Mary Beth > Recent Status Updates

This is reading like Eat, Pray, Love but written by a man.

Most bizarre mystery (kind of)-turned-family saga but strangely compelling. A slower read but I haven’t been tempted to DNF.

Weird, and I prefer the narrative of present day, but I can’t stop reading.

This book is absolutely ridiculous. That is all.

A third of the way through and after a robust beginning, it’s disappointingly unimaginative and repetitive.

This book is way more boring than I remember. And annoying. Virtually every character is so flipping annoying. And randomly gross. I sped up the audiobook just so I can get it finished lol.

Ok, new audiobook narrator and it’s literally impossible to listen without grinding my teeth so DNF lol

This series is silly and fluffy but fun and relaxing to listen to (I’m reading the audiobook versions through Hoopla) while I stitch.

What a godawful, drivel-y, dragging, problematic book. That’s it. That’s the whole update.

This is why I have a hard time supporting Neil Gaiman: I hear awesome things about him and his books, but when I read his stories I find casual slurs and racist phrases like “gypsy” and “savage aboriginal.” They’re not used critically, in case you’re curious about further context.

“Ravished is such a horrid word!” she said. “It’s only people who ravish things.”
“Oh, I don’t know… snails and things,” he said.
“Even snails only eat them, and bees don’t ravish.”
She was angry with him, turning everything into words. Violets were Juno’s eyelids, and wildflowers were unravished brides. How she hated… ready-made words and phrases, sucking all life-sap out of living things

Fantastic collection so far. Yep adds lots of cultural and historical context so the reader can more fully appreciate the stories. I’m planning on reading this collection aloud with my kids sometime next year.

Ok, this is a YA book set in rural America and written around the year 2000. I get it. But I *still* seriously doubt a middle schooler could just bluff their way into acupuncture appointments. “You tell your mom to tell the acupuncturist my mom says it’s fine and I’ll pay with odd job cash!” “Oh! Ok!!” And it works. This whole section has been very weird.

Not promising so far. I think the first rule of writing a story about a character struggling with a specific issue, such as synesthesia, is that the author have personal experience with it. That’s not the case here. It appears the author had a research group? sounding board? comprised of individuals who experience synesthesia, but that’s not the same.

I don’t have anything positive to say so far and feel like I’m reading a completely different book than the folks who left 4-5 star, raving reviews :/

Many thanks to William Morrow Books and the author for a physical ARC of The Change. Pub day: May 3rd, 2022.

Reading an ARC edition and loving it!! So much so that I pre-ordered a hardcover XD Pub day: April 19th!!

Just as good as the first installment so far! Awesome adventure and cast!

Timely as I count down the hours to my 33rd birthday.

“And when I was your age I thought everybody over thirty was practically dead. But we don’t feel like that. We find ourselves just as interesting as we ever did and what happens to us seems just as important.”

“Joy is a cousin of love, you read once. If you cannot feel love, there is at least this weaker relative, tantalizing in memory…”
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Halfway through Notes on an Execution, gripping in its examination of love, memory, the relentless shaping of experience, and how freewill isn’t free at all.
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I hope you experience true love and joy today.
Happy Valentine’s Day 🖤

Excellent wrap-up for the series so far. I do wish I'd been able to read them one after another and not over a period of several months, BUT I'm currently collecting our own copies and they'll make an excellent reread at some point.

I’m so excited to read this! The last volume of the series. Also a lil nervous and wanting to stretch it out.

The description of death. It brought tears to my eyes. What incredible scenes and feelings this book evokes.

Phenomenal narration and dialogue. I’m LOVING this book.

Ridiculous stories. Boring, underwhelming, and problematic.