I really don't know how to review this. I don't think I can rate it. Like I found it interesting to listen to, but it felt more like watching a car crash as you drive past than genuinely enjoying it. Matthew Perry seems like an incredibly bitter man. 

Honestly, so much of this felt like he was still lying to himself. Like he talks about how desperate he was for fame in his youth and the struggle in realizing fame doesn't solve your problems, but he still seemed so obsessed with fame. He name dropped so many people in this book. I don't even mean like people he worked with. I've read a number of celebrity memoirs and they're obviously going to talk about other famous people. It was more the way he name dropped people, like bringing up six different times that he made out with Gwen Stefani once. There's no context to that story, he just really wanted everyone to know he made out with Gwen Stefani. It was actually really sad.

And I never got a feel for anyone else's personality in this book. It was entirely centered on Perry. Again, I read a lot of memoirs, I know they are by definition self involved, but usually you get to know the people close to the author. Their relationships do as much to tell the story as their own thoughts. He clearly has had a lot of people in his life, but I never got a feel for anyone else's personality or thoughts. He dated Julia Roberts and spent a whole long section talking about their relationship, and never said a single thing about her as a person except that she was smart. He spent significantly more time talking about the movies she did.

He also told a lot of really awkward stories. He kept going on about stuff like how Matt LeBlanc got most improved on Friends. Everyone else was great from the beginning, but LeBlanc got most improved. Congrats dude. It wasn't mean so much as just kind of uncomfortable. Like we all have thoughts like that, my dude, but we don't all feel the need to share them. He had a lot of stories and comments like that. I think they were meant to be funny? But it came across as incredibly cringe to me.

I don't know. I definitely don't regret reading this, but it was really sad.

I liked a lot of ideas this book had, but the execution fell flat for me. In essence, this is a generational family saga covering the 50s to present day. Every 22 years, we check in with the family as they struggle with a long held family secret, always worried that they will be ruined. I love the idea, but there wasn't much about this that worked for me.

For starters, I really wanted more development of the time periods. Nothing felt different between the 1955 chapters and the present day chapters. I really wish the passage of time had meant more and been fully explored. It honestly would have added so much to this book.

I also never felt connected to the characters. Even in the last few chapters, I was struggling to remember who was who. Part of this was because I didn't feel like they had distinct personalities or motivations, but there was also just a large cast of characters. Every generation added new members to the family- spouses, kids, friends, etc. And when you're covering an almost 70 year period, that's a whole heck of a lot of people. Unfortunately, the characters I felt most connected to were from the first section, and they disappeared from the story pretty quick.

My last issue was the writing style. I'm picky with styles and this never flowed quite right for me. I don't mind the occasional clunky sentence, but I felt like I was stumbling over the words constantly in my head. There was something about the phrasing that just felt off. 

I did honestly really enjoy the first section. The main characters are mourning the death of the beloved patriarch and grappling with an unknown threat, and the tension is palpable. I don't think the rest of the book quite got back to that feeling. It was a quick read and a fun story, but unfortunately not for me. 

I can like a book with some truly unlikeable characters. I enjoy the perspective of awful people. But this book just hit wrong. 

For starters, I found the premise somewhat misleading. Like yes technically it's kind of about the two characters, but that felt like such a small part of the book. It seemed more like it was about the struggle of parenting than any particular romance. We also spent a lot of time with the ensemble cast unrelated to Charlie and Martha's romance.

I wasn't a fan of the ensemble cast. There were so many people with so little purpose in this book. Like if you're assuming the main couple are the main two characters, why are we spending so much time with his exgirlfriend's sister's kids? What did they add to the story? Like I didn't dislike following them anymore than I did the main plot, but it felt like there was no purpose. It also wrapped up with very little conclusion. And I felt that way about most of the variety of elements in the story.

I also hated Charlie. Like I wasn't a fan of many of the people in this book, but I really hated Charlie. That man was truly the worst. He treated his daughter so terribly throughout the entire book. He made no effort to support her or understand her. He reacted in anger whenever she told him anything. She was a troubled kid who was struggling (and horribly neglected by her parents), and only started improving once she was put in an environment where she got external support. And throughout this whole book, Charlie berated her and referred to her as a "little beast," a narcissist, self absorbed, despicable. Like his own kid.

All the parents in this book sucked in one degree or other. No one knew where their kids were at three o'clock in the morning, and largely they didn't seem to care. They all seem relieved when someone else was meant to be responsible so they could focus on their romances. It did not endear me to any of these characters, but this book was written like I was supposed to like them.

