Shy

Gah. This was so fucking cute.

There were a few editing issues and inconsistencies but those were easily overlooked because I fell head over heals for closet cinnamon roll hero Tate!! I was really in the mood for something a bit bully/angst-y, and this gave me everything I wanted, and then some.

This was the first bully book I think I've ever read where I actually felt like the hero actually internalized the consequences of his actions and redeemed himself. I loved Letty (I'm a big sucker for a low self esteem heroine, shoot me). I thought the push and pull between her and Tate made a lot of sense! It was a bit frustrating when she would continuously pull away from him right when they were making progress, but honestly, it made complete sense and I couldn't blame her for it one bit. She was a very strong heroine to continuously be able to be upfront about her trauma, voice her feelings even though it might hurt Tate's.

I think this was also the first romance book that I have ever enjoyed which only had the heroines POV. I am usually of the opinion that the MMC's POV is more interesting. However the way Charlotte Stein wrote it really worked! Tate was such a softy and Letty was able to read him like a book, so it was almost cuter this way! He was so obviously head over heels for her and he couldn't hide it! I love love loved it!


The only thing I wish is that there was some sort of epilogue, or bonus chapter or something! The ending left me salivating for one more teeny tiny taste of their HEA.

I have so much nostalgia love for this book. I worked as a librarian's assistant in middle school and so I was able to order this book from the local high school to read (even though I think I was supposed to need permission from someone to read this book because it was “more mature”) . It was the first book I had read with such a wild, confident, loose-cannon type heroine and a more mature level of romance than what was available in the middle school library and I instantly fell in love. I remember really liking her dynamic with the male main character. I'll have to re-read so I can give it an updated review, but even just looking at the cover brings back good memories for me.

Was superbly written. I would give the writing 5 stars, but the main character was just so painfully bland . I know this is intentional, I know that one could teach an entire course dissecting his thoughts and actions, but I really couldn't bring myself to care.

I wouldn't even call the narrator unlikeable, really. I felt nothing for him, nor about him. The world he lived in though was intensely interesting, and I found every other character in the book to be more worthy of a story about them than the narrator.

TL;DR I cared more about whether or not the old man ends up finding his dog than whether or not the main character has his head knocked off in the middle of the town square and quite frankly to construct a story where that's the case takes talent in and of itself...

2.5 rounded down.

If you have to choose between buying and reading Atomic Habits versus buying and reading this book, I am of the belief you would find far more utility from Atomic Habits.

I really wanted this to be a book that I felt foundational to the way I structured my work going forward. Unfortunately, most of the practical information I felt was quite obvious and I already practice it. As an aspiring academic, I think maybe most useful things I learned from the book were that: memory training and other focus intensive tasks that are unrelated to your research/work can be helpful to train your brain to think more deeply on your actual work, and that there exist successful young Professors who end their work day at 5:30pm.

I went into the book already convinced of the value of deep work. As a result I found most of the content to be fairly useless. Most of the book felt persuasive in nature, as if trying to convince the reader of the value of deep work and that the techniques introduced are actually facilitative of deep work. To this second point, most of the evidence was anecdotal, and interesting but not very personal, nor deep, nor detailed. Most of it could've, ironically, been summarized on a buzz-feed article titled “30 quirky habits of the worlds most ingenious minds” or something like that.

To the first point, if you are someone, especially someone who is not in tech/startup world, who is already convinced of the value of deep work I feel you can easily skip the first half of the book. In fact I wish I had.

Overall I was quite disappointed, I think Professor Newport had a very unique opportunity as someone with a vast wealth of personal experience in high achieving environments and positions that he could've leveraged. If he wanted to support his arguments with anecdote, he could've used his own, as a Ph.D. student who graduated from MIT. I would've eaten a narrative book like this up if he supported each of his techniques with a full story of how it helped him in some unique situation, and how he developed these techniques throughout his career (much like the conclusion of the book) then supported this with sprinkles of anecdotes from other professors or scholars or something as supplements. This still would not serve the same purposes as Atomic habits which is highly centered on research supported techniques, but I think it would've offered a unique perspective worth reading about.

Overall the book was a bit of a slog, mildly derogatory, sometimes a bit finger-wavey, and pretty redundant but with some gems buried in the pages, but as some other reviewers have said these gems could've occupied 20pgs maximum if they were written concisely. The supporting evidence wasn't very supportive, so basically the techniques are more like very general tips or recommendations which are left to stand on their own merit, and could've been expressed in that many pages. In short, if you are even remotely interested in personal growth or bettering yourself, you're probably already doing most, if not all, of what this book suggests.

I feel pretty much every emotion you could possibly feel about this book. To me Shirley Jackson is the queen of minor anxieties, and so this book was exhausting, unnerving, thrilling, confusing. Some of the stories hit too close to home, and made me angry, others made me laugh, or gasp in shock and horror. After every short story I wanted this book to be over I could be released from it's grip, but I also wanted it never to end.

I'm still feeling a bit dazed and confused about this book. Can I say I really enjoyed it? I'm not sure. I have this deep feeling that it is one of the most important books I've ever read, and I almost feel a compulsion to read it over and over and over again. But I also feel like I might need a break from it for sometime.