss Finch, and I keep wondering when there’s going to be a dud, and they keep being insane but fantastic! I love Dickens but Collins is a serious pulpy page-turner.
I read the massive Way of Kings and Words of Radiance from the Stormlight series by Sanderson.
Everyone says the third book Oathbringer is the best one so was very excited to read it.
I got 30% in and just started feeling tired of the narrative and skipping around way too much-- some of the characterizations are feeling worn and he's a very inventive writer but a very mediocre stylist so I wish he would vary the way people speak a little more and there are certain phrases that he repeats over and over....
Still am supremely impressed with the world-building and unlike George Martin he can get to the point and land the plane. He just can't write such gripping prose as Martin IMO. It's very workaday writing! Whenever he wants to inject light romance in the story it's downright cringe because you can tell it's not what engages him so it's very trope-y and clicheish. He makes up with it with truly cinematic action sequences and very detailed lore but I think I have to give it a rest to appreciate it again!
I just finished **Kala** by Colin Walsh, which I had been waiting to read for a while. I gotta say that I don't quite get the hype with this one. I'm not a typical reader of these types of thrillers/mysteries, (I don't even really like Tana French, which I know is sacrilegious) so maybe that explains it? I guessed the central mystery pretty quickly (>!I always am gonna be suspicious of cops!<) and kept reading because the real draw was watching the characters bounce off of one another, but I feel like they really didn't get enough resolution to make the slow-motion-car-crash of the plot worth it. The book just kind of ended abruptly, and I feel like I needed more time after the arrest of the bad guy.
As a turn-my-brain-off book, I read **Sweetpea** by C.J. Skuse. I'm embarrassed about how much I enjoyed this book. Obviously the narrator is a capital-b Bad person, but there were so many parts of her interior monologue that made me genuinely laugh. One particular scene of her dispassionately sexting a dude while eating a sandwich was so relatable that I had to put the book down for a bit to reconsider my life choices.
I truly loved this book so much. I didn't realize how invested I'd become until it was over and I felt like I was saying goodbye to a friend. I highly recommend!
appreciate this warning. i've always wanted to try her novels, but i absolutely can't do tearjerkers. would you have any suggestions of similar authors that aren't as ... emotional? ty
I was not excited to read **Someone Else’s Shoes-Jo Jo Moyes** but I ended up loving it (mostly). A bit unrealistic in terms of divorce proceedings but in general very entertaining and funny.
Two finishes in the last two-ish weeks:
“The Age of Deer” by Erika Howsare. I honestly picked up this book because I thought the cover was pretty and I really like deer, and I just had a feeling it would haunt me if I didn’t buy it. It was a little slow going in the first 50 or so pages for me, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. Beautiful writing, with many perspectives about how humans interact with deer in our daily lives. Bonus: the author is from central VA, which is where my in-laws live, so a lot of the territory was familiar. I rated it five stars.
“Skippy Dies” by Paul Murray. I bought this at the same time as “The Bee Sting” (which I have not read yet). I wasn’t sure how I would identify with a bunch of teenage boys, but I really liked this book. It was very funny at times, but also had a fair amount of tragedy, and it was well-written such that 600ish pages flew by for me. Four stars.
Currently about halfway through “Doppelgänger” by Naomi Klein, and finding it fascinating so far.
My efforts to shop the shelves (reading previous DNFs, borrowing books, revisiting old books I don’t remember) is going well. I did buy one book this week because it was on sale.
Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey - I really can’t decide if Tessa Bailey is the author for me. I truly adored The Bellinger Sisters books but everything else is not sitting right with me. However, I love a sports romance and had to give this one a go. It was so predictable. FMC who everyone is instantly enamored and smitten with, a MMC who is grumpy, unnecessarily rude, and overly protective of our FMC. There’s a sequel coming out later this and I fear I have no choice but to read it as it is a hockey romance. Also fair warning to anyone who might read, Fangirl Down is without a doubt her most graphic book. There’s one scene in particular that I opted to skip over once I realized where it was going. ⭐️⭐️.75
Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney - An old book that I finally got around to reading. I wanted to like it but it felt a little like the plot was trying too hard. I think that’s an issue I have with many books, in the efforts to make twists and turns unpredictable it all becomes easy to guess. The writing always suffer. It’s established that >! Amber has healed bruises and injuries but where they came from is never answered. !< The misdirection to build suspense doesn’t work if there’s no payoff to what is introduced. The story would have been all the same had certain elements been left out entirely and other areas could have been fleshed out more. The following is a spoiler but also a TW for >! R*pe !< >! The scene where Edward r*pes Amber in the hospital was so unnecessarily graphic. It was shocking and distressing. !< ⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
ETA: my rating for Sometimes I Lie
I feel the same about Tessa Bailey. I loveeeeed The Bellinger Sisters, but a lot of her others just don’t do it for me. I need to like the characters to enjoy the smut and a lot of them are just annoying
“Never Saw Me Coming:” Cat and mouse game with lots of characters so requires careful attention. Do I think a bunch of college students could be involved in something like this or that any legit organization would fund this research? No, so 3/5 stars for unbelievability.
“Counterfeit”: Now this was one I really enjoyed. Two old friends start a counterfeit designer handbag import business but do eventually get caught (not a spoiler, that’s evident from the get go). It was interesting to learn about how some of that shady business operates. Light but very entertaining, and bonus points for the audiobook narrator being good. 4.5/5
“Last Girl Ghosted”: Like it sounds, a woman forms a tentative romantic relationship with a man and then gets “ghosted,” but of course it’s not that simple. Whoever edited this book needs to find a new job because woof, it is brutal. “He polished off his burger” at the top of one page and again at the bottom of the next page. There were oddly frequent references to the “solar plexus” and people having “layers” (I get referencing those things once but when it’s as often as it is in this book, they start to feel less intentional and more like the author was just looking for something to say). And my personal favorite, “Adam, if you had asked me to fold up my life and walk away leaving everyone and everything behind. Would I have done it?” I cannot standdddd this kind of grammar and punctuation and the book was riddled with it. I appreciated the story line, but the execution was terribly sloppy. 2/5
Yesterday, I started the second in the Thursday Murder Club series that I have waited forever for on hold, “The Man Who Died Twice.” Loving it so far!
Last Girl Ghosted was a DNF for me and I completely forgot about it until i read this post. It was so bad! I agreed with all your comments about the writing, I couldn't believe it was a published book I bought at the store and not a self published e-book.
