One night, when super-normal-boring mom Lizzie is laying next to her super-lame-not-rich husband (her perception, not mine) and scrolling through her One night, when super-normal-boring mom Lizzie is laying next to her super-lame-not-rich husband (her perception, not mine) and scrolling through her super rich, super cool, super mommy blogger instagram famous ex-best friend's instagram feed for the millionth time (very healthy!), she receives a DM from the very woman she is insta-stalking to help her break a story. Cue Lizzie being thrown into the world she's been so fascinated by and realizing not everything is what it seems. Honestly, this is a classic thriller plot, the backdrop of these influencers is the interesting part of the story. There are hints of discussions on how comparing oneself to influencers can be very harmful to your perception of your reality and one underlying message: Everyone (on the internet) is lying to you.
I was really excited for this one when it was floated around for bookclub because, while I rarely read thrillers, I am often found scrolling in fascination through tradwife influencers that have gained traction over the past few years (Can I name them here? I'm sure you know who I'm referring to.) and this is the first fiction book I've seen on the topic.
That being said, as a thriller, what would this book have had to have done for me to give it above three stars? The answer is quite simple, and maybe too much to ask of it: It would have had to have pulled a Notes on an Execution and gone pretty deep into the nuances of the subject matter. While she had a lot of breadth, there was so much that could have been explored deeper that I frankly found a lot more interesting than a murder. The dangers of parasocial relationships and how truly odd it is that you can know "everything" about someone while they know nothing about you (and dangerous, especially when the person in the spotlight is a child); comparison being the thief of joy (EVEN if it turns out the person you are comparing yourself is actually living a good life, not just because their life may not be real and they may be suffering more than you); influencers and how most of what we see from them is them trying to make money/sell something; and the rise of tradwife influencers in general are all incredibly interesting and relevant topics that I would have loved to see discussed with nuance and in depth. Sadly, in this book they just felt like a backdrop for the story. Would that have maybe turned this into a completely different book for a completely different purpose? Yeah. So I'll just say the problem is me and move on. B)...more
Unfortunately, not even the amount of times that EmHen talked about how large Hayden was could have prevented me from blushing and kicking my feet aboUnfortunately, not even the amount of times that EmHen talked about how large Hayden was could have prevented me from blushing and kicking my feet about this one. This is my type of romance. Hayden is my type of man (AND I actually believed people didn’t like him unlike with Beach Read… even though I always knew he was a sweetie pie). Alice is very relatable in many ways that her other FMCs are not to me. This was cute. The story with Margaret was engaging, if not a bit predictable, but I tend to shy away from interview style stories, so that was probably the best outcome for me personally. The ending did annoy me a little bit because I want to pull my hair out when reading from avoidant narrator’s POVs. But it is genuinely so rare for me to enjoy a romance and actually feel chemistry between the couple that this was overall a huge (and VERY surprising) win after I had given up on Emily Henry.
Shoutout to bookclub for making me pick this up because I have had such bad luck with EmHen. I wouldn’t have picked it up without y’all, and I’m so very glad I did.
And shoutout to Julia Whelan for an EXCELLENT audiobook reading. ...more
The issue I have with books in which the main objective is to make a statement about something is that I find the author tends to focus primarily on tThe issue I have with books in which the main objective is to make a statement about something is that I find the author tends to focus primarily on the point they are trying to make, causing the plot and character development/relations to feel pushed to the wayside and less developed than I would like. I Cheerfully Refuse is a classic example of that. While, in theory, this book was something I thought I would really love, I found that I was emotionally disconnected from the story, while the impact relied on the reader to be emotionally invested, or at least convinced that our narrator, Rainy, was. However, I found Rainy to be incredibly passive and unemotional, which disconnected me further. It felt like he was just riding the current of his own story, detached from everything, even before the event that kickstarted his quest happened. It was to the point where I was convinced that there would be some huge character growth from him and that this would be a big turning point, but he stayed the same the whole book.
