i've been missing how productive i was in college when i would listen to audiobooks all the time as i cleaned,might be re-entering my audiobook era??
i've been missing how productive i was in college when i would listen to audiobooks all the time as i cleaned, so knowing now that i absorb nonfiction best in this format, i gave this one a listen. i'm not the biggest true crime junkie, but i figured that if it reads like a podcast, it might be interesting. and lemme tell ya, i listened to this at 1x speed and enjoyed every second of it! michelle is a great writer and this book was gripping and illuminates the bizarreness of a serial criminal who should've been caught decades ago. i echo everyone else's sadness that she didn't get to see the killer be identified just a few short years after her death.
i would definitely recommend this if anyone needs a fast-paced audio listen that also contains the satisfaction similar to redditors who are able to find out more than law enforcment....more
i get why therapists might review this and rate it low, but as someone who just wanted to be a fly on the wall and absorb this book for what it is (a i get why therapists might review this and rate it low, but as someone who just wanted to be a fly on the wall and absorb this book for what it is (a transcript of client/therapist conversations), i really did enjoy it. i won't be following the advice to a t, but i did think it was very interesting to see how different the culture is in Korea versus America and how the author's insecurities and societal pressures differ from--or are similar to-- mine. it was inspirational to see how i could advocate for myself/my experiences, and i thought the nuance was interesting that depression doesn't always mean being suicidal and it can manifest in other ugly ways. the fact that this was a hard story for this author to tell probably proves why it should exist, especially in its native country/language.
again, maybe i grossly misunderstood this because i'm a sheeple and not a mental health professional but still!!! this book made me emotional at certain points and i liked that it had an uplifting message at the end. on top of it being a short book, it was just an easy time with a title that makes me giggle....more
withholding a rating and review because rocky is a good friend and i don't want to be biased but i'm mourning the preteen me who didn't get to read thwithholding a rating and review because rocky is a good friend and i don't want to be biased but i'm mourning the preteen me who didn't get to read this in like 2009...more
withholding a rating because it feels pretty dystopian of me to rate this author's trauma on a scale of 1 to 5.
i must have been living under a rock bewithholding a rating because it feels pretty dystopian of me to rate this author's trauma on a scale of 1 to 5.
i must have been living under a rock because i'd never heard of this case before. i listened to it on audio because jaycee narrates it, and finished this all in one day if that tells you anything....more
i picked this up a few weeks ago and after 2 pages immediately put it down and went nope, i just decided i'm not that invested anymore. but my apartmei picked this up a few weeks ago and after 2 pages immediately put it down and went nope, i just decided i'm not that invested anymore. but my apartment was in desperate need of cleaning so i splurged and picked up the audiobook... and the experience was only marginally better.
i just don't like the direction this series is going. the whole plot of this book focused on disabling a technology system that would put the clairvoyants in danger, but it just felt so slow and pointless in the grand scheme of the series. there was relationship drama that made sense but felt petty and predictable. and worst of all, the cast of characters in this was so big and random and i really didn't care about anyone other than the main character and the people she'd gotten closer to in book one.
it only took me a day to finish listening to this and honestly the narrator is great, but i just hate how this series is so dragged out. it's becoming a pretty complicated sci-fi series that you really can't understand unless you retain all the details of the world and the names of every side character. i just really don't care to put in that much effort for a book i know will only be 3-ish stars....more
this is the first audiobook i've listened to in a while and i really enjoyed it! will i forget every detail of this book in 3 business days? most likethis is the first audiobook i've listened to in a while and i really enjoyed it! will i forget every detail of this book in 3 business days? most likely. but the narrator is great and even in the places where this book probably would have lagged if i'd read it physically, it was easy to follow.
there's definitely more action in this than book one, which i appreciated. the moments of tension are done really well and keep you rooting for the main character. the one hurdle i still can't quite get over is that this book is good but not absolutely amazing, partly because i wish we had more description. the author goes so deep into the world building but not so much in actually putting you there, and even after two books my grasp of certain things is shaky.
