Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James My rating: 2 of 5 stars I feel like I read a completely different book than the rest of the world. Firstly, I thought Ana was pretty strong-minded. She negotiated the contract, tested things before agreeing to them, and when the chips were down, went with the difficult decision that was right to her.Christian worked with her as much as he could, trying to give her the more that she was looking for. There was affection there. I didn't see an abusive ...
Big Little Lies review
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty My rating: 5 of 5 stars At first I haaaaaaated this book. I haaaaaated all of the parents and I strongly disliked all of the kids. I thought the pacing was far too slow and I was annoyed by the little blurbs of inserted testimony.And then about a third of the way in, something magical happened. I started to care about these flawed parents and their goofy kids. More than halfway through, I didn't want any of the ones I cared about to be the murder/accident ...
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith review
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott My rating: 5 of 5 stars Hi, I'm Kim. I'm a woman, early 40s, spiritual but churchless, and a somewhat-intelligent Christian with a soft spot for crystals and "woo." My cat just died, I can't get pregnant and I'm wondering what in the heck the point of my existence even is!In other words, I am this book's target audience. The only thing missing is the "to Kim" in the dedication. Therefore, I'm not the best person to objectively review this ...
Landline review & back to school
Landline by Rainbow Rowell My rating: 3 of 5 stars Georgie is our protagonist, a television writer and an all-around irresponsible flake. Neal is her husband, steady rock, and stay-at-home dad to their two daughters: Alice and Noomi. Georgie's job is high-pressure and high-stakes and very important. When the opportunity for Georgie and her writing partner Seth (a real knob in his own right) to write their own show presents itself at Christmastime, Georgie blows off a planned family vacation to ...
Please Ignore Vera Dietz review
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King My rating: 2 of 5 stars This was the third book in my Book Riot Quarterly box, themed "try new genres" or something similar. I read it quickly, but I think I just don't enjoy reading books about kids who are stuck in awful, uncomfortable situations with no agency to change it. (see: first half of The Goldfinch) And honestly, how much more could the author toss at Vera? Mom ran away, dad's kind of an ass, best friend is dead (but he was an ass too), the ...
One Good Earl Deserves a Lover review
One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is the second book in the Rules of Scoundrels series. I read the first one because I got it for free. This one I checked out of the library and YES I'll go for the third one too. It hit all of my buttons (wow seriously wow) and my only tiny quibbles were as follows:1) I had a hard time believing Cross was smart. Not sure why.2) The Pippa-wears-glasses repetition was overdone.3) Needs more Bourne! I know, not his ...
The Killing Moon review
The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin My rating: 4 of 5 stars I used to think I was bored by fantasy novels, but I think I was bored of elves-and-dwarves-and-orcs, LordAndLadyofWoodyWood, boy magical prodigy fantasy novels.This one? This was was really really good. So sure, there's magic and religion and war, and it's set on another planet, but this one is different because its grounded in African religions and lore. It took me a while to get in the swing of things, but once I got the hang of who is ...