I did really enjoy the writing style. It flowed smoothly and sometimes I forgot how much I disliked the story because the writing style was so nice and easy. I really enjoyed Still Missing by this author and wouldn't be averse to reading another of her books, but I would probably look a little deeper into the plot because this book did nothing for me.

I adore Wade's writing style. Her words are gorgeous and the structure is lyrically stunning. There are so many lines I could use as examples for how beautiful it is. It's just everything. I can't imagine how much time she spent with every single word, just perfecting it in a way that feels effortless. I found myself rereading sometimes out of pure enjoyment.

I loved the later essays in this where she ties together fragments of moments and feelings into something that has greater meaning. It's a masterful piece of writing.

I did struggle a lot with the second part. Unlike the others which are about her life, it's a surreal dreamlike state in which Wade goes back in time to see her family before she was born. The language was pretty in that section, but I struggled to follow it. I get what she was going for, but it didn't work for me at all. The rest of the book was wonderful, though.

I'd highly recommend if you like lyric essays or memoir poetry. Gorgeously written piece of literature.

I'm gonna open this review with the fact that I know nothing this subject matter so my enjoyment comes from a total place of ignorance. I may have loved this just as much if I was more knowledgeable, but I have no idea.

This was fascinating. I pick my audiobooks at random, basically just make a whole list from the library with whatever seems vaguely interesting, so I didn't have any expectations going in, but I was riveted. Start to finish, I wanted more. I was enthralled. I love when I read a nonfiction book about a subject I'm not really interested in (shipping disasters) and it completely draws me into this completely new world.

This also made me cry. Not much and I probably would have cried more reading the physical copy on account of I listen to audiobooks while driving, but I was definitely tearing up. The emotion was there. Slade spends so much time with the mariners on the boat, getting to know them and their lives and their last moments, and then with their families as well. It was heartbreaking.

I did feel like she didn't lay enough blame on the company who owned the ship and employed the mariners, TOTE Maritime. She definitely discussed their faults, but she spent what felt like equal time on the captain (who definitely earned his share of the blame too, but not to the same degree, in my opinion). It made me wonder if she was attempting to avoid legal troubles with TOTE, especially after her depiction of their lawyers. I do really wish she'd come down much harder on them.

Some of the specific shipping terminology and technical discussions was a little over my head, but not in a way that affected my understanding or enjoyment. Slade did a really great job explaining everything.

This honestly reminded me a lot of Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, so if you like that, I'd recommend picking this up. Obviously Slade wasn't on the ship as it sink, but she captured the same personal connection that he did. It was masterfully written and I'm very excited for her 2023 release this fall.

I am not a horror lover, especially when it comes to supernatural horror. It's a genre I've always struggled with and I've been trying to branch out a little more, see if there's any I like. And I'm so glad I did because this book was unbelievably gorgeous. 

I really enjoyed every aspect. Like I have no negatives here. From start to finish, it was great. Great characters, great dialogue, great setting (that house was stunning), great narrative. It was all impeccably done.

But that ending was something else. To be honest, I was ready to give this book four stars for being all around great until I got to the final third and it blew me away. Absolutely mesmerizing. I'm not sure if I breathed for the last hundred pages, but I definitely cried. I cannot explain exactly why it was so wonderful on account of spoilers, but you'll have to take my word for it. There's a pretty major plot twist, but it's not necessarily just the fact of the plot twist. Marshall spends so much time exploring the twist and what it means and the emotions of these people. It's so meaningful and I adored it.

One thing I also enjoyed was how this book felt almost kind of happy. Like it's for sure horror with gruesome descriptions and a good bit of tragedy, but it felt so hopeful and positive without glossing over the negative too. It felt good to read and it hit me perfectly. 

I wasn't expecting a horror novel to be one of my favorite books of the year, but I guarantee you come next January this will be pretty high on my list. I can't recommend this enough to anyone who likes horror or would like to try branching out into the genre. It was fantastically done and I really want to read more from Marshall in the future.

This book basically boils down to 'these women are damaged.' Saved you about two hundred pages.

