Nora
Hard-hitting memoir with a confronting title by McCurdy about her experiences with child acting, a mentally ill and abusive mother and eating disorders. Having never watched iCarly or Sam & Cat I never knew McCurdy any more than as a name heard in passing but I don't think that's a requirement for reading this book. The easy to read language, short chapters and captivating storytelling made this a page turner for me and I finished it in two sittings. Growing up with shows like toddlers and tiaras and movies like little miss sunshine I always had my concerns about putting children in the lime light and this was a very insightful book to read on the topic and only confirmed my suspicions.
I enjoyed the story as a whole, the audiobook was fantastic. I just didn't find myself wanting to pick it up that much, I wasn't that invested in the characters. I think the interview style wasn't really for me.
Read in one evening. Fast read, simple, yet gripping with a great plot twist, though I was disappointed with Lowen's reaction to it in the end.
As sweet and emotional as the first book, though some repetition for the sake of being able to be read as a stand-alone piece. It was fun to hear updates from characters in the first book. Overall I loved it as much as the first one.
Heartbreaking, tender, passionate, loving. A beautifully sad story about a love that could never be.
“I'm seventeen years old. I don't know then that one day I won't be seventeen. I don't know that youth doesn't last, that it's only a moment, and then it disappears and by the time you finally realize it, it's too late. It's finished, vanished, lost.”
I definitely prefer this one over Daisy Jones, and I appreciated the story of Evelyn. In the beginning I found myself not wanting to stop listening, but after a while I just didn't find myself being so interested in how it ended. However, at the end it suddenly got interesting again. It's a good book, an enjoyable listen, I just felt the middle was a bit too slow and uneventful in a sense, despite all the different husbands, it was all for the same reason which made me feel less engaged in the story. This type of story and setting (Hollywood) just tends to not grip me as much as others, but I can see why people love it.
Well, I never thought I'd enjoy a super scienc-y sci-fi this much.
Ryland Grace wakes up alone in a space ship, and he has to figure out how to save Earth. Along the way Spoiler he meets Rocky, an alien from another planet with the same problem as Earth. I absolutely loved Rocky and the relationship he and Grace formed. I also enjoyed the way they approached their communication issues. Just goes to show that we can always figure out a way to communicate with one another. This book was funny, emotional, hopeful and action-packed all at once. As much as I didn't understand the science, it felt plausible and still somehow enjoyable to read, considering there's so much of it. I never knew a sci-fi in space could be such a feel-good story.
I am not a math fan at all. In fact, I'd rather never have to solve another somewhat complicated math problem in my life if I can help it. But this book made me see the wonder in it, which is a feat in and of itself. A very heartwarming little book, I only wish it was longer.
4.5 Really interesting and unique take on a whodunnit with lots of twists and turns. One of those stories where everything is confusing until it slowly starts to unravel and everything makes sense in the end. I really enjoyed it. If you can accept the confusion and go along for the ride it's a really intriguing story. Bit of a slow burn but kept me wanting to keep picking it up to figure the story out which I was surprised by. Unlike anything else I've read.
Reading too many other things and don't have the headspace. I would love to read it physically and annotate later on. Back on the TBR it goes.
I've always been a fan of these types of stories, if there is a mystery to be solved I'm into it. So for that reason, I loved it. It was well-written, the story unfolded in a way that didn't give away too much too fast, yet just enough to keep me intrigued. It takes a more emotional connection to the story, pulling at my heartstrings, for me to give it 5 stars, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A slow starter for me, but I grew to love the characters. The beginning dragged on a bit too long for me, but once the story got going it had me not wanting to put it down. Lots of messaging about not discriminating and accepting people as they are. Absolutely adorable and heartwarming.
“Society was a system for falling in love. People who couldn't fall in love had to fake it. What came first: the system or love? All I knew was that love was a mechanism designed to make Earthlings breed.”
This book is about how a child survives abuse and the pressures of society. Very strange, disturbing and heartbreaking. Quick read but impactful.
Instant new favourite. I loved everything about it. It pulled on all my heartstrings, I rooted for Kya, I wished I was in her world so I could help her out. It made me long for the sea and nature, and reading it on a beach in Barcelona probably only added to the magic of Kya's world.
“All my rage seethes inside me and there's no place for it to go. I thrash. I scream. I snarl and bite. I let it course through me. I let it take me.”
This book is a heartbreaking yet important story about human suffering, different types of pain, and two Pakistani teenagers trying to survive the cards they've been dealt. The love between Noor and Salahudin was a beautiful respite amongst all the awfulness.
