Grandma Gatewood is inspiring and such a character. I think the author did what he could with the material he had, but it felt like a recital of a journal that lacked many details and it had a repetitive feel of just listing off names of stops along the way. There was a missed opportunity to include photos of the newspaper headlines and of her journal entries. I wish it had been padded more with description and history like Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods.

Full disclosure: I haven't read Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." This is inspired by that book, and I can see how fans of Christie's may feel this isn't up to par since it's always hard to follow such a classic. However, I thought it was a great read. I loved all the snapshots of each character, and I loved dipping in and out of their lives. I'll definitely read more of Peter Swanson's work.

This would be such a great book club pick especially for white women. There is so much to discuss. I loved that the characters were all flawed, and I loved how the story twisted and turned. I was so invested in Emira and Brair's relationship that I was teary when it became obvious that their future together was doomed. Can't wait to read more from Kiley Reid!

I wanted to like this more because I love puzzles. Maybe my expectations were too high given the average rating. The biggest issue is that I had a hard time liking Avery. At first she seemed like a mature young woman who could hold her own, but then she didn't seem to have much common sense. The attraction she felt for two or more of the Hawthrone brothers felt so silly, and she claimed to understand their unspoken words and their emotions despite them being strangers who had much more experience with puzzles and riddles. Seems unlikely that she'd know them so well or that they'd let her know them well. Also, why wouldn't she just google the house, the family and Emily? She had all the technology available to her. Not that it matters since the whole Emily storyline felt separate from the story.

I'm curious about what happens next. Why the old man selected Avery as his heir, what happened to Toby, and how it all ties together, but honestly, I'm not likely curious enough to read more. If someone could just tell me, that would be great.

I appreciated the author's honesty and her anxiety as she writes about her life, mostly focused on those first few years of motherhood. I rated it high because I'm right there with the author, having a few years of motherhood under my belt, but I could see how other readers may not get as much from it.

I may be wrong, but I think it's fairly universal for new parents to be unprepared for what a big change it is after having babies. American society is so disconnected and has mostly lost the community and it-takes-a-village aspect that families could use. So what happens when you go from a fairly capable adult to an unprepared parent responsible for a small, dependent being? You research and search out how to be the best parent so you don't muck it up, and one great place for research is the mom group. While mom groups are great sources of support and education, they can also be competitive and judgmental, and they are definitely segregated. The author lays out why that is and why it needs to be.

My multiracial children were born in 2018 and 2019. Like many other white people, my worldview shifted heavily after George Floyd was killed, and the effects rippled through my mom groups in various ways. Majority white groups did surface level things that have since faded from their lives. No impactful changes were really made. I can only imagine how the few Black women must have felt within these groups. Probably felt a lot like the author did. I hope that she writes another book about her parenting down the road. I'd definitely pick it up.

I placed this on hold a few weeks back, and the timing couldn't have been better since it was available for check out the same week the Queen died. This is a heavy tome chock-full of detail so I learned a lot. So much of it was fascinating while also being completely unrelatable. I did skim and skip over a lot. I didn't care to read about Andrew's issues, and while the Press is quite obviously awful, I grew tired of reading about it. What I walked away with is that Charles isn't as boring as he appears, that Camilla is admirable in her steadfastness and her humor, that Diana made a lot of bad choices, and that cycles repeat in each generation.

It will be interesting to see what comes next as Charles and then William lead the monarchy. Given how the monarchy was shaken up with Andrew's mess and Harry and Megan's mess, there's probably more to come. Despite being planned to the minute detail for decades, the death of the Queen has some serious backlash that I think the Firm was unprepared for. Will they move forward and acknowledge the harms they inflicted throughout the world? Apologies and reparations would really cement Charles and/or William's legacy, but would it also be the downfall of the monarchy? Maybe, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.