Allie

This was the last of the four holiday novellas Lau released, and I thought this whole series was really fun.

That said, A Big Surprise was probably my least favorite of the four - but I gave all three other books either four or five stars, so a 3.5 is still pretty decent. There were a lot of things I really liked about this one, but a few things that gave me pause.

The meet-cute in the grocery store and the openness and banter about buying condoms: A+

BUT, there was not a lot of character development for Sebastian. Though it was great that he stood up to his parents when it came to not disparaging Amber.

Lau's books are generally pretty open-door when it comes to sex, BUT because this one was about Amber wanting a sex buddy and not a boyfriend, there is a LOT more (very explicit) sex than in other Lau books I've read. Take that as you will.

Great communication, low-angst, heroine has hobbies and interests and friends outside the relationship - all A+.

I had never heard of Jennette McCurdy until this book came out and it was everywhere. Listened to the audio, read by the author. She reads it in a very straightforward, almost flat manner - despite (or in spite of) the literal chaos and trauma that permeated her childhood and early adulthood. All I have to say is thank goodness for good therapists ... because it's a lot.

TW: eating disorders, fatphobia and discussions of weight, emotional and verbal abuse, abuse disguised as love, mental health slurs, alcohol use, sexual abuse

I loved the 1996 movie as a kid, but had never gotten around to reading the book! I enjoyed it immensely, the movie stuck pretty close to the source material, though some things were fleshed out a bit better for the movie. Also, what kindergartners are learning their times tables?! The Trunchbull was just as terrifying/hilarious as I remember. I know there's a new adaptation coming out, with Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull, and that will be interesting ... I'm not so sure how I feel about that, but my instinct is to tell myself to slow my roll and that she'll probably be great in it, despite some skepticism.

Dogma is but one reason that I prefer to call myself the generic “Christian” rather than a practitioner of any particular denomination of church I have attended in my lifetime - because as I grow and change, my faith also has to grow with me, or risk stagnating and falling away. And I totally understand why it does for a lot of people, when faith no longer seems to fit one's own truths. In that way, my growing up “un-churched” I think has actually helped me, because through attending a variety of different types of church, I've been able to see elements that some churches have embraced that others haven't, and know that even though all Christian denominations similarly claim One Way (Jesus), the actual practice of faith can work in a lot of different ways.

And although I think Arceneaux is semi joking about Beyonce being his lord and savior, I'm glad that it seems that he's come to peace with his own faith through the writing of this book, per the epilogue. Even when that means your faith is different than that of your parents.

I enjoyed this a lot, particularly because Arceneaux (seems? / seemed?) to have a strong faith background, and I don't feel like that's a story that gets told a lot in secular environments, about grappling with the faith of your family and also the way your family has either failed in their own faith or failed YOU in their version of faith. (And whoooo boy do I feel that last one in particular, in the light of the last oh 5-ish years.) I don't think I'm wording this quite right, but will try anyway: Even when not actively addressing the topic of “sinfulness,” there's an undercurrent of anxiety about homosexuality's “sinfulness” despite that being a part of his identity, and Arceneaux tends to gloss over that instead of challenging it head-on (likely because he was raised Catholic, where there was/is not room for pushing against the bounds of Church dogma). Like, I've learned to ask - what if something that is inherently who you are is not sinful? What might that mean, and how can that work with the ground that's already been laid? These kind of things are interesting to me.

Arceneaux is a great writer and I enjoyed his style a lot. I'll keep an eye out for more of his writing in the future.

{And in reading this over again before hitting publish, I have to say - writing about religion with clarity is hard, yo.}

I've GOT to get better about reading novellas in one sitting.

This was sweet - took place in the Hamilton Cinematic Universe (which is how I described it to Matt, only for him to look at me in disbelief that there could be such a thing), so I liked getting to spend time with Angelicaaaaa and Eliiiiizaaaa again. I loved Andromeda as a character and how she wanted to run her own businesses and took action to do so. Mercy ... I didn't love this character, she let herself be devoid of personality in an attempt to Never Be Hurt Again, and she was super judgy about everyone around her. Fade-to-black hanky-panky. I liked it, but I've liked some of Cole's other novels more.