usually romance is the life vest that keeps me going through a hefty series, and these books do have a sprinkling of that, but i'm really torn on how i feel about it. the forbidden romance aspects of it are interesting but i can't get over the inevitable mortal x immortal foreshadowing to be able to fully commit. one of my character flaws is i can forgive a book with stockholm syndrome but this one feels kinda like a stretch and sometimes they don't have much chemistry other than the have the same goals. but we'll see how the rest of it unfolds.
there's 2 more installments and i'm definitely going to continue after a brief pause to read holiday themed books....more
i listened to this in a day and totally understand why it went super viral around the release. jennette narrates the audiobook and i could not put it i listened to this in a day and totally understand why it went super viral around the release. jennette narrates the audiobook and i could not put it down, even when it got super hard to read and you really get to know what was happening behind the scenes of the roles she's known for. i wish we'd gotten to know more of what she plans to do in the future and how her recovery is going, but honestly that might just be something she's continuing to figure out. highly recommend if you're on the fence about this!...more
it took me 2 months to make it barely 30% into this book because i was so miserably bored. it's long, nearly 600 pages with thank god that's over!!!!!
it took me 2 months to make it barely 30% into this book because i was so miserably bored. it's long, nearly 600 pages with small font, and every time i felt i had been reading it for a long time, i'd look up and realize i'd only gotten through about 10 pages. i very, very nearly gave up, but blessedly was able to find it on audiobook instead, which i've recently been getting back into.
so then naturally i listened to the other 70% of this book in one day. don't ask me why or how.
i much preferred this book on audio. i'm still mourning the fact that i liked book one a lot and this one was such a downgrade on so many levels. a discovery of witches had the perfect structure with setting up a mystery and this main character's tragic backstory while also acquainting you with the world of "magical" creatures and giving you a whole rivals-to-lovers romance, complete with supernatural angst and a tinge of forbidden love.
this book, by comparison, seemed like the author's (failed, boring) attempt to flex as much historical knowledge as she could throw at you. the main plot of this book was diluted with SO many side plots and characters that it felt aimless for its entire duration. at some points i appreciated it for what it was trying to do, using real people as characters in a magical world, especially thrust back in a century that i don't think i've ever read in fiction before. but more often than not i wished the author would have quit overexplaining history to me when i was just there to read about witches and vampires and solving the main mystery. this book only stuck to that for about 50 pages total.
personal preference here, but i also just hate books with (view spoiler)[pregnancy (hide spoiler)] so this was a BIG ol struggle, but that's just one of the side effects that comes from the full romance arc between diana and matthew occurring in book one. and, i guess, reading an adult fantasy as opposed to YA. but after book one tied up the romance so perfectly ((view spoiler)[and diana and matthew got married like, what, 5 times at this point? (hide spoiler)]), the drama and angst of their relationship felt really low-stakes in this volume, excluding the times when matthew's vampire instincts emerge when he defends her from other men or gets her out of danger. (side note: which in a book about diana being such a badass independent woman, those two concepts really go head to head.) i do like that the couple confronted secrets they'd been harboring from one another and truly got closer to each other, but i'm not going to lie, some of their romance felt melodramatic and i was left feeling like their most iconic scenes are already past. (view spoiler)[to solidify this point, everyone in a 30 mile radius of me could tell you how much i love smut (*cough* especially as a reward for reading 800+ pages of overwritten exposition), but i was actually so disappointed with their first sex scene, and many more of them after that. the scene in particular where they have sex after finding out that diana is pregnant and the author says "he was poised at the entrance of my womb and in that brief moment, father, mother, and child were as close as any three creatures could be" deserves jail time. am i the only one who literally yelled "EW" out loud at that? (hide spoiler)])
my whole experience of this book is total disappointment. i'll never forget that after i finished book one, i RACED to my local independent bookstore to pick up the last two books, convinced i was going to love it. but to be honest, i just read the synopsis for book three and it seems like you can pretty much exclude this book from the series and it wouldn't change much other than some character development and the 16+ hours you'll lose off your life by deciding to read it. but if you love history and have a much bigger attention span, you might've had a vastly different experience than me....more
After not being taught whatsoever about Palestine (or Israel, for that matter)Credit to the Decolonize Palestine reading list for this recommendation!