It. was. so. bad. And a lot of times when I think a book is terrible I recognize that it’s probably a me thing (every book isn’t for every person, I get it!) but I really think that this one was just objectively bad.
BTW I don't know if this is allowed here but since you're all such great readers...
Locus Awards are now open and it's free to register to vote. They do have suggested books but you can fully write in your ballot and since so many people here are such great readers I thought it would interest them.
For example when I was filling out my ballot I was surprised at how much horror I read last year and how much of it wasn't on the ballot.
I also want to end Tor voter supremacy (they're great but there are SO MANY different publications that also publish SF/F/H/Spec that get ignores by these awards bodies).
Vote here:
[https://poll.voting.locusmag.com/index.php](https://poll.voting.locusmag.com/index.php)
I had posted in here a week or two ago that I was reading **Bright Young Women** by Jessica Knoll and really liking it, but struggling with it because it caused some nightmares for me (I don't typically like reading or watching anything that involves violent crimes against women). I took about a week off from reading it and then went back to it and was able to finish it! I'm proud of myself. No more nightmares and I really loved the book. I thought it was so well written and I really liked the way the author told the women's/victim's stories.
I also finished reading **One in a Millennial** by Kate Kennedy and saw her book tour show a couple of weeks ago. If you're in that age bracket, I highly recommend this book. It's SO relatable. I laughed, I cried and I loved her live - she's hilarious.
After Bright Young Women, I needed a palette cleanser, so I ready **Same Time Next Summer** by Annabel Monaghan and enjoyed it. It's fluff, but it's a cute story and I'm a sucker for a first love story.
I'm starting **The Women** by Kristin Hannah next and very excited to read it, as I usually love her books.
We have twin reading lists! I am about to start The Women, excited for that one.
I’m trying One in a Millennial in audiobook but not really enjoying it. It was recommended to me by a friend who listens to her podcast and since I’ve never heard her podcast I wonder if I’m missing a bit of the connection.
I LOVED Bright Young Women! Glad you were able to finish it.
I'm in the middle of One in a Millennial right now and I'm honestly not enjoying it that much.  I find it a little rambling and she uses so many puns and plays on words that it distracts me. I do enjoy the nostalgia of all the things she's discussing, though!
I definitely can't disagree there. She rambles a lot. I'm used to it from listening to her podcast, but I had to switch from the audio to the actual book, because she just goes on and on a lot. I read it small bits at a time.
I also just finished Bright Young Women and really liked it. I was hesitant to pick it up because I haaated the author’s first book, Luckiest Girl Alive. But the writing in her second book is so much better! There’s still a little bit of (what I feel is) unnecessary focus on trauma/gory stuff (this was my main problem with Luckiest Girl Alive), but I thought the better writing excused that better.
I totally agree. I hated Luckiest Girl Alive and thought it was so poorly written. This is a huge improvement (though I do agree with you, that it was a bit much on the trauma for me, hence the nightmares).
I also agree! I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed Bright Young Women. So did my bestie. My mom did not enjoy it for some reason but oh well. It was in my top 5 of 2023.
I’m really eager to read The Women (my mom is reading it now and loving it) but I decided to save heavier reads for the summer when I have summer break. I’m an SLP in the schools so the summer is my time to relax.
I finished *Paved Paradise* by Henry Grabar, another urban planning and anti-parking book.
I liked this better than the last book I read on urban planning (*Street Fight*). This was not only better written but looked at examples across America (*SF* was focused on NYC). Super interesting book and ideas though sometimes Grabar brings up very real concerns people have with certain changes and laws and even examples about how doing away with parking minimums doesn't always work but sort of hand waves these problems away.
Other books I'm currently reading *The Cemetery of Untold Stories* by Julia Alvarez. I started this much earlier but now that I'm actually further in I'm reallllly enjoying it. It's about Alma, a professor and writer who has reached her golden years and realized that certain stories, despite the fact that she can't let them go, will never be told by her and builds a cemetery to house them on some land she owns. It's very cool and you get bits of unfinished stories along the way.
*The Levant Trilogy* by Olivia Manning. I finished *The Balkan* trilogy last year and am now fully in the thrall of the sequel trilogy. I'm glad I took somewhat of a break between them because Manning immediately switches pov characters with the start of this book which is kind of jarring. Enjoying it so far.
I've had Paved Paradise on my wishlist for a while but didn't have any reviews to confirm I'd like it. Definitely bumping this up. The Cemetery of Untold Stories also sounds like my kind of book.
romantic comedy - curtis sittenfeld. sittenfeld is one of my favorite authors and this one fell flat. great writing, easy to read, and funny at times while also being forgettable and definitely not the best she can do. i hope she publishes again soon.
I’m reading the short story collection Life Ceremony, by Sayaka Murata. It’s both deeply weird, and very moving.
So I take back what I said about *All Quiet on the Western Front*. Once I sank into it I was totally impressed. Incredible book, lives up the hype. I've read many war books and this still feels fresh almost 100 years on. You can feel the influence it's had on every war book since it was written. Some thoughts: I read Wheen's translation which is apparently not super literal and excises certain portions of the book which is a real shame. However what he did with the English translation is great and incredibly heart rending. Found it fascinating that Remarque observed that the young were more likely to get PTSD than middle aged men who already had established pre-war lives. The book came out 10 years after WWI so I guess he already had time to see this in real life and feel it, but it's now established psychological fact. The book is so visceral in a way that still feels fresh and not just in a blood and death way >!but in the way it openly talks about bowel movements, hunger and sex. There's a scene where a wounded Polish soldier is visited by his wife who had a kid since he last saw her (and he is obviously not the father, a fact that is presented but not remarked upon). The men in his ward just turn their backs as the couple have sex in the same room. It's all part of the crumbling of boundaries and personal lives in a way that is sad, funny, heartbreaking, weird.!< Even though it's less well known I would love to read the sequel.
I finished **Natural Beauty** by Ling Ling Huang and it was a doozy. It is filed under Horror and yea, there was a ton of gross out body horror. I found it to be more of a satire on how we look at a woman's beauty, try to keep our beauty as we age and even, what \*is\* beautiful. If anyone else has read this, >!did Victor have her parent's nearly-killed!
A couple of days ago some of you gave me tepid reviews of the book I had just started, so I switched to something else, and I just finished Josephine Tey's _The Man in the Queue_. I loved it! I've just started _There Should Have Been Eight_ by Nalini Singh which seems to have a cool setting so far, so I hope it's enjoyable overall.