One thing I really struggled with was the fake objectivity. It grinds my nerves whenever journalists take the stance of objectivity in their work when it's (a) clearly not objective and (b) true objectivity isn't possible anyway. I much prefer it when authors actually address their own biases and how that has affected their research and writing. Isenberg spent a lot of time focused on neutrality when describing things that obviously weren't neutral (ex. describing obvious rape and calling it sex) and removing herself from the story to the extent that I couldn't tell if she actually interviewed some of these women.

There were a lot of inserted thoughts from various psychologists who seemed shallow at best, peddling terms like "soul murder" and coming across more focused on selling their books than the psychology itself. They all liked diagnosing the various women in this book, but offered no evidence of actually having met with any of the women. Their thoughts all sounded like they were based off hearsay, which is a super gross vibe. And if they did actually know the women, it's information Isenberg should have included in the book.

She also loved to contradict what the women said. The women would make some statement about believing their husband is innocent and Isenberg would say 'oh but they don't actually believe in their husband's innocence, they actually believe x y z thing.' It was incredibly frustrating to read and very condescending to all the women. She also offered no evidence of that except her own psych theories. So essentially it wound up being a circle of evidence- proving her psychological theory by contradicting the women's statements, which is then proved by her psychological theory.

Mostly it was just really bland and shallow and repetitive. This book offers nothing that you probably don't already assume. I don't even necessarily disagree with much of what she wrote, but it offered basically nothing.

This book is a really interesting look at both how science is used to justify racism and how the bias of racism affects science. It was absolutely fascinating.

I was worried in the beginning that this book might be a dry, historical narrative, but it quickly became a great piece of journalism in which she interviewed many scientists, a number of whom are involved in racist organizations. I loved how she explained both sides of the science, both the legitimate scientists and those using science to further their own beliefs, as well as those who blur the lines between the two.

She ties together history and present day, everything was connected. The scientists in the early twentieth century affected the way science works today. Saini also covered the cultural shifts in science and how the community changed over the years, and how that affected the science itself. Essentially, how science is as much about interpretation and personal biases as it is the bare facts.

Some of the extra science-y explanations went over my head (I struggle with science), but for the most part I could easily follow her train of thought. Would definitely recommend to those who are not scientifically inclined but interested in the subject matter.

I never wanted to put this down. Absolutely loved listening and learned a lot. I'd highly recommend to anyone interested.

I don't know how to feel about this book. I've been so hyped to read it for so long that it feels like kind of a let down, but I didn't dislike it. I'm not sure how much I liked it either, though. I have very mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I loved the main character's perspective. David is a twisted individual who sees only what he wants in the world. He's violent, he's abusive, he burns down people's houses and physically assaults his mother. He stalks his exgirlfriend. Like the dude is wild. And I loved his perspective because of how absolutely horrid he is. That was by far my favorite part of the book.

But everything else kind of missed for me. I loved his perspective, but the book felt so purposeless. Yeah the dude is awful. Why, though? What's the point? What is the story? It didn't feel like the book did anything with either his relationships or his character development or any overall themes. All I got out of this was the perspective, which just wasn't enough for me.

And then we had the sex scenes. There were so many. Like oh so many and they were so long and so graphic. They just went on and on forever. I'm not the biggest fan of graphic sex scenes in general, but these were actively disgusting. Like purposefully disgusting, I'm not just complaining because they were graphic. Dude sucked a blood clot out of his girlfriend's vagina at one point. And that was just one paragraph of an incredibly lengthy sex scene where they both had like fifteen orgasms. I don't mind reading something that's intentionally disgusting. That for sure has its place in literature. But again, it felt pointless.

Mostly I left this book asking why. I like horrible characters. I like gross stuff. This book made me gag at one point and I love a book that makes me feel something so negative. But like, why? Apart from some cool elements, there just wasn't anything here. A cool perspective alone doesn't make a great story for me, and it felt like that was all this book had.

This was a really lovely book. Kimmerer is an ecologist and botanist, and weaves scientific information in with her culture as an indigenous woman and her experiences with motherhood. She talks about her personal life, cultural traditions, history, environment, and teaching. It has a lot to offer.

I felt at times this book was too meandering. The second half (and maybe just final third) lost me a bit. I don't know if I just got bored after listening to this for so long or if something in the story changed, but I found it harder to pay attention and had to rewind more than once. I wish this book had been a little more focused.

I did love how she tied together themes. Especially when she was talking about her culture and her personal life, and how that related to the natural world, I was absolutely enthralled.

I learned so much and had a beautiful experience while doing so. I would definitely recommend this book, and can understand why it's such a favorite.