nadia's Reviews (587)

This book wins points for intriguing me all of the way through. I kept turning the pages wanting to know what was going to happen. However, I feel like I needed more holes filled in for me to believe everything that came to pass in the story. Also, I'm still left wondering about the significance of certain events.

This book will be up your alley if you love unreliable, unlikable narrators, though, I couldn't stand the collective term this MC constantly used to refer to his wife and child, despite it likely just being part of his character.

Also, I can't stand when books spoil other books, movies, etc., and this has a spoiler for Where The Red Fern  Grows, a book I've wanted to read for years now!

This collection featuring an elderly woman "up to no good" as the protagonist was different and a lot of fun! Definitely one for you if you love interconnected short stories. A teeny tad on the simple, repetitive side, but still great and just what I was in the mood for at the time.

I don't think the audiobook is the one for this one! The narrators' voices didn't match the characters in my head, and it was doubly jarring when the perspective shifts and one narrator is doing the voice of another.

Then, I'm very anti spoilers so all I will say is don't read this book if you're currently watching The West Wing or plan to read Stephen King's Misery. I even skipped some parts to avoid further spoilers so don't know the extent reached re the latter reference. But that's me — I'm sure a bunch of people won't mind!

I also felt there were a lot of unnecessary sexist commentary lobbed in...

I also didn't really believe/get invested in the main relationship. The narrator choices probably played into this a lot.

Still, there were moments of intrigue and tension and I remained curious as to how it was all going to end!

My second Patrick Radden Keefe of the year — after Say Nothing — and he didn't disappoint.

What I love about Radden Keefe's books is how they read like fiction at times but are packed with so much detail. You can see that he cuts no corners with his research.

I knew nothing about the Sacklers going into this, which added to the intrigue. However, I do think the fact that I could only pick up the book in small bursts, and often when I was feeling tired, impacted my enjoyment. I found it harder to stay focused.

A fantastic book to read if you want to know more about the opioid crisis or the Sackler family, or if you're into narrative nonfiction books that feature multiple generations of one family or themes of corporate fraud/corruption or medicine/pharmaceuticals.

When I read and loved Born A Crime by Trevor Noah, I realised that you didn't need to know the author of a memoir to enjoy it. However, I do think a combination of me not knowing anything about Jami Attenberg and also listening to this while being tired and not in the mood massively impacted my enjoyment.

It was difficult to piece together a narrative arc, to set the scene, and to understand what Attenberg was hoping the reader would take away from her stories (though I got there by the end). I felt dropped in the middle of her stories and struggled to form an emotional connection with her.

Still, there were some really interesting sections and reflections that did capture my attention despite me being distracted and I appreciated Attenberg's openness and vulnerability surrounding these.

If you're into books about women travelling solo, surviving as a writer, and not giving up in the face of failure or rejection, then this is a great book for you!

This was a great book that spanned several themes that I enjoy: friendships and relationships spanning decades, coming-of-age, video games, entrepreneurship, ambition, creativity, and more! I really liked the way it was written and the different methods and techniques Zevin employed to convey the story to us.

I can't quite put my finger on why but I had a magical feeling when I started the book, that dissipated a little part way through. Perhaps it had to do with a (perceived, at least to me) slow-down of pace? Frustration with the characters and their choices? I'm not sure, but I thought it would have more of an emotional punch on me and that I'd be itching to pick it up when I put it down, and that wasn't the case.

Still, a great read! You don't have to love video games to get into it, but if you do, it's a huge bonus!

I’ve just discovered Joe Pera while on a trip to Florida visiting friends and was excited to find this in the guest bathroom.

A fun, pleasant read, that’ll probably have more of an unexpected emotional impact to some at certain points. The illustrations were great!

I did enjoy this but was hoping for it to be funnier!

Still, a sweet book which garnered a few, light chuckles.

This memoir was great and such an important body of work in relation to the Black queer experience! I enjoyed the mix of personal stories with the manifesto-like rousing sections intending to inspire the next generation. Despite the one overarching theme, I appreciated the wide variety of stories and the range of methods used to tell those stories.

This was different to any romance novel that I’ve read up until this point.

And that difference was certainly refreshing!

I did find myself getting distracted while listening to the audio, though, and I got a little lost with the cast and certain plot points. I also didn’t feel super connected to the main characters nor invested in their relationship.

Still, it was a lot of fun!

Highly recommended if you like romance novels that have a different, substantive focus than just the main love story, namely thrillers, mystery stories, or heists!

This book just made my personal 4-star ratings more because of sentimental reasons....I loved being back in Beartown and I am a big fan of Backman's writing, but I got impatient with this one at times. I did feel Backman's style of storytelling was a little bit overdone.

Still, Backman still has some lines that are just "wow!" and make you stop in your tracks and reread a couple times.

Given how I reacted to Us Against You, a 5-star read from last year, I thought that things in this book would have way more of an emotional impact, but this final book didn't connect with me in the same way.

Still, overall, a very decent conclusion to what is, on the whole, a brilliant trilogy.