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paisleyjess

paisleyjess

Joined December 2019

reading is my happy place
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A Promised Land by Barack Obama
review
paisleyjess
Mehso-so

I really liked the beginning and the end but I found myself slogging through the middle. It could just be the holidays interrupted my flow.

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paisleyjess
Mehso-so

I really liked the first part where we were following the story in real time. I lost some interest in the descriptions of what other people thought happened in the following 50 years.

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paisleyjess
Pickpick

I liked this dark retelling of The Nutcracker. I really liked the ending.

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paisleyjess
A Quiet Life: A Novel | Ethan Joella
Pickpick

Warning, this book is heavy. Every character is dealing with the loss of a loved one. I didn't know that when I started reading it and several scenes brought up my own recent loss. It does have happy moments and everyone finds what they need in the end.

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paisleyjess
Pickpick

I love stories of survival and death in extreme environments and this book collected several plus added the stories of the loved ones back home. Some of the writing is so beautiful and haunting I keep reading pieces out loud to anyone who will listen.

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paisleyjess
At the Water's Edge | Sara Gruen
Panpan

I was excited because I loved Water for Elephants, the other novel by this author, and I thought the premise of a young woman looking for the Loch Ness monster was interesting, but it was just a love story with some perfectly timed plot points to deliver a happy and predictable ending.

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paisleyjess
The Helsinki Affair | Anna Pitoniak
Pickpick

I liked this. It is a family drama, which is a bit over done these days, but there is enough actual spy stuff to keep me interested.

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paisleyjess
The Silent Patient | Alex Michaelides
Pickpick

I devoured this book. And even though I thought I had it figured out, there were two twists at the end that I didn't see coming at all.

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paisleyjess
Loveless | Alice Oseman
Panpan

I just couldn't get into plot with the very low stakes of someone being mad at someone else and their play being canceled. I honestly couldn't find a single redeemable thing about Pip.

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paisleyjess
What the River Knows | Isabel Ibañez
Mehso-so

I liked the setting, felt very much like the Mummy or Indiana Jones. But so much stuff happened in the last 50 pages and it confused me why that was rushed after hundreds of pages of slower plot development. Speaking of confused... there's a huge cliffhanger at the end. I see others are saying it's the start of a series. If I had known, I might not have read this.

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paisleyjess
A Bakery in Paris: A Novel | Aimie K. Runyan
Pickpick

I got this as a little pick me up and overall it did the job. The good: it manages to be about a generational family in Paris without being about hidden secrets or either of the world wars, an uncommon and commendable feat. The not so good: the Lisette doesn't need two saviors at the end, and another near abandonment of her principles. The priest could have just stepped in and they moved on from there.

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paisleyjess
Vampires of El Norte | Isabel Cañas
Mehso-so

If you want a love story, then this is probably a good one. Unfortunately, I wanted a vampire story which is really less than 10% of this book, so I was disappointed.

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paisleyjess
Cabin Fever | Alex Dahl
Pickpick

It is a lot of build up before the action but I liked all the twists at the end.

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paisleyjess
Wellness | Nathan Hill
Pickpick

Amazing, heartbreaking, beautifully written but so very very real and true.

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paisleyjess
Last Call at the Nightingale | Katharine Schellman
Mehso-so

Jazz age mystery with some BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ characters. I like the setting but I found myself reading just to get to the end instead of living in the world. I felt like I could put the characters in modern day NY and it wouldn't change too much. Perhaps the follow up will capture my imagination more.

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paisleyjess
Mehso-so

The ending was perfect and made me super sentimental. But a lot of the book lacked the flair of the original series.

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paisleyjess
The Intern: A Novel | Michele Campbell
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Pickpick

I am always drawn to books set in Boston so I took a risk on another mild thriller. I have to say I liked that the main characters were women and that it was law heavy instead of spies. Overall, nice, quick read with good ending.

5 likes1 stack add
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paisleyjess
Pickpick

If you like David Sedaris, you will like this book. Trauma stories of growing up and coming out with an evangelical family told in a way that makes you chuckle. A good dose of dry humor to help the medicine go down.

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paisleyjess
Mexican Gothic | Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Pickpick

I like the Gothic revival and the additional info in the back felt like a little college course in the genre which was neat!

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paisleyjess
Yellowface | R F Kuang
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Mehso-so

I need a book club to talk to about this book. I can't figure out how I am supposed to feel about the main character.

JamieArc I think that‘s one of the great things about this character! It seems like we are supposed to find her despicable, but it‘s not that simple… 7mo
batsy This book tried to have it all ways, I think. The main character was both so stereotypically racist and yet self-aware about racism; something about it didn't sit right with me. 7mo
14 likes2 comments
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paisleyjess
Mehso-so

I didn't expect the love story aspect and that took me out of it a little bit.

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paisleyjess
One by One | Ruth Ware
Mehso-so

It is pretty good. I figured it out way too early and there is way too much wrap up for me. Felt like the last 30% was a slog, but it was great fun before that.

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paisleyjess
Lucky | Marissa Stapley
Mehso-so

I really liked the first part but the second just wrapped up too quickly and cleanly for me.

