justinlife's Reviews (916)

If you read this, you should do it for the art. The art is stunning. The story is basically just a road trip between two sloppy people who end up having attraction to each other. They are both likable, but damn are they messy. It's fun to follow. 

There's some steamy images so FYI, but the art is incredible. There are some great things done here.

Not as many eye waggling as the others but excellent character banter. 

A solid follow up with more eyes waggling. Great character dynamics and a fun yet spicy read. 

Overall a fun read with people who waggle their eyebrows all the time. 

Cute, fun, and people overcoming their own anxieties. 

I stan the elk head woman. An icon. A legend.

I do not stan the couple of chapters that had so much graphic against women and animals. 

Overall, a really good horror/thriller/suspense.

This was a delightful story that allowed fairy tales to provide a common language for parent and child. Really sweet and pretty. Hard to imagine this is a banned book but alas, the world is cruel. 

This is one of those books that’s uncomfortable to read but worth reading. In this book, we read about the desegregation of Clinton High, years before Little Rock occurred. Martin brings this history to life with brilliant prose and really shows off her skill as a historian and author. She recreates the scenes so viscerally that it feels like we’re there, watching these events unfold. It’s well paced and well researched. This is the best of the narrative non fiction. 

While it’s uncomfortable to face our past, it’s important to read, to recognize, and to remember. We’ve come a long way and ay times we haven’t. Public schools have always been area where a lot of attention is paid when change occurs. 

This is an important book that you should pick up and read. I highly recommend it.

Unexpectedly, I really liked this novel. Stone leans heavily on the fantasy/improbability of the genre but by the end I appreciated what he did. Aubrey Barnes is a rather young bookstore owner who inherited his parents’ shop in London. He’s in debt and stressed about finances while still raw from a breakup where his longtime partner left him for someone else. Because there’s a movie being filmed down the road, he runs in pot C-list up and coming actor Blake. Blake is head over heels for Aubrey and drama ensues. 

Overall I thought it was a fun evaluation of how we cope with breakups while being open to new possibilities. Aubrey wasn’t a narrator I particularly enjoyed, but he grew on me. I liked how ridiculous the plot was but how they overcame the problems felt real. Overall I’d recommend it. It was cute and fun. 

I'm gonna chalk my dislike of this book on a variety of factors- the time of year, not enjoying the his take on the speculative fiction genre, and the style. Something about it didn't work for me. I think I'm tired of men writing speculative fiction in a way that shows the worst of the human spirit. Heller's The Dog Stars falls into it for me. 

In this novel we follow Hig, a survivor of a plague that wiped out most of America (potentially the world) nine years ago. He's living in a private airport/rundown community with Bangley, a gun enthusiast. They've been holding their own for the past nine years, fighting people off and staying alive in this space. It seems that Hig is trying to hold to whatever kind of humanity the reader might know while Bangley has less worry about the others out there and just wants to survive. 

Something happens that pushes Hig to do something different, and he goes off on a little adventure. In this world that Heller has created, a lot of animals have already died. The planet is getting warmer. Whoever is left is either like Hig and Bangley and we assume staying in one place or marauders who are taking what they can and surviving by killing others. 

The outlook that Heller leans in to is that if you have compassion or are caring, even nine years later, it will be a weakness and you will die. Caring about others is a risk that will most likely cost you your life. He sticks to this bleakness throughout the book, for the most part. No spoilers here. Hig, having compassion is mocked by the other men in the book, who seem to fit the typical gun enthusiast stereotype. Very "get off my lawn". To me, it felt like it was setting up this dichotomy of two types of men- the rigid, classic, american man, denying emotions, loving guns, killing people and the more emotionally aware, poetry loving, gardening kind of guy. Heller makes it to where the second couldn't survive without the first. 

This was just exhausting to read. I have a hard time understanding why someone would want to envision a world like this. I will give him that he makes you believe that it could be like this. I don't believe that, but in this fiction, the reader does.  Like you have the opportunities to show a range of feelings and emotions and this is what we get? Ok, I guess. Not to be that british slang for cigarette, but I felt this would be perfect for straight dudes. I can see a lot of them liking it and seeing themselves in it. I see how the loneliness and survival in the story might resonate with them and how by having that classic American male image being so dominant, it might make them feel validated in their own emotional neglect. 

If you read it, I would recommend the audiobook though. The structure of the novel was hard to get into and I kept wanting to skip around. The audiobook made more sense to me. 

This book did make a good book club discussion book and I think there's a lot to chew on that people might like. I think this just happened to be the wrong time of year and the wrong mood for me to read it.  

I wasn’t expecting to like this poly romance novel as much as I did, but it was a lot of fun. I did find the teacher former student ratio to be a bit uncomfortable but overall this was a good time. Chase is a nerdy chemistry teacher who starts a relationship with two best friends Anton and Sebastian. Overall it was an interesting read about how relationships can evolve and how to let go of the fear of falling for someone or someones.