sunflowermagpie's Reviews (557)

If you like constant luxury brand namedropping, a lukewarm romance, and no plot, this book is for you.

The Christmas Witch has been one of my favorites for years and it was great to see it anthologized. I also loved the Nutcracker Coup and Go Toward the Light. Some of the other stories were hit or miss for me. 

Super predictable and not in a fun way. No one in this book was likeable to me. It didn’t even seem like the main couple liked each other. This is also petty but I hate shaming women for having body hair and it felt like there were so many jokes about that in regards to the main character. Very christmassy vibes and cozy setting, and the premise of the twelve dates of Christmas was fun. 

It was pretty heavy handed, but I appreciated how the book addressed the opioid epidemic and racism. Those topics also didn’t take away from the very cozy, fun, Thanksgiving vibes of the New England setting. The actual mystery was pretty flimsy, but it didn’t matter because the characters and setting were so enjoyable to read about. 

 

In this book, Dr. Jay really gets to the heart of what makes life meaningful and how to use your twenties to get those things. If was tough love a lot of the time but so helpful and so necessary. I’m reviewing the updated edition and could not agree more with her advice to walk away from Instagram. Speaking anecdotally as a twentysomething myself, getting rid of Instagram has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. That being said, I do feel like I have a bias because I have clear career goals, want to get married and have children, and have never had the privilege of spending time “finding myself” and not working. If you have a different life experience or don’t want a more traditional (i.e. a long term partner, children, stable career) lifestyle in the future, you might find this book anxiety inducing or irrelevant. At the same time, it might be more helpful for you if you are dissatisfied with living that kind of life. Personally, I know so many people my age who could really use this book’s kick in the pants. I will also say that one glaring omission in the new edition was the pandemic, which had a huge impact on everyone, especially young people. To me, the most useful parts of the book were the sections on confidence at work and dating. The criticism of the fertility chapter makes zero sense because she literally starts it by saying you don’t have to read it if you don’t want kids and because this is a very important time for human fertility. I’m really glad I read this book to hear about the underpinning psychology and sociology of the twenties decade. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC of the new version. 

It's not really a history of women's exercise as it is a series of essays about the founders of famous women's fitness studios/trends. The chapter about Bonnie Pruden and the chapter about running were stellar to me, but the rest of it was boring, repetitive and focused way too much on rich fitness entrepreneurs rather than the people who actually did their workouts. I understand why people love it, I just found it pretty boring.

Nihilistic and alarmist. And this is coming from a person who works in climate. I don’t understand who this book is for.