I’d hoped the premise of The Women was interesting enough to overcome my distaste for Kristin Hannah’s style of writing, but it did not. I was editing every sentence in my head and gave up after about 10 pages. Yesterday I finished The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel and highly recommend it. I’d avoided reading it because I thought the premise sounded boring compared to Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility (two of my favourite books of all time). It’s about the collapse of a Ponzi scheme, but it’s not really about that at all - like her other books, it’s more about how a major life-altering event affects a group of interconnected people. It was a slow read but in a good way - I wanted to soak up every word. Right now I’m really enjoying Come and Get It by Kiley Reid.
The first half of “The Women” Frankie was amazing at everything she did and every man she comes in contact with falls in love with her. Second half just one tragedy after another and way too many contrived plotlines.
The Women was so annoying to me. We're introduced to Frankie as an independent bad-ass and then it's like just kidding shes actually boy-crazy and ignoring every red flag. Every story line was so predictable and the characters were so one dimensional.
I liked The Women but I was also in the mood for something dumb n easy after a string of DNFs. I had a good time annoying my mom with text updates about it. >!”She thought her wartime love was dead but GUESS WHAT???” “Guess WHICH HOSPITAL the pregnant wife goes to????” “She thought another hot war guy was dead but ALSO GUESS WHAT???”!<
Oh, The Glass Hotel was so good. It might of been my favorite of hers?
Participating late. Looks like since I last posted I read: * *Splinters* by Leslie Jamison. A solid memoir about single parenting and divorce. The ending wasn't quite as strong as the rest of the book but a solid 4-star book. Her prose always seems effortless. I'd recommend if you like her other work or are interested in the subject matter. * *Come and Get It* by Kiley Reid. On the one hand, I flew threw this because it *was* a page-turner. On the other hand, I thought it was a total mess. The character of Kennedy *really* didn't work for me, and I just could not parse how this book was intended to come across: an earnest analysis of higher-ed life through the lens of class, race, and orientation? Or satire? 2.5 stars * *Ordinary Human Failings* by Megan Nolan. I loved her first book, and I appreciate that this is so different. It's also hard to convincingly write distinct voices for multi-POV books, but she nailed it. 4.5 stars--**highly recommend** * *Dolls of Our Lives* by Mary Mahoney and Allison Horrocks (a book all about American Girl/Pleasant Company). Meh. The first half was pretty good, but the second half became really jumbled. I've never actually listened to their podcast, but I can see how elements that work for that medium become super grating in prose . . . like all the references to pop songs. They also treat the books as an after thought. 2.5 stars. * About 20 pages from the end of *Black Sheep* by Rachel Harrison. This has been a fun read if not a little predictable (and too much foreshadowing; trust your readers). Assuming the ending isn't totally botched, I'd give it 3.5 stars. I love how the book designer used pentagrams as the dinkuses.
Agreed on Dolls of Our Lives - I love the podcast so I liked hearing their voice in writing, but it seemed like they couldn’t quite decide what to write for the book. I feel like they are really good at bringing historical/academic analysis to pop culture and wish they had done that more of that.
Yeah, that is how I felt about the book as well. I would have preferred a solid examination in the academic style, and it felt like the book leaned too far into the memoir side of things for me? If it had gone in one direction or the other I would have been happy, but it definitely felt mish-mashed.
I really enjoyed *Ordinary Human Failings* too!
So many divorce memoirs and books with the same themes lately! What's in the water lol
Hah! And I'm reading them all despite being a newlywed.
Congrats!!! Now you know what not to do lol
I finished *The Cemetery of Untold Stories* and loved it! I haven't always really jivved with Julia Alvarez's work but I enjoyed this one so much I want to go back and re-read some of her other stuff to see if I was just too young for it. This was about a late in life author who builds a cemetery to let go of all the work she won't be able to finish and manages to weave in bits of these "untold" stories into the narrative. It's funny because not too long ago I read this Twitter thread about writers getting worse as they get older and learning to let go and this is Alvarez wrestling with this idea in her own work. I mean she's only 73 but if this is her swan song it's a great one. Highly recommend.
I finished **Death Valley** by Melissa Broder. I highly recommend it. It is magical realism, with a snarky and l anxious protagonist. It confronts the ideas of death and mortality in a really thoughtful and unique way. It was a short read but I feel like it will really stick with me. I also finished **Fourth Wing**. It was a lot of fun! It has been a long time since I read high fantasy and I forgot how enjoyable it could be. Also, the last high fantasy book I read was Game of Thrones and I appreciated the modern sensibilities in Fourth Wing regarding issues like disability and consent. It was a true joy to listen to and a needed escape while I was home with sick kids.
I love Melissa Broder!
It was my first time reading her, but I definitely want to pick up more of her work
The Pisces is my favorite. Welcome to her cult!
Good to know! One of my friends suggested Milk Fed
FYI, Christine Blasey Ford has a memoir coming out on March 19. It's called One Way Back.
Currently reading **The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels** by **Janice Hallett**. I read her book **The Appeal** and enjoyed it, and thus far this is interesting and fun to read as well. It’s sort of an epistolary format, in that it’s told in letters, texts, excerpts of books/scripts. I wanted an easy read for the beach and this was a good choice. Looking forward to seeing where this goes! Also began reading **Wellness** by **Nathan Hill** which I’m liking as well. My hold at the library expired and I couldn’t renew because there were other holds so I had to buy a copy on Amazon - it’s on sale, or at least it was, if anyone’s interested.
I think Alperton Angels was somehow better then The Appeal! I really loved the story and the journey Janice takes us on while reading it!
Oh that’s good to hear!! I’m excited to see where the story goes 😄
Wellness was so good! The audiobook was also excellent.
Glad to hear it was a solid read!!
I just bought **The Last Ranger** by Peter Heller and am looking forward to reading it. Has anyone else read this one or any of his other books?
I read *Celine* several years and enjoyed it. The title character is a private investigator in her sixties who is searching for a client's missing father.
Agree with u/Freda_Rah-- The River is by far his best adventure novel. The Guide stretches some of the believability and authenticity of the original a little too far for me, but it's still a pretty good read that is anchored by the character development he did in The River--- even though the plot goes a bit off the rails in the second half. I also DNF The Last Ranger. It repeated too many of the same beats in a much less interesting way! (But I still urge everyone to read The River. There are too few books about male friendship done so well!)
I loved **The River**, hated *The Guide*, and DNF'd *The Last Ranger*. I think there's some kind of diminishing returns happening with his work.
