sneha
I was quite smitten by the idea of Italy and Rome for most of 2022. I got this book much later in the year and read this quite slowly, almost savouring it. With my general “must get tasks done” approach to life, I find myself trying to “finish” books.
But this book was a mindful necessary pause to that nasty approach I have developed. I read it with no rush. Two pages a day, weeks without touching it, laying down in the park and reading an author talk about parenthood while struggling to order fruits in Italian. I think books like this really make you say, “I'd read their grocery list” but I am sure Anthony would make that the most engaging piece ever.
I somehow enjoyed this far more than “All The Light We Cannot See”. His writing is flowy as Tiber with absolutely heart-wrenching prose sprinkled in middle. Really enjoyed it one. <3
I started this book because I liked FRIENDS and Chandler was a fun character. Just a few years ago I found out that Matthew Perry had a long hard battle with his disease of addiction. So when I heard about his book, I wanted to learn more about his journey, his struggles and (if) how they overcame the disease.
But right from the snippets I read about his memoir, I was a bit worried. The unnecessary attack on Keanue Reeves (how dare you) and the way he talked about Jen Aniston, has be a bit worried. But then again, I thought maybe its the media taking things out of context to create sensational news.
Nope.
The first few pages of the book are really solid. 50 pages in, I was hoping this book to go quite well. The back and forth about his surgery and his childhood seemed to intertwine well. His fears of abandonment and retrospective look at his folks felt vulnerable and raw. I was genuinely enjoying it. But somewhere near the 30% mark shit went south and it only got worse.
I see a lot of reviews mention that the book needed much better editing but that's only the start of the problem. The redundancy in the stories, repetition of the same instances, heck even the same sentences was truly exhausting.
Then there is his words and takes and thoughts. Maybe its just me but the way he talked about every single women in the book was so off putting and borderline concerning. It's hard to summarise here but it left a bad taste. It seemed that the only good parts of this book were when he was pretending to be Chandler Bing telling his story but it lacked the vulnerability, honestly and humour.
3.5/5
I got this book blind on a rec from a local bookstore.
It is not the usual murder mystery I would have gone for, but def enjoyed the new style. It's based mainly on emails, text messages and legal documents. The format and approach were def exciting but I do the think it dragged out a bit too much in the middle. The murder took too long to happen which is interesting in itself but would have liked a faster murder (lol)
All in all, give this a shot. The style of this book was novel and engaging and the story was def fun.
sometimes you have an opinion on someone, you think it's your own original thought. but dig a little, and you can see your internal misogyny rearing that nasty head. I think that was me with Em Rata.
I liked her essay on “Buying Myself Back” but still penned it as a “one-time thing” that worked because of how personal and vulnerable her voice felt.
My fear about going into My Body was that it would feel semi “woe is me”, and the rest would be unrelatable problems of womanhood.
Emily's essays ARE personal, and the nuance she brings to the topics of body, sexuality, capitalism, patriarchy, and self-hate feel universal. I was reading this book while also listening to the audiobook and I could feel her words processing the world around her and inside of her. It wasn't a stream of conscious “I had a mildly interesting life” narrative.
I enjoyed some essays more than others but overall, this book is very much worth the hype.
3.5/5, medium: audiobook + kindle
I'll continue asking for a half-star option, sigh.
every story starts with a bizarre premise or voice, and you're like, “huh wtf, this is so strange,” and then it starts talking about something familiar. And you go, “ah yes, I have experienced this feeling of emptiness and despair in my life. I resonate with this pain of pointless of life, hmm hmm.” and then sometimes it ends making you feel EVEN sadder, and sometimes it goes like, “maybe there's hope IDK”. And this happens again and again and again. My soul was crushed, sometimes rebuilt, and sometimes I grabbed a broom and cleaned it off the floor.
Man, he is a wacky writer. The production was great and voice actors made this super fun too.
an enemy to lover trope that actually works.
my annoyance with romcoms is how they end of making “hopeless romantic” characters very stupid, irks me so much. but Emily did this one right.
the characters are interesting, they banter w/o trying hard, they are witty people whose conversation I totally would overhear in a cafe. they are opposites but not in a tryhard way. they are fun writers who do write. (altho the novel writing process felt a bit unrealistic but that's not the focus of this thing).
they were selfaware, funny people who you want to watch get together. chill fun ride – a beach read for sure. :)
This book constantly swings between being promising and completely irrelevant. It is constantly confusing and frustrating. I understand why he devoted significant chapters to his past and family. But why he kept revisiting Michelle Mcnamara's life and work a bit too much. I understand his contirbution to “I'll be gone in the dark” but it felt like he was overplaying it? (could be wrong here) but the mention of Michelle felt repetitive and desire to deeply associate her work with him?
