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Unless asked, I tend to keep my reading raves and rants to myself. But once I finished this, I couldn't stop myself from being its missionary to spread its good word. I recited passages to my parent, screen shotted pages to friends. Everyone has something to gain from this wisdom-drenched collection of essays.
Kelly Corrigan captures the most heart-wrenching of human experiences and somehow makes them palpable.
I cannot overstate how much I loved this book.
I'll admit it. Homeless-to-Harvard stories aren't my schtick. There's too much cinematic drama, expected slip-ups that ultimately make for an eye-roll and less-than-engaging story, no matter how truly extraordinary and true it is.
Enter: Educated. What a force, this book. Westover's frank recollection makes a reader feel he or she is in the room - you feel her pull to something outside the world she knows, you see the impossibility that surrounds her every basic desire.
Queen of the Spoiler Alert, I, of course, knew Tara Westover was going to be just fine. Better than fine, in fact. Which is what separates Westover's skill as an author and storyteller that much more stirring. Educated has become one of those required-reading recommendations for me.
I adored elements of this book.
The style✅
The themes✅
The character development✅
However, I was not expecting the book to be so graphic. I don't consider myself to be a sensitive, straight-laced reader. But I skipped pages, finding the love-making details did not add, but distract from the story's core.
I found this to be eerily and uniquely told. I enjoyed the author taking the road less traveled, giving peaks into the minds of all the characters involved, rather than a straight telling from The Nanny, or the mother or the children. It added a layer of eeriness that built.
However, for all the intentional steps taken to build the plot, I felt the ending was rushed and jarringly dull.
Think: Big Little Lies meets Gone Girl
I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING.
This book threw me across the room with the revelation of Daphne's scheme. The author does an excellent job of teasing, not telling and saving the twist, when a reader was deep and certain how this story would end.
Most importantly, I closed the book convicted to be more in tune to women in Daphne's position and never assume the character of a person because of the facade displayed.
Any book that is a whiff of Harry Potterism has my attention. So flying philosophers, bearing similarities to HP's wizards and witches riding brooms was promising.
Perhaps I wasn't fully attentive, but even after reading, I'm still a little unsure of the basic logistics of how one flies. Because a good bulk of the book takes place in the air or learning how to get in the air, I had a hard time following during the action scenes.
However the most intriguing aspect of Philosopher's Flight was the world Miller depicted, one that favors women to be the more-favored, more-talented, more-respected sex in the philosophy world, but still victim to the familiar, violent sexism in the real world. The main character, Tom, had no bitterness towards nor desire to change this societal norm, simply to be the exception. I can't decide if the author was intent on writing a coyly misogynistic tale in the current, feminism-heavy climate or if he simply and genuinely wanted to paint a world where heroines dominate.
Overall: eh.
Had I reviewed this halfway through I probably would've gone with a solid 3-Star rating. It seemed to be repeating and circling on and on and on without making any story progression.
But by the end, I understood the purpose a little better. The last section of the book makes a detailed explanation of the historical facts that framed the story of Nefertiti. History does not play out as quickly as a Hollywood plot and to keep the basic integrity of the story, the author had to pause accordingly.
I am always impressed with authors in the historical fiction category, making history richly remembered and facts colorful. This book is a great example of that.
This was a book I wasn't expecting to love. The premise wasn't grabbing, too quirky to be set in this world, too realistic to take place in a fantasy one.
But Lang made it work beautifully. The plot spans Weylyn's lifetime, introducing and carrying several characters through the story. I have to applaud the author's ability to give each minor character body and emotional complexion.
By the end, I was rooting for the world where animal-telepathic Weylyn and magic-pig Merlin exist.
I read this right on the tails of finishing The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronsen. Though not planned, it felt like the perfect warmup read before encountering Oliver. I appreciated how the author focused this story on the slow makings of a psychopath, how nature and nurture contribute to corrode human empathy.
As a Criminal Minds devotee and writer, I'm jealous I didn't write this book first. In his usual talent and flair, Ronsen inserts himself among the experts, those studying psychopaths and those labeled such.
Something was missing from this book that I can't quite put my finger on. I wish more science had been included to round out the interviews.
Overall: 3.5 stars
I think Jon Ronsen is incredibly talented and applaud his courage to plant himself in the middle of indisputable danger for the sake of a story.
And while I normally enjoy his skippidity-style, breaking his interviews/analyses, this book jumped around too quickly and I found myself wishing he'd dedicate more time to exploring one set of “Thems” than another.
I think the premise of this book is more important than ever and would advocate Ronsen do a second-edition write focused on the “Thems” in our current world.
HUGE Victoria Schwab fan, but this is my least-favorite story of hers. And even still, she is such an exquisite writer, her least-compelling is still miles above “Good.”
Schwab is a master at creating a fantasy world, but this book felt rushed, character development on double speed, the world sketched out but not colored.
And still I'll probably read the second book in the series.
Ooo I started 2018 on a HIGH note and swallowed this book whole.
Its message is so applicable and timely, I would urge everyone take it up, but specifically my generation and those younger.
We are living in a world that will does not forget and has reintroduced a new wave of public shaming as the just punishment for wrongdoings, accidental or intentionally alike. Ronsen does an incredible job giving readers the full picture without stamping his morality over the story.
This book was important and convicting and has me thinking still.
Marion reminded me of a duller, more cunning version of Bernadette (Where'd You Go,Bernadette?). I found myself dotingly despising all the characters in this book, and for that, I found it refreshing. Culliton makes no drawn-out attempts to convince readers how to feel about her characters. She describes their actions and feelings as their truth and gives the reader authority to form an opinion. Again, refreshing.
The Misfortune paints a bleak, but real picture of how our individual nurturing (financial and emotional) surface and subconsciously unravel us.
I just...I expected more from this book. Both in depth and page count. The overarching story is grabbing, but I felt whiplashed with each plot twist. I kept wanting to dive deeper into the many + distinct characters' backstories and psyches. For all the emotional loops and leaps, I felt this book could have been and should have been at least 100 pages to flesh out the truly unique story.
READ :: if you pride yourself in unraveling a plot within the first 100 pages and are looking for a challenge.
SKIP :: If you have a cruise vacation on deck + have been repeatedly accused of being a helicopter parent.
4.5 (Goodreads, create a half scale, because 4 just won't do!)
Honest + Vulnerable Feminism is told right and proud. Zeplin's brilliant wit in her writing a multi-voice view of Avivagate fortified + humbled me as a reader and a woman. This book is important.
READ :: If you want the woman in you or women around you to learn of genuine strength and softness of feminism.
SKIP :: If you + your ignorance are content and cozy in your misogynistic cave.
I'm struggling to rate this book, because I want to separate the writing from the story. Lacey crafts her words exquisitely. However, the actual story felt a bit disorganized and incomplete, as though the last half were written for time.
I found the PAKing bit an unnecessary tangent of the story about The Girlfriend Experiment and feel both could've had stand-alone stories.
The Answers posed some important + relevant questions about the impending realities of modern romance. I was intrigued by the similar theories presented in Touch by Courtney Maum.
This book would've been finished in <24 had it not been for distractions: working, sleeping, eating, you know, the unsympathetic hindrances of basic living.
This book threw twists and dug sub-plots beautifully. THIS is my new standard for an exceptional Thriller.
But mostly, I appreciate Gardner for spotlighting the after-aftermath of the survivor psyche. I was shocked by raw character portrayals and the rough reality of victim reintegration. In an exposure-addicted, shock-centric culture that bleeds abducted victim stories such as these for book deals and film rights, Flora represents the stronger + darker survivor we are not privy to today.