As someone with a lot of anxiety issues, I'm always looking for books that will remind me to be more grounded. Don't Worry offers enough reminders and insight to remember how to treat thoughts and make small changes in dealing with worry, overthinking, etc. I enjoyed the relative simplistic nature of explaining Buddhist terms and Japanese references that monks study and use. In some ways, the book 'does the trick' to help reset my mindset. However, I was somewhat confused how much the book geared towards those in the corporate world, even though that's not really addressed as a theme in the forward. When it doesn't focus on businesspeople, the author felt a bit lost on who they were addressing as readers. The chapters are simplistic, on the one hand, which makes it easy to read and not get caught up in methods and tricks of calming down the mind or one's lifestyle. But, on the other hand, it doesn't feel all that inclusive or personalized. Having read similar books, this is good for those who may be having issues at work or looking for something simple to get started on being more zen.

The first word that came to mind while reading Briefly, A Delicious Life was “magical.” It wasn’t long into reading before Nell Stevens’ words really made me feel like I sank into her world – she truly captivates all of the senses with a refreshing lyrical tone. Bianca acts as a third party perspective to George’s life, which lends to the book being part fictionalized biography; but also has enough of an outspoken and tenacious personality to be a ghost story. At times, the plot interjects Bianca’s account with visitor’s experiences, and she has spectral powers that lets her gaze into other people’s minds and reads their futures. Her role as the omnipresent narrator casts a spotlight on the male gaze and reverses it, and it’s an interesting plot device to explore more deep themes on love, living fully, creativity, etc. I wasn’t quite sure how well the two merged together cohesively. The plot flitting between scenes or characters never definitively set the scene for the stakes, and it’s that non-narrative structure, especially with a lot of hype for the sapphic romance, that I struggled with. Bianca’s involvement in Sand’s life felt more removed, even though she’s our gateway into Sand and those around her. If you were to peer into the lives of George Sand from the outside at the time that they were alive, I imagine that Bianca would be a suitable voice in explaining or exploring what their lives were like...but on some level, I kept waiting for something more with the non-narrative arc or lack of stakes to push the character development further.

I'm not sure how I came across this book exactly, but it was on my kindle so I decided to give it a shot...and it was a little all over the place as a romance novel. Trying to fall for balance between Carter as a goofball and dominant partner was a major struggle-

Spoiler

The sex scenes would vary between steamy and cringey...like he worshipped Olivia which was hot, but then he calls his dick the sword of thunder, would call Olivia anything between princess and pumpkin, always describes how she has a perfect body, etc.

. I wasn't all that crazy about the story. Mack's tone and voice for the lead characters (and chapter titles) is definitely fun. She knows how to let Carter and Olivia hang loose or to be more serious and challenge each other as partners. The latter was more enjoyable to see them grow, especially Carter. But the transition of Carter going from HIMBO to dedicating himself to one woman, and Olivia's initial hesitation to Carter to all of her insecurities/confidence stemming from him was pretty abrupt. They are pretty much each other's whole worlds after a month of knowing each other; and the conflict of their personalities and choices ends just as suddenly where a lot of Olivia's insecurities and confidence comes from either accepting his past life as a playboy and dealing with his spontaneity. Both Olivia, Carter, and their supporting character of friends read as immature sometimes. Even though Carter's fame and history should be a major exterior conflict to their relationship, it mostly falls to the background until the third act twist

Spoiler

of an ex-friend finding Carter's phone and copying his nude photos of Olivia to blackmail him/break them up

that comes across like fanfiction. Parts of this was enjoyable; other parts were difficult to get into.

Quite confused on who this book is targeted for. The poems switch back and forth between referring women in a third person and the author talking to readers directly. If it's for men, it feels like a strategy guide to getting women to love them or how to put up with them if they are 'difficult'; like trying to find ways to humanize them because they're not human enough on their own.

"She can be difficult, there are times her words will be heavy, with stubbornness, her tongue will be sharper than a new sword and attitude like a two-year-old. Aren’t we all difficult at times?
Isn’t she human like everyone else?"

If this is aimed for women, I either felt like a petulant child being talked down to like the poem above, but also that so much of my self-worth is wrapped up in how I love, how my love is used by my partners, how my love is my self-worth.