The chapters were he used social media for solving crimes were my favourite, they packed a punch, talked about hardships and real-life challenges. It was also comforting to see vcitim's families finding closure and justice.
But around 80% mark I read about Jensen's recent controversies and allegations against him with made the last parts ... uncomfortable to read. Maybe there'll be investigations but until then seeing someone driven to get justice be the one to have victims made me qweezy.
okay, this is it, no more TikTok rom-com for me.
When the story is predictable and hits every trope, I really want the writing and characters to do some heavy lifting. And this does ... none of that. why is has so many rave reviews is beyond me. maybe I am not the target audience for it (?) I dunno, it was a drag to read. so boring and bland, my plain white rice has more character than these 300 pages.
actual rating: 3.5/5
this book started of SO well. All the history and info being thrown at you did not feel overwhelming. The build-up felt very first-half of a heist/thriller movie . The voice was natural and breezy.
And then around half-way through, it became a bit difficult to follow. Too many new people being introduced, new links and tons of information being thrown at you w/o much direction. And with all the informational overload, it was also being quite repetitive. It felt very confusing and weird. If they'd kept up the editing and pacing of the first half through out, this would have been a 4.5 for sure.
Overall, for a non-fiction this was really fun and unique. I enjoyed the first half a lot more. It would also be nice if they included images at the end of each chapter instead of having it at the end of very book. Arthur and Konstatine's investigative bromance was <3
okay, it's been a few days, and I am ready to do a proper review. so I loved it. it's a 4.5/5 for me.
She is unlikeable, but she's great. Here's how you do that right! I am convinced that if a man tried to write this character, he would prolly fail. TJR nails the unlikable women's character with this. She has flaws; she is rough on the edges, but she is a good woman and a remarkable player, and she deserves your goddamn respect!
Couple of things I liked:
the story is so simple. it's in the title, but it works. I enjoyed the tennis; the sports and the two main characters were introduced smoothly. recreating the action, the pause, and the thrill of the next move in sports writing is HARD. I rarely see it written in a way that I can visualise AND be invested throughout. Esp for a sport that I have watched maybe five times? I was invested in action. I binged the chapters because I wanted to know how the game went.
So few characters <3 After Malibu Rising and Daisy Jones, I have happy to have a book with fewer mains. central characters. We have three key figures and then a few that comes and go. I enjoyed getting to them well and seeing their growth trajectory. I got a chance to get attached to them. I am a do-or-die for Carrie's dad now, and he ain't even real.
The slow burn but its fast pace. We have seen her travel through years in her books before. This one goes through the past fairly quickly (?), and the “present” is done linearly. I liked the singular timeline for a change.
The sports commentaries were so well done. As someone who does consume a lot of football, I could see the “commentators” switching sides, calling names, and being disrespectful. it felt real. TJR always adds these little newspaper/tv clips situation, and i love it.
Taylor Jenkin Reid Universe - Carrie refers “Daisy Jones & the Six” in this book. She has created her own cinematic universe and referenced it. Good for you!
All in all, I 10/10 rec this book. this was a fun ride, I had a good time. Thank you very much.
This is a very information-dense book, but it doesn't feel like that (at least not all the time). The author has created a character that introduces you to this world, its eccentric practices and bizarre players. The voice is so fresh and real that you stay engaged even when you aren't sure what index or IPO they are discussing. The key terms are introduced early on, and you're sure to learn a lot of new stories about the companies you've heard of.
For 80% of this book, I was like, “I better pull all my money out because these stories of the Indian stock market read like a non-stop medley of scams”. But in the last 20%, the author (or rather the character he created) provided some helpful perspective.
The sound design and narration for this book on Audible India were
real rating 2.5 stars, how after all these years, GR doesn't have a half star option is beyond me.
I'm very confused about how I feel. I love the female characters in this book. Daisy, with how stubborn, spoilt and unlikeable she is. Karen with her clarity and truth. Camille with her complicated take on relationships. They are flawed and messy and real. I'm glad we are able to see them and their stories.
And I think that's where my good vibes for his book ends. I really did not like the format. I think the audible audio book with various voice actors might have been the only format to truly enjoy this style. Giving that radio documentary vibes.
The rock and roll, sex drugs and flower power felt too repetitive and not engaging:3 I have said this for Malibu Rising I'll say it again, TJR is master for writing engaging characters and conversations. But this time around, I lacked the motivation to get to know a character, stick with them and invest in their journey. It was like “yeah cool story, bye”.
