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beccasllibrary's reviews
224 reviews
Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing by Emily Lynn Paulson
4.0
An interesting inside look at MLMs, their leadership, why they are built to fail for 99% of people, and the many, many reasons to get out. The fights, passive aggressive messages, and friendship breakups as different people either rose up in the business structure, plateaued, or left altogether was really interesting and fun to watch. The writing style is witty and a lot of personality comes through, it reminds me a lot of Amanda Montel's writing. Watching Paulson struggle to leave is hard, she sees the cracks but just can't turn down the paycheck, and I can understand why that turns some readers away but it's also her story and I can't criticize the book itself for telling that story, I think we feel that frustration alongside Paulson and if you can deal with that for a bit its a good read. Just enough facts to keep it from being a memoir, you will likely learn a lot about MLM structures, but this isn't a deep dive into the economic model. At the end there's a lot of focus on the sober mom's group the author created and I can totally understand celebrating your accomplishments in your own book but it briefly started to feel like an ad break, this is a short part of the book, though. It's a quick, fun read, the audiobook is well-narrated, and I enjoyed my time with it.
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
5.0
Every page of this book is infused with bittersweet nostalgia for summer breaks with your childhood friends. Backman is able to capture the pain and joy of growing up and growing apart. Each character is distinct and lifelike and added slowly enough to give the reader time to learn each of them. Despite using a split timeline to tell two stories parallel to each other, I found both equally interesting and rarely was disappointed to find us returning to one over the other. The writing style is very introspective, spending paragraphs between each event with the internal reactions from the characters to said event before moving on, this may be offputting to some readers but I found it very enjoyable and these sections contained some of my favourite moments of the book. The perfect summer read that will make you laugh, cry, and call your childhood friends. Check trigger warnings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Death of parent
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
4.0
A fun read that manages to include both an endearing romance and interesting worldbuilding and drama. I felt that the romance dynamic was a little rushed, jumping too quickly from rivals to lovers in a way that wasn't very believable. If they really dislike each other, why does Roman keep sending letters to her knowing that he dislikes her, if he doesn't dislike her, why is he such a jerk? I wish this started with a coworkers and acquaintances dynamic rather than jumping on the enemies to lovers trend or taken more time to build their relationship. It just happened too fast. That said, I liked where the romance ended up even if I didn't like how it got there. Their dynamic and chemistry are fun. I also liked the worldbuilding, it's very soft, with very little exposition and a heavier focus on throwing you into the world. It reminds me a lot of Howl's Moving Castle in how nothing is explained but you slowly start to understand enough of it while still leaving you wanting to know more. Don't expect to ever fully understand the world but I enjoyed my time in it.
The Wife Between Us by Sarah Pekkanen, Greer Hendricks
3.0
An interesting thriller that keeps changing with every new section, has some good twists (except for the last one which I hated), and made some interesting choices as far as narration and structure. Unfortunately it just isn't memorable. I read this in a day which is a major pro, it's engaging and easy to read and understand, but after a week I'm already forgetting the plot. Not necessarily a bad thing but in a genre so full of family dramas, I would love to see a little bit more innovation to make this stand out. I've picked up 3 thrillers this year and every single one uses the "is the fmc crazy or is the mmc gaslighting her" trope and I'm tired! Not this specific book's fault but I want more from this genre than the same story over and over again. Well written and fun but not enough new to make it memorable.
Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce
2.5
Effective as a slow burn thriller that kept me engaged for many scenes but a lot of it felt like filler and I don't feel like the ending was deserved. I did not care about the murder case at all despite it being the focus of many chapters and left me wanting to skip ahead to get back to the real plot. The main character is meant to be unlikeable and flawed but I could not be satisfied with her happy ending because her getting custody of her daughter just fixes the fact that she is clearly struggling with substance abuse to the point where she can not be a good parent right now so her ending did not feel good at all. I wanted to route for her, she was clearly going through it, but it felt so rushed to give her a happy ending when so many issues had not been fixed. Can this poor child go stay with a grandparent? Temporary housing? Anything? Not for me but the author clearly has talent and with some polishing I think future works could be great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell
3.5
If you are considering this book as the sequel to Cultish you will be disappointed, I do believe that this book has an audience and that it is enjoyable but it is a diversion from Montel's previous works. Montel does not attempt to say anything transformative about the topic of cognitive biases but rather uses a cognitive bias as the theming for each essay consisting primarily of anecdotes about a time when Montel has felt disconnected and disjointed in her own life and uses the research to explain these seemingly irrational reactions to herself and the audience. Some research and interviews are done but they seem more so a means to frame the anecdotes and examples that follow. I wish this had been marketed as personal essays rather than research, but even when these expectations are clearly laid out, it is still difficult to separate this book from Montel's previous works which were far more transformative to an outsider of their respective field. Ultimately, Montel can not tell us much we have never heard about the sum cost fallacy in the every day life of an online individual because most of us have already lived the examples she provides. If you enjoy Montel's writing, I urge you to pick this up not as a means to learn something that will permanently change your perspective on the mind, but rather a series of stories told through the unique lens of cognition rather than chronology. I do not think this book does anything particularly new besides give me another way to enjoy Montel's writing style, most of the stories she tells are relatable to the point of not feeling notable but as this is meant to expose a collective online experience that is reasonable. Listening to this while cooking, cleaning, etc for a few hours felt like chatting with a friend or listening to a podcast and I think that is the ideal way to consume this book. I did not learn much but I enjoyed my time with it.
The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler
4.5
It is truly incredible how many complex themes can be explored in around 80 pages here, and effectively. Because it is so short most characters are very superficial but you can still feel the humanity and grief of our main character clearly. A thought provoking discussion about the ethics of de-extinction and human greed. I wish a bit more time had been spent with the mammoths and Damira, I found the poachers' storyline much less interesting and when there is so little time spent in this world, it's a little sad getting even less time with the mammoths and elephants.
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
2.5
I wish Caroline's storyline had been left out. It did not add much for me and most of the immersion breaking happened in her POV. This book requires too much suspension of disbelief where information just falls into character's hands after opening one page of a book or googling something. It seems either not enough research was done about how historical research works, or the author and team did not have faith that their audience would care about this. I think other books in the academia subgenre of mystery prove this very wrong and are more effective because characters work for the information they need not just google things and randomly find doors that the entire urban planning industry of London for 200+ years never saw because there was a shrub in front of them. The first half was solid but the second half lazily attempts to wrap up the mystery by just giving all the information to the characters rather than laying clues for them to find. I wish I liked this more but I just didn't.
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
4.0
Unique characters who feel specific to this story make it worth picking up alone. Chloe is not just a stand in for being plus sized or chronically ill but has a great personality that is consistent from page 1. Her dynamic with Red feels authentic, a bit rushed in some chapters, but believable. The final chapters felt too fast, I wish some of the bucket list items were left as future items for them to do off page rather than squeezing them in at the end. Maybe just me but idc how much I like someone I'm never camping with them alone after like 2 weeks of meeting, maybe Chloe is just more spontaneous than me. I also hate a 3rd act breakup but I accept them as an inescapable part of the romance genre . Overall, fun, fast, and unique read that was great for breaking a reading slump with characters I was happy to route for.