Rain
Book Club Pick #5
This was SO fun! It's got a ton of little twists/surprises, and so many cliff hangers at the ends of chapters, so you have to keep reading!
And it's set in Edina, MN, which is so close to where I grew up, so I knew almost all the places/references.
There were a few things about the ending I didn't love, but overall, I just thought it was a good time
This was so good!
Before starting, I honestly didn't even know who Andre Agassi was, and I've never cared about tennis. But this book hooked me. Everyday at lunch, I would ditch my coworkers and go sit in my car so I could listen to this audiobook. So that's saying something! Ha ha
I got the rec'd from a FB group that said this was one of the best memoirs out there. So I took a chance and I'm glad I did. I think I'm definitely going to read the ghost writer's memoir too based on the writing of this one.
The only reason I gave it a 4 instead of 5 is I stopped caring towards the end. When he was unhappy and struggling I loved it, but as his life got better I got bored. That probably says more about me than the book...
Overall, it was great!
I love TJR! I will read everything she writes.
When I first heard about this book, I wasn't excited. I didn't care about Carrie Soto in Malibu Rising and I've definitely never cared about tennis.
But apparently that doesn't matter. Cause this was great.
I love how TJR writes unlikeable characters. I always root for all of them! And Carrie Soto is no exception. She's awful and I love her! Ha ha
I cared about all the tennis stuff, and the relationship between Carrie and her “rival”, and the love story, and the father/daughter relationship. I loved it all. It made me happy.
I feel like this book is objectively good. Beautiful writing, realistic characters and dialogue. But I just didn't enjoy it. None of the characters are likable, and not in a fun way. In a way that just makes me feel sad and maybe a little icky. But the story is compelling, and I kept wanting to come back to it.
I don't know, this is a weird one.
I saw a review that simply said “I both hate and love this one” and that's about right.
I loved this. (I'm realizing I just love memoirs, period.) But I really appreciate the humor throughout that helps you get through the tough moments. I've watched a lot of interviews that Jennettes done and I really respect her. She's done a LOT of work to get to where she is and heal. She's fascinating to listen to.
(Her Drew Barrymore interview is great. And the one with Whitney Cummings is basically free therapy for the listener!)
I'm not going to give this a rating, because I don't know if I was just in the wrong mood for this one. Everyone seems to love and rave about this one, but I just didn't care. It was written well, sure. But I didn't care about any of the characters. And it was a struggle to even keep coming back to this story.
I don't know. The story is probably great and we'll say it's a me issue.
3.5 ⭐️
The concept is really cool and it was a fun read.
I've seen other reviews describe the book as having “black mirror” vibes, and I'd say that's pretty accurate. You follow 5 different perspectives and they mostly (not all) start out pretty normal and nice, and slowly you learn that everyone is just terrible. I don't typically like stories with virtually no likable characters. But again, I was entertain, just not blown away.
I loved Paul Sheldon and Annie Wilkes!! They are some of the most interesting characters I've ever read. The majority of the novel takes place with just these two in a single room, with not that much actually happening, but it's riveting.
I'm not sure if this is true, but I've heard Paul Sheldon is supposed to be Steven King, and that made his internal monologue SO interesting.
I'm not a huge fan of horror, only because I'm a scaredy-cat, and this was much more of a thriller than a horror, so that was great! Absolutely recommend!