I don't understand why this book has so many positive reviews. Either they did not read the book, or they have chimed in with overenthusiastic “patriotism”. First, this book is not “An Indian Spy in Pakistan” but “An Indian Spy in Pakistan Jails”. We don't learn anything about the mission, his purpose, or his life as a spy. The book starts abruptly and ends abruptly. A few pages in, he is caught in the book about his time in various jails.
Which would have still made for a good story if there was a flow to it. It feels like random diary entries with a stream of conscious flow. How can I root for the lead character and applaud his bravery for the nation when I don't know anything about him? After finishing the entire book, all I know is he is parents, wife and child (he never met), he thoughts on current affairs of that time and how much he finds homosexuality disgusting :upside down smile: I literally know more about the criminals in his jail and the lead character.
What kind of a “memoir” ends with you learning nothing about the man it is about? The editors of this book should rethink their work on this book.
Oh my god, the narrator was SO bad. I have consumed my fair share of audiobooks to realise that basic decent narration is not hard to achieve. Text-to-Speech bot would have made for a more engaging narration. This was prolly one of the slowest and most boring “spy books” I might have read.
I understand why people did not enjoy this book as much as they enjoyed Evelyn Hugo. That one was a league of its own. The book starts promisingly, well a vast cast of characters. The hyper-realistic characterisation is something TJR always nails. Throughout this book, you meet SO many people, and you remember them all because of how well they are introduced to you.
But at some point, I wanted more than just well-done characters. I wanted a plot that moves further than “then this happened and then this happened”, especially when the book starts with the ending. If this book was meant to be a biography of the Riva family, it succeeded, but I also felt like, “okay, but what's the point of this all”. It felt like Malibu Rising had so much potential that it stayed unfulfilled. In every chapter, you feel like the crescendo will finally rise, but it continues to plateau from start to end. The only reason I did not DNF this was because 1) TJR writes a compelling story with her characters 2) the audiobook was well narrated. I mean, I did finish this book in a little over 24 hours so def not a bad one.
I know for sure, if I was reading the book I would have ciao adiosed it. Anyways, I stared and ended the whole damn thing for Carrie Sotto and was adequately entertained for the most part, so I ain't complaining. I understand the writer can't replicate perfection in every single book.
for me, this book has all the ingredients for DNF-ing. Magical fantasy, multiple POVs, a long timeline, and a star-crossed love story at the centre of it all. But what a fantastical journey these 11 hours were. Erin Morgenstern's writing made me grin ear to ear while chopping veggies. It made me push for one more kilometre while running. I slipped into the dreamy land of Night Circus as I fell asleep.
This book at the innocence and spirit of a childhood bedtime story, but this one heals adult hearts. <3 Some health insurance these circus workers had, man.
I am on a bit of a Keigo Higashino binge. Unlike Devotion of Suspect X, I did not see the ending coming. Higashino takes the foundational ideas of a murder mystery, removes bits of it like a Jenga, and recreates the story upside down. It's unique. I was worried that this work would mirror some elements of Suspect X, but I was glad to be wrong. I devoured this book in a day. The audiobook's production was lovely too.
more like 3.5
I don't want to be all “I kinda saw the end coming,” but I did!
I knew there was s serious misdirect going on and the beginning of the book gave that away. Nonethelessss, it was a really fun book. I wish we explored the characters more but despite the early reveal, the pacing did not bore me at all!
I know comparing books by the same author isn't exactly reflecting my understanding of “nuance”, but them some themes are similar, so it's fine (?) why did I feel that august was a side character in her own story? I saw more personality in her flatmates, even the pancake shop owner than in August. Like the only time, we saw august was through Jane's POV. I thought that would shift in the second half to reflect the character arc but nope :/ The book's pacing felt off midway, almost DNFed it then. But overall, interesting, fun story. just don't get the massive hype tho :3
Sadie's been on my TBR list for years. Despite the hype, I kept myself completely aloof about the premise. I was worried that I would not like it. I tried reading it a couple of times but never got into it. When I sampled the audiobook, I knew I had to get it. Best 90 rupees I have spent on audible.
The production is SO good. The performances were great, and the whole “podcast” angle works out very well in the audio medium. The music on credit broke me more than the story.
I found the story a bit slow. Like, a slow-burn podcast, it makes sense that Sadie's parts felt a bit repetitive and dragged but perhaps that was a reflection of how she saw her reality. Her voice sounded real, her character made you feel the pain. It was a good read (listen). I'd like to imagine [spoiler alert] that she is living a happy-ish life in LA.
