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__ceecee__'s Reviews (414)
I've been a fan of Najwa's instagram page since 2018. There's just something in her writing that speaks to me. The concept of building our homes in other people opened me up to a different perspective, and her stories about struggling for self love was something I can relate to. Especially when she wrote about the concept of thinking we love ourselves without actually doing the things that show we love ourselves.
I must admit it became repetitive nearing the end. It could have used some more editing for sure, and the Appendices could have been scrapped altogether, focusing only on building our homes for our souls.
It's really more of a memoir than a self help book, because there weren't citations so keep that in mind.
I suggest you look over her instagram and tiktoks first before deciding to purchase the whole book.
I must admit it became repetitive nearing the end. It could have used some more editing for sure, and the Appendices could have been scrapped altogether, focusing only on building our homes for our souls.
It's really more of a memoir than a self help book, because there weren't citations so keep that in mind.
I suggest you look over her instagram and tiktoks first before deciding to purchase the whole book.
I think Chiang is a strong writer when it comes to incorporating religion and science to speculate about our place in the universe. like in "stories of your life", he speaks about languages and free will. i found it completely relatable, being brought up in a religious community but studying in a scientific community, and on drawing my own conclusions.
5 stars because chiang managed to create a vivid alternative universe that was effortlessly believable while talking about religion, science and humanity.
5 stars because chiang managed to create a vivid alternative universe that was effortlessly believable while talking about religion, science and humanity.
This is one of those books which I thoroughly appreciate as an adult that I wouldn't appreciate as a child, and yet I heartily recommend it to children.
It's a sort of Benjamin Button phenomena. As a child, I liked to read Charles Dickens because Matilda loved Dickens. And so I devoured classic after classic, and generally stayed away from typical "children's books" because I was a child. Go figure. In fairness, I did like the Bobbsey Twins and Goosebumps, but that's just about it. I especially shied away from Newberry Honor books and the like, and wasn't that a mistake. Now, if there is such an awarded book, I would carefully consider reading it.
Gone-Away Lake is a Newbery Honor Book and that's nothing to wonder at. It's just so sweet, nothing dramatic, just a bunch of children spending a summer...in an awesome abandoned long-ago lakeside resort.
This was also published in the 50s-60s so you just know that it's going to be squeaky clean, and what's the harm in that? In this book, there's no harm in meeting two reclusive adults who made a home in this abandoned once-rich neighborhood, among Victorian houses and wondrous flora. I must admit I feared for these children...what if these are two sociopaths that eat children a la Hansel and Gretel? But, no, this is a sweet children's book, and people can be trusted. Don't you miss those days when you don't have to think about social predators?
Aunt Minnehaha (what kind of name is that, anyway?) and Uncle Payton are two good-natured adults who came back to they're childhood neighborhood to get away from it all. They live a quiet life raising chickens and goats and tending bog gardens. They also live among wondrous antiques surely worthy for Pawn Stars. It was like returning to a Victorian era. Aunt Minnehaha and Uncle Payton even dress like Victorian people. And I want to be in that ghost town. Trunks full of old clothes in perfect condition? Antique paintings? A secret club house in a falling-down mansion? Foraging through an abandoned Victorian house? I'm there.
Nowadays, who can say that there's still an abandoned neighborhood hiding antique treasures? I'm sure the government would have seized it all. It must have only been conceivable in the time where Portia and Julian, the two protagonists, lived in.
But it's not only the small adventures these children have that make this book a gem. The writing style could be a children's delight (it surely was to my childish adult self), and there are words of wisdom scattered here and there that I think only work in a children's book. I guess that's what struck me the most: the intelligence of the writing ,just right for children.
*4.5 stars A lovely gem of a book which at times can be profound, appropriate for children, that I really liked and takes me back to those innocent days.