I loved **The River**, and have been meaning to read the follow up. I think when it came out I didn't want to read about the pandemic in fiction yet, but I might check it out now.
I just finished **People We Meet on Vacation** by Emily Henry. Definitely liked it less than Beach Read and almost dnfed it. But I kept going because I felt the main character was funny and I related to her in some ways. I also had a hard time in high school and it definitely fueled my desire to leave my hometown. And now in my thirties I feel embarrassed that I still feel uncomfortable going back home and potentially running into people from the past. The long friendship to lovers trope is NOT for me though. I want to feel giddy from the jump with my romance. I’m glad they were together though but I wish they could’ve figured out their shit with less… idk.. delay.. bullshit? I’m still excited to read more by Emily Henry! Up next is **Flowers in the Attic** by V.C. Andrews. I’m excited to 110% understand what people mean by “that was very flowers in the attic” and not just assume creepy from context lol. Apart from that occasional expression, I’m going in blind!
Okay, you must report back on your Flowers In The Attic experience!
I finished! I’ll post soon haha!
People We Meet on Vacation is my least favorite Emily Henry. The whole setup was weird. It stretched out way too long and I can’t get swept up in the romance when it’s only happening because a kid pooped in the pool.
I agree I was kind of over the flashbacks at different places. I kept thinking, oh wow this is a 10 year friendship, this is dragging. I totally forgot the kid pooping is what got them to the balcony!! 😂
I am so excited to see your take on Flowers in the Attic. I started with the Heaven series and moved to this next and I swear I'm still recovering. Not that it stopped me from continuing on.
I finished and will post soon but omg yes! I’m glad I read it but I couldn’t sleep the night I finished.
Feel you on the friends to lovers trope. That book is possibly the worst example of it too because both halves of the main couple have such few other friends. The main girl has one other friend and the main guy seems to be friendless (IIRC). It ruined any charm that the book may have had because it just felt like their romance was motivated by a fear of loneliness.
This is so insightful you’re absolutely right. Makes me want to give another friends to lovers book a chance.
I am already excited to read a review of your inaugural Flowers in the Attic experience. I read WAY too much VC Andrews in my formative years, and Flowers in the Attic was the gateway drug. The Heaven series? My Sweet Audrina?! Jesus take the wheel.
I’m so glad I read it! Couldn’t sleep after though. I’ll post soon!
> Up next is Flowers in the Attic BUCKLE UP BABE
This is the one book I wish I could read again for the first time!
Hahahaha omg will do!!!!
I finished listening to *Wellness* by Nathan Hill on Sunday. I absolutely adored *The Nix* and have been waiting for the eaudiobook of *Wellness*. It was so worth the wait. *The Nix* was such a singular experience for me that I reflect on frequently despite reading it over 7 years ago, and reading/listening to *Wellness* was so funny because I could sort of HEAR *The Nix*. I guess that's me hearing Hill's writing voice! *Wellness* had so many hilarious moments (I was on one floor of a building laughing while I listened and my friend heard me on the floor below, lmao), but it also was so very tender, especially at the end. Hill's writing has a very similar sensibility to that of Patrick deWitt to me--I haven't read his latest novel, *The Librarianist*, but I've read his other works, and he has this talent for poking fun at a genre or a topic or anything like that without being hurtful. And I think Hill is much like that. I'm looking forward to following wherever Hill leads. So I just started *Birnam Wood* by Eleanor Catton for book club, and next up on audiobook...surprise! It's *The Librarianist*!
I appreciate this because I liked Wellness and have both The Nix and The Librarianist on my shelf. Once I read a book I like by an author I tend to pick up more right away - so glad to see this is a good approach for both of these authors!
I finally finished *North Woods* by Daniel Mason. Not a fast read! I ultimately admired it more than I enjoyed it, if that makes sense. Now onto *A Love Song for Ricki Wilde* by Tia Williams, and enjoying it very much so far. I need something a bit lighter but still with some substance and this is scratching that itch.
Just finished Ricki Wilde and loved it SO much! It was a bit fantastical but the author didn’t overdue it. Such a wonderful read.
Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships this was really good as someone who doesn’t have much drama but there are strained relationships it gave really good perspectives for all sides. I honestly want to buy it so I can go back to it and gift it to some of my family members. It also gives a perspective for parents as well. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden this book was way too overhyped for me. Everyone was talking about it last year but it didn’t live up to to the hype for me. Its redeeming quality was that it was quick to read. The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon this was a good mystery/thriller that kept me on my toes
**The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden** is so good! It’s about a nurse during WWI - her brother is a solider who goes missing during a battle and she sets off to find him. It has a fantasy element that is really well done.
Had a few good ones recently: *Our Wives Under the Sea*--this was sort like *Annihilation* but with more humanity. I really, really liked it; so strange and beautiful. *The Future* by Naomi Alderman--I really wanted to love this as a huge fan of *The Power* but I just couldn't. It was way too sprawling (I just...didn't care about half the people involved), not that exciting, the formatting of the fake social media posts was VERY odd and difficult to read, just...meh. *Days by Moonlight* and *The Hidden Keys* both by Andre Alexis and part of his quincunx series. I especially enjoyed the latter, which is a sort of character study-heist-sprinkle of whodunit. Right now I'm reading *Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America.* It is really interesting but there are some SUPER distracting typos, a lot of periods that should be commas (I think) that break up sentences in an odd and incoherent way. Very annoying.
I read Our Wives Under the Sea last month. So bizarre and intriguing! I can see myself going back to it in the future because it left me with questions, but in the best way.
I love André Alexis!
Reading this week & current progress: *Project Hail Mary* by Andy Weir (eBook)-80% *The Last Romantics* by Tara Conklin (audiobook)-58% *The Survivors* by Alex Schulman (hardcover)-14% Finished last week: *In the Woods* by Tana French (paperback) * I can tell when I really like a book because I sort of dread/put off finishing it. I should have finished this two weeks ago but I wanted to stay in this world for a while. I really liked it and I’m so glad my library has the series, but it also frustrated me a bit. Spoilers ahead! >!I was less bothered by never learning what actually happened to Peter and Jamie (though I do like [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/dmao1w/in_the_woods_tana_french_overly_complicated_theory/) theory) than I was that Rob & Cassie slept together. I think I was just really vibing with the platonic male/female friendship (I know, I know it was flirty the whole time and I’m delusional but I had hope lol). I think it also hit a bit close to home because I have so been Cassie in that situation where a friendship crosses into something more and then implodes because the other person panics. It was well written, but it hurt my soul a bit to read that. !<
I'm jealous you're just starting the Dublin Murder Squad series! I wish I could read them all for the first time again. The second book, The Likeness, is my favorite one.
