I found myself fascinated by this book. In the beginning, I think it was due in part to the uniqueness of the storytelling, Oates's fragmented sentences and the strange separation between the characters and the narrative. It was more of a study in writing than an enjoyable book. But then when we were introduced to Cressida's past later in the book, I was utterly enthralled. While I didn't feel the writing style necessarily worked for the rest of the book, it was perfect for Cressida's character. At that point I felt addicted to the story and even when we returned to the other characters, I couldn't put this book down.

I don't know that I could recommend this to many (any) readers, as I found myself more fascinated by the structure than really enjoying the story, but I surprised myself by thoroughly enjoying this book.

I feel a little bad giving this book one star because it's not that this book was so incredibly awful, it's just that nothing in it was intended for me. We spent so much time in the character's head with all her random musings about life, regrets, the future, long explanations about all of her behavior, and all I ever wanted was to get back to the story. I can't stand being so stuck in a character's head like that, and it's one of my least favorite aspects of first person present tense. I'd rather see their reaction to the story than two pages discussing how they feel about the lack of empathy in their relationship.

I found the two main characters frustrating and their problems minimal. When (almost) everything can be solved by just talking to each other, I have a hard time getting behind that as a romance novel. It's just boring.

Perhaps my biggest problem was that this whole book hinged on the main character's infertility and how that caused issues in their marriage. There was nothing about that on the inside flap and as someone who never wants children, it was difficult to relate to. I didn't have much interest to begin with and Colleen Hoover didn't write this in a way that drew me in despite that. I wouldn't have picked this book up if I had known how much of a focus that was going to be. It was pretty much the only problem in their relationship and I could not bring myself to care.

And then the book ended on the most preachy note, explaining to all us readers why communication is so important in a relationship. It probably would have gotten two stars except I was just so irritated by that. It was a quick and not a truly terrible book, but I had to give it one star because there was nothing about this I enjoyed (except one line from her mother about how all men will cheat so at least marry a rich cheater, which relatable lol but I don't think she was the one I was supposed to be relating to).

I wound up feeling rather frustrated by this book. Going in, it seemed like it ticked all the boxes of a fun, issue driven contemporary. But then it seemed overwhelmed by problems. The word art sections of the book felt gimmicky (although the comic style sections were well done). There were too many POVs to keep up with, not all of them feeling necessary for the story. The switch between first and third POV always felt wrong to my brain and reading the story never felt natural. The focus seemed to be more on the romance than dealing with her brother's death.

It wasn't terrible, but it was so plagued by problems that I didn't find myself enjoying most of it. It took me five days to read when ordinarily this is the kind of book I'd easily get through in one or two, and I constantly had to force myself to pay attention to what I was reading.

The only sections I really enjoyed by the end were Mik's comic strips, and I'm not someone who's particularly interested in graphic novels. It just seemed like a let down.

I wasn't expecting to love this as much as I did, but it's such a fantastic book and holds up spectacularly well. It's such a fun easy read, and Ellen Emerson White does a great job of weaving the history and culture into this book without making it come across like a history lesson. Molly is a well developed character and I'd recommend this to anyone, regardless of age. Very worthwhile read.

A really wonderful book. A fascinating look at three women's lives, all of whom gave birth in concentration camps and survived with their babies. It covers their whole lives (although obviously focusing on the Holocaust), so it felt more like a biography than solely a Holocaust book. I was utterly enthralled.

I did find that it covered a fair amount of basic information, which was dull for me to read, and I struggled with keeping the three women's stories separate. But all in all, truly fantastic. I'd highly recommend this to anyone interested in the time period.

Reread 2/26/19:

Ehhhh. I remembered this being fun, but I don't know anymore. Maybe I liked the audiobook experience less or maybe it just isn't as good on reread, but I felt very meh toward this book. It felt like it lasted forever and just dragged on and on. I was so relieved when it was over. I didn't dislike it, but it was definitely a much more mediocre experience.

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Loved this book. It was a wonderful read and kept me enthralled the whole time. I did find it to be quite predictable (called the ending about 50 pages in) and the way it kept teasing the big reveal at the end while being vague got annoying very fast, but I still enjoyed it. Would definitely recommend this and Liane Moriarty as whole to anyone who enjoys women's fiction with a little more meat on it.

This is just a really great historical fiction diary for kids. I loved this book. I gave the companion novel (Where Have All the Flowers Gone) 5 stars, but this wasn't quite there for me. It's not that it wasn't equally well done, I just have very little interest in battle scenes and the actual war so I struggled with that aspect a bit. But still a really fantastic, worthwhile read.

Reread 2/28/2019

Pretty much all my thoughts are the same, but I'm changing my rating to 5 stars. I love this book. It's absolutely fantastic- funny, emotional, heartwarming, inspirational, great baseball. Everything about it makes me happy.

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I was so tempted to rate this book five stars, but I think that was based on how much I love the author rather than this particular book. Probably. But this book was fantastic. My one complaint was that it seemed like a rehash of Long May She Reign- same main character, same humor, same relationships, same way of dealing with the press, same writing, etc. Just in a different situation. But I thought Long May She Reign was one of the best books I've ever read, so that just sort of felt like a bonus.

But Ellen Emerson White writes the kind of stories I love to read. They have interesting premises, but they're light on usual plot structure. More slice of life for characters thrown into fascinating situations. And her writing is amazing. I love her writing. I wish I could write like her. I want to have written the things she's written, that's how much I love it.

It's heavy on baseball, so I wouldn't recommend reading it unless you understand/enjoy baseball. It's definitely a book about baseball instead of a book about a girl who happens to play baseball. I love baseball, and I still got a little lost at times. But it was so good. Great main character, amazing writing, funny, compelling... It definitely lived up to everything I wanted it to be.

This was a fun entertaining read. The narration was a very immature first person, present tense that almost had that feeling of talking directly to the reader, which I'm never a fan of, so that was disappointing early on. But overall I did really enjoy the story. A few issues throughout and this isn't a standout to me, but I'm definitely glad I picked it up and I wouldn't be averse to reading more Sara Barnard in the future.

Despite myself, I kind of enjoyed this book. There were a lot of flaws with the instalove and the cringey relationship between Shahrzad and the Caliph, but honestly, it was entertaining and held my interest enough. The beginning was pretty rough when it came to the storytelling, but I thoroughly enjoyed the historical fiction aspect. I've never read a book set in Khorasan before and that was fascinating.

Overall, I don't know if I'd recommend it and I'm unsure if I'll read the second book, but it was an interesting experience.