alltheradreads's Reviews (1.9k)

Read this one as I was preparing to teach a bullet journaling workshop at the library, and found it to be incredibly thorough and helpful resource! Ryder is the creator of the @bulletjournal and he walks you through the process, the formatting, ideas, his story, mindfulness practices, productivity tips, and so much more in this book. Highly recommend it for anyone interested in learning more about the bujo!

This infographic Bible is BRILLIANT. It beautifully and creatively illustrates elements of Scripture and helps you to understand and visualize concepts, context, and meaning SO well. (Swipe to see a video flipping through it!) I’m blown away by the intricacies of these graphics and am so glad a resource like this exists for the more visual among us— it’s incredible!

Blew through this one yesterday, and I liked it more than Dumplin’! More character development (it switches between Millie and Callie’s POVs), a more engaging plot, and just a more endearing story to me!

This was a fun one day read — I’ve heard great things about the Netflix movie and wanted to start with the book first (as always). It didn’t completely win me over, but I did appreciate the main character being a self-proclaimed “fat girl” (so not the norm!) who is real about body image and teenage drama and dating, although I did want more from the mother/daughter/aunt dynamics and wished for a liiiiittle more character development overall. There were a lot of characters and I think it made the story a little less strong, but I’m also anticipating it playing really well as a movie, so we’ll see! It felt a little anti-climactic and slow overall... but maybe I’m overthinking things?

I have SO many thoughts about this one. So many loose ends. So few answers. So much mystery. NEED THE SEQUEL ASAP. (It’s a very well written YA murder mystery but honestly I don’t know what I thought because so much was left hanging?! I think i liked it though?!)

My boss gave me this one my first week at this new job, and I finally dove in this week (thanks to my computer battery giving up its life and the Apple Store taking ages to repair it...) — found it SO relevant to my church communications work, to ministry life in general, to just straight up being part of a church. It was helpful, practical, wise, and really eye-opening about our current culture and how churches can engage well with both believers and nonbelievers to build the kingdom and grow our churches. Really enjoyed this one and took a lot of great notes from it!

Thanks for the free book, Crown Publishing! // This one has gotten a LOT of buzz on the ole bookstagram, and i can see why! It was refreshingly unique and quirky, and felt a lot like a slow but steady indie movie (almost 500 Days of Summer ish?). It parallels two characters (Connell and Marianne) and the ways they continue to spin back into each other’s orbits over the years. There’s no punctuation around dialogue (of which there is a lot) which made it an interesting read, and it overall doesn’t have a ton of action, but as a character study of two flawed and troubled and wholly normal people? It succeeds in that regard, for sure. I’m not entirely sure if I actually liked it or not— I know some will ADORE it and some will totally hate it, and both are understandable. For an author my age to write such a uniquely crafted novel with such depth despite its seemingly simplistic plot structure is a feat, and I give this one (and that cover design especially) props!

I got this one from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for my review! // This book is so needed. So heartfelt, so beautiful, so grounded in truth, so solid. It is purposeful, not full of platitudes. It’s stunning and not at all cliche or shallow. I’m so grateful this book exists, for all who are grieving or mourning or walking through a hard season, for all who need comfort no matter the circumstance, for those in dark days where doubt reigns and the Lord and peace feel far away. It was such a balm to my soul as I read it, and I’m so glad to have this at hand for whenever the next storm comes. 

It was easy, yes, but not the fun read I was hoping for. I wasn’t especially enameled by this one, sadly! There were sweet moments and some good messages tucked in there, but overall, it felt slow and and frustrating, and I wanted to see a lot more depth to Libby and Jack than I got. It had potential but didn’t quite get there for me!