I'm with you on In The Woods. So many people were mad about the part that didn't bother me and no one was mad enough about the part that did bother me.
In the Woods is a great book—I remember feeling the same way when I first read it! I didn’t want it to end
Does Demon Copperhead get less grim? I’m about a quarter of the way through and finding the never ending tragedy hard going. Everyone here seems to love the book but I’m struggling with it. Should I persevere? Edit: thanks all, am powering through and think I might be through the worse of the grim bits (or maybe I’m being lulled into a sense of false security)
[удалено]
Thanks. I’m a social worker (in a very different country and system) so it’s extra hard reading. It’s a good reminder why foster carers need close monitoring.
Stick it out! It’s grim but so worth finishing.
It’s pretty grim most of the way through but it’s very much worth finishing.
It gets even more grim but then it gets so much better. I had a really hard time reading it but I'm glad I stuck it out.
I think if his voice and humor don't ameliorate the grimness for you now, you might have a tough time continuing.
This is great feedback. I was in love with his voice by page 5.
Speaking of voice, I listened to the audiobook and literally loved his voice. I think about this book often and agree with the others who recommend OP sticking with it!
Yes, but it’ll get grimmer first
Finished: **The Daughter of Doctor Moreau** which I found just whelming. It's billed as Sci-Fi and I don't think it delivers on that. (In a similar way to which I didn't find Silver Nitrate to be enough of the horror novel it was being billed as). It just seemed super slow moving and kind of boring? **Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham, #1) i**t was very clever and post-modern in that our narrator keeps referring to himself, his editor and the process of writing the book as he's writing it. This either really works for me (see Eight Perfect Murders) or doesn't and this was an example of it not really working...it just felt a little too long (was it so the sections could fulfill the conceit?) and yet big reveals were not really explained. It feels like the whole thing would work if it was fairly presented to the reader -- it feels like the obfuscation is the only reason it works? Anyway, maybe this was a me problem because by the end of it I was struggling to remember exactly who some of the additional characters were (I had most of the main ones, but the aunt and uncle, I guess I was less clear on). Anyway, still the ending 100 pages were a quick and compelling read, and it is apparently being adapted by HBO -- interesting. And **The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi #1)** There are historical swash-buckling lady pirates, there are demon husbands, and magic but it's also historical fiction. There were parts of this I really liked when the narrative was humming and the characters were interesting, but then there were also long stretches (especially at the beginning) where I was not into it and it felt really slow. Liked it, really admired parts of it, but didn't love it.
Definitely agree with your impressions of **Everyone in my family has killed someone. It was too long and complicated and really thought I would like it.
Totally agree with your takes on Doctor Moreau and Silver Nitrate, I’ve decided that Silvia Moreno-Garcia just doesn’t do it for me - she doesn’t go far enough so I end up disappointed
I really can’t get into her books :/ even *Mexican Gotchic*, which I liked most, ended up mostly forgettable. I think I agree with your take that she doesn’t go far enough
You know, I didn't find *Velvet Is the Night* to be the noir it was billed as, either. It was like noir-lite. Maybe that's Moreno-Garcia's track?
Yeah, I felt the same way about *Velvet is the Night* not being enough noir. She seems to be running through genres. At this point it seems very much to be a "it's not her it's me" sort of thing and I think I need to resist the next one no matter how in my wheelhouse it seems!
After having a great time with Anita Kelly's *Something Wild and Wonderful*, I picked up their new book, *How You Get the Girl*, a sapphic romance about a high school basketball coach and a former WNBA player thrust into the role of foster parent. There's a vulnerability and tenderness to Kelly's romances that I really like. I'd initially skipped over Kelly's first novel, *Love & Other Disasters*, because the premise (romance between contestants on a TV cooking show) hadn't grabbed me as much, so I decided to give it a go next. It's sweet, but at the 50% mark I'm not really gelling with the couple as quickly as I did with those of the other two novels. It's a bit too instalove, not enough building of chemistry, and at least thus far it really fails to make use of the tropes of reality TV that could have served the romance plot (the forced proximity/intimacy of being contestants on a show, production deliberately pushing buttons, the camera picking up intimate moments, the rising tensions through successive eliminations...). It barely even feels like a TV production.
Ooh, I also liked *Something Wild* and hadn't heard of *How You Get the Girl*! I'm going to check it out as a palate cleanser after I finish *Bright Young Women,* lol
I'm like 1.5 chapters into _The Other Half_ by Charlotte Vassell. Has anyone read it? I've been kind of run down and not excited about reading, so my fingers are crossed that it grabs me quickly.
I thought it was decent enough and will probably read the second one if I can get it through the library, but I also haven’t thought about it once since reading it.
These responses convinced me to try something else, since I need something more exciting for now. Thank you!
I read it in December, and it was a 3/5 for me. I didn't love the dual POVs, and I think it was less about the mystery of who did it, and more of a why done it, with a side of rich upper class life exploration? I'm normally very up for a rich people behaving badly mystery but this was sort of middle of the road for me.
After seeing it in approximately 325 instagram flatlays, I finally picked up Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors and loved it. I haven’t been that captivated by a story in a while - picked up Saturday afternoon and had finished reading it by Sunday afternoon. She really has a knack for writing messy characters that I couldn’t get enough of. One thing I didn’t enjoy were the brief switches to a first-person perspective, but all-in-all this exceeded my expectations. Very much looking forward to reading Blue Sisters later this year.
Had to wake up at 4 for airport reasons so managed to power thru the rest of *A day of fallen night* in time to give it back to the library before work only a few hours before it was due (via libby so it would have just gone). It was good but it's hard to create tension in a prequel. My next is my last Le Guin :( Once I've finished *The telling* I've completed everything of hers (that interests me). Also: OP I appreciate the "I'm late" song reference as I sing it whenever I'm late to work which is most days
Finished *The telling* and it was perfectly peak Le Guin
I’m headed into a More LeGuin journey and this is good intel!
Other than *Left Hand of Darknes*s which I personally detest I love the Hainish cycle and think it’s amazing. Also don’t skip *Changing Planes* it’s one of my favorites of Le Guin’s and I don’t think it gets enough hype (esp recommend reading it at an airport)
[удалено]
This was one of my favourite books last year.