A little bit smuttier than I normally prefer, or rather maybe it was just that it was a novella and therefore there's the regular amount of romance novel smut but crammed into 1/3 the pages? I liked the banter between Pinky and Trucker, their mutual interests (y'know, besides banging each other), and the stuff about the restaurant Pinky's parents own. Her goals. The fact that Trucker was a feminist, mutual talking about consent. Openly talking about racism. I don't know that I buy the ending, but whatever, it's romance.

Goodreads calls this a thriller, and while it has elements that are gripping, I wouldn't call it super fast-paced. Goes along at a steady clip, not breakneck gotta-know-what's-going-on. Survival reality show that turns real survival stakes when the camera crew up and disappears. I enjoyed it. Be aware there's not closure at the end if that's the kind of thing that bugs you. (It kinda bugs me, because I want to know why the crew up and left the survivors to fend for themselves, but it's fiction and I can live with it.)

I desperately wanted to give this more stars. Because the honesty, the content of Perry's story, it really deserves all the stars.

I love Friends so much. I used to watch the re-runs on Netflix every day, until they switched over to HBO Max and I couldn't justify paying for another streaming service just for the convenience, when I own all the DVDs.

And I knew that Perry had had addiction problems prior to this book - I mean, you can see it in the way he carries weight on that show. I just didn't know how bad it really was, the volume of pills and alcohol, how it dogged him every day, how he loved his job and did his best to show up on time and sober, but he was on a hit TV show and going to rehab and trying to stay clean and failing most of the time.

I listened to the audiobook, which I always try to do with celebrity memoirs, and I think this made it a harder listen. I can't know if he was sober the whole time he narrated - he claims that he's clean at the end, but sometimes his voice slurs in a way it never did on Friends. It broke my heart a little bit. I still love the show, though I don't know that I'll be able to see it the same way after knowing the darkness Chandler hid with his sarcasm and jokes. The same ones Perry uses as a defense mechanism.

So halfway through the audio, I was all set to call this a 5 star, despite its imperfections. I don't mind jumps in timeline, as long as I can keep track of when things are happening. And I thought I was doing okay with it, like when a friend tells you a story and digresses and then comes back to the main narrative, but then I lost track; he'd been high or drunk for most of the narrative, and had talked about several different rehab stays, but then jumped back to one of the early stints, and I got lost in the timeline and never quite got back on track. And then the closer I got to the end, he started repeating himself over and over, about the people who saved his life, his experiences of God, there having to be more meaning than this, about this being the time he has to make a change for good or he will die, and he's afraid of dying.

I very much appreciated the glimpse into both Perry's life and addiction in general. I don't want to misplace my optimism, but I pray he's able to stay clean - it's pretty clear he's not going to survive much longer if he doesn't.

5 stars for the story, 3 stars for the actual writing

In the last couple days I started loading up my old Kindle with fresh reading material in anticipation of traveling for the holidays. A couple romance novellas, a thriller - nothing too crazy, just enough for a few minutes of stolen reading here and there. And then I finished Kiss Her Once For Me, and now nothing sounds good. This book has RUINED ME.

I have a memoir on my nightstand from the library, but I can't start that because I'm already listening to a heavy memoir. But also I can't bring myself to read another romance yet, ‘cause I'm still living in this one. And I read the first page of a very popular behemoth that my grandmother gave me like twelve years ago, and then sighed and tossed it aside because nothing is interesting anymore.

All I want is grand romantic speeches and fake relationships and drunk grandmas and love trapezoids and baked goods and falling snow.

This is Cochrun's second book, and I already read the first, and I'mma need her to get on the next one right now, kthanks. I will buy it immediately.

I vividly remember writing something on Facebook (of all places) like a decade ago - it was around the time Wendy Davis in her pink sneakers was filibustering in the Texas Senate to block an abortion ban - about how the government was going about attempting to reduce abortions all wrong. I wrote impassionedly about how better sex education was key, and if the government was serious about reducing abortions (which, sidebar, we all know they're not), they needed to make better, comprehensive sex education a priority.

