cmclarabee's reviews
579 reviews

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

So glad to enjoy a new Anna Quindlen novel after many years. She’s always insightful in her family microcosms, and looks for the good. Amen!

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

Go to review page

1.5

It’s always hard to take when I don’t like a book that has gotten near universal acclaim, but this one is beyond the beyond. I forced myself to finish it, but am not really glad that I did. Unremittingly grim with positively operatic high drama at the end. Was the writing good? There was so much too much of it that I don’t even know.

Content Warnings

A Guide for the Perplexed by Dara Horn

Go to review page

medium-paced

4.75

I struggled a bit with going back and forth between different times and settings, real historical people and events versus contemporary imagined ones, but it was worth it. I learned a lot with some side research, and was intrigued by Horn’s meditations on time and memory. Good read!

String Theory: The Parents Ashkenazi by Dara Horn

Go to review page

funny reflective medium-paced

4.75

How to Love Your Daughter by Hila Blum

Go to review page

reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Picture This by Jacqueline Sheehan

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced

3.0

Picture This has more children in peril and challenging/disturbing subject matter than I was expecting. So much so, that I nearly abandoned the book. Sheehan is a good writer though, and treats these subjects with sensitivity. She also employs few lurid details, for which I was quite grateful.

Content Warnings