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paisleyjess
The Personal Librarian | Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
Panpan

I really liked the premise of this book and got really excited when I learned it is based on a true story of a woman passing while creating a huge personal library for J.P. Morgan. But the writing itself felt more like a list of historical events with most of the major action for the character being told in cast off way. I wish I had been able to be more absorbed by the world of this interesting woman.

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paisleyjess
The Rumor: A Novel | Elin Hilderbrand
Pickpick

I love her characters and scene setting. This one was particularly fun because it had several adult character storylines that overlapped but were not combined. It was fun to see their individual stories.

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paisleyjess
Pickpick

A must must must read for everyone. This shows how the way we talk about history and even current events needs to be better informed by the truth of enslaved people in our country and the world

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paisleyjess
Pickpick

I liked the book pretty much. I felt like the end kind of lost me a little bit but it was a fun new magical premise to read.

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paisleyjess
Mehso-so

Very interesting story of a guy who tried to climb everest solo.

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paisleyjess
The Perfect Couple | Elin Hilderbrand
Pickpick

Not really a mystery, still a beach read that just has a murder investigation as the method for unfolding the plot. I like this author for fun, summer reads.

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paisleyjess
Pickpick

I loved the characters. I was disappointed that it turned into a WWII story, as those are very common in my reading list, but there is so much heart, it was worth it.

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paisleyjess
Pickpick

You have to believe in aliens and demons living in the same story simultaneously, but if you can get with that, this is a great story about food, violin music, being trans, immigrants, families and finding your own music.

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paisleyjess
All Systems Red | Martha Wells
Mehso-so

I like the characters but I wanted more story and more world building.

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paisleyjess
Panpan

Blah.I so loved the author's first book (7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle) and this was a big disappointment. It read like a drawn out Agatha Christi. I love her, but she is certainly of a place and doesn't take up 450 pages only to have the killers confess. Meh and boo

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paisleyjess
Pickpick

I kept hearing about this book and this author. Great narrative history style and a story I hadn't encountered before.

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paisleyjess
Pickpick

So so so good. This book made me cry so hard. Beautifully written and engrossing.

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paisleyjess
Shit, Actually | Lindy West
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Pickpick

Read this book. Read it with friends so you have someone to share the inside jokes with!

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paisleyjess
Pickpick

This is a great memoir from a 10 year veteran security guard at the Met. It is about art, his personal life and the lives of other guards he befriends along the way. Touching and uplifting, a must read.

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paisleyjess
George | Alex Gino
Mehso-so

New tile is Melissa. Fast read, perhaps meant for a younger audience. Great look at transgender people through the main character. Just a little too neat and tidy for my taste.

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paisleyjess
Mehso-so

Three Vanishing Half meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I loved the first 2/3rds of this book. The final third felt rushed with all the major conflict coming and resolving in a single scene. Much of the resolution was told, rather than shown for a lot of the numerous characters in this book. The plot might have been over complicated, creating no way to logically resolve it.

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paisleyjess
Judgment of Paris | George M. Taber
Mehso-so

The old bait and switch where the prologue sucks you into the action but then the chapters back up to years before and most of the book is not about the main event. It is disappointing, especially since the author even says in the text that the goal was to set the record straight about the event itself, and yet it gets the fewest pages.

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paisleyjess
Mehso-so

There was a lot of hype around this book and series, so I wanted to love it. I did enjoy the world building and the way everything is described in a nice pace, but I struggled with the familiar beauty and beast archetypes.

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paisleyjess
Mehso-so

I liked the characters and the premise. I think it could have been even darker, instead of a string of accidents, an intentional unaliving would have been really juicy.

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paisleyjess
Pickpick

I really liked this narrative historical book. I only wish there were pictures.

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paisleyjess
Bailedbailed

Very "cheeky" narration with breaks in the third wall as another narrator interjects. Just not my cup of tea right now even though the idea is cute.

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paisleyjess
Bailedbailed

If this had been longer, I might have finished it but I found it hard to enjoy the alternate world without any world building. Faries and only females in a world that might be doomed... cool but I didn't connect enough with it.

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paisleyjess
Pickpick

Intense story about the survival of 4 men that had nothing in common. The story goes beyond the incident and rescue and follows the survivors' lives years after they were rescued.

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paisleyjess
Black Candle Women: A Novel | Diane Marie Brown
Mehso-so

I wanted more sweeping family epic tales. This is more just women in a modern, dysfunctional family with a little history and magic thrown in.

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paisleyjess
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi | Shannon Chakraborty
Pickpick

Like Pirates of the Caribbean where Jack Sparrow is a 6 foot tall middle-aged woman. I love the adventure plot and fun characters. There is magic and lore mixed into a realistic setting.

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paisleyjess
The Boston Girl | Anita Diamant
Pickpick

I loved hearing the story of this woman's life as if it is being told to her grandchild. I actually wanted much much more of the story. It starts in two year segments and then jumps dozens of years and ends quickly.

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paisleyjess
Station Eleven: A novel | Emily St. John Mandel
Pickpick

Loved this story of a post endemic world where society is completely different. The handling of the pandemic is masterful as it is more of a set piece than the story itself. Character driven piece.

10 likes1 stack add