ShaunMS > Recent Status Updates

I may never finish this book.

This book has been on my To-Read since it came out but I needed to read it with friends, and I'm glad I am because it is a lot of weight to carry alone.

I really hope I'll have local friends read this so I can talk about it with them. I'm totally loving reading a novel so fully set in my neighborhood, but as time passes I'm also feeling a strong sense of dread about getting to the George Floyd uprising--the flip side of feeling so much a part of the story's world.

OK, I've gotten interested. But I still don't like the characters. I'm just too lazy to shift gears!

I don't know if I'm going to make it through this book. I wanted to love it—witches+suffrage movement sounded like a no-fail combo—but the main characters aren't doing much for me, nor are some of the weird quirks of the writing. The opportunity cost of sticking with this long book (i.e., the books I'm not reading) is starting to feel too high.

For whatever reason I am still reading this. It could actually be a fun movie—she's really nailed down the Bingla sisters and made Quitty into an interesting slow-burn character. Doing something with the East meets West—there's a lot about English literature, British schools, going to America for college, etc.—would make this novel so much more satisfying. But right now it is still as satisfying as a matching game.

I'm approaching DNF on this one. It's kind of cute but it also feels a lot like an exercise, more than a novel. I have some mild curiosity about whether it will pick up, but mostly I think it's the Sunk Cost Fallacy keeping me going at this point.

I'm enjoying this, and Orange is clearly a good author, but I'm not sure listening while going about my daily stuff in the kitchen is how I want to approach this book. I am not an audio person—if there is an option to read, I would much rather read!—but I do want to find interesting things to listen to when I can't hold a book. Just maybe not too interesting.

You know that feeling when you're reading a novel and then you feel that like the ride has engaged and there's no way you're getting out of your seat until it's over?

I am at that point in Piranesi.

This is a tough read -- if you ever wanted to feel punched in the face by the weight of the world's attacks on women all concentrated in one hit, this may be the book for you.

I picked this up for my teens because I wanted to read it. So far it's a fun and breezy YA read set in a historical period I enjoy. It has a strong lead character who is seriously headed for an emotional fall and redemption arc, so I anticipate the breezes changing direction soon. A great break from some of the heavier, difficult books I've been reading—light without being brainless.

Just as I got to the practical part, I lost access to the kindle! A hard read at times -- stories of war and childhood abuse -- but valuable insights about how our we change in response to trauma, specifically, highly stressful events that are too overpowering too process in that moment and therefore stay with us. Hopeful suggestions for healing!

I will probably skim through the rest of this -- not really a book for me. Too thin, too digressive, too repetitive. Follow Maria Popova's Brain Pickings on Twitter instead for deeper content on creativity.