delaney

All the Names They Used for God is a collection of unique stories that seamlessly fit together, oozing mysticism. Though unrelated, they are woven increasing with both intensity and undertone of allusion to god either explicitly or in a more nuanced way.

The stories take place across a variety of worlds and years, but what I enjoyed most was the feeling that each character was driven by some force unbeknownst to them. I found this captivating. Only one of the stories was centered on religion, and yet every single story expressed the nature of our world and our faith in an unknown beyond.

I withhold my fifth star simply because it was hard for me to stay completely engaged with the format of a short story collection itself due to all the stopping and starting, but don't let that deter you from picking up this fantastic work! I really enjoyed the reading experience overall.

Unfortunately a huge disappointment. This book severely lacked in anything of substance and primarily came across as one huge complaint outside of a few key moments. I was hoping to get a better insight into the nuances of Autism in women, but I found the author really missed out on this in making it so intensely personal that it felt like an inner monologue and nothing more.

It would have been nice to read more explanations and explorations of the commonalities of autism in other women rather than hearing one long rambling train of thoughts that just sort of end up painting a really frustrating picture of how autism affects adult women... Really displeased with this reading experience.

This was pretty good. Pierce Brown truly has a gift—I can't think of many other books with 4 individual perspectives that I didn't once lose track of... Iron Gold wasn't as moving for me as the preceding trilogy, but I'm guessing that has more to do with the fact that this is primarily setting up two more books rather than acting as a stand-alone.

Too Late unsettled me. I do not think it's accurate to say I liked it, but I definitely could not put it down.

In general, CH's writing reliably draws me in, chews me up & spits me out in 24-48 hours. This reading experience was hardly different; however, I felt that the writing style itself makes the story feel cheap and unsatisfying. The characters are not developed outside of obvious tropes—they all sound like CH rather than clear individuals with depth and personality. Meanwhile, the events that take place throughout the book are dark. I found it emotionally challenging to read the “villain's” point of view at all given that CH uncomfortably blurs the lines of what's morally just or forgivable.

Hoover constantly approached that mysterious border separating incredible from mediocre here but never quite crossed it. I neither recommend reading this nor regret that I did.

2.6 stars

Intriguing. Wolynn explains the process by which our parents' parents' (& so on) experiences are remembered in the fundamental coding of our own selves. This concept makes plenty of sense to me especially among other works such as The Body Keeps the Score and the current discussions permeating the mainstream about trauma & potentially traumatic experiences in general. There is also some great stuff in here about the specific ways your parents' dynamics affect your own relationships. Overall, Wolynn fills the pages with anecdotes but lacks psychological and physiological explanations—I needed more of a balance.

Part of me feels a sense of relief with this understanding: not everything that myself & my siblings are hashing out right now are our issues alone. It didn't start with you highlights that there's plenty unresolved coming through from the generations behind us. Some aspects of the theory, such as descendants of holocaust victims struggling with symptoms that the original victims would have experienced, are far fetched; however, when expanded to a general sense (i.e. your core beliefs are shaped by your parents & their core beliefs, which were shaped by their parents & so on) this really clicks.

On the other hand, I find this message teetering on the fence between enlightening and disempowering. To see your own issues as the product of generations and generations of war veterans, troubled relationships, abuse, etc., puts an incomprehensible weight on the individual to either heal everything or accept defeat. I agree that it always helps to be made aware of these patterns of the unconscious, but I can't see this as the primary lens through which to heal yourself... I think all that I read here could be taken with a grain of salt and accompanied by chats with a therapist specializing in family systems.

Okay look, the thing is: this was beautiful, but it wasn't for me.

I saw this book in a Brooklyn bookshop on the local authors table, and I was enticed. Eliza Barry Callahan's writing is poetic with stunning rhythm. There were many moments when I thought to myself, “ah, yes. damn,” if you get what I mean. In another lifetime–one where I also adore writers like Ocean Vuong & James Joyce–I would love this.

