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nadia's Reviews (587)
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed this — it's a fun, quirky read. I wondered how Moshfegh was going to pull off a whole book about somebody sleeping for a year without it getting old, but she managed it!
I read this in one sitting. Well, I didn't really have a choice since I was stuck on a 10 hour flight from Denver.
However, this book was highly readable, and though the two main characters that we follow have their flaws and frustrating elements waved in your face, I was rooting for them the whole way.
I enjoyed how focused the book was on the one relationship, and I found the writing simple and yet emotive. Rooney has this wonderful ability of expressing a lot of emotion in very few words.
I'll definitely be picking up 'Conversations With Friends' some point soon.
However, this book was highly readable, and though the two main characters that we follow have their flaws and frustrating elements waved in your face, I was rooting for them the whole way.
I enjoyed how focused the book was on the one relationship, and I found the writing simple and yet emotive. Rooney has this wonderful ability of expressing a lot of emotion in very few words.
I'll definitely be picking up 'Conversations With Friends' some point soon.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
You know when you can recognise that a book is brilliant in its own way, but that way is just not for you? I think that's what's happened here.
I'd been waiting so long to read this book and maybe my expectations were too high, or I wasn't in the right mood. In any case, the book didn't quite gel with me.
I like to understand and visualise most things when I read, and even though the physics concepts discussed were all things I've come across before, I found some of the descriptions too abstract for me to fully grasp what was going on. I got the overall gist, but it meant that I'd find myself reading paragraphs over and over again to make sure I drew out the significance of what Cixin Liu was trying to make me understand.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book if you're a fan of science fiction, that is staunchly science fiction, where the foundation is real-life science. There's certainly lots of intrigue and I was compelled to get to the end to figure out what was going on. However, I'm not sure when or if I'll pick up the second one.
I'd been waiting so long to read this book and maybe my expectations were too high, or I wasn't in the right mood. In any case, the book didn't quite gel with me.
I like to understand and visualise most things when I read, and even though the physics concepts discussed were all things I've come across before, I found some of the descriptions too abstract for me to fully grasp what was going on. I got the overall gist, but it meant that I'd find myself reading paragraphs over and over again to make sure I drew out the significance of what Cixin Liu was trying to make me understand.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book if you're a fan of science fiction, that is staunchly science fiction, where the foundation is real-life science. There's certainly lots of intrigue and I was compelled to get to the end to figure out what was going on. However, I'm not sure when or if I'll pick up the second one.
reflective
medium-paced
Found the theory compelling and want to read more but this book was a bit too light on the details for my liking.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really did enjoy this book. It was an easy, compelling read, and I finished it in a few days (though that may have been due to necessity given that I'm hosting a discussion on it in 3 days).
However, I wasn't blown away. I can't quite put my finger on what was missing for me. Maybe it felt slightly anti-climatic...or maybe it's that, once the ball got rolling, while there were some surprising and moving moments, there wasn't anything that stood out as particularly clever. I think Monique's character wasn't dealt with in as much depth to make me really care for her (nor were many of the other characters, bar a couple), but then again, that would have been incredibly hard to pull off alongside Evelyn.
All in all, a decent, enjoyable read.
However, I wasn't blown away. I can't quite put my finger on what was missing for me. Maybe it felt slightly anti-climatic...or maybe it's that, once the ball got rolling, while there were some surprising and moving moments, there wasn't anything that stood out as particularly clever. I think Monique's character wasn't dealt with in as much depth to make me really care for her (nor were many of the other characters, bar a couple), but then again, that would have been incredibly hard to pull off alongside Evelyn.
All in all, a decent, enjoyable read.
I’ve given this book 3 stars but I’m really conflicted about it.
This short book is amazingly researched and fascinating at times. It covers 5000 years of world history and is a summary of the Durants’ eleven-volume epic masterpiece called The Story of Civilization. So, as you can imagine, at 119 pages, the book was pretty dense. And I just wasn’t in the mood for it.
