pickWell that was way better than the first one! I knew Rhysand was a good one. Didn‘t realize how good! What a great mate for Feyre. I also like Feyre much better now. Weird that the women are rape-y in this series—Amarantha and Ianthe. I love that Feyre and Rhysand pass notes. So cute. Cool hearing Feyre‘s whole story from Rhysand‘s perspective now. And the twist that Feyre became High Lady of the Night Court?? Yayyyy.
Cassiaaaaaaaaaaaaan! He‘s got that right.
so-soA pretty faithful adaptation to the original novel. This rose motif in the art in general doesn‘t make sense to me. Nice that they show most of the minor characters, too. Several over dramatic scenes…Bummed they skipped most of the parlor Netherfield flirting scene. Weird scene after Charlotte‘s wedding where Wickham tried to get Elizabeth to sneak away with him. The scenes of the sisters in bedclothes are so awkward.
pickSO GOOD!!! It gets even better on multiple readings. I even had to pause after each chapter just to let the cleverness, character fun, and plot development sink in and appreciate. I did come to this story and all of Jane Austen after falling in love with the 2005 movie, so I am still comparing it to those scenes that I see and hear in my head, which is quite faithful to the book. So many great, direct lines.
And isn‘t Jane proven right!
Re-reading Pride and Prejudice. Love that first line so much 🥰
so-soNarration style is too familiar with the reader for me. Figurative language seems almost formulaic. I‘m glad everything turned out well and no good people died. I just didn‘t fall in love with it. Cool that the audiobook reader‘s name is January!
“I will not be your leash, my love.” -Yul to Ade (not sure on spelling since I listened to the audiobook)
“Freedom isn‘t worth a single solitary shit if it isn‘t shared.” -Ade to January
panVery dense, especially the last third or so. I can‘t say I‘ve read any other metabiographies, as the author describes the genre, so perhaps this is par for the course. I did learn some things, though.
so-soThere were some interesting and enlightening moments, but it didn‘t feel very profound to me. It‘s about a mom, son, and daughter. The son works at a warehouse but his head is in the movies and poetry and the clouds. The daughter is debilitatingly shy, has uneven legs, and only cares for her glass menagerie and Victrola. The mom is overly ambitious for the both of them.
pickThat was a fun book! It felt like some of the beginning and middle was a bit slow, but it really ramped up about ⅔ of the way. I love how Seven, Valley, and Thorn learned about each other and their strengths (fashion, advanced spells, botany, monstruos, etc) to come together as a coven. I predicted the Nightbeast wouldn‘t be all bad, but I did not predict that the Uncle and Toad Spares were the bad guys. Some HP similarities.
pickLoved it. Quick, engaging read. I enjoyed learning about both Leonard and Bill through this book. A lot of great stories about their friendship. As a Star Trek fan, I did appreciate that a lot of it was about Star Trek.
pickFantastic book. Flows well and kept me engaged the whole way. It was primarily about the whole process of the film, A Star is Born, but it also provided history on the two previous versions as well as the Streisand Version. It also ended up being a biography of Judy Garland and recollections from her daughter, Lorna, the author with Vance. I‘ve always loved the film and Judy Garland‘s voice, so it was a great book for me to read.
pickFantastic. Concise, enlightening collection of women in science. I had heard of only 10 out of 50 of these women, several because of the Stuff You Missed in History podcast. The artwork is colorful but the faces are a little too caricatured for my liking with the weird lips and noses. I like the fun facts and quotes surrounding the main text. It‘s a little overwhelming to look at, but I like the information.
pickEnjoyable and quick read! Normally the back and forth in time thing bothers me, but this was well done. Clever that each chapter was titled in relation to her Happy Place. The names that didn‘t fit the traditional gender wasn‘t my favorite, like Michael and Lou are girls and Wyn is a boy. Frustrating that lack of communication was at the root of all problems between friends and lovers. Glad that everything ended happily. Liked Book Lovers more.
panNot really what I was expecting. It was more like an exploration of religions and mythologies and stories.
so-soIt was okay. Glad it ended happily with Georgia being involved with her family again, Dizzy DJing, Lou getting into Waverly University with his girlfriend, the homeless guy getting his life together, and Ray in good health. The book made me realize that I know nothing at all about DJing. Typically I like short chapters, but these were really short. And the bouncing around between Dizzy, Lou, and Ray was…dizzying.
pickWhat an incredible story. I heard about the book because the author was interviewed on The Book Case podcast. I love that even though the book was historical fiction, it is really convincing you with facts that Shakespeare did not write his own plays. Picoult did an extensive amount of research into the subject, concluding that Emilia Bassano was the true author of most plays. Or at least that she was one of many authors using his name to write.
panI felt like I couldn‘t trust Judy at her word. I understand that you have to present yourself and your career and life in the best possible light to the public, but it‘s not a great way to learn about someone‘s life. As in, this format is not an autobiography. Five husbands—that was more than I remembered, but I read a biography years ago. A lot of interviewers talked about her rough life and past, but all seemed to think she was happy now.
panDidn‘t like the new lady cat. Even less of a plot. Yes, still cute.
so-soCertainly cute but almost…awkward? Like it seemed sexualized somehow. Certainly highlights the ways in which cats are good for your health. No plot, really. Just cuteness overload.
