Donna
This was interesting, thoughtful and a very hard read, given that the consequences of what appears to be hubris and enabling might have been avoided, though I’m not sure anyone in this timeline would have been selfless enough to suggest the law that the authors propose about presidential health disclosures and now under the current administration, it’s not likely to happen. Note that Tapper is an animated audiobook narrator, and gently impersonates Biden, Harris and Trump. It’s another interesting choice, probably acceptable given that this is only one of the first Biden postmortem books, surely not the last or most definitive.
I liked the idea of this book, and picked it up after hearing an ad on the Fated Mates podcast. There’s so much missed opportunity to fully describe the world that Kyleigh and Rowan inhabit that would make things feel more real and help readers feel invested in the story. Kyleigh is a talented wedding dress designer but we hear so little about that I ended up not really caring whether she got to keep doing it. Most of the detail is in the sex scenes, which is fine, but do we really need to hear about every single time Rowan throws a condom in the trash when they’re done? Every Uber they call when they’re on the way to brunch or his apartment? Product placement is not a replacement for world building, which feels like a harsh critique, but I could see the book this could have been in what I was reading, and I wanted that: rich in detail, full of context, asking me to care about the characters because the story made them fully alive, not just because they were barreling toward the inevitable conclusion.
I liked a lot about this book, and I've enjoyed Elise's interviews about it. It covers a lot of ground largely successfully and is an interesting overview of an industry and culture I only know as a Soko Glam customer. It is less successful as an audiobook, pleasant to listen to, but perhaps harder to follow than intended just because chapters don't have numbers and section headings often stand alone in a slightly odd way. Ultimately I give it 3.5 stars for solid journalism even if I find the standard self help march from societal norms to conclusions about individual behavior at the end less helpful.
Also, be warned, there are at least half a dozen instances where medical procedures or beauty mishaps are described in enough detail that you might be momentarily squeamish.
The book itself was uneven and so was the world building, which is why we care about the story in the first place. I wanted more detail and context in setting up the competition and getting to know the girls competing. Several key events inexplicably happen offscreen, so the early part of the book lacks some of the momentum and violence that propels the absolute banger of an ending worth a whole star on its own. There were also some unfortunate mispronunciations in the audiobook that took away from the luxe upscale vibe, and I straight up hated a couple of the character names as too pretentious and distracting. But I was entertained and I love a strong female protagonist, so 3.25 stars.
I wanted to love this and the concept is excellent, but the execution is Wil Wheaton essentially narrating a bunch of meetings between supervillains after the initial setup. There are some strong scenes and ideas but there's very little there there: no real character development, perhaps in the form of moral concerns about becoming a supervillain. All the pieces are there but they never really come together. Two stars for sentient dolphins committed to workers' rights in the funniest way.
I heard an interview with Liz Kerin on the Reading Glasses podcast and it definitely made me rethink whether I would want to read a vampire book. Night's Edge is a dystopia that doesn't dwell on minutiae, but it's full of emotional resonance and explores how we get caught in relationships that hurt us. I loved it, and the audiobook was amazing.
I am torn. This book is beautifully written and delightfully spicy. The language is poetic, a cut above the average romance novel. But honestly, I think I am not spoiling anything to say the two main characters have the worst communication skills I have ever seen. THE WORST. it's also fair to say that the trope in this book is the opposite of manic pixie dream girl: taciturn hot guy, afraid of his own emotions. The heroine spends a lot of time saving him from himself. It ends well, but it's a nailbiter; I spent so much time waiting for them, each to get out of their own way. As an aside, there is a weird lack of detail and context in this book. It is clearly set in London, but there are no London details. There are no extra characters. It's very tightly focused on these two people and a few people that they interact with every day. I think that contributed to an unexpected heaviness in tone, not very much comic relief, which is a thing I'm used to in this kind of romance. In the end, I liked it with significant hesitations.
Incredibly good, compulsively readable. Gory, scary fun, it was a pleasure and a privilege to be in the thoughts and hearts of such a fully realized, finely wrought group of characters. I found myself connecting with each of them, even if I hated them, because Felker-Martin does such a good job of bringing their specific stories to life. TW for everything; I had to stop reading a few times for violence and hate speech. This book is great, and it could be a tough hang. I'll be thinking about it for a long time, and I am already guessing I'll reread it.
A reminder that even an ordinary life is not really ordinary; the details of Cooper's adventures in and out of birding are interesting and the eventual recounting of the Central Park incident and its aftermath, as well as Cooper's thoughts about it are well earned. It made me wish for more unexpectedly great deeply personal stories, but they would all have to live up to this very high bar. An extra star for the audiobook, which was fantastic.
I wish I had had this book when I was 20, or at least three apartments ago. It's incredibly well-written and well-organized, thoughtful, and significantly, absolutely non-judgemental about not knowing exactly what you need to do to take care of your living space. Mercury is bold, rambunctious and funny in her TikToks, and this book is calm, smart and kind about making a home of your own. I am impressed and thankful for the whole package.
Rarely have I appreciated an author's craft more: the story is spellbinding in part because the author clearly worked to make sure descriptions of action and details were lyrical and involving at the sentence level. Everything feels appropriate and essential for such a horrible story, not a word wasted. The audiobook is equally well done with versatile, gifted narrators. It's genre fiction, but it's also beautifully literary. I'll be thinking about it for a long time.
I have never wanted to hang out more with an author that I wanted to hang out with Jamie Loftus after finishing Raw Dog (I read the audiobook). It's a special book not quite any one thing, but enough of everything. It holds together in a glorious winding tale that's funny, moving, and infuriating. I feel like it's not a spoiler to say that we are both team #ToastedBun.
The valuable parts of this book are really valuable and important: why it's worth it to slow down, how our brains are being manipulated by the internet into wasting time online, what we stand to gain by mono tasking. Hari is a smart, interesting writer with a bold claim: can we save the best parts of our lives and ourselves from surveillance capitalism? The rest of the book feels like a distraction (is the cause what we eat, is it pollution, is it ADHD?). Those influences are so broad they deserve discussion on their own, rather than being a chapter in a book that has already decided they're part of the problem. They might be, but his treatment is not nuanced or detailed enough, particularly when he starts talking about weight gain as a metaphor, as well as how diet and attention relate. That said, parts of this are deeply compelling and concerning. I like Hari and I liked this book. 2.5 stars.
Captivating in the best way; I was off-center and engaged the whole time, waiting to see how this speeding train was going to go off the rails. A big plus that the writing in empathetic to all of the characters, except perhaps the Catch himself. Utterly weird and charming, I cannot recommend this highly enough.
I wanted to like this so much more than I did, but it's a great idea that doesn't quite live up to its promise. The story is pretty broadly drawn, and a lot of it lives in the narration rather than the actions or dialogue, so the characters don't feel as lived in as they could be. Selfishly, the hijinks and wacky missed connections take a bit to get going - there is more rom than com here, and I love crazy circumstances that lead to plot development. Essentially, there are two stories: Amy starts a business of her own (fine), and Amy comes out to herself and falls in love in the process (lovely, more sweet than funny) that both struggle to come together. Tulsa is also a character here; the author sells us on its charms and reminds us that coming out and being queer in the South is a different experience. I like what this book represents, but sadly I didn't love the book itself.
Really well written, plus it's inadvertently a multimedia experience, because not only is the show currently available, so many of the things mentioned in context (Rhoda's landmark wedding, Mary's wild variety special, the MTM cast reunion on Oprah) are available on YouTube. Interesting, fun and immersive - I couldn't have asked for more.