This passivity and emotional disconnect made it impossible for me to be convinced that Rainy cared about any of the people that he encountered, taking away the hopeful aspect for me. Nothing in the book convinced me that he even fully knew his wife, let alone loved anything more than the idea of her. Likewise, his detachment towards everyone he encountered made me feel more hopeless than anything. I was expecting some type of emotional rocking, which would have been necessary for me to enjoy the book, but all we got was the narration of this man who felt very stagnant and impressively(?) unbothered by the dystopian world around him. It was very frustrating for me to be in his head.
I do think that the premise and setting is really intriguing and wish that there was a bit more depth to it, but it felt too wide sweeping for me to get my footing and wasn’t enough to pull me out of the indifference caused by reading from an indifferent, passive narrator during a time where hope and love and community seemed to be the most important things one could strive for.
I am starting to think that dystopian literary fiction may not be my cup of tea, which is a shame because it always sounds very cool and exciting on the surface. Definitely more a question of personal taste than quality for this one....more
Listen, they match each other’s freak and, in the grand scheme of things, that’s all that it’s really about.
pre-read: Real highbrow bookclub read thisListen, they match each other’s freak and, in the grand scheme of things, that’s all that it’s really about.
pre-read: Real highbrow bookclub read this month, y’all probably wouldn’t understand
3.5/5 with the caveat that I enjoyed this more than most romantasy/romance books I’ve read. I’m not sure if that’s a compliment to this or an insult to the others. ...more
Alright, it’s time for some disclaimers. One: I would probably not have picked this book up if not for book club and I have a complex about being the Alright, it’s time for some disclaimers. One: I would probably not have picked this book up if not for book club and I have a complex about being the only person who has finished every book and I’m not letting a book I dislike take that honor away. Two: I hate most romances. I am not romantic in the sense that most romance books are so what I find attractive rarely aligns. I know this about myself and also know why people find value in romance. I am not judging you for liking the romance book, I am just complaining because it is fun. This is a perfectly fine book, I just hated it. Three: I have always had mostly guy friends (or at least half) and I work very hard to make sure I am never seen as a romantic option to my best friends and that they never feel like it is okay to complain about their significant others. I like an inch between us minimum and we only hug in the most trying of times (or when we haven’t seen each other in a while). For a friends-to-lovers romance to work for me it has to be a very desexualized friendship, not one where they are cuddling for TEN years and prioritizing each other over their significant others and I just find that gross even in fiction. Four: Yes, I am aware it’s not that deep. Nothing is that deep. HOWEVER, I read this book so I want to complain. That being said, my reviews of romance books are incredibly subjective and I don’t recommend reading them if you are super attached to the book and will be hurt reading about why someone hates a book you loved and connected to. This is a wonderful time to scroll away if that’s you and we will both probably be happier for it!
I hated this book. Despised it. It might be my least favorite book of the year. There was literally never a point where I found joy in this. The characters were incredibly cliche and had NO depth to them at all. We are just told facts and not shown anything, which is a huge pet peeve of mine. This is definitely cheesy hallmark movie vibes and will probably be enjoyable for a lot of people but oh my god I was cringing the entire time and had to listen to parts on 3x speed just to get through it. The biggest issue I had was with the relationship. Friends-to-lovers is the PERFECT trope for the yearn. It’s the trope where you, after years of being friends, start looking at each other differently and start stealing glances at each other across a crowded room, feeling like you’re the only two people in the world, it’s making excuses to brush their arm and getting stronger butterflies than you’ve ever gotten from much more physical contact from someone else. It’s feeling the electricity of the inches of space that you’ve suddenly become aware of and feel every desire to close and not daring to close it. It’s ruminating about how they may never love you like that but accepting that that’s okay because them in your life is more than enough as a blessing. It is NOT having a “best friend” for 10 years and not understanding that you like each other even though you LITERALLY CUDDLE AND SLEEP IN THE SAME BED (NOT when fake dating) and call each other for every single problem (OVER significant others).