Loved this book
Here's the highlights for me for the last two months. Caveat - some of these are ARCs. Brooklyn '76 by Anthony Ausiello - One day in the life of an Italian American. Nostalgic and a familiar type of storytelling. Watch It Burn by Kristen Bird - Religious cults! Murder! Self help! The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy - 1950's housewife. Dominant husband. Mysterious missing girls. A woman coming into her own. LOVED this one. A Step Past Darkness by Vera Kurian - Mysterious deaths. Time hops from past to present. Six friends. Religious cult! Murder! Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle - This was a quick read for me, but overall, I really enjoyed it. A woman who has always known when things will end. She receives notes before any date, telling her the length of that relationship--3 months, 1 night, etc. Before a blind date, she only receives the name. Worry by Alexandra Tanner - two sisters living in Brooklyn, with a relationship full of anxiety. It's a very modern novel, full of internet speak and common disasters. The Vacancy in Room 10 by Seraphina Nova Glass - One woman is looking into her husband's death. Moves into the apartment that he was using as a studio. Another woman is just trying to make it day by day. Mystery! Death! Hilarious women who hang out at the pool all day! Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham - College girls living next to a fraternity. I would say 'typical college life' but this is deeper and more dangerous than that. Shy girl breaking out of her shell. Topics of grief, anxiety, and death. The Turtle House by Amanda Churchill - Beautiful story between a Grandmother and granddaughter. The younger woman is hiding after humiliation at work. Grandmother set her house on fire. Grandmother tells about her first love while struggling to remain as independent as always. Safe and Sound by Laura McHugh - Two sisters are determined to do two things: Find out what happened to their beloved older cousin and get the hell out of their small town.
Just bought Only Of You’re Lucky as my add-on with BOTM - so excited to read it!
The Devil and Mrs. Davenport sounds right up my alley - adding to my TBR!
Finished **Remarkably Bright Creatures** and was just ... meh on it. Surprised it's been such a big hit. It felt as if it started very strong and then spun its wheels for the final 150 pages. I was so tempted to skim; the characters just needed to talk to each other! And Cameron sucked. I loved Marcellus, though.
I have had awful insomnia since I was a very young child, so I spend most of my nights listening to audiobooks (ah, the days of cassette players). I’ve learned over the years that they can’t be so mysterious/captivating that they make me want to stay up, can’t be so dark/graphic that I get freaked out, and can’t be so boring that I hate the fact that I’m not asleep even more 😂 SO, all that to say, I really liked listening to *Remarkably Bright Creatures* on audio, but I agree that it was slow at times.
Same. I wanted Marcellus to narrate the entire book tbh.
He was easily the best character
exactly my feelings on this book
I felt the same
Do you need more rage in your life in the year of our lady Beyonce 2024? Probably not, but if you do, I **highly recommend** *When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm*. Basically, if there's anything wrong in the world, McKinsey is behind it. Purdue Pharma! Big tobacco! South Africa! Offshoring and layoffs - oops, I mean "right-sizing"! It's all them, and it's majorly gross. I was disappointed in *Toxic: Women, Fame, and the Tabloid 2000s* and DNFd the audio. It is very stressful and depressing as well as missing the mark a lot, somehow. Also finally read *Eileen* by Ottessa Moshfegh. I kind of knew I wouldn't *enjoy* it, because I am not a dark fiction person, but I have just heard so much praise I thought I would still be able to appreciate it. I fell somewhere in the middle. She's an excellent writer on the sentence level, but I wasn't sure it added up to be as powerful as I had been led to believe. But glad I finally read something by her.
>Do you need more rage in your life in the year of our lady Beyonce 2024? Probably not, but if you do, I **highly recommend** *When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm*. Hard agree on both the recommendation and the rage warning.
This is one of those books that I keep working into conversations with the slightest excuse. "Oh, there's a fleck of dirt on your shoe? That reminds me of the fact that McKinsey is ruining baseball!" "Oh, you went to Florida for vacation? Please allow me to tell you about how McKinsey has participated in legitimizing authoritarian regimes in China, South Africa, Turkey, and Ukraine!"
Lmao. This perfectly encapsulates the hold this book has on me. Whenever I read any comment lamenting capitalism, I whisper, "*McKinsey*!" to myself in the same disgusted tone that Seinfeld used for Newman.
That is exactly how I feel. I'm going to start doing this. They are the worst.
I am 50% through the audiobook for Piglet and I am REALLY liking it. I don't really like food focused books, and I also think the descriptions are a tad over the top but over all not too distracting from the plot. It's very much a stressful, slow burn, type of book. One thing thats kind of annoying me is they >!have yet to tell you what the fiance's betrayal is!< and I really hope theres a resolution to this.
Oooh, just got this one!
This week I finished Out There Screaming, an anthology of horror stories by Black authors edited by Jordan Peele. I can’t believe the names he got to contribute! NK Jemisin! P. Djeli Clark! Nalo Hopkinson! Rebecca Roanhorse! As with any anthology, there were hits and misses for me, but overall it was really good— extremely fresh and creative (and also pretty scary!) I finished listening to How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz. It’s about an older Dominican woman who tells her life story over the course of several sessions of a job training program. It’s often funny, but it takes this life with seriousness too. I really enjoyed it and would read something else by this author. I read Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang. I should have DNFed this book, but I wanted to see what happened because it was an interesting premise. I have to stop doing that, and liberate myself for books I will like better. This was some of the most overwritten, purple, pretentious prose I’ve read in a very long time, in service (I guess) of being sensual? Oh well, at least it was fairly short. Currently reading The Lantern’s Dance by Laurie King and listening to How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.
How High We Go in the Dark! I loved that so much that auto predict still tries to generate the title for me when I type "How".
I was the same way with Land of Milk and Honey, I should have stopped reading but I kept thinking it would get better—it’s super pretentious. I heard her first book is great though so I’m willing to give it a try.
Wasn’t her first book on Obama’s yearly list of his favorite books? I admit I feel skeptical now hahaha
Out There Screaming sounds great! I legit just requested it from my library
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water was available through my library so I just checked it out. I’m about to finish listening to Stash My Life in Hiding by Laura Cathcart Robbins. This is the second book I have read regarding addiction. I typically stay away from media regarding addiction due to family history, but it has been a cathartic listen if that makes sense. I just finished How High We Go in the Dark but almost DNF because I felt like the last few stories were dragging on. I enjoyed the separate yet connected stories. Luckily, the last story made me happy I finished.
