jodiwilldare's reviews
1523 reviews

Here’s a confession: when a book’s description mentions how it takes place in 18something, my eyes immediately glaze over from anticipated boredom. Same goes for anything that takes place during any war be it Civil, World, Gulf. . . you get the idea.

I am a reader with many prejudices. Occasionally, an author I like can get me to creak open the rusty hinges of my mind. Nicole Helget is one of those authors. Read more

I picked up Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie because Jeff O’Neal at Book Riot named it his favorite book of 2013. Plus, I had never read anything by Adichie though her novels seem universally lauded. This is one of those books I had never read if left to my own devices. And it’s exactly the kind of book that reminds me I should not always be left to my own devices. Read more.

It feels a little weird to have a complaint about emotional realism in a book that centers around two people who have time-stopping orgasms. And yet, here I am complaining about it. Read more.

When a friend of mine said How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff had a better, more believable love story than John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, I was all in. Hell yes, I thought. In a year with a majority of the books I’m choosing on the meh-side of okayness, I was ready for something to knock my socks off.

Clearly I must have misheard him because this one is a big, dull dud. read more

Have I mentioned that I recently discovered you can download and listen to audiobooks for free from the library? YOU CAN! The library is so amazing.

Lauren Oliver’s young-adult novel Before I Fall was one of those free downloads and I am thankful for that for many reasons. One, it meant I didn’t pay for this over-long kind of boring tale of morality and mortality. Two, I got to listen to Sarah Drew narrate the book and that was the only reason I finished it. Really, her voice is charming and funny and without it I would have quit this book. Read more.

Celeste Ng’s debut novel Everything I Never Told You has garnered rave reviews all over the place. I know this because I have read all these reviews hoping to discern the magic so many readers found in the book that I missed. Read more.

The more you give yourself over to the world of Philadelphia in 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas, the better your experience will be. You have to get comfortable with menthol-smoking nine-year-old girls who are in fifth grade (most nine year olds are in fourth grade), dogs taking over the point of view, and old ladies who randomly take flight over the city.

If you can hang with those sorts of logical inconsistencies and random flights of fancy then you can hang with Marie-Helene Bertino’s whimsical novel and have a good time. Read more

My favorite part of Fast Food Nation when I read it back in 2001 was the parts about the flavor factories in New Jersey. At least I think they were in NJ. I’m going with it since it’s been thirteen years since I read that book and about thirteen days since I read Stephan Eirik Clark’s novel Sweetness #9 about a flavorist in New Jersey. Read more