This book was about two people who were literally already dating (or in an emotional situationship) deciding to fake date for literally no reason just because they were too scared of their feelings and still not being able to talk to each other over their feelings even though it was INCREDIBLY clear that both of them were in love with each other which basically took out the entirety of the importance of the friends-to-lovers plotline and everything about it pissed me off. I will now be forgetting everything about it (hopefully after bookclub) and pretend I’ve never read it because, while it’s never that deep, this book felt like a personal affront to me. ...more
Everything is Tuberculosis is a gem in the fact that it is incredibly accessible and interesting while still having incredibly educational, angering mEverything is Tuberculosis is a gem in the fact that it is incredibly accessible and interesting while still having incredibly educational, angering material about tuberculosis; a disease which could very feasibly be prevented everywhere right now yet, because of some hand wavy reasons (*cough* greed *cough*), still kills millions annually. While it is a more surface level exploration into the exploitative, uncaring nature of the way the healthcare system is set up, Green does an excellent job showing people why they should care and bringing attention to a problem that a lot of people really don't want to read a dense book about. This serves as a jumping off point, something to make people aware of the injustice happening in third world countries while still being light, reading like a Crash Course video, and, by the end, I would have to agree that everything is in fact tuberculosis, or at least can very easily be traced back to it.
Green's connection to Henry and focus on one patient allowed for the patients to be humanized, to not just be numbers, to be someone real, to force people to see the humanity of others, to make it harder to ignore the senseless pain and suffering, to show that a human life will always be more important than an economic profit. I was lucky enough to see Green talk in Atlanta and he, among others, is doing some incredible work spreading the word and increasing awareness about tuberculosis. While his book ended on a hopeful note, his speech was a little more depressing as recent events have caused us to move even further backwards. Still, he helps bring hope, which can be turned into direct action, which is incredibly important.
Thank you John Green for breaking the cycle of me writing a pre-review for a book I am so excited for because of how much I love the person/concept, having my pre-review be the top review for that book because I am so witty and cool (I joke), then ultimately being disappointed in the book but having my review already be so popular that I get a lot of hate for writing my review. Among the really important things you have done with this book, you have also quelled some of my fear that comes with living in an obsessive-compulsive brain.
"Imagining someone as more than human does much the same work as imagining them as less than human: Either way, the ill are treated as fundamentally other because the social order is frightened by what their frailty reveals about everyone else's."
"And so we we must remember that illness is not only a biomedical phenomenon, but also a constructed one, and how we imagine leprosy or OCD or tuberculosis matters. In a place where the formal healthcare system is not particularly effective at treating an illness, it is easy to imagine how more trusted spaces and people--like churches and faith healers--can be a better bet than doctors and hospitals."
"But of course people are not just their economic productivity. We do not exist primarily to be plugged into cost-benefit analyses. We are here to love and be loved, to understand and be understood. TB intervention is an exceptionally good global health investment, but that is not why I care about TB."
Pre-Read: Welcome to my (least) favorite time of the year: reading a book I am super excited for but that I happen to have the top review for and being hyper aware of the fact that I will get absolutely flamed if I have anything negative to say.
First Impression: I see John Green has finally written the book of his dreams...more
I went into this book (a book club choice) knowing it probably wasn’t going to be for me and found that, surprise, it wasn’t for me. My feelings tI went into this book (a book club choice) knowing it probably wasn’t going to be for me and found that, surprise, it wasn’t for me. My feelings through the vast majority of this ranged from indifferent to hateful as I found it incredibly difficult to care about… well literally anything. I felt nothing, except the (more than occasional) pangs of anger, towards the characters, and the desire to never be in any of those men's heads again, but that (and the anger) felt like what I was supposed to feel, so I won't knock the book for having incredibly unlikeable characters. The underlying messages felt quite basic and almost fake deep, and I don’t think it was done in a particularly revolutionary way. Or maybe I just hated watching a bunch of really shitty people grow up to become even more shitty (and also completely miserable and washed up) because that’s not really how I like to view the passage of time. That could be part of the point of the book, and I get that. But that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t think this book added anything particularly new or interesting to my life. Even the choice to have thirteen short stories following different people who intersect in other stories was something that I was just lukewarm about. There was nothing that grabbed my attention for more than a fleeting moment, nothing I will hold onto after I write this review. “I don’t care” is the perfect way to sum up all of my feelings.