It's a sort of Benjamin Button phenomena. As a child, I liked to read Charles Dickens because Matilda loved Dickens. And so I devoured classic after classic, and generally stayed away from typical "children's books" because I was a child. Go figure. In fairness, I did like the Bobbsey Twins and Goosebumps, but that's just about it. I especially shied away from Newberry Honor books and the like, and wasn't that a mistake. Now, if there is such an awarded book, I would carefully consider reading it.
Gone-Away Lake is a Newbery Honor Book and that's nothing to wonder at. It's just so sweet, nothing dramatic, just a bunch of children spending a summer...in an awesome abandoned long-ago lakeside resort.
This was also published in the 50s-60s so you just know that it's going to be squeaky clean, and what's the harm in that? In this book, there's no harm in meeting two reclusive adults who made a home in this abandoned once-rich neighborhood, among Victorian houses and wondrous flora. I must admit I feared for these children...what if these are two sociopaths that eat children a la Hansel and Gretel? But, no, this is a sweet children's book, and people can be trusted. Don't you miss those days when you don't have to think about social predators?
Aunt Minnehaha (what kind of name is that, anyway?) and Uncle Payton are two good-natured adults who came back to they're childhood neighborhood to get away from it all. They live a quiet life raising chickens and goats and tending bog gardens. They also live among wondrous antiques surely worthy for Pawn Stars. It was like returning to a Victorian era. Aunt Minnehaha and Uncle Payton even dress like Victorian people. And I want to be in that ghost town. Trunks full of old clothes in perfect condition? Antique paintings? A secret club house in a falling-down mansion? Foraging through an abandoned Victorian house? I'm there.
Nowadays, who can say that there's still an abandoned neighborhood hiding antique treasures? I'm sure the government would have seized it all. It must have only been conceivable in the time where Portia and Julian, the two protagonists, lived in.
But it's not only the small adventures these children have that make this book a gem. The writing style could be a children's delight (it surely was to my childish adult self), and there are words of wisdom scattered here and there that I think only work in a children's book. I guess that's what struck me the most: the intelligence of the writing ,just right for children.
*4.5 stars A lovely gem of a book which at times can be profound, appropriate for children, that I really liked and takes me back to those innocent days.
i dont really remember much, i was still in grade school when i read this, it was kind of fucked up? i remember feeling how inappropriate it was for my age. VC Andrews is a strange author. her works that I read have these pervading uncomfortable aura. They really should be in the horror section because she just shows the most terrifying monsters are humans
I devoured these books in high school with my friends. There was just something about the alpha male that was oompf gimme. Since my friends loved it, the dubious first coupling was easily dismissed by my juvenile mind as "it happens in fantasy", this is escapist romance! I could never reread these stories though, Georgette Heyer is probably the only "romance" author i'd read nowadays.
edit 2020: read the full version and it's still my favorite of the "dystopians"
edit 2016: i only read the abridged version of this but it really struck me when i read it that its so relevant to today.
WE ARE LIVING IN HUXLEY'S DYSTOPIA.
edit 2016: i only read the abridged version of this but it really struck me when i read it that its so relevant to today.
WE ARE LIVING IN HUXLEY'S DYSTOPIA.
maybe it only merits 1 star, 1 additional star because of the nostalgia factor. my take on this is it wasn't necessary, i never liked how every character in the series ended up together and that harry named his kids that way. i'm not a fan of continuing a series for the sake of nostalgia if it's detrimental to the storytelling.
I loved the two mature protagonists. The real gem in this book was how lively all the characters were no matter how minor they were. The neighbors surrounding Broom Hall gave a charm to the quiet countryside. I rate books on how I enjoyed them, however, and I can't help but feel that the conflict was a bit too contrived and that the many adventures and misadventures were drawn out longer than necessary.
Heyer really knows how to write a brilliant mature romance. *sigh* (and by mature i dont mean smut. how i wish there was a georgette heyer-like romance and writing, AND with steamy smut. alas, it’s always one or the other)