Heather Oman > Recent Status Updates

This book is mind blowing.

This book is very long.

This book is very long

I am remembering now why I stopped reading Jodi Picoult. Her research into Shakespeare is obviously deep and layered, and she sprinkles Shakespearean easter eggs in the dialogue throughout flashback to the 1600s. Then she ruins the illusion by using a phrase like “chewing the scenery”. It’s jarring. (And no, that’s not Shakespeare, I double checked.)

I went in with high expectations and I admit I am
struggling to get through this one. Maybe it’s because the author is reading her own book? Would I like it better if Meryl Streep was reading it to me?

I am learning so much which I did not expect since I have lived in the heart of Confederacy for 20 years. But wow the south is both super awesome and also super insane.

This book has lines like “Looking for me, boys?” I’m not sure if it knows it’s sort of a silly adventure spy thingie.

Signature quirkiness from Backman, but I already know this is a gem.

We have officially reached the Twelve night portion of the book where the Duke realizes his side, who he thought was a boy, is kinda hot.

A little slow. Hope it gets better.

Funny. Steamy. Predictable. Would make a good movie.

I have never thought Colin Jost was particularly funny or relatable. This book shows him to be both. Laugh out loud moments every few sentences.

A little confusing and kinda odd. I’m trying to trust the process.

This is some of the most stunning prose I’ve ever read.

Fluffy Anne of Green Gables in Scotland vibes.

Confusing to listen to because of flashbacks so I’m never sure what summer they are talking about. I assume the print version would be easier to follow. So far, though, it feels like a YA romance novel, similar to Judy Blume when she wrote for adults. Easy listening for my long commute.

I have liked Ann Patchett’s other books but have never liked how they ended so if this one has a stupid ending I’m gonna be UPSET.

I’m about a third of the way through this on audible and it’s not holding my attention so I am setting it down for now. Maybe it’s the way it’s being read? I have a hard copy somewhere, maybe I will pick that up instead.

This book is intense

This book is wild

I’m on page 32 and super annoyed. I may not get through this one.

This was free on Audible, so why not?

So I think we have officially entered the mumbo jumbo portion of the book. So many different studies cited, so many different treatments suggested for so many different things, some things that feel outdated (repressed memory recovery therapy feels very 80-90s to me) that I feel like the biggest take away from this behemoth is that trauma is bad and brains are hella complicated.

This is a slow, dense read and I’m having a hard time moving through it because I have to stop and process everything. Also, he uses heavy stories that are emotionally difficult to read. I think it will be worth it though.

Reading this on a plane. So far it’s an excellent book for a cross country airplane ride. Also, horses.

So it looks like I’ll be staying up all night reading this book and crying while I read it. She is hitting all the right notes about medical trauma and fear of missing out on seeing her kids grow up and all the confusion and pain of hospitals and the helplessness of a spouse and then she’s mixing God in it in an really powerful way and ooof all the feels are just....

“We had to turn our ordeal into a good, persuasive story or risk being sent back. Then, after asylum secured, we had to relive that story again and again, to earn our place, to calm casual skeptics. Every day of her new life, the refugee is asked to differentiate herself from the opportunist, the economic migrant.”

And that’s page 8.