It was so fun seeing Atticus and Granuaile getting to use all of their druid powers. Hearne does comedy so well and I love the way he dives headfirst into any and all lore.

Spoiler

But damn, Morrigan dying in the first inning? That sucked. I did like getting to see that Atticus' charm to stop death worked. Granuaile grows more interesting as time goes on; I love that the elementals are calling her Fierce Druid. And I teared up a little when they got another dog for Oberon to love. Also all the Greek/Roman pantheon stuff was hilarious.

I don't know what happened, but I felt like Granuaile was just really stupid in this one. I was pleasantly surprised by Owen and how much I liked him, and Oberon and Orlaith are adorable, but this was not one of the best. The fight at the end was brutal though (but I guess that could be said about every Iron Druid book).

A philosophy book I didn't hate? Ah well, it is the end of the world after all.

Loved the parts about how society works and thinks, surprisingly relevant one hundred years after its first printing during these protests. I liked the way he slipped in Buddhism and aggressively attacked philosophers he thought were dumb.

It is very, very dry though. Lots of sentences that I had to read twice to make sure I understood what he was getting at. I'm glad I read it, but not something I would re-read again.

Chock full of rape, child abuse, brainwashing, and to add insult to injury, ridiculously boring. Just because the world was actually horrific back in these times doesn't mean I want to read about it.

Intense in that brilliant way that things only are when you are a child and haven't become inured to the general unfairness of the world. Flora is a gem that you kind of want to kick into a wall but you want her to succeed anyway. I loved that all the big houses had their spirits and I wish we could have delved into that more. I also loved the exclamations and the marvelous rare words thrown about like confetti.

I have never read a short story collection where I genuinely liked every story, until now. That is a damned impressive feat. Highly recommend if you are in the mood for some fun and often creepy scifi.

This is a classic biography, which threw me a little bit because I was expecting it to be more inspiring and self help-y, because I think I just feel like I need Michelle Obama to tell me how to be a better person.

At first I found it kind of boring, though she does a great job of making even the boring parts of her life seem cutesy and important. About halfway through I realized that this is the beauty of Michelle Obama. She is tough, and funny, and she knows what she wants and then she works her ass off for it. She doesn't ever give up and say woe-is-me, she just works harder. This book is really just an affirmation of the sad truth that they were the perfect First Family, and it makes our current president even harder to bear.

As far as enlightenment books go, this was the most accessible and least eye-roll-inducing that I've found. However, it still induced several eye rolls. (Why, just why, would you ever think, let alone say, that menstruating brings you closer to enlightenment. What the literal fuck.)

I liked the question and answer format, but the audio was TERRIBLE. Tolle himself narrates, and his monotone, inflection-less voice makes Aaron Mahnke sound as dramatic as Jenna Maroney in 30 Rock. To make matters worse, this high pitched gong noise would sound between each question at a significantly higher volume than everything else so I was constantly being deafened. Perhaps it was a test of how enlightened I was -- if so, my levels of irritation can prove I am not.

Reminded me a lot of The Bear and the Nightingale. Miserable Russian girl deals with creatures from folklore but mostly contends with a shitty family. There were too many characters to keep track of, and Anouk herself was super bland, but I liked the story and the folklore aspects.