Following thirteen separate self-destructive people, the short stories in A Visit From the Goon Squad work together to give the reader glimpses of many of these characters through decades, as major players, background npcs, or even just passing thoughts in the stories they do not narrate. Through its nonlinear storytelling, Egan’s main focus is on the passage of time and what time takes from you, leaving a quite depressing picture that I don’t quite agree with. While the way this point was made was unique, it felt very surface level and a bit elementary. The plots that focused more on corruptibility were the most interesting ones to me as I felt Egan excellently portrayed how even the most “moral” and upstanding people can fall victim to corruption for money, especially in a capitalist world. The vast majority of us have a price, which is not necessarily a failing on us, but on the system because of how much of a difference a huge sum of money would make in our money-dependent lives. I found the most amount of nuance in those chapters as well.
I probably would have dnf-ed if it wasn’t for book club, but at least I can say I read it. I listened to the audiobook by Roxana Ortega which I have no complaints about, but I think that means that I missed some of the more experimental stuff in the book. I don’t really care enough to find a physical book and see what that entails, but I felt as though it was important to note that I may not have experienced the full effect of the skeleton, at least stylistically. ...more
Practical Magic is one of those stories that has been with me for most of my life, and my earliest memories of it are watching it every season with myPractical Magic is one of those stories that has been with me for most of my life, and my earliest memories of it are watching it every season with my mom and sister, but I had never really thought about reading it until it was considered as a book club book. There are inklings of the magic I felt throughout the movie spread throughout the book, as we follow the Owens girls as they navigate life, love, and each other. The strongest parts of this book occur when we focus on the, usually tumultuous, relationships between the three generations of sisters, but I found that I preferred the movie and the changes that were made in it to show off the bond between the Owens women, instead of the fixation on romance that was everpresent throughout the book. Personally, I found the romances in this book to be decidedly unromantic as they all hinged on love at first sight and whenever Hoffman switched to a man’s inner thoughts I was utterly nauseated. Even though the romantic aspects were more prominent in the book, I found them to be incredibly shallow and more off putting than in the movie (where I really loved the romances). Even so, this is a good book if you want some cozy fall vibes and does have a lot of heart to it, I just think I’ll stick to the movie version in the future. The audiobook, read by Christina Moore, was excellently narrated and was the perfect walking book to put me in a fall mood. If you want to read this, I definitely recommend listening to it this season and remember: ”Always throw spilled salt over your shoulder, keep rosemary by your garden gate, add pepper to your mashed potatoes, plant roses and lavender, for luck, fall in love whenever you can.” ...more
this is… the first pure romance book i’ve rated 5 stars. and i have to wait weeks to talk about it at book club. as someone who is so overly picky abothis is… the first pure romance book i’ve rated 5 stars. and i have to wait weeks to talk about it at book club. as someone who is so overly picky about men and whether or not i like them can break a book, i can confidently say that iwan is the best man and now maybe i kinda believe in love again...more
“It’s strange, to not be the youngest kind of adult anymore. I’m thirty-one now and my mother is dead.”
Casey is 31 and has been working on her nove “It’s strange, to not be the youngest kind of adult anymore. I’m thirty-one now and my mother is dead.”
Casey is 31 and has been working on her novel for six years. She spends her mornings trying to write while she waits tables during the afternoon and night. She is dealing with the grief of her mother and the loss of a relationship and she is not very good at letting real things touch her. In short, she is the perfect narrator for a lost-in-your-thirties book. There is so much in these pages that can be so relatable to so many people, including myself. I don't always know how to feel about books about writers, but I really did love this one and the way it was included. It can be so disheartening to be in any creative pursuit until a break happens and this felt like a warm hug just saying "you're not alone."
“It’s a sense of despair about writing itself, a sort of throwing up of hands, as if to say I’ll put this down on the page but it’s not what I really mean because what I really mean cannot be put into words.”
