Emma > Recent Status Updates

Well researched in both thr history and psychology of gambling today. A heavy emphasis on manipulating men to better themselves not through a get rich quick scheme but through their knowledge of sport. Juxtaposed with actual accounts from gamblers saying how they just pick the type of bet they like and not necessarily the best one. Also, people now have no team loyalty, betting against their team for better odds.

Online sports betting is just the stock market but insider trading is legal.

This idea that sports betting is simply "good, clean fun" diminishes the old idea of "the house always wins". Without a "house" persay, the gamblers seem to be simply making a bet with friends rather than betting against the house. This is creating the illusion of being able to win, if you study the statistics enough (but then everyone bets on their favourite team anyway).

The fact that the marketing was specifically designed to manipulate men's egos.

"Dehumanization" by replacing bookkeepers with other systems (player to player, more like stock market exchanges) and cashiers with computers.

This would take away the community aspect of sports very quickly and turn it into a singluar experience and addiction. Dehumanizing always leads to problems.

As another review mentioned, it feels like it was written IN the 1970s, not just ABOUT the 1970s. The characters are jewish, so not the best to be reading in 2026 though I had no idea when I bought it secondhand a few years ago, and the author seems to sexualize everything and seems like an entitled sex maniac who never gets laid. Kind of not a good novel.

A ridiculously out of order narrative following at least two story lines in different time periods with little context when switching from one to the other. Incredibly difficult to follow the plot. Plus facts about the Spadina Expressway that only seem half relevant.

The way that Kim describes Instancing in a way that makes the current situation of boards and immigration seem exactly as absurd as it is..... is just simply brilliant. I am frequently tearing up at the perfectly explained satire of our current world.

This is the best audiobook I have listened to yet. I don't know if I particularly like the plot or story, or if the voice acting and sound design is just so good that it holds your attention like a thrilling movie that you can't describe the plot to someone a week later but in the moment you're holding your popcorn and staring at the television like nothing else matters, waiting for the shoe to drop.

Replace "instance" with "immigrant" and this becomes a very politically charged book. Instead, it is a very politically charged satire.

I could do without the back story for every tiny character. Feels like a historical nonfiction that the author turned into smut but did not pull it off well at all.

Smutt in between a plot that feels like a history lesson rather than a story.

An inherently politcal, liberal book. Subtly socialist, anti-racist, anti-homophobic, and less subtly anti-war. Discussing issues throughout the plot in a way that the protagonist reacts a certain way (though silent and neutral as the character is) that less the reader know that he is progressive in his values.

A commentary on reactions to mental illness but also the futility of war. The story is one that follows twin brothers through their lives but remarks on almost every issue of the time in a modern way that doesn't make it overly outdated reading it almost 30 years after publication.

Rachelle isn't really writing about Jack... she's barely mentioning her thesis at all. Her story is simply to show how one can get wrapped up in someone else's world and forget themself so easily.

Q saying he believes in the future (collage, job, babies) as if Margo doesn't believe in the future when she just told him that she doesn't want to die. Then, Q thinking "the future deserves our faith" when Margo said "forever is composed of nows" as if living in the present is the same as having no faith in the future. Q doesnt seem to have evolved at all actually, he has just realized Margo doesnt want what he does

This is the story of a boy, in his last week of high school, obsessed with the wild, crazy, popular, and adventourlus girl-next-door. Literally next door. Their bedroom windows face each other. When she goes missing after the best night of his life, so begins his own adventure, following her clues to figure out where she's gone off to this time. A wild, hilarious, and endearing story of last chances and change.

A book about the end of high school and the last days within the safety net of your parents. More importantly, this is a book about change. It teaches that people change and that people can BE changed. It is a book of accepting who people are and loving them anyway. It is a story of how we can never truly know anyone, not even ourselves.

Anita's voice actor is incredibly passionate and talented. She makes this audiobook so much better than it should be.

Author artfully intertwines these two women's stories so you have that little voice in the back of your head as you listen/read.... wondering if Raquel will end up like Anita. Is Raquel just going down the same path? Will she realize it before it's too late for her, too?

This should have been a book of poetry, not a novel. It is lyrical, stream-of-consciousness writing and for a novel it is absolutely excruciating to read.

This feels like a bunch of writing prompts and English class assignments that the author haphazardly put together to make a novel. It is vingettes and half-thoughts.

Why say "weathermen and women" rather than simply "meteorologists"?

None of the characters have been properly introduced so I can't remember them and I don't care about them. I'm searching for meaning within lists and hypotheticals and rhetorics.

I hope there is a plot and not just meaningless thoughts trying to sound profound. This author seems to think they're very clever and all their thoughts are so deep. I imaging a 13 year old may appreciate this book. Is it YA?

The writing style is stream-of-consciousness but it's as if the author wrote a whole bunch of side-thoughts as she was writing a short story and then decided to just keep everything and make it a novel. Other reviews said it was all lists and just 13 pages in, I already see what they mean. I am skimming the lists. I should finish quickly.

A post-covid novel with commentary about "the pandemic" throughout. The story is of a missing woman but has four narrators (one of which is the missing woman's letters). Each character reflects on their own lives within the realm of the pandemic and this missing woman.

A story about a woman who owns a nail salon. Where is Nok? One employee has been a no-show for weeks. The story is just one day. The new girl. She's nice enough. A story of immigrants serving narcissists. Narrator describes how self-centered the clients are in great detail that you can perfectly picture these entitled clients and sympathize with the narrator - the narrator who seems to hate people but loves her shop.

The narrator said she is observant and so far the writing style supports that. She describes how people move and how she nods and lifts her chin in a certain way to express enthusiasm or that she is listening. This detailed description of body language not only supports the character's main personality trait (observant) it also displays the culture the author is trying to convey.