In Ejaculate Responsibly it was so refreshing to finally, finally see someone else talking about this issue from another perspective, one that doesn't penalize and punish women* (and only women) for the fact they had the audacity to have sex.

This tiny book has short, clear chapters that walk step by step through women's fertility, men being the cause of pregnancy through ejaculation, and how women have historically been made to bear the brunt of pregnancy prevention, despite birth control for women being harder to access and more difficult on the user than birth control options for men. Then, of course, women being forced to carry unwanted pregnancies despite the risks to the woman's health, life and livelihood, even though that ends well for absolutely no one, when the solution is so simple - men need to take more responsibility for their bodies and their bodily fluids and where they put those fluids. A reduction in unwanted pregnancies will, obviously, result in a reduction in abortions.

What a concept!

I thought this was excellent, and wish everyone would read it, though I know the ones who most need to will not. I was thrilled, and then worked my way into anger and grief, and finally, optimism again because there are next steps at the end of the book.

(Also, I looked up the PDF of sources on the publisher's website during a conversation with Matt about this book, and seriously there are over 100 pages of source notes, which is impressive. The book is only like 140 pages long!)

*Blair notes early on in the book that for the sake of reducing confusion, she used the terms women and men throughout, though acknowledged that people who do not identify as women can still get pregnant, and people who do not identify as men can still ejaculate.

Necessarily heavier than some of his previous works - addressing the death of his father, and his sister's sexual assault allegations against their father. Also pandemic. This is the closest I've come to actually wanting to hear about Covid in my reading, he always tells a good story along the way, but some of his behavior during lockdown was appalling and risky to others' health, and he doesn't much seem to be bothered by that. As always, the audio was good.

Engaging sure. I didn't find any of the twists to be particularly

I learned so freaking much in this strange travel book, which was unlike any other book I've read. For one, though it's all about Kpomassie's travels to and around Greenland – which is fascinating! – it did NOT make me want to actually GO to Greenland. (It's cold 100% of the time there, and either totally dark or the sun never sets for like 8 months of the year, and also I'm vegetarian and I don't think seal blubber is going to go down easy.) All joking aside, it sounds like it's a very hard place to live. I appreciated the detail Kpomassie included about his adventures: how he learned the Greenlanders' language and was curious about the local traditions. He did his best to fit in and really live like the natives did, including going hunting in the ice, and sleeping in the giant communal bed with the rest of the family he was staying with, and drinking copious amounts of coffee since that's what the locals did when they visited each other.

This was originally published in 1981, and I wonder about some of the traditions and living conditions and how they might have changed with the advent of some newer technology (as well as the general march of time). I mean, I know 40 years isn't that long, but maybe some of the villages have gotten more modern plumbing since then?? And I also wondered what was missing from Kpomassie's experience - for example, the last family he stayed with in the book lived in a one-room earthen turf house, and the daughter of his host was very pregnant. I assumed that she would have to give birth at home, but a throwaway sentence indicates she stayed at the hospital for a week. But where was the hospital! How did she get there! Did the hospital have plumbing!!!

I could have easily read 300 more pages. Entertaining and interesting tale.

I've always thought of myself as someone who doesn't need to like characters to like a book, and this is the first time in a while I've questioned whether that's really true for me. Because every time I set this book down to go do something else, basically my last thought would be that Moran was such a schmuck, knowing schmuck was not the right adjective but not having a better one. He's, at the very least, verbally abusive to his children; his wife and daughters tiptoe around him as to avoid unleashing his frustration and anger, and still declare that their lives and worlds revolve around him and he can't help it, it's just the way Daddy is, etc. etc. Which historically has made me roll my eyes and bump down the star rating.

