cmclarabee's reviews
628 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

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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

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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

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funny reflective medium-paced

4.75

How to Love Your Daughter by Hila Blum

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reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Picture This by Jacqueline Sheehan

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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