Yasmin > Recent Status Updates

It’s pretty bland like a Hallmark movie. Subpar writing.

Plot hole in ch.72. You don’t have to clandestinely meet to do DNA swabs; you can send swabs individually to ancestry dot com under an anonymous name and see if they are connected. This little thing is annoying me.

I returned this one to the library a long time ago. Not what I thought it was going to be, but interesting. Each vignette was highly depressing and I couldn’t continue.

I read bits of this before bed. I’ve been sick and anxious and it helps calm my head before bed.

Reading this book is so eerie. It caused strange dreams.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!!


One aspect of it reminds me of The Last Starfighter.

The way the humans glamorize and welcome unknown aliens reminds me of wokes idealizing and welcoming hostile immigrants. And when the peacenik Israeli spoke of his dashed hopes for peace and humanity, I had to put the book down because it was too on the money.

Haha I never got past page 11. I returned it to the library weeks ago. I think I got the gist from those few pages.

I’ve been feeling pretty blah in my life so I plucked this book off the library shelf when I saw it. I’m not very far into it, but I think it should be assigned reading for every graduating college senior as it would probably save a lot of stress and depression.

I have a different edition than what is listed and I'm in Chapter 4.

This is first rate writing. Superb. There isn't a single extraneous word. It makes me want to be a writer.

The back of the book says that this is a work of high comedy and yet, after six chapters, it feels a bit tragic and there is a tone of dread or suspense.

I have rarely read such a vivid and interesting first chapter. This ranks up there with Pride & Prejudice in terms of opening chapter greatness. My interest has been captured.

I'm nearly halfway through and I find Margaret Hale to be very unlikeable.

Aaaaaand we’re back! The Libby app started me 2-3 hours back from where I had last been, but that is probably due to the way it was malfunctioning before. The review was good though as I got to listen to the travesty of Cold Harbor all over again.

I’ve had to pause just after the battle of Cold Harbor bc this was a borrowed audio book and the Libby app kept crashing while I listened to it and wouldn’t let me renew it so it will be weeks before I can pick up the thread again. A drinking game could be played with this book. Every time you encounter the words “alcohol “ or “drinking” or “drunk”, take a drink. LOL don’t do that. You’ll die.

Excellent narrator and amazing story, but I’ve had to pause my listening because it had to be returned and in our massive library system, only two digital ports are allowed 😒

I'm disgusted by FDR's mistreatment of Churchill who held the line against the Nazis for years and bent over backwards for Roosevelt. FDR's and Eisenhower's and Truman's naïveté vis a vis Stalin is beyond frustrating. Churchill was the only one clear-eyed about the Russian threat.

Poland is a tragic story. Dismembered, massacred, thrown to the Russian wolves, trapped behind the Iron Curtain.

I’ve missed probably 90% of the details because I listen to it at work and have to focus on what I’m doing or get interrupted from listening, but even the 10% that has managed to percolate through has been fascinating.

I’m listening to it on audiobook while I work so I miss a lot, but have learned so much regardless. You really get a sense of just how alone and desperate Britain was in the first two years of the war. I was getting rather worked up against FDR.

This book is ruining my life! I’ve stayed up late so many nights to read it and am not functional the next day.

This is a marathon

It’s almost a thousand pages and I’ll probably develop a blood clot from sitting for so long to read.

I’ve reached the part where Strike has the flu & people don’t wall themselves off from him or recoil in fear. He goes to the supermarket—while sick—to get some groceries and it’s completely normal. Germs flying everywhere. Of all the events in the book, this mundane detail blew my mind. 2019, amirite?

Wish me luck cuz I’m going in! It’s over 900 pages. Thank goodness the library doesn’t charge late fees anymore.

Charlotte (Lucas) Collins just finished giving Mary a bit of hard advice and it was like a Shakespearean soliloquy with the drama of many things coming to a head. It felt like the end of Act 1. Will there be a new, bold beginning as Charlotte recommended?

Chapter 2 just broke my heart a little.

Chapter 1 was perfect and I’m hooked. Looking forward to reading more.

The American armies raced to the Elbe, roaring past the Nazis like they weren’t even there and just as they reached the bridges to begin the mission to Berlin, the bridges were blown. I am stressed out!

Eisenhower's decision to ignore Berlin is stressing me out and ticking me off.

I have no memory AT ALL of what happened in the previous book.

The Russian army is 30 miles east of Berlin and tales of their savagery precedes them. Every woman in Berlin is preparing to kill herself should the Russians beat the Americans to the city. We know who got there first. I feel like I'm being set up for 300 pages of rape stories. I'm not sure I'll be able to finish this book.

It’s a testament to Chernow’s writing and to how amazing Hamilton was in his first 35 years that when he finally gets around to doing something stupid, I cringe and don’t feel like I can continue reading. It’s too painful.

The amount of stuff he accomplished by 35...