life_full_ofbooks's reviews
2518 reviews

2.5

Elsewhere is one of Gabrielle Zevin’s young adult books and it explores what happens when your life on earth ends.
Liz is 15 years old and living her best life, until she wakes up on a boat called the S.S. Nile. She thinks it’s a dream until she realizes it isn’t. She is dead and the boat takes her to Elsewhere, where you go to live your life in reverse until you reach being a newborn and you go back to earth to start again. Liz is disappointed to say the least when she realizes she will never get her license, watch her brother grow, or learn Shakespeare after Macbeth. What she discovers, though, is there is more to life than moving forward. Living a life in reverse teaches just as much and is just as fulfilling.
This is the fourth book I’ve read by Gabrielle Zevin and I love how each one is completely different from the rest. While Elsewhere is just as compelling and moving as A.J. Fikry, Tomorrow x3, and Young Jane Young, the story is completely different. As with the other 3, I fell in love with all of the characters and I laughed and cried while watching Liz learn about this new life she’s living.

4.5-

I honestly had no idea what to expect when I jumped into this one and I ended up loving it! I found myself listening everywhere I could and I walked around the grocery store with a huge smile on my face as I was towards the end.
Cassandra isn’t understood by anyone around her, but she doesn’t understand them either, so she lives life in mutual confusion. When she loses the job she hates and the boyfriend she loves less than 24 hours apart, she has a slight meltdown in which she discovers she can travel back in time. She decides to go back in time until she can set things right in all aspects of her life.
While I ultimately loved this book, it took some time to get into it. I found myself wondering if this was meant to be a romcom because the narrator didn’t have any comedic tone in her narration. As things continued, though, I realized she was reading this is Cassandra’s voice perfectly.
I normally don’t like books that are realistic with fantasy thrown in, but the time travel worked perfectly in this scenario. My daughter is neurodivergent, and I believe I am as well, so having a neurodivergent protagonist was a breath of fresh air. Watching Cassandra navigate her life with all of the ups and downs and going back to change a situation based on what she now knew was brilliant. This is the first book of Holly Smale’s that I’ve read, but it certainly won’t be the last!

In a word: Awesome. If you have children (9 and up). Have them read this book. You should read it as well. If you don't have children, you should read it anyway. It's a good reminder that it's what's on the inside that counts. It's a concept my children learned in preschool but that everyone needs reminding of at some point in life.

4.5 ⭐️- This book was AMAZING!!! I’ve seen many mixed reviews about it over the last couple of months and by the time I got to it on my TBR I couldn’t remember what it was about so I went into it blind. I was drawn in from the first sentence and I truly enjoyed nearly every minute.
Phoebe Stone arrives at the beautiful Cornwall Hotel in Newport, RI dressed to the nines and without any luggage. She’s there for one purpose and one purpose only. As she’s standing on line waiting to check in she notices all of the guests around her are apparently here for the same wedding. Phoebe meets the bride, Lila, in the elevator and suddenly each woman becomes the other one’s confidant. During the 6 days that lead up to the wedding Phoebe is brought into the folds of the wedding and she knows Lila has changed her life in ways she never thought possible.
I loved so much about this. While the book deals with heavy topics the humor that is strewn throughout is provides a fantastic buffer. The characters are quirky and fun and the depiction of the many facets of women’s friendships is spot on.
My one issue is quite small, but it’s actually quite large to me. So much so that I am docking this 1/2 of a star. The only words used to convey dialogue were “says” and “asks”. I have never understood how an author who is creative enough to write a book can’t find better words for their characters dialogue. I know this doesn’t pop out to everyone, but it pops out to me and irritates me to no end.
Despite that one pet peeve this is definitely one of the top books I’ve read this year because everything else about it is truly fantastic. Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for an advanced copy of this. I’m sorry it took me so long to get this to it. The Wedding People hit the shelves on July 30th.

This is the perfect book for October because this is one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read! I never would have picked this up on my own, but it was my book club’s October pick so I decided to give it a try. While I admit I enjoyed it a lot more than I ever expected to, it solidified for me that horror is not my favorite genre.
In a sleepy town in Georgia during the late 80’s a group of 4 housewives met once a month for their “Not Really a Book Club” book club where they discussed the true crime books that were always read. When a stranger with different habits moves in to the neighborhood, weird things start happening. Only Patricia Campbell notices and everyone else, including her husband, thinks she’s crazy. After a few years of staying silent, Patricia decides it’s time to take matters into her own hands to rid their town of this creepy but personable neighbor.
I kind of wish I had read instead of listening to this because then I could have jumped over the super creepy parts instead of having them tattooed in my brain. Despite the creep factor, this book really hooked me and I didn’t want to stop listening. I haven’t read too many (ok, I’ve only read Twilight) vampire books and this was a very interesting take on vampires. This one was certainly creepier than Edward Cullen!

I am blown away by the range Amor Towles has as an author. While Rules of Civility is the first book he wrote, it is actually the last of his that I have read. I find it beyond amazing that he is able to write from the perspective of a 20-something year old female in the 1930’s in NYC, that of a Russian count from the 1930’s and beyond, and that of an 8 year old boy, an 18 year old boy, and an 18 year old girl in the 1950’s in middle America. He truly is a master story teller and his descriptions and attention to detail are amazing.
Rules of Civility introduces us to life in NYC from the tail end of the 1920’s and into the 1930’s. While it follows the life of a middle class young woman, we also get to see how the upper class live as well. The way Mr. Towles weaves these lives together is nothing short of magical and I look forward to reading whatever what he decides to grace us with.