Bronwyn
I really enjoyed this. Looking at what makes a good literary house a character itself was really enjoyable. I knew (having read or seen an adaptation of some sort) all but four of the twenty books discussed. Three are American and seventeen British, but as someone who loves British books, I liked this. I'm interested in those four now, and want to revisit the others as well. I liked that previous houses were brought back where necessary with later ones - having the book be chronological made so much sense and allowed the development of the houses to become more clear. I also liked the last few being fantasy stories, showing home is universal. It's a light book overall, but there's still a lot to think about.
This was beautiful. It's so simple and concise. It's more a series of vignettes in Mari and Jonna's life than a real story, but you really get to know them. There are no wasted words, but there's still so much... love - for people, for art, for Finland. Really beautiful. Now I want to read more Jansson.
This was a really good, but really difficult book to read. I'm still not sure I liked it exactly, but I'm glad to have read it. Some of it hit a bit too close to home - mental illness runs in my family, though not schizophrenia, but a close family friend who we call uncle is schizophrenic; my grandmother is/was very much like the matriarch here in not wanting to talk about the bad things. Other parts dragged - I get that it's a huge family and everyone needs to be discussed, but it got to be a bit much sometimes. Overall, really well done.
This was pretty good overall. As with any collection of short stories, particularly by multiple authors, some were better than others, but none were bad. The winter/Christmas theme worked better in some stories than others as well.
All but one of the authors were new to me, and the only one I'd read before (Allingham), I didn't finish the book. I'm definitely more interested in reading more of some of these authors works in the future.
This was so good. I highly recommend the audiobook since it's narrated by Rachel Bloom herself, full of singing and fun voices and everything. I bet the physical book is fun too though, since there were things she'd try and describe in the audio. I don't know about any physical versions, but this also had a Covid afterward that was really touching in a few ways. Anyhoo.
This was alternatingly hilarious and rough. She talks about bullying and her OCD, narrates her bad love life as if she's a princess under a curse, has fake resumes and LinkedIn profiles. There are songs and a theme park. It's all so great and funny.
If you like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend you'll love it. A lot of her struggles will be familiar from the show, but there's also some universality to it all too. This was really enjoyable.
This was so good. Fforde is amazing at taking weird ideas and making them not just work, but be great. The allegory (not quite the word I'm looking for, but it'll do) is a little rough in places, but the story more than makes up for it. There's so much discussed in one way or another, from segregation/racism to climate change. The end made me cry a bit. I think the main thing is: “Sometimes it takes a non-human to say what it is to be a good human.”
This was a really good collection of Daphne DuMaurier short stories. I really enjoyed Don't Look Now, The Blue Lenses, Split Second, Kiss Me Again, Stranger, and Indiscretion. Even the ones I didn't particularly enjoy were really well done as well, they just weren't as interesting to me. (I took so long to finish because the length of Monte Verita was daunting at the time and then it was just a bit slow.) Overall, really well done DuMaurier is a great writer.
This took me way too long to read, but ultimately I enjoyed it. The descriptions of San Salvatore are gorgeous. The characters are charming and quite funny (“she wouldn't be silly; she would think of the poor; the thought of them always brought her down to sobriety at once”). I enjoyed the getting to Italy and then once all the extra people arrived; I got bogged down in the middle and that's what took forever to read. Really enjoyable overall.
Won through Goodreads in exchange for a review.
This is the second volume of Stephen Fry's retellings of the Greek myths. While I did enjoy this - there are some good lines and modernized language - I'm not really sure who this book is for. If you're a Stephen Fry fan, reading his books, you've probably already read or are otherwise familiar with these stories. If you're not a fan, this entry being so much his version probably wouldn't appeal anyway.
That all said, it is a good, accessible version of the myths and quite enjoyable overall. (But I think I still prefer Edith Hamilton's book.)