If your name is Kris and you’ve had to deal with me texting you multiple times about how this is the writer version of tick, tick… BOOM! just know that I love you and endlessly appreciate you (even though you didn't like this book). Thanks for putting up with my thoughts. Now let me tell everyone else about how this is the writer version of tick, tick… BOOM! There is often times a glamorization that comes with the idea of a “starving” or “tortured” artist that is directly opposed to the life. The aestheticization of these people who are in bad financial situations by people who are significantly more well off has always felt very empty and weird to me. Like tick, tick… BOOM!, Writers & Lovers does not glamorize the life of people trying to write and get published. In both cases, our protagonist has spent years working on writing something and, having reached 30, are starting to see the majority of their friends “sell out” or get full time jobs for stability instead of continuing their creative pursuits. There’s a sense of being left behind while the world moves forward that always feels so validating to see in media. Casey is losing friends because she can’t afford being in their weddings and isn’t settling down because she refuses to “sell out,” but not selling out comes at a very high price that is not justifiable to a lot of people.
“I look back on those days and it feels gluttonous, all that time and love and life ahead, no bees in my body and my mother on the other end of the line.”
Grief is at the heart of this novel. A few weeks before the start of this book, Casey lost her mom quite unexpectedly. King does a beautiful job exploring how this grief seeps into Casey’s everyday life from not wanting to finish her novel about her mother to wanting to call her mom about the most mundane things. Grief invades every aspect of Casey’s life in such a raw, borderline unmanageable way that I have to applaud. Every single aspect of this book is layered with the grief of her mother.
“I hate male cowardice and the way they always have each other’s backs. … And when he got caught, he got a party and a cake.”
Another very prominent theme in Writers & Lovers is about harassment women receive from men and the lack of consequences men face from their actions. There is a particularly gross, anxiety inducing situation that happens at the restaurant she works out that really incredibly highlights why it’s so hard to come forward about issues. Additionally, there is a past situation with her father and the male staff’s reactions that reminded me of how Nickelodeon’s Dan Schneider “exited Nickelodeon” instead of being fired even though there were some very serious allegations against him from minors. This protection of men in power over the children that are being exposed is such a pressing issue and it was handled in a very depressingly realistic way here too.
“I squat there and think about how you get trained early on as a woman to perceive how others are perceiving you, at the great expense of what you yourself are feeling about them. Sometimes you mix the two up in a terrible tangle that’s hard to unravel.”
I find the relationships to be especially interesting in this book because, while they are prevalent, they serve more as a way to explore Casey and her growth instead of standing alone as solid relationships. We see her with Oscar, a successful novelist, and his very sweet young children. With Oscar, we see everything that Casey thinks she wants – namely a family that was healthier than her own. We also see her with Silas, a younger struggling writer like her who she hits it off with immediately. There is this internal battle with Casey choosing between having a place already set out for her in a lukewarm relationship or taking a chance and potentially finding painful heartbreak that I really enjoyed. I think both relationships were handled well and watching how Casey handled both men added more depth to the story.
“ ‘The sublime always tracks you down eventually.’ ”
I went into this book expecting it to be pretty heavy on the romance. I came out of it carrying a profound and heartwarming story about a woman in her early-30’s still struggling to find her place in life and eventually reaching a point where things finally start going right. This is so much of a book and it’s all done incredibly well. I could feel all of Casey’s emotions so clearly and was rooting for her the whole time. This is about a woman waiting for her break and trying to figure everything out along the way. It’s about grief, it’s about friendship, it’s about shitty men, and it’s about loving yourself before anyone else.
“I think of all the people playing roles, getting further and further away from themselves, from what moves them, what stirs them all up inside. And I think of my novel on Muriel’s mail table and I hope that tropical fish guy will leave it alone.”
Discussing this at book club was great fun as there was a 50/50 split on people who loved or hated it so we had a nice heated discussion....more
“I can be moved by something and not know if I want it for myself.”
everything I know about love has had the title of the quintessential “lost in yo “I can be moved by something and not know if I want it for myself.”
everything I know about love has had the title of the quintessential “lost in your 20’s” book since it’s release. We follow Dolly as she recounts her twenties through the lens of her friends and men and watch as her thoughts on love evolve from her teens until she is thirty. Dolly is a bit of a boy obsessed partier who loves her friends fiercely and it’s really entertaining to read this book as she is absolutely the queen of romanticizing her life. While I only found a few moments in this to be particularly hard hitting, this is the kind of book where the more you relate to it the better it will be.
