Miriam

This was a very pleasant read - I'm impatient with romance, which was problematic since it was advertised as a romantic fantasy and the romance was definitely a major part of the story, but I appreciated the characters and the little bit of court politics included.

4.5 stars. I'm annoyed that I didn't read with a pencil and stickies. Wolitzer has some spectacular sentences that I want to share.

These books are so weird and I'm almost hate reading them, but I have #4 on my bedside table ...

So many excellent sentences - Ben reaching for a cigarette is my favorite, but lots of excellent stopping points. Not sure if it really does what it set out to do, but I enjoyed the ride.

Intriguing, compulsive read with a interesting twist on time travel and alternate realities. Perfect for summer.

I like much of this, including Frieda, but the unethical decisions she makes are a hard pill to swallow. The authors always provide reasons and make it clear that Frieda knows they are unethical, but still!

Nonetheless, I will read more in this series.

Good in so many ways, but too middle grade for me.

I was bored. Figured out killers early-ish, which isn't always bad but I realized at a certain point near the end that I didn't care if I was right.

I'm deeply tired of cliff hangers. Excellent characters and solid writing saves this from a 2 star rating.

Unsurprisingly, there was lots that was interesting about this book but it read like the first third of a novel. She does a decent job of wrapping some things up, but I was impatient with the exercise.

dnf. I think DFW is guilty of all the charges laid, but the book was lacked any real insight. I tried one last attempt to just finish and decided it wasn't worth the time.

Too long. Lots of enjoyable bits but I wanted less.

British landscape books seem to be my jam. This is what I loved most about the book. The consistent first person narrator was also interesting. Not sure how I feel about the ending – I think I wanted the book to be something else, but not sure that's reasonable.

Nothing revolutionary here, but I liked the exercise he put at the end of each chapter.

Excellent exploration of evangelical mission work in Ecuador. Focusing on the women who were married or associated with the five missionary men killed by the Huaorani. Thomas who is very familiar with that evangelical world treats the evangelical crew with compassion while not letting the reader forget about the wrong-headedness of the the evangelical mission and the negative impact such missions had on the Huaorani and other Indigenous communities in the area. I wouldn't be unhappy if this one won the GG.

Enjoyable read but doesn't quite land, I think, because of Ohlin's narrative choices. Mostly narrated in the first person by Lark, who is a child of an absent father and an unloving mother, who works to erase herself from most situations, which in different hands could have been a very interesting narrative perspective, but in this novel just leaves us with a bit of a non-entity. The sister too is problematic – a concert pianist who runs away from that world to run a wolf preserve – mainly because she serves no real narrative function except to frame the narrator's actions (sort of) and provide a vehicle (literally) for Lark's final desire (which is also kind of odd).

The interactions between the sisters provides some of the best material but is often peripheral. Lots of interesting ideas percolating in the book that never quite land. Nevertheless, it was an interesting read with lots of film conversations that I enjoyed (Lark is eventually trained as a film editor) .

3.5 stars, but bumped up because the writing is really strong. Bacon observes her characters beautifully. All kinds of lovely moments. The structure didn't work for me. It needed more than the initial conceit to move it forward (in my opinion). A shame really because the idea of “lost geography” is an intriguing one.

Solid read. I read it because it was about surfing, which fascinates me, but wanted less surfing and more Finnegan doing his reporting by the end. The best surfing section, was the cold water surfing he does outside of New York, and one particularly intense surfing section off of Portugal.

To close to Handmaid's Tale? Maybe, but I think the idea at the centre of Handmaid's Tale can handle more than one author's approach. And, most importantly (to me) it kept me completely engaged through 2, almost back-to-back, plane rides.

The evo-bio stuff was interesting, although I was unclear how her heritage fit into the pregnancy (and the resulting child) – I suspect that was left deliberately vague, but I couldn't quite sort out Erdrich's perspective on biology/evolution and culture that would be interesting to trace through the book.

Lots of stuff on writing and creating that kind of floats through that book without really connecting to the main narrative.

3.5, so maybe I should give an extra star. I was wnated more of the city planning/social justice thread that ran through, really enjoyed his use of space (and the map), and how he connected these to film, although my appreciation was hampered by lack of knowledge about the films referenced. I was frustrated/annoyed with the introduction of the prisoner of war massacre by the Hitlerjungen. Suspect I was missing something, but found that final chapter really frustrating as a result.

I listened to this whenever Knucklehead (or other challenging reads/news) was too much. This meant that I was often a bit challenged by the disconnect between my world and Bertie's. Regardless, I get why people love these books with such a passion and re-read them regularly. Pure comfort.

Newport is a professor and was a relatively successful student (although he's not unfamiliar with student life), so this book will work best for students who are already on the path to As; nevertheless, there is lots of good material here. I like that he breaks activities into steps that he reviews at the end of each chapter, and that he's aware of what student life is rather than what it should be. I've already started to integrate his preparing for exams chapter into my workshops. It's not groundbreaking – since it reflects what others say – but the advice is sensible and useful.

Book was an excellent read with a wiz bang ending. Good on Harris.

Freaking abysmal ending, and not just because of Easter. But really enjoyed listening to it (Hope Davis was a great narrator and Patchett knows how to create a compulsive narrative), so it gets an extra star.

I've listened to this to and from work for the past couple of weeks and picked it up to read when I was too tired for anything else (whisper sync rocks sometimes) because it demands very little of of its readers. It's way to shaggy, the suspense structure drove me crazy, and its rife with British cliches (Alf & Binnie!) but I enjoyed it and will, with a short break, continue on to All Clear.