Emma Goto

12-year old Edward is the sole survivor of a plane crash that kills his parents and his brother.

The book starts off in the hours before the plane takes off, as we are introduced to Edward and his family, as well as other people who boarded the same plane. At first it feels a little bit pointless, getting to know all these people who are going to die. It gets more interesting once the book starts switching back and forth between Edward's life in the years after the crash, and the moments leading up to the crash itself.

Ultimately it's a book about survivor's guilt and surviving the loss of your entire family. I felt it reached a quite satisfying conclusion, as well.

Half of the Galvin family's 12 children (incl 10 boys!) have schizophrenia. A riveting read into the Galvin family, the toll schizophrenia takes, and the advances made in the research of schizophrenia over the last 50+ years.

Commendable that the many of the Galvin family came forward to give interviews for this book. They suffered a great deal. I hope this book helps them to heal and/or gives them some consolation that their family ended up being a help to the advancement of schizophrenia research.

The main character has a year of rest and relaxation - by bingeing on pills that let her sleep for days at a time, only waking up to eat and watch TV.

Looking at the reviews, it seems like this book is one you either love or hate, depending on whether you have sympathy for the main character or not. She's kind of a terrible person but at the same time I enjoyed her as a character. I'm not about to binge on pills but I can sort of relate - sometimes I just want to play videos games alone all day and not have to think about doing anything else (definitely not for an entire year though!).

As the author rightly points out, most productivity books are written by men. It's good to see this book tackle things from a slightly different perspective - a woman who's trying to balance both her career ambitions as well as raising a family and running a household.

Vanderkam reasons that in order to have enough time to do the things we need, we should outsource the things we aren't good at, like household chores. Since people spend so much money on cars, etc., what's a little bit more money spend on outsourcing your laundry, etc.? Not sure I completely agree with this concept, or that outsourcing is as cheap as the author claims it is (maybe that's because I don't live in America).

Standout point for me was the author's mention of “flow” states and how a study was done that shows that people who spend more time in flow (focused on challenging yet doable work) are happier. Heard of being in a state of “flow” before but didn't know that it actually makes you happier (but that makes sense). Going to go research that more.

This book was definitely a mindfuck. Docking a star because the sex scenes were super cringey (the dude has possessive vibes, sort of reminiscent of Edward from Twilight or the main guy in Fifty Shades which I guess is what people want).

Especially when Lowen tries to get pregnant, like you barely know the guy and his comatose wife is in the house! Please stop!

However it all redeems itself by the end.

I didn't see that twist coming! What I don't get is that Jeremy knew about the manuscript from the beginning, but had to go and re-read it when Lowen gave it to him. Feels a bit random.In a way the book gave me Rebecca vibes. New wife lives in house, feels haunted by old wife.

Vaguely reminds me of New Moon where Bella switches from Edward to Jacob. I actually found it kind of hilarious how the first book hypes up the romance so much and then BAM she gets with another dude lmao. The author goes straight to painting the original romantic lead as a villain and it felt very one dimensional, like it completely removed him from the equation. Feel like it could've been more spicy if both the dudes were still options.

It's kinda cool to go back and read the scenes with Rhys from the first book and you're like ohhh.

Also the main character literally has like 3 male friends and her sisters are getting with 2 of them??? Feels a bit too forced, not everyone has to be in a romance.

I still enjoyed it tho? Not sure I want to give it 4 stars, maybe 3.5.

I love a good sci-fi novel!! The main character Mahit becomes the new ambassador for her small mining station and gets to fulfill her childhood dream of visiting the Empire. Of course there's one small problem in that her predecessor died under mysterious circumstances and a bunch of politics ensue.

Even though the Empire is this overwhelming force that could at any time annex her home, I likex how it wasn't just Empire = bad and Mahit's station = good. Mahit grew up enjoying a lot of the empire's cultural exports e.g. poetry and gets to know some of its people as well through her work as an ambassador.

The other cool part about this book is the maintaining of heritage through copies of people's consciousnesss. Essentially you have a copy of the mind of your predecessor living in you, so that with each successive generation the knowledge can continue to grow and be passed down. I would love to see this concept explored more in future books.

The book starts off quite abstract as we are introduced to the concept of New York being “born” into a human body. Once we are introduced to the five boroughs of NY, also in human form, it becomes a lot easier to follow. Basically there's a big bad enemy trying to kill off New York (the city and the person) and the boroughs have to team up to try and stop them.

Overall this was an alright read. Since there was a lot of character introducing to do, and the book is fairly short, it feels like this one did a lot of setup for book #2. Might give it a read if it turns out good or I might not.

