bella613's Reviews (551)

Wow this one is so good ㅠㅠ
I LOVE Qifrey and this volume is very much about him so that satisfied me. So much deep development content and I love the bonds being reinforced... until the end. 
Olly is such a sweetheart and good friend. I wish he could have it reciprocated to him. 
I resonated with Coco's stress about there never being an answer. When you're a kid, anything you don't know or struggle with you just ask an adult to fix. But as you grow up, you learn that some things cannot be fixed, or magicked away. This series is so, so good and very meaningful. 

I really enjoyed listening to this but I don't know how much of it I retained. I love academic books and the feeling of sparking curiosity and learning, but I definitely didn't learn as much from it as I would a class or if I sat down and took notes to study. A fun read, though! Very well done book and written in a way that's easy to follow. 

I tend to give Murakami more leeway to be crude than other authors, because he sort of uses it as a way to explore humanity and develop characters. 
But this one felt [moreso than what's normal for his novels] anti-climactic for a long and repetitive buildup.
I really like the idea of 1Q84 and two moons, and I was super into the first book of the three- but as it went on I think it should have been edited a lot more. 
This book includes all of the Murakami-esque tropes and devices: some dreamy and ethereal, and some really gross. 

I think I like Aomame? I know I don't like Tengo. Both of these opinions seem contrary to what I've seen in some other reviews but one thing I definitely agree with the consensus on is that the book is a bit too long. And I finished with far more questions than answers. 

I do love when there's something he wants to add to the plot but it doesn't make any logical sense, so he does it anyway and convinces you by giving the main character a profoundly deep conviction about it. Like, this doesn't make sense but we're not gonna explain it at all-- you just gotta trust it because the main character is 110% sure it happened exactly like that. 
I also really like the idea that the weird sentiments that we get moment to moment and think about later in life might be shared. The fate-like connections are fun to entertain. 

Murakami likes to leave a lot of interpretation up to his readers, and likes to play with bizarre & taboo thoughts and feelings and dreams. He has a way of making normal things seem significant and writing super weird things as if they're completely mundane. 1Q84 has that same atmosphere, which I like, but I think I got the ick a little with this one and that was hard to ignore. The plot also sort of fell off at a certain point and it seemed like things wrapped up in a quick way without much interest, especially for such a long book. 

I want to say that after finishing this it'll make me ponder parallel worlds and whatever the heck the little people are supposed to represent, and the morality of lying about ghostwriting, and whether serial killing is wrong if you're killing people like Leader... but honestly I kinda don't feel much at the end. I did like the experience but it's not my favorite Murakami novel and I'm glad it's not the first one I read by him.
I still don't understand what an air chrysalis is and I do wish I could read that book.

I liked this! 
Nothing groundbreaking but still interesting and well written. Very engaging. This book is only once facet, honestly. 
I've always thought the language we use has a huge affect on the way we form thoughts as well as connections to people. Conversations are patterns, slang feeds both creativity and conformity, and understanding a new language feels like opening a new world inside yourself. I'd love to explore this more in depth. 

This is my sister's book and I've been wanting to look through it every time I watch her cats. 
I finally did this time and I see a lot of her choices reflect Joanna's style so I'm not surprised she owns the book :)
A few things really bothered me throughout the book, as a person with OCD it doesn't really affect my cleanliness but it definitely makes me notice things that feel "incorrect" for example her book placement and the fact that a lot of newer, rich-person design styles just look extremely difficult to clean. 
I think it must also be really popular to have bare-bulb lighting in cages, and many many decorative pillows. But neither of those things appeal much to me so it felt redundant seeing so much of it. 
Why would you place books backward on a shelf so the pages are showing? And what person who cares about their books would put them under all of their plants??
The last thing is just that all of her kid spaces just looked like kid-themed adult spaces. 

But I loved a lot in the kitchen and living room designs, and I really liked reading through her advice in each section on what to do for whatever your house is lacking. 
I'm about to move again (I think this one makes 10 moves in 9 years) and I'm excited to make this one feel a little more like my home because I'm hoping to stay longer. It might be difficult as I'm sharing the decisions with my roommates, but there's more space in my soon to be new home and I hope to really make it cute and useful.
Anyway I can't afford much and I can't make big changes to rental properties but there are so many inspirational things to think about and I also just like looking through the pretty pictures. 
My favorite rooms in the book are on pages: 70, 78, 108, 198, 214, 238, 306, and 326. 
I wish there were more libraries and hobby rooms to look at, like dance studios or music rooms or workshops. But I think she mostly designs houses for families in business-type careers so it makes sense that they have similar needs.

My favorite of the pictured houses from the outside is probably either "the minimalist lodge" or "the unexpected estate" and from the inside is definitely "the daring elemental" 
In the "identify your style" section, all of them look the exact same to me as it's all just stuff you'd buy from a high-end version of a home good store. I grew up with plastic cups, mismatched silverware, and whatever rugs we found at garage sales... and when it comes to design the things that are most striking to me tend to be from cultures and traditions other than my own. So seeing all of the options look basically the same was a little disappointing. I think it would be more accurate to leave out the style comparisons and just say that everything here is Joanna's style and leave it for readers to enjoy and take what they want. 
Anyway despite having some criticism I really enjoyed reading through this book! I haven't really watched any of her stuff, I just have a vague idea of who she is and what she and chip do so maybe I'll look into her more. 

This book really captures the feeling of an anxious childhood. Everything is teeth but no one else seems quite as nervous as they should be.