Katie

The language in this book was overwrought, cliched, and just awful. I wanted to have fun reading this but couldn't get past the first few chapters. I just wanted to read every sentence aloud in a super dramatic voice and then collapse laughing.

Idk why this kind of book fascinates me, but I like to read different authors' takes on how to downsize. This one was much more focused on people who are moving and aging, but was still interesting. His big thing is that you can keep the memories if you tell someone the story that goes with an object, and then get rid of the object. But if you only tell the story once, and the object helps to prompt you to remember the story, I'm not sure how that works.

Really not sure what to say about this thing. Why did I read it? Why were there so many extra words in it? Were all the words extra? Quite possibly. I feel completely gaslit by this book.

Well, bear in mind that this is a very academic book–perhaps even a thesis. So instead of discussing how structural racism created this mess, the author has an argument about law creating violence, etc. I see it, but I'd have rather read a much more straightforward history of this area. I did learn a lot that I didn't know, and I was happy to do some googling and find that all the private developments seem to have failed.

Aw, this was a great ending. Just the right combination of humor, fun, suspense, mess ups, strength, and the reappearance of favorite characters. I loved this series.

I didn't like this book very much at the start–it felt disjointed and unrealistic. But it drew me in and by the end I was really enjoying it, though it didn't ever end up feeling any more realistic. :)

This was so engagingly written that it just flew by. The author did a great job combining her personal story with other people's stories and with the history. A lot of the history was already familiar to me, but there were some new, interesting facts, as well. I wasn't sure how the chapter on Appalachia fit in with the rest of the book, especially the conclusions, but maybe that was just me.

I really loved this book. It wasn't all bad or all good–the events seemed real and believable, and the characters did, too.

This was probably a 3.5 for me. I couldn't quite get a hold on the main character/narrator–maybe he can't quite get a hold on himself either. I'm probably not the intended audience for this book, but it was still an interesting read.

Another 3.5 for me. The format was an interesting choice–we get lots of different people's points of view, which is good (lots of people's points of view) and bad (little context for what they're saying, and they each usually only say a few sentences on whatever the topic is).

I read this for the romance challenge in my library's summer reading program. The book had to be a romance featuring a main character over 50, and I enjoyed that part of it a lot. The rest was okay, expected, etc.

I just couldn't finish this. It falls into the category of “books where people just make stupider and stupider mistakes and dig themselves in deeper and deeper.” Those books make me cringe with misery while reading them.

I realize all the shortcomings of this series, but I love it anyway. I love that the main love story includes lots of bickering and fighting, that things don't always go the main characters' way, the history, the smart, brave, knowledgable heroine, and more. Looking forward to the third!

Well, this got on to my to-read list somehow, and when I saw it on the shelf in a used bookstore in NYC I decided to take a chance on it. It was an....interesting choice to be reading on the subway where anyone could be reading over my shoulder. It was billed as an anti-misogynistic read, but it felt more just like reading inside the brain of every misogynistic french asshole, which really wasn't very pleasant. If this had been written by a man I would have tossed it, but since it was written by a woman I read to the bitter end.

Ugh. I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn't. Maybe it was the annoying narration? Idk, but I couldn't finish.

I would have enjoyed this a lot more if I had re-read Black Sun. There's so much intrigue, backstabbing, and politicking that it's hard to keep it all straight. My advice for new readers is to wait for the third one to come out and read them all at the same time! But I still loved this–the characters are great, and we got to know them so much better this time around. Great writing, great plot and story.

I didn't love this book, and I have to admit that I completely skipped the devastating parts about torturing baby monkeys. I don't think she at all addresses that you can be alone without being lonely–she seems to equate the two without exception. I did like how she gave all the sources of her illustrations in the end.

Fascinating and wonderful book with great characters and interesting family dynamic (to say the least).

I liked this more than I liked The Idiot, but perhaps still not as much as I like her work in the New Yorker. The first half of this book was five stars for me, but then it went downhill a bit. Still, she is so funny and insightful that I can't help but enjoy her writing.

This was a strange book. Was it a biography? A collection of random facts, mostly related? A book of poetic musings? This mishmash didn't work for me, but I did enjoy reading about the premonitions that came true.

Well, I thought this was a lot of fun. Reminded me of Twilight in so very many ways, and I know both books have their haters, but I'm thinking that books 2 and 3 will get me across country as audiobooks very well!

This book was a lot of fun. It was also thought-provoking, interesting, and full of ideas that'll stick with me. But most of all it was fun.

I learned a lot from this book. It's amazing how the things we take for granted (without paying much attention to) like fingerprints, hair analysis, footprints, etc., actually turn out to be junk science, used to incarcerate the innocent. I guess I'm just naive, though I really should not be surprised by any failures of the “justice” system at this point. Only three stars because I found his writing confusing to follow (maybe it was the font?? Something just felt off). But definitely worth reading for the information.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with this book. A good read. It just didn't blow my socks off in any way.

I would call this a must-read for anyone who loved Lost Children Archives and couldn't quite puzzle out how that book wasn't just 100% a true story. This book helps untangle that, and also is a wonderful read on its own.