The first half was quite boring, I was considering giving up on the book but it did get better in the second half.

I enjoyed the plot in the second half, as the Kira's powers and alien heritage are revealed and there's a little bit of politics sprinkled between the different alien races / alliances, etc. However I'm getting a bit tired of reading about yet another sassy/witty/reckless main character with a dark past.

I'll give props that the although there is the potential of a romance (with an overbearing dude that wont take no for an answer but that's ok because he's super attractive) Kira is staying away from it because she knows it's a bad idea. I took a look at the second book's reviews and it looks like the romance ends up progressing though, so bleh.

3.5 stars - enjoyable to read, but not enjoyable enough to read the second book, or to recommend it to anyone else.

About a bunch of cowboys who live on the border between Texas and Mexico, and then decide to leave their small town to make an epic journey up towards Yellowstone. For a book you'd assume to be totally about men, I was surprised (in a good way) with how well the women were written - both strong and weak characters alike. However I felt a bit let down with how the author builds up these female characters, and then tears them down by making them prostitutes and have to endure rape, etc. Maybe realistic, but not really a fan of how that's used as a plot device.

This book didn't feel very romantic!

Elinor, the older sister, was in love with Edward, who turned out to be engaged to someone else the entire time.

Marianne, the younger, falls in love with Willoughby, who decides to get engaged and married to someone else who has a lot more money instead.

Also there's Colonel Brandon - he's madly in love with Marianne, but she's not interested because she's still in love with Willoughby and he's nearly double her age.

Elinor and the Colonel are quite friendly to each other though.

Then at the last minute, it's revealed that Edward can marry Elinor, and they do.

The Colonel and Marianne also get married, although their developing romance all happens in the last 20 pages of the book as all the loose ends are wrapped up.

To me it was disappointing because there didn't really seem to be any build-up of romance, like there was in Pride and Prejudice. If anything, the fact that Elinor and the Colonel got on so well made me think that those two should have gotten together.

I don't know if I want to go as far as giving this book 3 stars, though! Some of the characters are quite funny to read (like the gossipy Mrs Jennings, and the sisters' stingy brother John who gives in to whatever his wife suggests).

Walden is the sort of book you see referenced in popular media all the time. When the male lead in k-drama Hometown Cha-cha-cha was shown reading it (did not expect that!), I figured it was finally time for me to get around to it.

It's fairly readable for a book written in the 1850s but I wouldn't say it's a fun read. I can get through a book in a couple of days, usually, but this one took me 2 weeks to slowly meander through because I wasn't really motivated to come back to it.

Walden touches upon a lot of minimalist concepts. Thoreau decides to go and live in the woods, in a house he built himself, farms beans, and then writes about the experience and about all the different animals he encounters. Minimalism isn't anything revolutionary for a reader today but considering the book is well over 150 years old, he's basically the OG minimalist.

In the book he scoffs at a farmer who has to work hard, in order to afford the meat that he needs to eat to regain the energy he expended from working hard. Why not just not work at all, and then you don't need to afford meat? You can just live off beans! Poor dietary decisions aside, what irks me is that after 2 years Thoreau decides he's going to leave nature anyway. He probably went back to eating meat after that.

It was probably revolutionary for its time, and I don't hate the book. Maybe you can find it inspiring if you want to live off the grid like Thoreau. Or maybe you'll enjoy the way he writes about the pond by his house, or the wildlife. But personally I didn't enjoy it enough to recommend it to anyone else.

Kya, the “marsh girl”, grows up alone in the swamps of North Carolina in the 1950s/60s. Intertwined with her coming-of-age story is the mysterious death of the popular Chase Andrews in 1969. The jumping back between the two storylines really kept me on the edge of my seat, wanting to hear more (I listened to this one as an audiobook).

At times Kya was a bit "woe is me", "nobody loves me" even though she had multiple people around her caring for her by that point - Tate, her brother Jodie, Jumpin' and Mable. A little bit frustrating, but I guess understandable considering her circumstances.I liked the twists - Tate being taken away by the sheriffs, and then the final twist right at the end.In terms of the murder itself, I'm not sure that if it turned out that Kya was smart enough to kill someone, not leave fingerprints or any sort of evidence, and wear convincing disguises as she got on and off the bus in the middle of the night, would have just left that hat in her closet?

Jo, a woman doing birds nest research in rural America meets girl who claims to be an alien sent down to witness 5 “miracles” before she returns home to her planet. She ends up co-parenting this child with neighbour Gabe, as they debate whether they should hand over the child to police.