We follow Dolly as she navigates her twenties and her fear of aging into her thirties. The non-chronological order of this memoir, while confusing at times, really showed the confusion and lostness that one feels in their twenties well. I found the balance of batshit crazy experiences and more reflective moments to be done pretty well. While there are some really fun and deeper moments, a lot of the more poignant revelatory moments didn’t hit for me. A lot of that was because I had already learned a similar thing on my own or because Dolly and I are in two very different paths so some things didn’t feel that relevant to me. While well written, a lot of revelations felt a bit surface level too. I also found the emails to be trying too hard to be funny and ended up having to skip them because I really did not enjoy them. There were some other parts that were really focused on centering men and not prioritizing friends (like making friends less important than boyfriend’s friends’ partners) when you got in relationships that Dolly took as a fact of life that I didn’t necessarily agree with. Nonetheless, this was an enjoyable read and I can see how it would resonant with others.
Even though I couldn’t connect to this most of the time, it was a really quick and enjoyable read and really fun to discuss in a group and was a great first book club pick. I enjoyed Dolly’s writing and am really intrigued to her fiction works....more
If I had a nickel every time one of Emily Henry’s books made me root for the two main characters separately but not as a couple, I’d have two nickels,If I had a nickel every time one of Emily Henry’s books made me root for the two main characters separately but not as a couple, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but I’ve only read three Emily Henry books. This book solidified my half-baked theory that Emily Henry is not aware that men and women are capable of being platonic friends because… man I don't think Emily Henry has written a book where a male/female close friendship didn't end in them being together (this is mainly pointed at Peter and Petra here, but also as soon as Daphne/Miles got semi-close it immediately got sexual, so I'm also talking about them). I did really love the friendship and growth between Miles and Daphne, I just wish it was done in a less sexual way (at least for the majority of the book)! I think I’m being harsh on this one because it really had the potential to be my favorite Emily Henry book and just fell so flat for me.
“Every time he looks over, it’s like the sun peeking out from behind a cloud, and I do my best to feel content, to be just another person at the edge of his glow.”
If this book wasn’t so focused on a romance that neither Daphne nor Miles were ready for, it could have been my new favorite Emily Henry book. There are some really good discussions on how to live after a relationship, especially one where you have lost your sense of self and only view yourself as part of a couple. Unfortunately, those self-reflections felt a little weak when Daphne started some form of romantic relationship incredibly quickly. I think there could have been some really great discussions on how neither of them were in a place for a relationship (which was, again, stated multiple times in this book), but I guess that wouldn’t make it a romance? I still think they had great chemistry and would’ve been more on board if they maybe started thinking about each other romantically at around chapter 30, but this felt way too soon for the circumstances. Maybe I’m just a romance hater; more likely I’m a much bigger fan of romances that start emotionally rather than physically. And are between two idiots who don’t realize their feelings. And there’s a lot of yearning. Anyways… I actually did end up liking them together in the end, it just took me a while to get there. And I still wish there was a bit more time between their breakups. Seriously, this all happens starts right after they both get out of very serious, long-term relationships so obviously they’re going to be a bit selfish and maybe not quite over their exes, because who would be? That’s such a terrible event to go through. There were so many times when it was so clear that neither of them were ready for a relationship and both were benefitting from just having someone in their corner that I really just couldn’t back up this relationship in it’s current stage.
“ ‘But after a while, someone either finally sees you or they don’t, and either way it fucking sucks. Because if they see you, and it’s not what they signed up for, then they’re out of there. And if they never see you. . . it’s worse. Because you’re just alone.’ ”
The bulk of this book felt like that one Arrested Development scene where they’re like “I have feelings for you.” “I have feeling for you.” And then the narrator goes “That feeling was friendship, but neither had ever experienced it.” Because wow did both Daphne and Miles get treated like decent human beings by the opposite sex for the first time in their lives and immediately decide that they were romantically interested in each other. That being said, I did actually really like their friendship and only got the ick when things would get weirdly sexual (in public too??? I’m sorry, ew. Maybe I am just a hater now that I think about it…) I don’t want to call it chemistry, but they were really good for each other and got on incredibly well. They also were probably the only two people in Waning Bay who had their long-term partners cheat on them with their best friend and then get together, so there was some major solidarity that they wouldn’t have been able to find from anyone else. They both brought out the best in each other, held each other accountable, and were all around just decent people to each other. I really liked them together (platonically) and could see the vision for the romance, just not at the time it occurred.
