Katie

I liked everything about this book except for the main love story, which just didn't convince me. I'm not sure what they saw in each other. But other than that, I enjoyed the unfolding, even as it was obvious that lots of unfolding was going to happen.

Ugh. This book was so heavy-handed. WOMEN were ANGRY and they they turned into DRAGONS! Do you GET the METAPHOR?? Surprise, surprise, those dragons fight for racial and social justice, they join unions and etc and etc. As with other fantasy books, there are plenty of unexplained magical asides like–these two women can silence men just by looking at them! We don't know how! Is this a metaphor? Are they working magic? Never mind, the story moves on. Anyway, there were definitely some fun moments and some nice h/ts to librarians, but the story was just too easy to be fully satisfying.

This was a fun read at a stressful time. Not annoyingly predictable, and the characters felt fleshed out and true.

Um. Well, to start with, if you don't like reading detailed descriptions of how to butcher a dog, this might not be the book for you. Ditto if you don't like reading about people being eaten by dogs, both before and after they are dead. There were many other gross descriptions of hunting and butchering, bodily fluids, trashed towns, etc. On the other hand, if you could skim over or not get hung up on those things, it was a pretty fascinating read.

This is probably a 3.5 for me. Would have been a 4 except for some overwrought language and banal conclusion. I liked the two perspectives the story was told from, and the characters were interesting.

Wow. This was an amazing book. There was the main story, the memoir parts of her past, the memoir parts of her future, and then the random facts that got thrown in–which often annoy me, but in this case even those were fascinating. This is a story of great bravery on the part of many people. I loved it and admired Erika so much.

I have no idea why I put this in my tbrs, but I guess I must have read a good review somewhere. It was strange and not very thrilling or suspenseful. Why did I finish it? I'm not sure, except I was a little in awe of the weird imagination that would create this plot and keep spinning it out.

This was a fun read, but nothing earth shattering. There was some enjoyable witty banter. :)

This book was a joy to read. There was so much women's history I really didn't know much about. Some parts were a bit cheesy, but I read and thought a lot. And it made me want to get up and move!

I'm not the hugest fan of time travel because there always seems to be something that doesn't add up. This was no exception, but I do love her writing and characters.

Wow. This was a fascinating and page-turning book. “I believe we are united in the emotions that drive us into the beliefs that separate us.”

This was probably a 3.5 for me. I didn't like it as much as I liked the first one, but I will for sure read the next one. :)

Blech. I hated this at the start, sort of got into in in the middle, then wanted to quit after about halfway through. I wish I had, because all kinds of unpleasant things were the only things happening. I finally gave up with about 20 pages left, wishing I could have the time back that I gave to this book.

It's always fun to read a book that agrees with you (different from reading a book that you agree with–in this case, I had almost all of these thoughts before I read the book). I did get some new ideas to think about, like the value of child care at a young age (from actual trained child-care providers, which I think is the clincher).

Rachel Cusk has a way of putting things that just feels truer than anything you've thought before–especially about being a parent. I didn't really care that much about the main conflict in this book (or even fully understand it) but I loves the parts about the mother daughter relationship.

The time skips were super disorienting for me, and coupled with the two friends being enough alike that I couldn't always remember which details went with which person's life... add to that that one character was written in first person and all the others were 3rd person omniscient? I had a little trouble feeling engaged in this book and following everything that happened. Oh, also, it's told over such a long time period that the character's personalities changed, as well, which just added to my confusion.

This was much better than I thought it would be–maybe I'm just suspicious of hype. :) I'd love a follow-up now to see if those people have settled down and gotten jobs with the labor market so changed, or if they really do continue to love life on the road.

This was probably a 4.5 for me. I really loved it–loved the characters, the story. My only quibbles were that the love interest seemed a bit two-dimensional, and one plot point, which I won't reveal. Still, a super fun read.

Well, this book just seemed written for me. A main character who rides her bike everywhere, corrects people's malapropisms, and is always comparing real life to classic novels. Not to mention it's a great mystery where nothing too scary happens, and there's lots of fun meta stuff included. I can't wait for the sequel.

This book was an interesting perspective on how different things were in the recent past than they are now–not that people have changed, not that microagressions have stopped, but at least there's more openness and awareness now? I hope? I'm grateful to the author for telling her story and I loved the way her nerdy weird character shone through.

I love Rebecca Mead but this book was ... a little boring. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood for it. But there was no plot, no story beyond, we moved. There was a lot of family history, but even that didn't really feel like story, more like a setting of a scene.

Yeah, well... I do think it's possible that we don't fully understand what happens after death, and that what actually happens might be pretty fantastic. I've heard stories from people I love and trust that can't be explained any other way. On the other hand, I think this is one of those things you just have to experience yourself to believe.

This book was hilarious and original and completely took the bad taste out of my mouth from the cliched book I had given up moments before I started this one. I was sad to have it end.

I love Heartstopper and Alice Oseman, but this volume felt more like a self-help pamphlet in the guidance counselor's office than a continuation of the story.

I mean, it's Hanya Yanagihara, so what else do I need to say? Not as immediately devastating as A Little Life, but that doesn't mean it's not devastating. I love the way she plays with the themes of freedom vs. safety throughout the book.