Laura

If I could give this book negative stars, I would give it -100. Did not finish because it was ultra-stupid.

Should have been titled “Agrippina”.

This is a collection of short essays on a wide range of science topics. The essays are indeed short - most of them barely get into a topic before boom! the end! I enjoyed the breadth of covered areas but wish that they could have been covered a little more in depth.

If you've always wanted to read a romance starring Edith and Woodrow Wilson, then here you go.

I think the author should have used the word “counterscarp” more often, because seeing it multiple times on a page was not enough.

A novelization of the first three episodes of “The Empress” from Netflix. Better on TV than on the page.

I should just avoid vampire books because apparently I don't appreciate them the way they want to be.

Reading this was like listening to someone who is very knowledgeable about a very specific topic ramble on and on about that topic as you nod politely while thinking about something else.

I give myself 5 stars for finishing it.

Historical-fiction

Could not finish because it was exceedingly boring.

Should be subtitled “Strange but True Stories About the Origins of Around Ten Things that We Eat, Presented in an Annoyingly Snarky Way”.

I felt like I was back in college taking a class on “mythology and superheroes”.

Received through LibraryThing member giveaways.
The topic is interesting but the story was pretty thin and made little sense. There really was no solving of a mystery - Isaac just knew who the murderer was, somehow. The whole book seemed more of an outline where a lot of connecting and/or explanatory material would have been helpful. Also, there were many, many typos...

Not actually about the “science” of time travel but rather how various science fiction stories can be vaguely related to valuable life lessons for young teens. All the citations are to web articles, and the whole book seems like something hastily slapped together.

Very well researched (with 947 endnote references)

I received an e-book copy through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. Try though I might, I could not get through this book. Long passages of dialogue, illogical skips in the narrative, and thoroughly unlikeable characters made it a chore to even get halfway before I gave up.

According to the blurb on the back, this book is “urbane” and “funny”, but it actually turned out to be rather dry and boring.

Received as ARC through Penguin Books First to Read.
An interesting take on “The Three Musketeers” from Milady's perspective. Although somehow I still prefer the original!

History as told by a cranky old man, but interesting nonetheless.

Bizarre

Review based on an preview copy provided by the author.

The author presents a good overview of physics and physical chemistry with some history thrown in, written for a general audience. I don't know how well the reader would be able to follow along without already having a background in science, though. I think they might drift away after a while.

One slightly irritating aspect of the book was the tremendous amount of footnotes. I felt they interrupted the flow of the text and didn't always provide a worthwhile tidbit.

Hilariously bad, yet strangely compelling. Kendra makes zero attempt to blend into 1815 society, and yet everyone just automatically accepts her as just being “American”. It makes no sense! The whole story was SO DUMB, yet I felt a need to finish it to find out what happens.

I received an advance copy from the Penguin First to Read program.

It was interesting to read a fictional account of recent history, but this book was so long! I feel that a lot of scenes could have been cut without losing the narrative thread.

2.5 stars
Way too long and far too many untranslated Italian phrases scattered throughout. Also, I felt the mystery and all the loose ends were tied up very quickly and easily after 700 pages.