“I wouldn’t have become a librarian if I didn’t love stories, but I’ve never been great at telling my own.”
Daphne is an incredibly relatable character that has one major flaw: the Daphne Moan. I’m getting this out of the way first because, wow, it had the potential to ruin everything for me. Every single time this (grown) woman ate food there was at least the mention of her moaning in pleasure about it. It was gross. Anyways, aside from the moan Daphne is a very cool librarian who loves her jobs and has various classic parental issues. Her unsurety and winding stories were incredibly relatable and it was really nice to see her grow and learn once she exited a “we” relationship (again, should someone who becomes a “we” and not a “me” as soon as they enter a relationship immediately jump into a new relationship? Debatable. Moving on…). With Miles as her tour guide, Daphne really blossoms into her own and gains confidence and connections. Daphne has the works: daddy issues, lowkey mommy dependency, severe trust issues, doesn’t know who she is and Emily Henry really does a great job at showing her evolution. I especially love how Henry showed how her trauma shaped the way she viewed the world. Part of it may be because I used to have similar unhealthy habits (Therapy! Helps! Maybe she should go to it instead of getting in another relationship so quickly!), but I found myself agreeing with her a lot and was thrown for a (good) loop when Emily Henry was like “no, this is bad thinking.” I also really appreciated the coffee-hater-who-still-goes-to-coffeeshops-everyday representation, even if I am more of a (good) matcha than a chai sentient being.
“ ‘ I’ve never been good under pressure. I would’ve fucked it up eventually.’ ‘Based on what?’ I demand. His smile is rueful. ‘History.’ ”
I was very happy to see some stoner-in-severe-depressive-episode-who-immediately-becomes-productive-when-he-is-needed representation in Miles! I’ve seen people be 50/50 on Miles, but he really is just Nick Miller from New Girl in a different font and I can rock with that. He does kind of lose a bit of his personality once he becomes Daphne’s tour guide, but I’m attributing that to the fact that the tour guide situation also served as a great distraction for him so he was able to stuff all his feelings down and just do that. Everything negative about Miles can be whittled down to him being in a very severe depressive episode and having just been broken up with in the most insane way and having all of his fears about himself seemingly be validated. Have I mentioned how bad of a time it is for them to be in a relationship enough yet? He’s also just got a lot of unresolved childhood trauma that I thought was really interesting to explore, especially his mommy issues. Overall, a great friend and also love interest if the timing was not the worst ever.
“ ‘I’ve seen your place,’ Ashleigh says. ‘I didn’t see a cohesive theme. Unless it was major depressive episode’ ”
Am I going to be lumping Ashleigh and Julia together for most of this? Yes. Ashleigh is the way-too-cool coworker of Daphne (with a conversation pit??? That’s literally the most exciting thing about this book. I’m a very big conversation pit person.) who helps Daphne realize some things about herself and just is there for Daphne, and Julia is the way-too-cool little sister of Miles who helps Miles realize some things about himself and is just there for Miles. See any similarities? No? Okay. While I love both of them, and could probably write pages about how we deserve to see a (sapphic) romance with Ashleigh as the main character, they kind of boil down to the same importance. They’re wonderful friends (or sister) and a great duo with some pretty good comic relief. I wanted to be in on their conversations 24/7 and I, as a person with a bunch of water (and gemini and leo, if you care) placements in their birth chart, am still wondering what the hell they were whispering about water signs. Probably that we’re super cool and also really compatible with single mom librarians who have conversation pits in their house and are also the coolest people ever, idk (marry me, Ashleigh).