After not being taught whatsoever about Palestine (or Israel, for that matter), this was the first resource I picked up in the endeavour of teaching myself. I would recommend the audiobook for this book because at times the writing can be decently lengthy and academic. Since this book is an overview of 100 years of history, it wasn't able to delve deep into each era, so I found that with every question this book answered, it made me ask four more. If it's your first time reading deeply into the history of Palestine and Zionism, I would come into it equipped with a basic overview, or else be prepared to continue researching during and after reading!
Just a tip on if you plan to read this: I would start with the conclusion first because it provides a modern-day context and then you can work backwards in time with chapters 1-7 to learn the backstory. I found that last chapter to be most interesting part of the book and it answered a lot of questions I had at the beginning....more
reliving (the first half of) obama's presidency as an adult instead of a clueless 11 year old was so interesting, and the audiobook format of this is reliving (the first half of) obama's presidency as an adult instead of a clueless 11 year old was so interesting, and the audiobook format of this is definitely the way to go. he's such a talented and detailed writer, and even the parts that i didn't really understand -- i relistened to the paragraph about the housing crisis no fewer than five times -- were interesting to hear from his point of view. when the second book comes out i think i'll definitely pick up where we left off, and by that point i think it'll be really interesting to hear because the second half of his presidency is when i really began to gain a social and political awareness, so i'm sure some things will be more familiar.
withholding a rating because c'mon. can't really sum up a presidency on a five star scale, but i did enjoy this even though it took me months to read....more
This book was so adorable and I really, really wish it had been there for me when I was a kid. From a fat main character to an entire conflict about bThis book was so adorable and I really, really wish it had been there for me when I was a kid. From a fat main character to an entire conflict about being upset your middle school friends are growing up too much, I saw so much of my younger self in Sweet Pea. I listened to this book on audio and I loved how cheesy and fun it was. It had great representation and mindfully discussed divorce and facing the consequences of your actions, which I thought was a nice touch. Again, I just wish I'd read this when I was younger because I'm sure it would have stuck with me a ton. As an adult, I appreciated it for its message and cuteness....more
I'm trying to get back into audiobooks, and knowing that contemporary and memoirs are the funnest to listen to, I gave this one a try. I really enjoyeI'm trying to get back into audiobooks, and knowing that contemporary and memoirs are the funnest to listen to, I gave this one a try. I really enjoyed the narrator and the story, so it was a fun listen! But I proved to myself that once again, I have a tendency to let details slip through the cracks when I listen to audiobooks.
The main thing I enjoyed about this book is the characters. I thought Emi was a good lens from which the story is told, and her friendships with Charlotte and Ava were so cute and realistic. I rarely read books that are just strictly fun anymore, so this was a lovely change of pace that kept me interested even though I'm not the biggest fan of books about the movie industry. Ava and Emi had great chemistry, and I like that this book talked about the difference between movies and real life, how people glamorize one another, and how in reality, real life is so different than in movies.
I know this shouldn't be an official part of my review, but I just can't help but mention that it warms my heart to see books with f/f relationships where the entire plot of the book isn't about 1) everyone around that character being homophobic, or 2) the two characters spending the entire book not knowing if the other is straight. This book cuts straight to normalizing same sex relationships and talking about it openly, so they chemistry and angst that occurs all stems from the plot occurring, not internally, which I find so much more interesting and less repetitive. In the end, I loved the relationship that occurred in this book and how the build up to it was so subtle and supportive.