Jo and Gabe both have a lot of backstory (illnesses, a tragic past) but it's presented to the reader through the two characters basically word vomiting this out to each other. I felt like the author was trying to give flavor to these two characters but it didn't quite land right.

Jo and Gabe's romance feels very rushed, and Jo comes across as very pushy towards Gabe and it's like she just magically cures him of his mental illnesses.Also it's actually quite creepy how Jo and Ursa are so obsessively attached at the end. Jo kinda goes nuts, surely that sort of erratic behaviour wouldn't make a good candidate for foster parent? That problem isn't really addressed and it all ends happily every after. I will admit I actually thought the girl was an alien until it was revealed at the end that she was not. Looking back, how can a 9 yr old pull off the deception that well??

Sort-of memoir/book about the author's experiences of helping to produce a film about his life. Miller is really good at painting himself as a very ordinary guy (slightly veering into pathetic/loser territory). Apparently he's also written a bestselling book. It's almost confusing - because I couldn't see why he's famous (from the way he writes about himself), and I probably should've just read that bestseller instead of this one.

It comes across as a book for the everyday person. Miller struggles with life (and don't we all). Maybe his conversational, casual tone is what makes his writing so popular.

Unfortunately I think I'll have to give this one a 3 or 3.5. I think it is probably a lot better if you go into it with the context of knowing about the author.

Beautifully written. Twin sisters run away from their home in the South. Both are black, but one goes on to pass as a white woman while the other eventually returns to her hometown.

To be honest it initially made me question - if no one can tell the difference, why not pretend to be white when it's convenient? The book takes place in the 50s onwards where there is still segregation and a lot of discrimination e.g. can't get certain jobs.

Obviously an ignorant question, and the book does a good job of showing how the white-passing sister struggles to deal with the effects of hiding her true identity from everyone around her.

Wow this was a wild ride.

Props to the author for killing off a bunch of characters at the beginning (I honestly thought they were going to get resurrected, since there was a decent amount of time dedicated to them).

Then there's the usual “wow this guy is scary and bad but this quirky girl doesn't care!” And then they fall in love etc.

Tbh felt like the plot twist where Hunt was caught buying drugs came out of nowhere and it all went downhill fast from there. Not sure why Bryce was like “I'm going to do something smart” and then proceeds to try and beg to exchange his life for hers (how is that in any way smart, that is SO DUMB).

And then the final battle, it was like everyone was sitting around watching on a Zoom call as she fought Micah by herself? Like what? The battle was actually kind of cool but that really ruined it.

And then the classic “wow she actually had powers and is like the most powerful person ever!! The chosen one!!”. The end.

Really dumb, but I guess Sarah J Maas is kind of like a trashy guilty pleasure at this point lol.

Lee and her girlfriend Mal are investigating an alleged monster sighting when Mal suddenly disappears in a blizzard. Mal's mysterious return 4 years later is of interest to MI5 agent Julian Sabreur. He's investigating a crime committed by a group of people who don't quite look human, and Mal is somehow involved.

Then the sci-fi aspect of this novel kicks in as it's revealed there are worlds parallel to our own Earth. Evolution has diverged at a different point in each world and created a different dominant species. As cracks form between worlds and monsters slip through, humanity may lose its position at the top of the food chain.

I would have preferred to see more of Lee and Mal, and less of the MI5 agent Julian. He's less of a suave James Bond type and more of a grumpy everyday man with a struggling marriage. How much you like him probably depends on how well you can relate to him.

The parts of the other parallel worlds that we did get to see were excellent, and I would have loved to read more about that. For me the best part of sci-fi is reading about a completely different setting - whether that's the future or somewhere in space. So the bits set in “present day” Earth weren't as interesting to me.

I enjoyed Weir's first book about a science dude on Mars, but decided to give his second one a miss after hearing lackluster reviews about his attempt at a female protagonist.

For his third book, he's gone back to his tried-and-true approach of having a science dude talk about a lot of science shit and although my eyes glaze over as all the science shit happens, it was a fun and heartwarming read.

Heartwarming isn't the first word that comes to mind when the plot centres around him waking up alone on a spaceship but it really does turn out that way, somehow.

I don't want to spoil it any more than that, so give it a read if you like sci-fi (I would love if they could turn this one into a movie too).

From the title and cover I actually thought this was some sort of YA-ish romance book (oops, probably getting confused with “the space between us”) but it's actually a decent soft sci-fi novel.

Basically they've invented travelling between parallel worlds, but the catch is you can only travel there if your counterpart in the other world is dead. Since rich people tend to be alive in most of their worlds, this means the job of travelling falls on the poor underclass.