“To him, he’s the brother who ran away. To her, he’s the one who stays, even when he shouldn’t”
Marriage proposals aside, Ashleigh and Julia were great characters because we got to see Daphne and Miles’s growth through them. They were outside parties that really loved the two of them and were a really nice addition. There was also a decent amount of focus on Ashleigh and Daphne and Julia and Daphne’s friendship that showed how important friendships are, instead of completely focusing on the romantic relationship. Likewise, the brother-sister bond between Miles and Julia was so sweet and nice to be able to see, even if we only saw it from Daphne’s pov.
“ ‘Life’s short enough without us talking ourselves out of hope and trying to dodge every bad feeling. Sometimes you have to push through the discomfort, instead of running.’ ”
If you’re looking for a new romantic pairing to love (Lake Michigan x Sunlight), I would consider this a cute story. It feels more like Happy Place than her older stuff, but it was still definitely a book that I read and also wrote “cute!!!” on the end sentence, so if that doesn’t sell you… I don’t really have much else to say. This one is for the pessimists, the ones whose childhoods make them feel a bit fucked up especially when it comes to pretty much any type of interpersonal relationship. It could've really been one I resonated with....more
This is a fascinating introduction to city planning, most specifically the importance of walkable cities. While some points in the original version arThis is a fascinating introduction to city planning, most specifically the importance of walkable cities. While some points in the original version are dated or have blatantly been proved wrong, the additional 100 pages in the 10-year anniversary edition excellently discus the topics he was wrong about and bring up new points that no one was thinking about a decade ago. His ability to admit the things he was wrong about and build on them is exactly what was needed. Additionally, this book was quite easy to get through, especially with Speck's humorous voice. The Atlanta transit bashing was an added bonus (as someone from Atlanta [yes we do know how much our transit sucks and, yes, we do joke about it quite a lot] and who was reading this on a plane from Madison, Wisconsin to Atlanta when Speck decided to praise Madison and critique Atlanta, I did laugh). I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in the feasibility of walkable cities, or who, like me, has been dreaming of cities outside of America precisely because of their lack of reliance on cars. I can see why Speck is so important in the world of city planning.
"We give and take love for one night, maybe a couple of weeks. But not longer than that. There is too much resentment. Too much hatred. You live for "We give and take love for one night, maybe a couple of weeks. But not longer than that. There is too much resentment. Too much hatred. You live for pleasure if you’re like this, and hope the police won’t stop you."
It’s always incredibly sad to reread a book you considered a favorite and only feel an iota of what it made you feel the first time round, especially when you got your whole book club to read it with the sole intent of being able to write a long, gushing review. It’s been months since I reread this, but I’ve been dragging my feet, resistant to writing this review, because I just don’t have that much to say this time around.
"This wasn't distraction or entertainment: here was a book that seemed to have been written for me, which lifted me up into its realm and united me with something that seemed to have been there all along and that I seemed to be a part of. It felt as if the words and the thoughts of the narrator--despite their agony, despite their pain--healed some of my agony, and my pain, simply by existing."
Having finally read Giovanni’s Room, the influence of Baldwin’s book is evident in Swimming in the Dark as we follow Ludwik as he discovers his sexuality through a copy of Giovanni’s Room, which was illegally smuggled into the authoritarian communist Poland. The romance that forms is primarily used as a tool to explore issues, primarily facing gay men, in Poland at the time, as Ludwik and Janusz have quite opposite views on their government. On my first read I felt incredibly moved by the inevitable tragedy of the romance, made clear, as in Giovanni’s Room, in the very first pages, and the exploration of what it meant to make the choice to leave everything you’ve ever known in a country you know you can no longer bear to be in. The exploration of finding oneself through literature, especially in a place where being yourself has dire consequences, was poignant and something that is relatable throughout every time.
During both of my reads, I loved the choice of second person narration, finding that the point of view enhanced the story. That being said, on my reread I found a lot of quotes to still hit, but the sum of the book fell a little flat, lacking the depth and exploration of these topics that I would have preferred and allowed me to connect a bit more, making me feel a bit displaced from the story. I still did enjoy this and loved the additions from Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book ClubService95 Book (scroll to June, that’s when it was the book).
We swam, fearless and free and invisible in the brilliant dark.” ...more
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