meeshreads's reviews
730 reviews

This is a really good memoir about addiction, recovery, and generational trauma. The audiobook is well read by the author, and she did a good job of digging into her family's history and talking about how the prominent systems of recovery (& similar stories to this one) are not created or geared towards people of color. 

I loved this book! I looked forward to climbing into bed to read it each night. Each of the main characters are messy and realistic and relatable. I loved being inside each of their brains and along for the ride at different times throughout their lives, and the idea of how you see yourself vs how others see you was represented well. I loved the little glimpses into smaller side characters a la Amelie, some of which I would have loved to hear more from. I was sad when I realized the book was ending, I would have kept reading for another couple hundred pages at least. The writing style runs along at a brisk pace and has a very subtle comedic tone. The book spans 1971-2007, each section picking up a few years after the previous one, and it was like meeting up with a friend you haven't seen in a while but you are immediately back in sync. I just love Jami's books! 

This is a quick and fun read, perfect for people who get scared easily, since this isn't really scary at all. I listened to the audiobook, and it was well read. A nice kick off to spooky season!

This book is a bit of a slow one, not a ton of surprises, kind of obvious plot points, but I liked Cal and Trey and Lena. The audiobook was well read, and I'll probably read the others in the series. Tana French knows how to tell a good story. 

Read this for a book club. I didn't really know what to expect, but I did enjoy Amara's story and will probably read the other books in the series, as it ends on a bit of a cliff hanger. Life in a brothel in ancient Rome: extremely brutal. Amara is determined to get out of this life. The setting is bleak, there are some truly awful and heartbreaking situations, it's not a light read! 

I always liked a Midsummer nights dream, so I was really excited for this book! It's a light-hearted rom-com set around a wedding, told from multiple POVs, and I enjoyed it. Some of the characters fell a little flat (Gage, and the groom whose name I can't even remember), and some situations were a little ridiculous (the Tik Tok dishwashing fiasco, the rehearsal dinner dress fiasco, the lost pet cockatoo, etc), but this is a fun summertime book, perfect for reading poolside. The audiobook was well read, and I do love a happy ending. 

This is a lovely memoir, a story of a long and meaningful friendship, of living a creative life. I really enjoyed the writing style, and the audiobook read by the author was wonderful. 

This isn't the deepest or juiciest memoir, but I did enjoy it and I like the origin story--from being the first person to ask to appear on a public access variety show to the superstar we know today, it was a fun ride. 

This book is great. Told in multiple points of view in a Chinese-American family: second generation Lily, her son Nick who looks nothing like his mother, and her immigrant mother, Mei. The first two portions of the book, with Lily as the narrator, and then Nick, were very different stories of identity and coming of age. Mei's story was by far the most interesting, told at the end of her life, spanning her entire life. There are a lot of themes and ideas in this book, and I would have happily read another hundred or more pages. 

This is a fun book. A family of musicians, a handful of secrets, and a happy ending. Told in multiple points of view in different time periods, there is a theme of mother-daughter relationships and of being a woman in a dominated industry, but also being a woman in general.