jana teresechka

the story told in sokphal din's the killing fields of cambodia is truly gut-wrenching and gruesome, but his writing is bland, boring, emotionless, stagnant and monotone, and it feels like he is giving me a run-down of what happened and who passed away with no emotions. i don't blame him because he doesn't necessarily work as an author and the things he went through under the despicable khmer rouge are enough to make your insides twist, but from a story-telling perspective this book was mediocre.

idk i kinda came into this book looking for like a high society muscovite forbidden romance or whatever but it is quite literally just kostya lenin talking about farming and hunting and fantasising about the country & peasant life with kitty, like we got more of kostya & kitty's love story lol and not anna karenina's & vronsky's... the title is super misleading but anyway, it's still a good read, and i had fun, but meh

— what does it mean, to rest in silence?— to be in love with death, sister. thoughts of death chase after me. day and night, i think about killing myself. my reasons unclear. to carry on with life, or to die–either will do, a vague disquiet, nothing more. troubled thoughts, pushing me towards giving suicide a try. then i want to be in love again. he has the bluest eyes. it turns into a passion. i pour into it all the love i have ever felt for others, all the love i have in me. it's as if i'm living all my loves, past and present, with this one man.

countries are countries, but people are people.

above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. this is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary.

 it's easy to despise this life and everything about it because none of it is mine. 

took me too long to finish. don't know why

i liked this book for like the first... 20%. and then it became olga bitching about her children and not taking care of her dog (sorry, otto, i would've loved and taken care of you better, you sweet dog). for the dog her justification is that her cunt of a husband was the one who brought him into the family, so otto was collateral damage of mario's infidelity, and i don't know, i've never been cheated on by a husband before because i'm 20 and single, but i really don't think i'd be hitting my dog with a branch. the children are a bit annoying especially the girl, but like, their dad had just left them out of nowhere, so maybe i was expecting a bit more compassion for the kids on this end.

the writing is beautiful, but i skim read like 10 chapters because it's repetitive, and i expected to read more about her and carrano's relationship, but instead i get nothing, only one attempted sex scene that made my coochie dry and fall off. like for those 10 chapters elena could've showed us more about carrano & olga but no. she just goes about bitching about her children and leaving her dog to die.

meh, i liked the writing, that's why i'm giving it like 3 stars. the obscenity didn't surprise me because it's an italian book, idk. i wouldn't recommend it though. olga just feels like a mockery of women scorned.

my expectations were way too high for this book, but i based them off of the blurb, so is that my problem or ashley's?

literally nothing in this book went into my head im so sorry

too many people died, & that ending with rhiannon was super weird, but the plot & writing were good

This was a 3 star read for me not because it was badly written or anything like it. The writing was good and (honestly) for a story without much substance it carried on well.

But this book should not be called mystery or mystery thriller because anyone with a brain and even an ounce of critical thinking would have figured out where Ruthie went and who Norma is by the 2nd chapter.

I have to say I was a bit put off by the book because of this... I expected a mystery, a real cold case that is 50 years old, something that will speak to how badly the Natives were treated by the Americans and Canadians but nope, nothing like it, not really. Everything was very surface level.

It did give me the feels and I was emotionally afflicted for a while but

i really liked this, but it ended up just being too long for me

this was originally a 3-star read but this quote resonated with my soul so i'm upping its rating:

“dr x: but you told my colleague that you would be surprised if you made it to your eighteenth birthday.

kid y: i did say that and i still feel that way.

dr x: because you are a danger to yourself?

kid y: no.

dr x: then why did you say that?

kid y: i don't know.. i just feel a sense of impending doom.”

so for about 20% i loved this book. the writing was up my alley and there wasn't really a plot just vibes which i love. i love the short chapters (the ones with veronica are my favourite), but (plot wise) the book lost me when he started “meeting up with lou reed”.

what is the point of my waiting or your waiting

marianne, i'm not a religious person but i do sometimes think god made you for me.

I loved this book, but it was lacking. I literally know more of what it takes to transition betweeb genders than the actual murder itself or how Lily was and most times I felt like I was being preached to. I admire the explanations but if I wanted to know about how doctors turn a penis into a vagina or the debate around gender I'd have chosen a book that was specifically for those topics.. it also didn't feel like there was enough of a reason for Olivia to think that Asher was anything but innocent.

thank you netgalley, bookouture and catherine walsh for sending me this arc! <3

genre & tropes: rom-com, winter & christmas romance, fake dating, set in ireland, runaway bride, post-argument forced proximity, a lovingly protective mmc, hea, no third act breakup, small village

snowed in is my first winter/holiday book of 2023 and i'm so glad that it was because it gave me all the cosy feels i expect from a holiday rom-com. catherine walsh's writing is light-hearted and easy to follow, the book was fast-paced and didn't feel dragged on, and the chemistry between megan and christian gave me happy tingles.

i have to say this book made me want to be in the same cabin christian rented out with a mug of chai latte and my dogs curled up by my feet, with snow outside... this is how you know a holiday rom-com did its job.

there was depth to the story and all of the side characters, in my opinion, and none of the side characters blended in with each other and all had distinctive personalities—which i really have to applaud because in my opinion not a lot of contemporary romance authors can accomplish this feat well but catherine walsh did it perfectly.

also this book is set in ireland so what more can i say? i loved it

anyway, this book just made its way onto my list of ‘holiday reads' which i will be shoving down all of my bookish friends' throats when october is over, and i LOVE zoe so i might have to pick up the book about molly and andrew just to see more of her.

all opinions are my own! (p.s. i kind of want to learn how to knit now.)

i really, really loved this book. the twist was obvious but the writing was so beautiful and i am now obsessed with smyrna. 

downgraded to one star coz this book was a big bore and i ended up hating it more

very informative and are great talking points against common zionist ideas.. free palestine until it is backwards.

i was a bit hesitant about going into this book because i assume it would have magical realism and it does and i'm not the biggest fan of it but the village healer's book of cures was written so wonderfully well that i was attached at the hip to my phone once i sat down and actually got to reading it. the mystery aspect was there and i screamed at the revelation at the end lol, my dad asked me what i had seen

i don't want to call this amazing or excellent because i feel like i'd be calling masaji's life that as this is a memoir after all and his life has been full of nothing but sadness and starvation... this was very well written, and masaji paints a very, very vivid and horrendous picture of north korea. i really hope that north korea will be free of the government one day. nobody should be that restricted by their government. but i have to say that i find it selfish of masaji to have had 3 children.

he continued, “the cold war was a conflict between socialism and capitalism, and capitalism won. moreover, we all got the us-centered capitalism that washington wanted to spread. just look around you,” he said, gesturing to his city, and the entire indonesian archipelago around him.how did we win, i asked.winarso stopped fidgeting. “you killed us.”

can't stop crying. could not put this book down. my soul is drained.

this started off really strong but for me the story became bloated. i loved the short chapters but there were some povs of characters that i didn't think were necessary to hear from and at the end the book just felt like it was simply too long. the story itself is really good though, but it's a very character-driven novel i have to say, and at the 40% mark i stopped caring for any of the characters, so...