Mercer

A study on the fragile male ego from the perspective of the women that need to do the emotional labor for it. Very good, very different!

I went back and forth and back and forth with this book. There were times where I thought it was just a silly superficial werewolf book, and there were times that I thought a very specific, very triggering aspect of the book was what the werewolf story was an allegory for. I'm choosing to believe the latter, and rate this 4 stars, rather than assume that the author would be so unaware. As an allegory for [redacted] this book shines, a la the Babadook. As anything else, it is terrible.

This book. Wow. Slow and beautiful and lovely. In Part 4 I thought for sure my rating was going to be tanked, but it all turned around at the end.

This was good. Significantly better than Elektra, which I appreciated. There were moments later in the book where the dialogue felt much more modern than expected, but overall the story was well-executed and fleshed out.

Some good and some bad in this one.

A solid business book. I found this to be most impactful for its information on level 1. There are many folks that have never been a part of level 1, and to educate those folks on what it is like to be there may be actually life changing.

This book was a hard, sad read. It's because of that that I wasn't sure if I wanted to rate it a 4 or 5. I wasn't sure if I would recommend this to everyone given just how sad it is. That said, upon reflection, it deserves the 5 stars. This book kept me in its clutches the whole time, which is so surprising to me given its length.

The real excellence, though, is in the craft of the story. As an addict, much of this was familiar to me. The slow creep. The excuses. The “how did we even get here?!” Thought process as you move further towards rock bottom. This book brings the reader along in that journey—engaging them in the hero's journey and making something that may not be as familiar to everyone very accessible. Scarily so.

So many of my childhood friends are dead due to overdose, heroin and fentanyl. This book was relatable, touching and made something that disgusts so many (drug addiction) much more approachable.

This was good! Very dramatic, as all books by this author are. I am beginning to get tired of that as a trope. That said, the intrigue was good. The story was good. The characters were good. And the ending was chef kiss.

Giving it 4 stars because it was fairly overwrought and trite in places, but still I couldn't stop reading.

From what I hear, this is very true to life for Muslim folks near Mojave. This was a touching story. So much was unpacked, but perhaps just as much was left unclarified. Very human, and beautiful.

This was very cheesy and I don't think I'd recommend it. 3 stars because the premise was interesting and there was great representation.

So lovely and tender and sweet. Very triggering for folks with: death of partner, death of parent. What I loved most about this book was the emphasis on shifting perspective. There was nothing magical: time travel doesn't change the present, but instead the perspective of the person.

Lovely.

There were parts that I loved, and there were parts that were so tiresome.

Tender. Sweet. The periods about parenting in the pandemic were triggering and hard for me.

What an ending. My gosh.

This was such an excellent read. Loved the historical piece of this, the music theory piece of this and, of course, everything about Dilla.

I feel like back when this first came out it would have been groundbreaking, but at this point empathy and advocacy for people in the workplace isn't really anything new?

A good gentle-ish parenting book. Lotsssss of anecdotes. Someone needs to give the parent, Tony, a big hug and some help with inner-child healing. Dang.

My gosh I wish the third book was up on my holds. So lucky to have this to listen to while up with a sick kiddo in the night.

Meh. For the first half of this book I was all in! It gave me such excellent Wuthering Heights vibes. Then, about 60% in it totally jumped the shark and lost me. I would recommend this to no one, but I can't give it 1 star because the first half was good!

This was perfectly fine, I suppose. But nothing really stood out to me. A “meh.”

Cute, fun, brain cotton candy.

This is more of a book for snacking than one for reading all at once, and I think trying to take it down all in one go ruined it for me.

I wish I could wipe my brain and reread this book again. Truly so beautiful and sad and lovely. Loved the pop culture references. Loved the descriptions of Boston, New York, LA. Loved the fragile, flawed characters. This book was perfect. Even the things that weren't perfect felt like they were intentionally so.

Also, I wish the games that were in this book were real.

What a fun, weird little book. This felt more like poetry to me than prose, for which I loved it. I also appreciated how much was left unsaid, for the reader to fill in.

A nice snack of a book—perhaps would be more substantial if I reread it, knowing what was to come. But again, that feels like a poem!

This was excellent. 4 stars instead of 5 Because I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. This book amazed me so much Because of the way it explored a complex relationship with a mother. I loved it so much and it was so beautiful to watch it unfold. It was such an honest depiction of interpersonal dynamics, and also true to life with the death of a loved one to cancer. If you have had a loved one die of cancer recently, this may be very triggering.

Beyond that, the descriptions of food were to die for. I wanted to eat everything. The audio book was outstanding.