"Desiring a man
whose efforts speak
in a higher tone
than his promises,
isn’t too much to ask for."

Other than that, a lot of the poems are not original. I feel like I've read them before or they've been slightly recycled by the internet for a changed word or two. Unfortunately, if they were supposed to really touch the heart, it didn't work.

Fourteen competitors are requited to spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park in the hopes of winning a huge cash prize. However, they have to avoid getting caught. By who or what, they don't know until they meet their fate. Good thing Mack is an expert at hiding. But as the participants around her begin disappearing, she realizes something sinister is lurking behind the challenge, and it'll take everything to survive.

The Hunger Games vibes, abandoned amusement park, mysterious disappearances? As soon as I read the premise, I was like SIGN. ME. UP. I truly loved White's setting, and the creepiness she instills in the competitors having to resort being predator or prey for the hope of a financially-free future. I truly felt like I was navigating the park alongside them and could easily picture their isolation and panic. Even though there are a lot of characters to keep track of, the author's tone of voice shifted pretty smoothly to follow along with the varying point of views. I thought I'd find it hard to keep up with, but was surprised not to. Overall, I really loved the vibes of the story, and felt like I was eventually going to deeply connect with the main character Mack and all of her angst. However, the plot really rests on the big revelation of her past, the mysterious disappearance of a little girl that took places decades ago, and the competition's origins. As the clues started adding up, and were revealed half-way through, my interested dropped drastically. I just found the second half of the book with the characters' connections and the park's history to be way too predictable. By the end, I was left feeling - that's it??? White's vision is quite ambitious, trying to mix supernatural with mystery and social commentary, but the character arcs unravels in ways I feel like I've read or seen too many times before.

This and so many similar titles / writers push to say this is poetry about relationships or falling in love or heartbreak...but the poetry itself is just reverberating pinterest energy. I swear I've read nearly identical wording like this ten times before in this genre....

- "i feel as if
i can tell you things
i would never tell
anyone else"

I hate to discount these authors' feelings, but I just want more poetry that's deeper, and plays with imagery, metaphors, and feelings. And not so much....

"you
me
you always did look so good
on top"

Creativity in many ways is not a big deal. But it also is. It's a holy process passed down to us by evolution or some higher-ups you believe in, and it's something you can do pass the time. It can save someone from an artistic block or depression or both. If you're inclined to tap into the voice that says it'd be really nice if I took the time to *fill in the blanks* write, paint, read, draw, cook, garden, and so on, what typically stops us even before we get started is the pressure of not just doing the thing, but doing it well and doing it so other people think what we've done is "worthwhile." Creativity has become a big shadow over so many, myself included, because of the ugliness aka capitalism and tortured artist syndrome attached to it. If what you make doesn't get you something material out of it - money, fame, notoriety, elite connections - society doesn't think it's worth doing. Worse than that, creativity doesn't seem to be something we pour into over years of failures and successes, it's just something that happens over night. We shouldn't have to feel like we're hurting ourselves to make art that stands out or impactful, but the act of expressing and putting ourselves out there is scary and vulnerable.

Creativity is everything but it's also nothing. Gilbert's casual voice helps make creativity down-to-earth and doable; it feels like she's having a conversation with you over coffee that makes you both absorb the grandness of creativity but also feel like making any kind of art relateable and doable. She breaks down creativity in a way that makes you close the book feeling like it's an individual's process full of magic everyone can tap into but it's up to you to have the trust and determination to follow through. The lightbulb moment that it took for Elizabeth Gilbert to write "Big Magic" resembles the similar lightbulb moment I had to read it and want to share my thoughts. Her take is a best-seller. My take just sits on goodreads. The processes are different, but the results are the same thing: we both made something we felt like making. That said, Gilbert is here to give a permission slip to be creativity, but it doesn't really go further than that and can feel repetitive. An interjection to include post-chapter questionnaires for the reader to examine what kind of fears makes them stop pursuing creativity or explore the ideas that they've had and let go of would've added a little something extra. As much as I enjoyed that this was a casual manifesto, it does come across as a bit too simplified - it's really up to the individual to take the lessons to heart and go for it.