Our main character, Cara is one such traveller. The travelling is actually for quite mundane reasons - to gather data on parallel worlds for statistical analysis and to try and make money off of it. The book isn't too heavy on sci-fi, as it more ends up being about the people that Cara meets between the different worlds, and all the ways they are different (or the same). So don't expect the author to really explain the travelling thing.

The first quarter felt really slow as the author established the character's backstory and all the supporting characters and I was half-considering giving up on it. It did pick up the pace midway for an relatively satisfying conclusion. The villain and the way the ending played out definitely had room for improvement, but just don't read too closely into it lol.

Linus works as a caseworker for magical children living in orphanages. He's a very boring, by-the-books type of person but this all changes when he spends a month investigating an orphanage with potentially dangerous children who all have highly classified case files.

I went in with high expectations considering its 4.47 rating on Goodreads but was left feeling quite disappointed. It felt very, very cheesy at times, especially the romance subplot which really didn't make much sense at all. Honestly I cringed a bit while reading it.

It goes for a lighthearted, kooky tone (Linus's bosses are literally called Extremely Upper Management). But at the same time they live in a world where magical beings must be registered and monitored, and there is a large amount of discrimination towards them in society. And so the combination of those two things feels weird for the very happy, good vibes ending that we get.

I don't really want to give this a 3, the writing isn't bad. I think I'm just completely the wrong demographic for this book. I could see it being targeted towards YA or even lower.

An east asian-inspired fantasy book, where each race has the ability to control an element - in the case of the Kaigenese (based off of the Japanese), it's the ability to wield water/ice.

The technology in the world is on par with ours (satellites, mobile phones) but for some reason the Kaigenese are very traditional and don't use any technology at all, so the book is essentially transporting you back in time a couple of hundred years.

One of the main characters, Misaki, is a housewife, with no real say in how things are run, even in her own home. Initially this sexism kind of sucks but through the course of the book you learn that Misaki is actually a badass so it's not too bad.

Overall it was a great book with a lot of character development.

My one nitpick would be I'm not a big fan of foreign words inserted into the text e.g random words like “mother” or “damnit” are translated into Japanese. Right at the end, there's a serious conversation in a formal setting, and there are full sentences written in Japanese where they're talking with slang/very casually which felt very very out of place. Just stick to English!

A Deadly Education follows El (short for Galadriel) who is in her junior year at the magic school Sholomance. The school is a highly hazardous place. There are murderous creatures out to kill El and all her classmates, and even if you make it to graduation, there's an all-out bloodbath waiting for you when you try to leave the school grounds.

In reality this would make for a very depressing book (something like Attack on Titan comes to mind) but the book sidesteps this and it's actually more humorous than anything, because it's so absurd. The school provides spells to students in languages that they are familiar with, so El spends all her time studying different languages to try and get all the spells that she can.

I was originally a bit hesitant to read this since it's considered YA, but El is quite a flawed character and this book doesn't veer too close to the “chosen one” trope so I finished it pleasantly surprised.

In this space fantasy novel, people belong to one of the nine Houses, which are spread out across nine different planets. The Emperor alone resides in the First House, and orders the Second through Ninth houses to send their necromancer and cavalier (the necromancer's bodyguard/swordsman) to his planet.

The Ninth House sends Harrowhark and Gideon, life-long enemies, who must work together to bring glory to the Ninth House and receive the power of immortality.

The book starts off quite slow as the author introduces Gideon and Harrow and do a bit of world-building. It's all a bit hard to get your head around what's happening but the book picks up pace once all the necromancers and their cavaliers land on the Emperor's planet.

Necromancy is spooky in general but the Ninth House takes it to the next level with skull face paint and a reputation for being super-religious. It's amusing to watch them try and interact with the more “normal” necromancers of the other Houses in comparison.

It's disappointing that Harrow and Gideon build up relationships with all the other Houses, and then they all die. Even the relationship between Gideon and Harrow, too. It makes me less interested in reading the second book. Also their deaths didn't really feel that emotionally impactful either. Maybe there wasn't enough time to properly build up that relationship between the characters.

Sci-fi with a side of romance. Jainan's husband Taam dies in an accident, and so he is quickly married off to Taam's cousin Kiem to maintain the treaty between their two planets. Turns out it's not an accident and a murder-mystery ensues.

There's a bunch of space politics, although Jainan and Kiem are both super bad at politics and just go around revealing all their findings to anyone important (including the Emperor) which kind of seems like political suicide and/or very dangerous.

Regardless it's refreshing to be able to read a romance novel that's not completely trashy, especially in sci-fi (is it just me or is romance is more common in fantasy?) so this was a pleasant read.