As I was reading this though, I started thinking about what other people would think of this book. I can think of a few GR friends that would probably love this (Bonnie, probably you, though I can't quite figure out WHY I think so, other than you usually like the things that make me roll my eyes and then have much better insight than I do about it). For the languid Irish farm setting, at the very least, and the relationships between the grown children, all of whom eventually leave home and some of whom don't mind returning to the gilded cage, and others who outright refuse to let their father have any power over them once they're gone.

Could I like a book despite the main character - and yes, Moran is obviously the main character in a book called Amongst Women EYEROLL - being pretty frustrating and despicable even in his interiority? Sure. Once I started thinking about it beyond just Moran, I liked certain elements about Amongst Women (the aforementioned environment, the relationship between the daughters and their stepmother), but also there were several times when the author made the same observation only a page or two apart, and I wished for an editor.

So ultimately - it was fine. Didn't love it, didn't hate it.

Original notes, 8/2/22:
I can't stop laughing at that cover, so I think I need to read this.

Review, 12/4/22: I bought this for my sister for Christmas, and is it really a gift if you don't read it first yourself? My grandmother bought me all the Harry Potter books over my teenage years, and read each of them before she gave them to me. That's true love. (At least, of books.)

Anyway, I hope R likes it. The book is short, and rhyming, and includes all sorts of animals that are kinda shitty parents, like the eagles that make their eaglets fight to the death or the pandas that get overwhelmed by having two kids so they abandon one of them. And it's got a few pages in the back about the actual animals if you need more information about just how terrible they are as parents. (Koalas feed their kids their own poop! ... Because baby koalas can't digest eucalyptus leaves until they're older, but still. The author points out - maybe feeding your kid fast food ain't so bad?)

I love Rachel Bloom and I love Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and prior to writing this review I started re-watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend music videos on Youtube before remembering I have approximately 20 minutes to do everything I need to do before the kid gets home, and maybe Youtube isn't the best use of that time. I did the audio, as is right and proper with all celebrities' books, and she sings and does voices! I wish it had been longer, and I wish it had included more CEG because I waaaant it allllll. Most of her stories (the ones not involving poop) were heartfelt and funny and relatable and I enjoyed the book very much.

I've said it before, I only review kids' books if they're ones I want to read and not ones my kid wants me to read 3x in 20 minutes (AHEM [b:Pride and Prejudice and Math 50358189 Pride and Prejudice and Math Misti Kenison https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580799057l/50358189.SX50.jpg 75306874]). Matt read this aloud to us while we were getting Ethan ready for bed, but he called it “Interstellah Cinderella,” which I think is funnier. A cute rhyming fairy tale about an unconventional Cinderella who fixes spaceships and meets the prince and is like, cool cool I know you want to marry me but dude the only thing we've ever talked about is fixing spaceships, so ya know, I'll be your mechanic and I'll live happily ever after, THE END. Also there is a Fairy Godbot and Cinderella has pink hair. It was pretty cute.

Prior to reading this book, I had never heard of Cathy Glass or her work. She's written quite a few of these books that are described as her “fostering memoirs.” I had an icky feeling about the fact that she published stories about children that had been in her care, basically from page 1. I suspect there are issues of consent, which is why she publishes under a pseudonym and changes the names of her charges and their families, but she provides lots of very specific details about the family, regardless.

This whole thing felt exploitative.

In addition, it's kind of amazing that I got through it as fast as I did, considering Glass narrated the daily routines of herself and the two little girls in her care, practically minute by minute, which was basically just doing normal parenting things and setting up video chat with their mom, while throwing in bits about the children's social worker and the previous children she'd fostered. On top of that, this was written during the height of Covid, so there's constant talk about restrictions and social distancing and hand-washing, and I don't think an editor ever looked at this because there was a lot of repetition and grammatical issues that an editor would have caught in an instant.

I guess on the plus side, I did learn a lot about the foster care system in the U.K.? But I will never willingly pick up another of her books.

Needed a palate cleanser after some denser books! Sweet story, pretty explicit open-door scenes. I liked Julian and Courtenay together, especially as Julian schemed to manipulate the town to keep their affair a secret, and the depth of character of the “rake.”