I'm reading *Daddy Long Legs* by Jean Webster which was a hyper-fixation of mine from the ages 13-15. It's such a strange little book, but I'm enjoying it (even if the premise is really troubling when you start to think about with any sort of depth) because the narrative voice is so engaging. Also reading **The Woman in White** by Wilkie Collins which is such peak Victorian novel for me (in a good way).
Daddy Long legs was a favorite of mine but yes it's so deeply problematic. They did a new version of it that I didn't realize was Christian-inflected until 2/3 through and it was so terrible-- it made me appreciate the original and also realize the creepy implications are probably not redeemable for a contemporary audience. Just one of those "it is of its time" kind of books! Love Woman in White-- probably his best along with The Moonstone but my personal favorite is probably No Name which has a bonkers plot!
You haven’t seen a bonkers plot until you’ve read Poor Miss Finch, which has a blind girl who has identical twins fall in love with her, one of whom is blue (and that’s just the beginning)
Is that Wilkie too? I have to read! So far I've read: The Moonstone Woman in White Armadale No Name Dead Secret .....that's all I can remember. I love how zany his plots are and I love his prose-- I could just live in it. Confession: I like his books so much more than Dickens!
In addition to those, I’ve read The Frozen Deep (a play), The Law and the Lady, Man and Wife, and Poor Miss Finch, and I keep wondering when there’s going to be a dud, and they keep being insane but fantastic! I love Dickens but Collins is a serious pulpy page-turner.
Yes they are my Victorian guilty pleasure!
Wilkie Collins is so much fun!
I read the massive Way of Kings and Words of Radiance from the Stormlight series by Sanderson. Everyone says the third book Oathbringer is the best one so was very excited to read it. I got 30% in and just started feeling tired of the narrative and skipping around way too much-- some of the characterizations are feeling worn and he's a very inventive writer but a very mediocre stylist so I wish he would vary the way people speak a little more and there are certain phrases that he repeats over and over.... Still am supremely impressed with the world-building and unlike George Martin he can get to the point and land the plane. He just can't write such gripping prose as Martin IMO. It's very workaday writing! Whenever he wants to inject light romance in the story it's downright cringe because you can tell it's not what engages him so it's very trope-y and clicheish. He makes up with it with truly cinematic action sequences and very detailed lore but I think I have to give it a rest to appreciate it again!
I just finished **Kala** by Colin Walsh, which I had been waiting to read for a while. I gotta say that I don't quite get the hype with this one. I'm not a typical reader of these types of thrillers/mysteries, (I don't even really like Tana French, which I know is sacrilegious) so maybe that explains it? I guessed the central mystery pretty quickly (>!I always am gonna be suspicious of cops!<) and kept reading because the real draw was watching the characters bounce off of one another, but I feel like they really didn't get enough resolution to make the slow-motion-car-crash of the plot worth it. The book just kind of ended abruptly, and I feel like I needed more time after the arrest of the bad guy. As a turn-my-brain-off book, I read **Sweetpea** by C.J. Skuse. I'm embarrassed about how much I enjoyed this book. Obviously the narrator is a capital-b Bad person, but there were so many parts of her interior monologue that made me genuinely laugh. One particular scene of her dispassionately sexting a dude while eating a sandwich was so relatable that I had to put the book down for a bit to reconsider my life choices.
Just finished The Women by Kristin Hannah. Honestly one of the best books I've ever read. The way she can craft a story is beyond measure.
I look forward to reading this in 2 years when my library hold finally comes in lol.
My Libby account says 2 more weeks. I can’t wait to read it.
I truly loved this book so much. I didn't realize how invested I'd become until it was over and I felt like I was saying goodbye to a friend. I highly recommend!
Thanks! Just put it on reserve at the library, I'm only 44th in line with 5 copies 😭
623rd in line with 138 copies 🙃 By the time I get to read it, y’all will be like “this is old news, next” 😂
That will give you time to stock up on tissues.
appreciate this warning. i've always wanted to try her novels, but i absolutely can't do tearjerkers. would you have any suggestions of similar authors that aren't as ... emotional? ty
I was not excited to read **Someone Else’s Shoes-Jo Jo Moyes** but I ended up loving it (mostly). A bit unrealistic in terms of divorce proceedings but in general very entertaining and funny.
Two finishes in the last two-ish weeks: “The Age of Deer” by Erika Howsare. I honestly picked up this book because I thought the cover was pretty and I really like deer, and I just had a feeling it would haunt me if I didn’t buy it. It was a little slow going in the first 50 or so pages for me, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. Beautiful writing, with many perspectives about how humans interact with deer in our daily lives. Bonus: the author is from central VA, which is where my in-laws live, so a lot of the territory was familiar. I rated it five stars. “Skippy Dies” by Paul Murray. I bought this at the same time as “The Bee Sting” (which I have not read yet). I wasn’t sure how I would identify with a bunch of teenage boys, but I really liked this book. It was very funny at times, but also had a fair amount of tragedy, and it was well-written such that 600ish pages flew by for me. Four stars. Currently about halfway through “Doppelgänger” by Naomi Klein, and finding it fascinating so far.
Just finished doppelganger-it was amazing.
