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baileybrett's reviews
23 reviews
The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman
Writing fun and propulsive. A few incredibly irrelevant scenes / subplots.
The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray
Charming. Austen fans won’t be disappointed.
Also f the regency period. That was a socially constructed prison.
Also f the regency period. That was a socially constructed prison.
Hang The Moon by Jeannette Walls
2.5
Jeanette Wall’s memoir, half-novel, and first novel were works of beauty and skill. Her second novel, Hang The Moon, shows even wonderful writers can strike out.
The book was increasingly insipid. There were an awful lot of deaths convenient to the plot. Every time the plot needed momentum, someone tragically died. For the first half the author kills off a character roughly every twenty pages. The problem is as characters die, the protagonist has to meet new characters we as readers are supposed to care about. (Don’t worry, half of them will also die in sudden and tragic ways). We won’t actually have time to care about them before they — tragically! — are felled by the cruel twists of fate.
In the last 1/3 the narrative survives solely on vaudeville (Fire bombs! Arson! Murdering husbands! An actual tank?! So many Illegitimate children!) and some sketched idea of a morality play where everybody is related because even though there’s hints of an homage to strong independent mountain women, all of them carry a hidden story of being scandalously (and tragically) impregnated by the menfolk.
The narrator’s voice is the only redeeming aspect of this soap opera.
The book was increasingly insipid. There were an awful lot of deaths convenient to the plot. Every time the plot needed momentum, someone tragically died. For the first half the author kills off a character roughly every twenty pages. The problem is as characters die, the protagonist has to meet new characters we as readers are supposed to care about. (Don’t worry, half of them will also die in sudden and tragic ways). We won’t actually have time to care about them before they — tragically! — are felled by the cruel twists of fate.
In the last 1/3 the narrative survives solely on vaudeville (Fire bombs! Arson! Murdering husbands! An actual tank?! So many Illegitimate children!) and some sketched idea of a morality play where everybody is related because even though there’s hints of an homage to strong independent mountain women, all of them carry a hidden story of being scandalously (and tragically) impregnated by the menfolk.
The narrator’s voice is the only redeeming aspect of this soap opera.
Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family by Rabia Chaudry
I’d love to say I loved this book…. I loved reading it, 90% of the way. Rabia Chaudry (the attorney and writer behind “Serial”) spins a great scene and absolutely made me want to visit Pakistan and be her friend…. But that last 10%….
This book offered the lamest take home ever. In the end, she loses some weight, and goes “well I still don’t like my body but that’s normal, no one is perfectly content with their body, none of my friends love their bodies, so I’m okay with it.”
Girl.
That’s not normal.That’s normalized. There’s a difference.
None of your friends are content with their body? That is not good journalistic integrity to make the call it’s therefore normal that people have fraught relationships with their bodies.
I love my body. My yogi, rock climbing girlfriends love their bodies. My blue collar, hardworking redneck friends love their bodies.
Just because the author doesn’t spend time in body-positive spaces (which she talks about), doesn’t mean those spaces and subcultures don’t exist.
Really disappointing ending. This book will reach a lot of people, with its message of “just give up on loving your body, just be okay with it and move on.”
This book offered the lamest take home ever. In the end, she loses some weight, and goes “well I still don’t like my body but that’s normal, no one is perfectly content with their body, none of my friends love their bodies, so I’m okay with it.”
Girl.
That’s not normal.That’s normalized. There’s a difference.
None of your friends are content with their body? That is not good journalistic integrity to make the call it’s therefore normal that people have fraught relationships with their bodies.
I love my body. My yogi, rock climbing girlfriends love their bodies. My blue collar, hardworking redneck friends love their bodies.
Just because the author doesn’t spend time in body-positive spaces (which she talks about), doesn’t mean those spaces and subcultures don’t exist.
Really disappointing ending. This book will reach a lot of people, with its message of “just give up on loving your body, just be okay with it and move on.”
Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times by Eyal Press
4.75
Really really good.
Payback's a Witch by Lana Harper
It grew on me. Tried too hard to have emotional depth and family drama. Enjoyed it by about 2/3 through. The casual alcoholism isn’t as cutesy as the author seems to think it is.
Blood Orange Night: My Journey to the Edge of Madness by Melissa Bond
4.75
Beautiful and hopeful and life affirming.