August Blue by Deborah Levy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3.5 stars
Beautifully written. Some musings about who we are, how we become who we are, and thinking about the lives we didn’t live. Short but profound and beautiful.
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For some reason I kept waiting for this book to be like many others where Silicon Valley is full of evil, terrible people who are plotting some sinister way to exploit the main characters. I think I hadn’t fully read that it was a romance story. So while there was a little evil-ness, it was mostly a story about five kids who win an opportunity to participate at a special program hosted by a big tech company (that smelled a lot like a combination of Apple and Google). As someone who works at one of these companies, I laughed at some of what was true and some of what was clearly exaggerated but all in the spirit of fun. The writers are both from the industry so there’s nothing here that was egregiously ridiculous except maybe that they couldn’t predict the 2023 slow down of tech. I enjoyed each of the five characters. They weren’t super complex but they also weren’t cartoons. They just weren’t deeply developed but it didn’t bother me. This was a fun, entertaining read. with gratitude to netgalley and Hyperion Avenue for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
A beautiful and touching story about a family, kids who lost their mom at a young age and had a dad that was brilliant and yet difficult to grow up with. Complicated relationships as they are preparing for their dad’s seventieth birthday and more and more secrets start unraveling. Brodeur writes with subtlety, compassion, and kindness. Her characters are complex and you can’t help but feel for them. This is a touching and beautiful story about how complicated our relationships can be with those closest to us. with gratitude to edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
This is a different and interesting book on how to structure your sketches for a scene with buildings and landscape. It focuses less on how to draw the bits of a building but more around how to make decisions around where to frame the elements of the scene, how to get the proportions and perspective right and then how to break down the structures of the drawing to get the scene to match what you’re looking at. It’s unlike any other book I’ve read on this topic and I think for that reason alone, it’s a valuable addition to your library of art/sketching books. with gratitude to Tuttle Publishing and edelweiss for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
3.5 stars. This is a well written story that has the most interesting premise. I think the blurb doesn’t do this book justice as the mystery at its heart doesn’t really unfold until way too late in the story and it’s not really a mystery story. I think this would be much better marketed as a speculative literary story. I thought the ending was also rushed and not clear. But I still enjoyed the writing and it’s unlike many other books I’ve read.
What a gem of a novel. If you’re looking for something uplifting and joyful and sweet, this is the book for you.
William Kent Krueger’s “This Tender Land” was my favorite novel of 2019. I then read “Ordinary Grace” and loved it as well. So I was extremely excited to read “The River We Remember” and worried it would disappoint me. I needn’t have. Krueger’s stories have the perfect balance of rich atmosphere, layered and flawed characters that you can’t help but love, beautiful and funny dialogue and they are just heartbreaking and tender all at once. And this one is no exception. On its surface it’s a book about murder and solving the mystery behind it. But, of course, it’s about so much more. It’s about family and love and a small town, and rights, and repressing others, and immigration and assimilation, about hatred and bigotry. It’s about coming together to save each other. It’s stunning and it will stay with me for a long time as all his stories do. with gratitude to netgalley and Atria Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
Nathan Hill’s “The Nix” was my favorite novel of 2016. I laughed so hard and I loved every moment I spent with that novel. Even so, I was worried about requesting “Wellness” since it’s more than 600 pages and what if I didn’t like it? After a lot of hemming and hawing I requested it any way and slowly started reading it, hoping it wouldn’t be too hard to get through. I spent the next three days of my vacation wanting to do nothing but read this book. I fell in love with the characters. I laughed, I cried, I was touched, I was mad. I loved following every single meandering thread of story Hill took me down and I exclaimed with joy when he brought it all back and tied it with an awesome knot. This book singlehandedly made my vacation ten times better than it already was. I came home feeling full of joy and could not stop talking about the book to everyone I saw. I am absolutely confident it will be my favorite read of 2023. Nathan Hill has done the impossible and his sophomore novel is even better than his breakout novel and his story is funny, meaningful, thought provoking, and tender. I loved and cherished every single minute I spent with it. I cannot recommend it enough. Now I really hope he hurries up and writes another novel. with gratitude to netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
3.5 stars. I am so glad this story exists. I am thankful to Page for telling his story. We need more stories told, we need more leaders in this space. At the same time, I thought this particular book was not as well paced and structured as it could have been. It wasn’t clear what deep story it wanted to tell. I still really enjoyed reading it and I really hope it paves the way for many many other stories.
I find Ali’s novels to be eminently readable. I enjoy them and like falling into her worlds. They are my little happy place.
This is the story of four friends who decide to take a road trip to confront their old Speech Team coach years later after another one of their friends commits suicide and they all realize that the words the coach used with them has broken each of them in different ways and has stayed with them all these years. So they decide to confront him. Each of the characters is multi-layered and richly designed. The story is heart warming and at the same time honest to itself and to how the world is. It makes you mad, sad, warm, happy, joyful, thoughtful and it renews your faith in humanity and our ability to take care of ourselves and each other. Reminds you that there’s hope for all of us. with gratitude to PENGUIN GROUP Viking, Viking and netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars This was interesting but for some reason not as captivating to me as it seems to have been to everyone else. |
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