Unfortunately, I am not into this type of writing (my loss). I almost marked The Hearing Test dnf, but it was too dreamy to give up on. I hope others can appreciate it the way it deserves.

Through impressive research and composition, Matthew Desmond unveiled the reality of what it means to be trapped in the inescapable poverty-eviction loop rampant in our country. Evicted is an important read — I had no understanding of the role evictions play in poor communities until now, let alone the amount of people affected by them daily. Although this book was devastating, I am very glad to be a little more knowledgeable and much more empathetic to this issue that so many people face.

This was just... not good. I am a firm believer that history can be and should be interesting and even entertaining — I was totally encapsulated by the title & book description, but the writing itself fell short at every turn. Cahill seemed to zoom in on a few main icons & their writings but failed to integrate them into a legitimate, cohesive narrative of the time period. He transcribed & translated a painful amount of practically meaningless passages that have left me feeling somehow more ignorant about this time period than I was before, and I knew nothing before...

Overall, the experience of reading this entire book vs the actual payout of the plot developments & twists was not quite worth it for me. The various ideas in The Three Body Problem are super intriguing, and the level of integration of abstract physics concepts is straight up cool. I enjoyed the twists and turns throughout.

However, the whole thing has a bizarre issue with pacing—the first third of the book felt painfully slow, while other moments that I believe were meant to be suspenseful ended up rushed. Many interesting moments are written in past tense format that makes them feel way less story-like and way more history-textbook-like. Most of the time, I just didn't know why anything was happening, and the moments that grabbed my attention were fleeting.

2.9 stars

The second star is only for the last handful of chapters. This book had a ton of potential out the gate, but ended up dwindling into pages and pages of internal and external dialogue about absolutely nothing. There is such a thing as too much woe-is-me, and unfortunately this book really crossed into that territory.

I liked the book itself, but having Arnold reading it via audiobook was priceless.

I appreciated the simple, straightforward ideas conveyed in this—the one that stuck with me most being that if you dream as big as you can and work as hard as you can, you'll inevitably land somewhere great. It's obvious, but having someone so honest & successful express that notion of control over your circumstances was a breath of fresh air.

I'm sorry... what? This cannot be the same Emily Henry I fell in love with months ago...

I was excited to read this based on the description, and that carried me about halfway through the book. Beyond that, everything really fell apart for me. Instead of letting the initial mischief flourish, there was a distinct point where everything just got...really boring. I'm actually kind of mad about it upon reflection. It's like I was repeatedly baited with some juicy drama and served stale leftovers.

The premise that Emily Henry sets us up with is great: a couple classic romance tropes and beautiful writing as always to set the scene. However, it slowly becomes a never-ending series of the characters getting into out-of-pocket, ultra-therapized monologues about their childhoods & current behaviors/patterns. I was constantly being bombarded with yapping that felt like I was sitting in on a psychoanalyst's summary of someone's last few years of sessions. The conflict was pointless, the tension was weak, the banter was awkward, and even though the ending is meant to be predictable, it was painfully so with hardly a blip between points A & Z. I'm sad and disappointed.

I really liked this book. It was pretty difficult to push through on an emotional level & yet still enlightening. There is a lot of anecdotal discussion that is interesting/captivating. I found that the biggest value of reading this was definitely being fully convinced that the title is indeed the truth – the body remembers everything in a very painful and intriguing way, and I believe that having this insight can shed light for numerous people who are knowingly or unknowingly coping with trauma.

I wish that there was more discussion of the nuance of trauma throughout the book. Many times the author noted how common trauma is across the population, but there was a lack of exploration of the various degrees; the examples seemed to be lumped into categories without much room for recognizing the individuality of everyone's experiences. This did not take away from the value I mentioned above but could've made it more meaningful for a lot more people.

I mean yeah, I'm going to enjoy a misunderstood good yet bad boy written by a woman pretty much every time, but that was where my enjoyment ended. The characters somehow acted 10 years younger than their alleged ages for most of this (annoyingly)—I actually had to keep reminding myself they're all real adults here...

Cute but kind of disappointing overall.