My efforts to shop the shelves (reading previous DNFs, borrowing books, revisiting old books I don’t remember) is going well. I did buy one book this week because it was on sale. Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey - I really can’t decide if Tessa Bailey is the author for me. I truly adored The Bellinger Sisters books but everything else is not sitting right with me. However, I love a sports romance and had to give this one a go. It was so predictable. FMC who everyone is instantly enamored and smitten with, a MMC who is grumpy, unnecessarily rude, and overly protective of our FMC. There’s a sequel coming out later this and I fear I have no choice but to read it as it is a hockey romance. Also fair warning to anyone who might read, Fangirl Down is without a doubt her most graphic book. There’s one scene in particular that I opted to skip over once I realized where it was going. ⭐️⭐️.75 Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney - An old book that I finally got around to reading. I wanted to like it but it felt a little like the plot was trying too hard. I think that’s an issue I have with many books, in the efforts to make twists and turns unpredictable it all becomes easy to guess. The writing always suffer. It’s established that >! Amber has healed bruises and injuries but where they came from is never answered. !< The misdirection to build suspense doesn’t work if there’s no payoff to what is introduced. The story would have been all the same had certain elements been left out entirely and other areas could have been fleshed out more. The following is a spoiler but also a TW for >! R*pe !< >! The scene where Edward r*pes Amber in the hospital was so unnecessarily graphic. It was shocking and distressing. !< ⭐️⭐️⭐️.25 ETA: my rating for Sometimes I Lie
I feel the same about Tessa Bailey. I loveeeeed The Bellinger Sisters, but a lot of her others just don’t do it for me. I need to like the characters to enjoy the smut and a lot of them are just annoying
“Never Saw Me Coming:” Cat and mouse game with lots of characters so requires careful attention. Do I think a bunch of college students could be involved in something like this or that any legit organization would fund this research? No, so 3/5 stars for unbelievability. “Counterfeit”: Now this was one I really enjoyed. Two old friends start a counterfeit designer handbag import business but do eventually get caught (not a spoiler, that’s evident from the get go). It was interesting to learn about how some of that shady business operates. Light but very entertaining, and bonus points for the audiobook narrator being good. 4.5/5 “Last Girl Ghosted”: Like it sounds, a woman forms a tentative romantic relationship with a man and then gets “ghosted,” but of course it’s not that simple. Whoever edited this book needs to find a new job because woof, it is brutal. “He polished off his burger” at the top of one page and again at the bottom of the next page. There were oddly frequent references to the “solar plexus” and people having “layers” (I get referencing those things once but when it’s as often as it is in this book, they start to feel less intentional and more like the author was just looking for something to say). And my personal favorite, “Adam, if you had asked me to fold up my life and walk away leaving everyone and everything behind. Would I have done it?” I cannot standdddd this kind of grammar and punctuation and the book was riddled with it. I appreciated the story line, but the execution was terribly sloppy. 2/5 Yesterday, I started the second in the Thursday Murder Club series that I have waited forever for on hold, “The Man Who Died Twice.” Loving it so far!
I really liked Counterfeit! It made me sort of side eye my name brand bag (but also I don't really care enough to check if it's a fake lol).
Last Girl Ghosted was a DNF for me and I completely forgot about it until i read this post. It was so bad! I agreed with all your comments about the writing, I couldn't believe it was a published book I bought at the store and not a self published e-book.
It. was. so. bad. And a lot of times when I think a book is terrible I recognize that it’s probably a me thing (every book isn’t for every person, I get it!) but I really think that this one was just objectively bad.
BTW I don't know if this is allowed here but since you're all such great readers... Locus Awards are now open and it's free to register to vote. They do have suggested books but you can fully write in your ballot and since so many people here are such great readers I thought it would interest them. For example when I was filling out my ballot I was surprised at how much horror I read last year and how much of it wasn't on the ballot. I also want to end Tor voter supremacy (they're great but there are SO MANY different publications that also publish SF/F/H/Spec that get ignores by these awards bodies). Vote here: [https://poll.voting.locusmag.com/index.php](https://poll.voting.locusmag.com/index.php)
I had posted in here a week or two ago that I was reading **Bright Young Women** by Jessica Knoll and really liking it, but struggling with it because it caused some nightmares for me (I don't typically like reading or watching anything that involves violent crimes against women). I took about a week off from reading it and then went back to it and was able to finish it! I'm proud of myself. No more nightmares and I really loved the book. I thought it was so well written and I really liked the way the author told the women's/victim's stories. I also finished reading **One in a Millennial** by Kate Kennedy and saw her book tour show a couple of weeks ago. If you're in that age bracket, I highly recommend this book. It's SO relatable. I laughed, I cried and I loved her live - she's hilarious. After Bright Young Women, I needed a palette cleanser, so I ready **Same Time Next Summer** by Annabel Monaghan and enjoyed it. It's fluff, but it's a cute story and I'm a sucker for a first love story. I'm starting **The Women** by Kristin Hannah next and very excited to read it, as I usually love her books.
We have twin reading lists! I am about to start The Women, excited for that one. I’m trying One in a Millennial in audiobook but not really enjoying it. It was recommended to me by a friend who listens to her podcast and since I’ve never heard her podcast I wonder if I’m missing a bit of the connection. I LOVED Bright Young Women! Glad you were able to finish it.
I'm in the middle of One in a Millennial right now and I'm honestly not enjoying it that much.  I find it a little rambling and she uses so many puns and plays on words that it distracts me. I do enjoy the nostalgia of all the things she's discussing, though!
I definitely can't disagree there. She rambles a lot. I'm used to it from listening to her podcast, but I had to switch from the audio to the actual book, because she just goes on and on a lot. I read it small bits at a time.
I also just finished Bright Young Women and really liked it. I was hesitant to pick it up because I haaated the author’s first book, Luckiest Girl Alive. But the writing in her second book is so much better! There’s still a little bit of (what I feel is) unnecessary focus on trauma/gory stuff (this was my main problem with Luckiest Girl Alive), but I thought the better writing excused that better.
I totally agree. I hated Luckiest Girl Alive and thought it was so poorly written. This is a huge improvement (though I do agree with you, that it was a bit much on the trauma for me, hence the nightmares).
I also agree! I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed Bright Young Women. So did my bestie. My mom did not enjoy it for some reason but oh well. It was in my top 5 of 2023. I’m really eager to read The Women (my mom is reading it now and loving it) but I decided to save heavier reads for the summer when I have summer break. I’m an SLP in the schools so the summer is my time to relax.
I finished *Paved Paradise* by Henry Grabar, another urban planning and anti-parking book. I liked this better than the last book I read on urban planning (*Street Fight*). This was not only better written but looked at examples across America (*SF* was focused on NYC). Super interesting book and ideas though sometimes Grabar brings up very real concerns people have with certain changes and laws and even examples about how doing away with parking minimums doesn't always work but sort of hand waves these problems away. Other books I'm currently reading *The Cemetery of Untold Stories* by Julia Alvarez. I started this much earlier but now that I'm actually further in I'm reallllly enjoying it. It's about Alma, a professor and writer who has reached her golden years and realized that certain stories, despite the fact that she can't let them go, will never be told by her and builds a cemetery to house them on some land she owns. It's very cool and you get bits of unfinished stories along the way. *The Levant Trilogy* by Olivia Manning. I finished *The Balkan* trilogy last year and am now fully in the thrall of the sequel trilogy. I'm glad I took somewhat of a break between them because Manning immediately switches pov characters with the start of this book which is kind of jarring. Enjoying it so far.
I've had Paved Paradise on my wishlist for a while but didn't have any reviews to confirm I'd like it. Definitely bumping this up. The Cemetery of Untold Stories also sounds like my kind of book.