It wasn’t hard to follow. There was just a lot of information in each and every sentence. This is definitely the type of book I would pick up again in a year or two to see if I can assimilate more of it.
If you’re in a clear headspace and want to have a sense of all the trends in history across these topics — geography, biology, race, character, morals, religion, economics, socialism, government, war, growth and decay, and progress — and not spend the rest of your life reading all about it, then this is an absolutely excellent choice for you.
This short book is amazingly researched and fascinating at times. It covers 5000 years of world history and is a summary of the Durants’ eleven-volume epic masterpiece called The Story of Civilization. So, as you can imagine, at 119 pages, the book was pretty dense. And I just wasn’t in the mood for it.
It wasn’t hard to follow. There was just a lot of information in each and every sentence. This is definitely the type of book I would pick up again in a year or two to see if I can assimilate more of it.
If you’re in a clear headspace and want to have a sense of all the trends in history across these topics — geography, biology, race, character, morals, religion, economics, socialism, government, war, growth and decay, and progress — and not spend the rest of your life reading all about it, then this is an absolutely excellent choice for you.
I was about halfway through this book when I realised just how much I was enjoying it. I got sucked into the story, the characters, the era.
The interview format worked a lot better than I thought, and you really start to get a grasp of the different characters' voices. I thought it might get tiresome, but really, jumping from character to character, with snatches of perspective from each, worked super well and made the book very digestible.
This was a highly engaging read, and there were a few moments where I felt that Reid so insightfully examined the human condition. She also makes you question what it means to love somebody deeply, to have faith in them, and to trust them.
The interview format worked a lot better than I thought, and you really start to get a grasp of the different characters' voices. I thought it might get tiresome, but really, jumping from character to character, with snatches of perspective from each, worked super well and made the book very digestible.
This was a highly engaging read, and there were a few moments where I felt that Reid so insightfully examined the human condition. She also makes you question what it means to love somebody deeply, to have faith in them, and to trust them.
Well, this was certainly very different to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six — the two most recent books by Taylor Jenkins Reid and two books that I've read over the prior two weeks (I'm hosting a month-long readathon of her books via my company's Instagram account in case y'all who follow me on Goodreads are wondering).
This is a story about a woman whose husband, her high school sweetheart, goes missing on their first wedding anniversary. Emma Blair works through her grief and finds love again, even getting engaged, but then years later, her first husband, Jesse, is found alive. So who does she end up with?
I wasn't blown away by the writing and I did find some it a bit cheesy, but I was intrigued enough to find out how it would end. What's interesting is that a lot of people say that they spent the whole book not sure who Emma should end up with, but the way the story was set up made it very obvious to me who which relationship was right for Emma. And I guess that took a little away from my reading experience — it was more like: "how and when do we get there?" as opposed to "where will we end up?"
Overall, this was an enjoyable read but not one I'll be recommending to people unless I know they have a soft spot for romance stories.
This is a story about a woman whose husband, her high school sweetheart, goes missing on their first wedding anniversary. Emma Blair works through her grief and finds love again, even getting engaged, but then years later, her first husband, Jesse, is found alive. So who does she end up with?
I wasn't blown away by the writing and I did find some it a bit cheesy, but I was intrigued enough to find out how it would end. What's interesting is that a lot of people say that they spent the whole book not sure who Emma should end up with, but the way the story was set up made it very obvious to me who which relationship was right for Emma. And I guess that took a little away from my reading experience — it was more like: "how and when do we get there?" as opposed to "where will we end up?"
Overall, this was an enjoyable read but not one I'll be recommending to people unless I know they have a soft spot for romance stories.
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
An okay read. Enjoyable enough. There were quite a few cringe-worthy moments — I think I cringed in real life — and I was waiting for something more to happen. I did like the nod to quantum physics and multiverse theories though — a nice touch that made me try and recall what I learnt while reading Hawking's 'The Grand Design'.
informative
A captivating read! I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of detail, though I guess Brad Stone was following Amazon for over a decade, interviewed Bezos many times, and also had Bezos' approval to interview many of his colleagues and people close to him.