sara_m_martins's Reviews (334)

4.5 stars

I believe this is the first book by Austen that I've read, unless I've forgotten something I read as a child.
Although I enjoyed the final chapters of both volumes (my edition had two volumes), the story, for the most part, didn't draw me in that much. At the end, especially in the final 2 chapters, I was fully on-board with the plot and the character's stories; but for the most part i was reading to get the book over with, seething at secondary characters' words and actions and being confused with who-is-who.
It seemed to pick up my interest halfway through, maybe because i quite enjoyed the final chapters of volume 1, maybe because more things start to happen plot-wise or I "adapted" to Austen's writing style.

I liked Anne with Benwick better to be completely honest, although you can tell from the get go that she is gonna end up with Wentworth. I mean the man is named WentWORTH. Her relationship with Benwick was a lot more of "show, not tell" and seemed that the interest was born in a much more natural way. With Wentworth, we get the what-happened explanation at the start of the book, and we get the couple's reconciliation right at the end (which i liked, but i felt that it needed a bit more development to fully round it out and make it more sensible) with a epilogue-like chapter to wrap things up.
Her family also made it very hard to read - she was either with Elizabeth and her father who are a terrible package-deal, or she was with Mary who is just effing insufferable. But it was part of plot, so I understand. Still annoying. Every other character was okay though.
The overall themes of persuasion were pretty interesting, and I enjoyed reading how she described them. I think I do enjoy Austen's voice, but the characters, besides Anne, the beacon of light, were somewhat sigh-inducing. The comparison between genders that takes place in certain spots was also pretty interesting. Even if I don't agree with Anne in everything she says, I liked reading that perspective on it.

I ended up listening more to the audiobook than reading ut. The translation cut a lot of things out, so I'm really glad i went with the audiobook. The lore is dope af, i definitely plan to read the rest of the series

this was fun. Wilde's humor is delightful to read. i expected it to be a bit more creepy than it was, since it is counted as horror. act 2 wasn't the best: there were big time jumps, and the story was conveyed by large lists of Dorian's interests - it dragged the story on a bit, and i am not a big fan of that type of story-telling.

Thank you to the author and Booktasters for providing me the book for a honest review.

Nancy Wyatt worked for many years in shelters, and this book takes you through several real-life stories of people dealing with homelessness, addiction and/or AIDS that she got to know in the shelter.
The message of this book is to make people more aware of homelessness, since so many tend to ignore it and/or judge people in that situation. Nancy asks us to reconsider, and alerts us to how this can happen to anyone. She writes, “We don’t ask you to feel sorry. We ask you to learn and understand.” It urges to our humanity and to help one another! An important message, brought to us in impactful stories. Also, it really shows that the one thing we are all looking for is love, to feel loved and to be able to love someone.
The 14 stories themselves are adapted from dramatic readings, and thus have all different structures/styles. Some are prose, others poetry, and some take a mix of the two, which makes it for a very interesting read.

This book was excellent!
The writing was exquisite, and allows readers of all backgrounds to understand and to be continuously engaged, while still providing tons of information!
The book is divided in 5 temporal sections, where Clegg takes us into the history of science, not discounting one topic or the other, with complex explanations that make it clear and interesting for people with an history background, a science background (like me!) or some other background all together. It gives us an historical perspective of the society (making references to sexism and racism) and the science of the time, showing us how and why science knowledge builds and crumbles away.
All of this is shown to us through the central premise of this book: the importance of science communication, and how to do it well - the exact thing this book was amazing at!!! One of my favourite books of 2019 for sure!
Another very positive point is the amazing, interesting illustrations of this book, which makes it super visually appealing, adding some texture to the "story".
As said by Brian Clegg: "The best science books continue to [recruit new scientists and spread understanding of why an area deserves funding], but are now able to give us a deeper, more realistic understanding of science. And surely that is a good thing."

Thank you to NetGalley, Ivy Press and Brian Clegg for providing me this book for an honest review.