maddness22's reviews
715 reviews

You Will Find Your People: How to Make Meaningful Friendships as an Adult by Lane Moore

funny hopeful reflective relaxing fast-paced

3.5

While a lot of the book comes off as "I was never the bad friend - everyone else was the bad friend to me but that's not my fault", I did find a lot of the angles and discussions about various friendship styles to be beneficial. I wish it was a bit more grounded in the claims with broader worldviews rather than dependent on the author's personal life experiences, especially since the author has the tendency to use the word "trauma" interchangeably with the concept of "hard times" which grated on me a bit. But overall, it does a very good job analyzing toxic friendship behaviors and providing the perspective of what it means to be someone with perpetual bad friendship issues and how to navigate those feelings.

I adored the chapter about being the only single friend amongst coupled friends too. I legitimately laughed a few times. 

Unfollow Your Passion: How to Create a Life that Matters to You by Terri Trespicio

funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

4.5

Not the greatest read if you have massive hypochondria/health anxiety since a lot of the final arguments are dependent on the author's real world examples of "you'll never know what will happen", but otherwise I quite enjoyed this read! I mostly enjoyed that it was grounded in the expectations on what most people can do or control to improve their lives and focuses more on how to reframe existing mindsets rather than demand for readers to quit their job right away or make other substantial change to make their lives better. I also enjoyed the concept that there's no one Calling™ or Dream™ or just thing in general that will fix and improve your life. It's all acts of choice and commitment and actually taking action in your life rather than remaining passive in it. 

The included journal entry prompts are also a bit basic. I didn't find a lot of benefit from them, but I could see them being useful as a starting point for self reflection if needed. 

All I Want for Christmas by Maggie Knox
Did not finish book. Stopped at 47%.

I just got so exhausted from all of the constant bickering and lack of actual communication. Like they're in their late twenties and they're acting like teenagers with their little hissy fits. Max kept running off and Sadie would be jealous of any woman that wasn't her talking to Max. Not fun or enjoyable or merry for the season, which is a shame because Holiday Swap was so cute. 

Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Gosh this was actually so incredibly fun. While I wasn't a fan of the gory violence, the retelling itself was remarkably well done with complex characters that still honor the original people inspiring the story. It was an action packed adventure from start to finish with a truly icky villain and legitimate tension even though the reader likely has high hopes for the little baby's survival because of how the story goes in real life (which I just realized the baby is never actually named but, c'mon folks. We know.)

I had a great time! One of my more enjoyable reads of not only the Christmas season, but of the year as well. 

Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey

emotional lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

My kingdom for a sequel from the perspective of one of the employees watching this clear favoritism for the new girl because the boss has a crush on the former felon that should've never gotten hired in the first place.

Anyways, this was just smut. 

It wasn't bad smut because Tessa Bailey does well with the spice, but the story around the smut felt lacking. The most compelling part of this book for me was Nicole and Stella's relationship and it was incredibly underutilized for the story. I mostly rolled my eyes at the relationship, especially with how quickly it moved and how much of it was based on "pretty girl is pretty" and like holy cow her pretty girl privilege gets her FAR. But still, it's an okay fun time and I guess Christmas is kind of involved in it so fun for the season too. 

Luke Skywalker Can't Read: And Other Geeky Truths by Ryan Britt

funny fast-paced

2.5

It's already a pretty lackluster collection of essays with only a handful of interesting points, but my biggest complaint is that the titular essay exploring the Star Wars universe's ability to read bases the argument on a complete moot point - Naboo couldn't publish a newspaper because the communication channels were shut down by the Trade Federation which is why Padmé had to travel in person to the Senate to plead their case. It wasn't necessarily a literacy issue. It's an incredibly basic plot point that the author completely missed and it destroyed my trust for the other essays. 

A Christmas Memory by Richard Paul Evans

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Gosh this was so incredibly moving. There's real power in the relationships between the characters and offers a true understanding of Christmas in the larger context of life compared to most other Christmas novellas in this vein. I cried at the end, but still found myself laughing at parts in the middle with the crystal clear perspective of a 10 year old kid in the 60's figuring out life in his own way. What an incredible read for the season!

Christmas at Corgi Cove: A Novel by Annie England Noblin

funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Decent enough cozy read! Christmas doesn't start until after the 50% mark and the leads' chemistry feels a bit shallow, but gosh the setting and cast of characters are just too cute and cozy. The doggies have excellent scenes worthy of rom-com gold and contribute plenty to the plot. Very cute and very quick read for the holidays! 

On The Way To The Wedding by Julia Quinn

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Gosh it felt like it took me ages to finish this (literally two minutes before it was set to auto-return to the library) but I really liked it!!! The drama at the end had me putting my phone on airplane mode so I could listen without interruption, the villain was an actual nefarious character, and I loved my sweet boy Gregory who is unafraid to commit minor felonies in the name of True Love™ while also remaining completely unaware of his surroundings. A great way to end this mostly inconsistent in quality series! 

The Anxious Generation: How The Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

informative slow-paced

4.0

It's more of a parenting book than I expected which, in hindsight, I probably should've expected. Some of the stats and situations presented are really spooky, but I enjoyed a lot of the points given on how social media is influencing the next generation. The chapters on gender were a bit flat and didn't really give a whole lot of nuance. I did enjoy the book, but it makes me terrified for the state of childhood these days and I hope more people become cognizant of the effects social media and constant screens are having on our society.