The parts featuring Rankine's experiences of microaggressions were fantastic, as was the part about Serena Williams - I'm not a tennis person, have never watched tennis, but Citizen brought to life something that I vaguely knew (that tennis has not always been kind to Serena #understatement), and it was clear from a later part of the book that tennis is something Rankine participates in and feels deeply. Glad to have finally read this.

The first several stories in this collection did not appeal to me, and I thought about putting it down but Googled first, and grabbed the names of other peoples' favorite stories. There were quite a bit more that I liked in the latter half of the book, and that I appreciated for their cleverness and storytelling. My big issue is that I simply didn't find very many of these memorable. (My memory also sucks, fwiw.)

I brought it to the doctor's office this morning, and the doc asked what I was reading. I said, “Short stories - they're supposed to be the best, but I don't know that I'd call them the best.” Not to put Roxane Gay on blast or anything - art is subjective. I still trust her opinion, though it is different than mine.

Ones that stuck with me:
• A Big True by Dina Nayeri - about two middle eastern immigrants who become friends while living in a shelter
• Control Negro by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson - about a black professor at a university who is trying to prove that racism is a thing of the past
• The Prairie Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld - about a suburban mom obsessed with a lifestyle blogger she used to date; I liked how it turned on its head midway through.

I meant to read this in October, or “spooky season” as everyone seems to be calling it these days, but time got away from me. And also, doesn't a season imply more than one month? So whatever, I missed it by a few days, but I don't care. I'm glad I finally got around to it, because while not totally gripping or anything, I enjoyed the reading experience, the light spookiness of a Headless-Horseman retelling with a (somewhat unrealistic) feminist lens. The very end may have bumped up the rating a tiny bit (the confrontation with Brom) because it was just so well-done. A solid 3.5.

A really great romance, second-chance friends to lovers, which isn't always my fave trope, but Donovan and Lela were great characters, and since they were older leads, the rest of the cast (ex-wife, grown kid, elderly parents, friends-that-are-like-family) made for a different type of story, and it was really nice to read. I know I bitch all the time about the MCs in romance novels not communicating well, but in this one, Donovan is aware that this is a problem for him, and while he still wasn't the best at it, there WAS growth, so it didn't bother me. Also, it was really cool to read a romance where the leads are allowed to be super ambitious and into their careers, and not just in like, a “oh no this cupcake business I inherited but never wanted to run is going to fail because I'm so distracted by the hunk in the business next door” way. Like, Lela owns her own cosmetics empire that she's working super hard to grow and expand and clearly works a ton and loves what she does, and that's really neat. I enjoyed this a lot.

Taylor Swift released a new album last week. I still download all her new stuff, though I'm a bigger fan of the middling albums than I am of her newer albums. Anyway, the first line of her new song Anti Hero is: “I get older but just never wiser.”

That sums up Tony, our narrator. There's no character growth, just increasing unreliability. Veronica doesn't grow either, despite the passing of 40 years. She doesn't behave like a normal human woman would. Like, if you don't want to see this old flame, just delete his emails. Don't sit in silence being weird and inscrutable and then blame him for having no understanding of something that happened 40 years ago. I never got the sense that it was worth my time to care about what happened to any of these characters, and so I didn't.

Also it should not have taken me a whole week to read a novella.

Barnes can write beautifully, so that's why I've rated this as high as I have.

I understand why Veronica had to burn Adrian's diary, what with his affair with her mother.

Two thrillers in a row and I really enjoyed them both?! Am I turning into a thriller reader??

Both Odette and Angel were fascinating protagonists, and I was glad to spend time with them. Also I shouldn't be surprised ‘cuz it's not like it's hard to become a biological parent, but still I'm always surprised when characters have really shitty parents. Like, not beating your kids or putting a hit out on them actually is pretty easy. Oooh and there were some good religious overtones about forgiveness and guilt that were interesting though not theologically sound. Also some good disability rep, and the author had an interesting note about her research in the back, which I appreciated.

4.5 but I'm feeling generous :)