For a fun contemporary featuring a lesbian relationship, I got everything I wanted from it. Even though it's not a full five stars to me, it still was highly enjoyable and didn't really even have any major flaws. I'm kind of just pulling comments out of my ass to finish this review because audiobooks are difficult to review since I forget the content so quickly after I read them. But anyway, read this book....more
this book made me hungry and i loved the romantic relationship in it. i was disappointed with elizabeth's writing style because it didn't hit me as hathis book made me hungry and i loved the romantic relationship in it. i was disappointed with elizabeth's writing style because it didn't hit me as hard as it did in her debut book, but i'm so excited to read her third book that just came in the mail....more
not gonna lie to y'all, i got rid of my physical copies of this series and ALMOST decided not to even listen to this one because it had been so long snot gonna lie to y'all, i got rid of my physical copies of this series and ALMOST decided not to even listen to this one because it had been so long since the previous one came out. however, i'm so happy that i did because libba bray was generous with her plot recaps, and i forgot how much i ADORE this cast of characters. ensemble casts in books can be difficult for me to read sometimes because i choose favorites and don't care about the others, but there isn't a single character in this circle of friends that i'm not hooked on. the action in this book was always interesting even though it took me a bit to finish, and i think everyone knows by now how high of quality these audiobooks are. ms january truly deserves a raise for her oscar-nominated performance.
the ending was a bit confusing and seemed really speedy and easy for such a long series, but i liked how this book tackled the subject of the ghosts of america's past, as well as political and social issues we still face today. it's a clever commentary from multiple angles, even though (view spoiler)[ there was a death of a Black character that was quite obscene after an entire plotline discussing the KKK and running from persecution in the south. this character was eventually resurrected, but it was startling that all other deaths in this book are sacrificial for the cause of saving the world, while this one was stark violence. (hide spoiler)]
i would definitely recommend getting these books on audio and listening to them all back to back, but if there ends up being a year or two in between when you listen to the books, they also pick back up nicely without leaving you strande. as always, i cried during the epilogue of this book because i'm a sucker for wrapping things up after having lived with these characters for about five years....more
I had this book out from the library for over a month but hardly could make my way through it. I ended up moving away and having to return tDNF at 50%
I had this book out from the library for over a month but hardly could make my way through it. I ended up moving away and having to return this to the library, which was a great conclusion to my everyday questioning myself, "Should I DNF this?" I was just bored. I feel like I've read this story before in a 2013 generic fantasy. It's a journey book with random side characters interspersed and nothing to anchor me to the story because the girls' relationship is getting more distant as Denna explores her powers, which in itself wasn't interesting either. I wish I could've liked this, but it was just difficult to read because I didn't care about anything that was happening even though I liked the girls' relationship in book one. This book's dynamic was so different and I just couldn't get through it. Maybe one day I'll try again....more
Im just gonna say it, this series could've just ended at a trilogy. These last two books felt like the characters had no chemistry whatsoever and justIm just gonna say it, this series could've just ended at a trilogy. These last two books felt like the characters had no chemistry whatsoever and just ended up together because the authors wanted them to be, and not necessarily because they complimented each other or had anything in common or even experienced any angst.
My enjoyment of this might have been a bit blah because I listened to it on audio instead of reading it physically like I usually do, but this entire thing just felt so low stakes and I was never really excited for the characters. I never cracked a smile at cute moments or anything, it was just very room temperature and meh. I didn't love the characters, I didn't love the plot, and nothing about this was new or remarkable. Maybe I shouldn't have read an entire series back to back because I got kind of sick of the characters by the end of it, but still, this left a lot to be desired....more
Will and Hannah are my favs in this series so this one was most worth my time, even though it reads like a longwinded epilogue rather than a 3.5 stars
Will and Hannah are my favs in this series so this one was most worth my time, even though it reads like a longwinded epilogue rather than a bridge book...more
this cover is misleading, she's not even pregnant.
at this point im just sad i took a two day detour to read all these novellas because they really donthis cover is misleading, she's not even pregnant.
at this point im just sad i took a two day detour to read all these novellas because they really don't matter. this one is a bridge novella between the original trilogy and newer add-on book, so I liked that it introduced Niall, but the rest of this was just kinda weird. I'm not a huge fan of romance book characters having children because it feels past my age range and I don't want kids so it's not something I find super relatable or romantic or cute, but this book was still fun sometimes. I also just really am over Max and Sara's public sex thing because it makes me uncomfy but different folks, different strokes. ...more
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