pickThis was so fun! I only just learned about the Manga classics series. The manga was pretty faithful to the original; I was impressed. They definitely leaned into the romantic side of things make than the original. The scenes with the Palmers were mostly excluded, and that jewelry shop scene was new. Marianne‘s sickness also wasn‘t as serious here as the original. The art of the characters was very pretty. Bummer it wasn‘t in color.
so-soThe formatting of the book was pretty blah. I feel like the presentation could have been nicer. The categories of quotes made sense. I don‘t know much about publishing, so that was over my head. A lot of quotes on writing. More than reading.
so-soBeautiful matchings of artwork to the poem subjects. It would have been nice to label the art, though. The collection of poetry goes from Spring to Summer to Autumn to Winter with flowers as the subjects. I liked three of them: Another Spring by Christina Rossetti, Winter Violets by Edith Nesbit, and Flower Chorus by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
so-soIt was well-written with interesting twists, but the subject matter was a bit gruesome for me. Especially when it‘s meant for young people. I was surprised to find Adopta/Addie was the Shriekers‘ daughter. I was relieved that they didn‘t directly kill her. Cute that Oliver had Resthaven, the Wilkinsons‘ old home, built for them on his grounds. It did end nicely.
pickThe narrative of his memoir is really well done. He was acting all over the place, leaving the child-rearing to his wife, who was also a choreographer professional in her own right. He cheated on both his first and his second wives. I do appreciate the difficult circumstances he came from. He was lucky that he had so many caring adults looking out for him. He was thoughtful about all his roles and how he treated his workmates.
pickI thought I was pretty up and up on ways that we women are oppressed, ignored, dismissed, and harassed in the world. I feel like I knew nothing after listening to this book 😭 It was a highly depressing and enlightening listen. I appreciate that this author put all this data together for a really impactful eye-opener. The sound editing of the transitions wasn‘t good in the audiobook; kept chopping off the beginning words of chapters.
pickWow. Fantastic way to advertise the dangers of pollution, industrialization, and business that harms the environment to a young audience. And that‘s an abrupt ending that leaves a great impact rather than an unfinished one.
pickSo, so depressing. It‘s weird that even though I know Haymitch survives, I still got stressed out when he was in danger. His character definitely makes more sense as not caring about anything or anyone when he lost every person he cared about. Not just friends he made at the Games, but his family was set on fire and died. And then Snow indirectly poisoned and killed his love, Lenore Dove. And such gruesome deaths for the Newcomers in the arena.
panI enjoyed this book for most of it until she agreed to have unprotected sex with Duke in a nuthouse bathroom after he cheated on and abandoned her two years earlier which resulted in a pregnancy and abortion. Idiot. Otherwise it was good writing with a lot of subtlety. But that ruined it for me. This was a new to me author. Doing well for this 2025 challenge!
panI read this series as a teenager and remembered that this was my least favorite. Holds true. Lestat is impossible. His lack of impulse control is ridiculous and not at all charming. The rape scene of his first foray into sex as a human again was awful. And then he basically did the vampire version of that at the end by making David Talbot a vampire without consent. His remorse after each was laughable. Completely led by his emotions.
pickGreat collection of classic American documents, speeches, poems, etc. George Washington‘s speeches had a lot of big words that didn‘t say a whole lot. I also didn‘t know that it used to be first choice was made President and second choice was made Vice President. Teddy Roosevelt liked long, run-on sentences. The pledge of allegiance didn‘t originally have “under god” in it! President Eisenhower insisted it be added by Congress in 1954.
pickFantastic, loved it. I‘ve been collecting as many Dorrie the Witch books as I can find. This one was elusive, so I resorted to eBay and had to get a little paperback edition. All the others I‘ve found are the hardcover school editions like I read in elementary school.
pickI felt intrusive by listening to this audiobook, but it must have been okay to share if his family was okay with publishing. Really great to get insight into the workings of his mind. Very smart and considerate with high standards for himself and others.
In America, the law is king. ⚖️👩🏻⚖️
“While eating is the custom of Europe” 🤪 Sassy, Thomas Paine, in Common Sense.
panIt got a little more interesting right toward the end, but most of the journal entries seem trivial. She also talks way too much about having to hide her diary. The most interesting part of it was the historical facts after the diary entries. Knowing that Queen Victoria did keep a diary starting at the age of 13 makes me want to read that instead! This was the newest book on my TBR.
@wanderinglynn
#2025offmyshelfreadingchallenge
pickReally well researched and interesting to read. There was too much scene-setting of historical markers that weren‘t relevant to Margaret‘s life. I was drawn to the book because I loved the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown with Debbie Reynolds, and I bought the book at the Titanic Museum in Missouri. She was never even called Molly, so that‘s just a small taste of how many things about her life and personality were incorrect.
pickA friend of the family gave me, my sister, and my mom this book after my dad died a year ago tomorrow. I‘ve been reading a page a day, as it is organized by calendar days. I do think it helped. There were some common themes that resurfaced throughout the year. It at least regularly gave me the space once a day to work through my grief. As the book mentioned, there is no set time for when it will feel better. A year later doesn‘t stop the hurt.
pickCounting this one as a book with a map—Scotland and France, that is. This was an excellent installment of the Royal Diaries. To me, the most effective historical fiction is one that makes me want to research what really happened! Which is why I appreciate that the authors of Royal Diaries put the history at the end of the story. After reading the Cleopatra Royal Diary, I thought maybe I just didn‘t like it because I‘m an adult now. Nope.
