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What an unusual story full of magic that is bled into books and then read by the non-writers. I loved the premise of this book and really enjoyed the characters and the world that was built. I can’t wait to read the next ones in the series but this one was also fully satisfying on its own. Loved it.
I’m not sure why I postponed reading this book for so so long. It was interesting, lovely to listen to and touching in all the right ways. Friendship, love, betrayal, family. All of what makes a novel wonderful.
This is the story of Cam and Jules who go back to Cam’s birthplace in North Carolina. He is from the richest family with a notorious adoptive mother, Ruby, who has “lost” all four of her husbands to different accidents. Cam has never wanted to go back but Ruby’s death and his cousins imploring finally bring the wedded couple back to Cam’s childhood home and, as expected, things unravel, secrets emerge and things are never what they seem. While I enjoyed reading this story, I didn’t like Jules’ voice or the way she spoke. I wasn’t crazy about any of the characters and the revelations, when they happened, were interesting but because I just wasn’t invested in the characters, I found myself not caring too much. It was a pleasant enough read, just not one of my favorites. with gratitude to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
“You look great in everything else. Trust me about that, too. You’re beautiful in your own skin…. You brought with you into the world some kind of human amazingness, and you can depend on it, always.” I was beyond excited when I saw that there was a new Michael Cunningham novel. His writing is always, always exquisite and this novel is no exception. “Nathan has, for as long as Robbie can remember, felt like a bit of an outsider—loved, welcomed—but here for now, until he vanishes into his own private future, whereas Violet is here, a member of the family, forever.” The premise of this novel was very interesting to me. It takes place over the course of a specific day for three years in a row. So we can see how much (or how little) can change for this one family in one year. The years in the story are 2019, 2020, and 2021 so there’s also the added element of the impact of the pandemic build into the story. It’s hard not to fall in love with each of the characters and root for them individually and as a family unit. I loved all of the interactions so much. I loved Robbie and the love he brings into the family and the love everyone has for him. I loved reading Cunnigham’s beautiful words again. Never underestimate how much can change in one year. with gratitude to netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
I loved the author’s previous novel “The Push” and wasn’t sure she could match the intensity with which that story was told. But I was wrong. she absolutely could. This is an excellent novel about several families who are neighbors and one of the kids falls out of the window, so the story winds back in time to let us know what happened leading up to that moment. It’s excellent all the way to the very last words.
This story looks like a mystery story on its face. Several families are at a private school tour when one family doesn’t show. They all find out later that the mom died under mysterious circumstances. It sounded to me like it was going to be a drama around what happened. And it maybe a little bit is. But it’s much more about how this death impacts all the other moms in the circle and a peek at their lives and a detailed study around how what you see is not the truth. And how every person, every marriage has secrets that aren’t visible from the outside. And sometimes the richer the person, the bigger the secrets and scandals. This book mostly read like a character study of the rich to me and I enjoyed it. It was fast paced and hard to put down. with gratitude to netgalley and Little A for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
3.5 stars. Beautiful and sweet LGBTQ story about two college freshmen who team up to help each other get their dates and end up falling for each other 🙂
What an absolute delight and joy this book was to read!! I listened to it on audio and it was so very excellent that I did not want to stop reading it even for a moment. Might be the read I most enjoyed this year so far.
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.
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 |
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