Wonderful book. It's a great read to get a better understanding of the Deaf community and the diversity within it. My favourite story was Charlie's as I felt I could relate the most to her in this kind of in between state of not quite part of the hearing world or the Deaf world, though mostly in the beginning. It's a feel good story, with educational elements, that I found myself not wanting to put down.
I just couldn't get into the story. I didn't feel much for anyone in it which made me uninterested in finding out what happens. Maybe that is to contribute to the robot perspective through which we learn the story. Shame, as I loved Never Let Me Go.
This one's for all the feel-good rom-com lovers! It's about Kelsey, a New Yorker and editor who lives a busy life in the big city and always says ‘no' to everything, resulting in an unsatisfying life. But she's so stuck in her ways and struggles to open up, until she ends up in the hospital and meets the older famous makeup-mogul Georgina Tate, who is so much like Kelsey. Georgina is dying and has no relationship with her family, which makes Kelsey realise this is not the life she wants for herself. So Kelsey convinces Georgina to embark on a summer of saying yes, which ends up changing both of their lives. The result is an easily digestible, cute, summery, inspiring, slightly cliché popcorn-read of a story. Perfect as a palate cleanser between heavier books or as a vacation beach read.
A wide array of short stories, some more impactful than others. Neither story was bad, yet neither was intensely gripping to warrant a 5 star for me. A solid 3.5 stars from me, an enjoyable read and a nice way to spend a day, but won't stay with me for very long.
All in all this collection of short stories taught me to be appreciative of what we have, how we can only go forward, never back. It taught me to appreciate a story and how you can, with simple measures, change the narrative of it, whilst also making me understand that a story is not enough, it is never the same as the lived experience. It made me sing Christmas songs in May and shed a tear of the loss of my grandmother and want to hug the people I love. To me, this book is about loss in many different ways.
My favourite stories were frozen windmills, how to make spinach-artichoke lasagna three weeks after your best friend's funeral, and the man who lives in my shower.
Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
Denna bok gav mig minnen av min barndom på min alldeles egna sommarö, med min alldeles egna farmor och alla våra äventyr. Vi hade ingen spökskog men vi gjorde barkbåtar och djur av kottar och pinnar som farmorn gjorde djur av träden i spökskogen. Vi letade knollror och vaknade till brasan i eldspisen. Jag kunde se alla scener från boken framför mig på vår ö, med klarröda solnedgångar, sälar och ugglor, trasmattor, blåbärsbuskar och berg. Det gjorde boken mycket levande för mig, det gav mig också en saknad för det som var men aldrig är mer.
Tack farmor för alla dessa minnen och tack Tove Jansson för denna bok.
This was such a fun read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and could not stop listening. It's nicely paced, really intriguing and quite a classic type of cozy murder mystery. We follow Annie who is, through the will of her great-aunt Frances, tasked with solving her great-aunt's murder in order to inherit her estate. Based on a life-long prophecy made by a fortune teller in her youth who foretold that her death will be a murder, great-aunt Frances has spent her life trying to solve her own, not yet happened, murder. In her will she creates a game where the person who solves her murder first wins her wealth. Annie thus sets out to do just that, and we follow her journey, whilst also getting glimpses into young Frances life through her diary, which involves another mystery. Side by side the past and present unravels as we go along, culminating in a big reveal at the end. The audiobook narrator was fantastic, and I just really enjoyed myself.
Thanks so much to the publisher for the ARC provided through NetGalley!
What a great little book! Read in one sitting, went by in a flash! Every chapter focuses on a different person, all in transit from one airport to another. Each chapter is named after the airport connections, and each chapter, each person, is connected to the person before in some way. Either they met while in transit or they already knew each other, but those connections make it flow beautifully and tie each chapter together.
It was an inspiring read. It made me think of all the times I've sat in an airport or train station, passing time by people-watching and making up stories in my head of where each person was going, where they came from, what their life was like, what they were thinking. This book felt like those thoughts come to life, where we're actually given a little glimpse into the lives of the people we run into while traveling. 4.5 stars.
For you, a thousand times over.
I love stories that span a whole life. There is so much richness, so many teachings and experiences. Both heartbreak and happiness. This book is exactly that. Heart shattering, tragic, yet stunning. Beautifully written, gorgeous.
“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime”
3.5. My first Stephen King. Interesting premise, all they really do is walk, but it deals with topics so much deeper than that. I would have liked more background information about the walk, how it came about and why. Quite slow-moving, some sections haven't aged so well but overall an interesting read.