mynameismarines's reviews
1076 reviews

[February 18, 2019] Marking for reread pretty soon after my first read FOR THE PODCAST!

Check it out for lots of feelings about why Emma is great, even when she's doing the most and the worst. We also talk about Emma adaptations and why Clueless is THE BEST, both as an adaptation and as a cinematic masterpieces. Fight me.

[November 5, 2018] This was it! The last of Austen's published novels I had to read. I'll admit that this book and I started on a wrong foot-- I was annoyed by Emma and her being loud and wrong all the time. I took a break from reading and asked my best friend what she loved about this book, as Emma is her favorite Austen. She helped reframe Emma's actions for me-- yes, she is loud and wrong, but there is a fierceness in her love and a desire to help people, even if she doesn't know quite how.

It also helped that I watched the two adaptations before going back and reading. Knowing how it all ended also helped reframe how I saw the story. It made picking up on the little clues to what was actually happening fun.

The relationship between Emma and Mr. Knightley is definitely of it's time. He's basically watched her grow up and there are definitely times that he comes off as a bit patronizing and sometimes even fatherly. This is definitely a book I'll put into my Austen rotation, but I don't think it can match my love for Lizzie and Darcy and Anne and Wentworth.

That said, this is Austen at her funniest and wittiest, in a lot of regards. I'm glad I finally, finally picked this up.

This was fine! It borrows heavily from the genre and draws blatant inspiration from old movies, which is all fine, but it makes for a generic experience. I wanted to know what happens, and I think that says a lot when it comes to thrillers. This just spelled every moment, every emotion, every step and every inspiration right out for you in black and white. I would say there are two major twists here and I think they were both pretty well telegraphed. The family thing in a satisfying way and the killer in a heavy-handed way. There was nearly some IT COULDN'T BE THEM! baked right into the story.

Easily read... and probably easily forgotten. I'd watch a movie, though.

3.5 stars

This will go down as probably one of the most frustrating reading experiences of this year. I loved the richness of the writing, the setting, the representation. I love explorations of grief. I loved Axel. This is the sad, flowery book of my dreams, basically, but I could not get over how much it needed to be tightened. It was absolutely overly long. We go through the same scenarios over and over, the main character asking herself questions about her own grief the reader could've gotten to by themselves. Had this been 100 (maybe even 150) pages shorter, I think it would've been perfect.

And that's saying a lot since one of the main plot things is no one has ever used their words and told Leigh a single thing about her life, ever.

Read for Snark Squad Pod! Check out all my feelings on the A Dance with Dragons episode.

Maybe that's on the low side for a rating, but this series messes with my feelings. It undoubtedly had some of my favorite characters ever, but it needs to be basically half as long. Honestly, it's so repetitive and meandering sometimes, it's painful. It's not world building, it's not bringing us anywhere, it's not suspense at this point. It just needs to be EDITED.

The format of this book also really bothered me. Some character POVs were completely missing from the last book, and we get them here, but some of the story is repeated, and then random POVs from the last book get tacked on to this book. Like... why?

I don't know why. But I did it! I read all 5 published novels and there were highs and there lows, but mostly, there were a shit ton of words.

I’m struggling with a rating here because I both get what the mass appeal is and was thoroughly engrossed while wishing the book lost half its pages and unsure if the payoff was entirely satisfying.

I really liked the way Salandar’s and Blomkvist’s paths and cases cross. It’s was neat to follow them separately for a bit until they met. I was more interested in what happened to Harriett than anything else.

I’m super late here so chances are you already know, but this story features violence against women pretty heavily. Apparently, the original Swedish title telegraphed that, which yes. It’s hard to escape that at the end of the day, Salandar just keeps running into a string of men who hate women. I’m not sure to what end, in this story. I mean, the other piece of this all is financial crime? And it seemed so oddly paired because I wasn’t sure what the author was trying to say. “Some men hate women,” sure but that’s about it.

I thought Salandar would be more of a main character here, but it’s clear to me that Blomkvist takes center stage. He’s an older man who every woman wants to sleep with and gets complimented several times for his prowess in bed. He’s the main character. Most of the superfluous detail comes thanks to knowing what he is doing every step of his morning, afternoon and night routine. The characterizations overall weren’t great.

Idk man. I couldn’t wait to finish, I was mad that I couldn’t just keep reading, I’m going to continue in the series, but also its readability was probably its biggest strength.

Check out my full thoughts and feelings on this episode of Snark Squad Pod

My review from the first time I read this was a placeholder, promising to come back once I was able to process my feelings. Two years later, I reared it and here I am. I'm standing by my four star review of this book, though full disclosure, I love this series. This first book is a little tricky. I think the first half of this novel kind of ambles along in a way that it's difficult to sink into, particularly because you aren't sure why you are supposed to care about these characters, this place and this story. After the halfway mark, things really started to come together for me.

I loved the way this was so clearly a biased story, framed by the disappearance of Lila. I like the tone and conversational style, the way it rambles in the way someone who were sitting down and trying to capture the beginning of a story might ramble. I loved that this was theme heavy, yet accessible. I loved that it was thick with every day events, yet felt mythic and suspenseful.

I think what it did best was place us, set us in a time, give us the feeling of growing up and gaining context of a world through growing up. I think that its weaknesses involved that laggy beginning and some ways it alienates the reader through how uncomfortable it could sometimes be to be in Elena's head. The best example of this is how disgusted Elena is by her mother's disability. It's supposed to fit into a larger theme of bodies and how uncomfortable Elena seems to be about her body and all bodies, but it fell flat for me.

It's difficult to talk about this as a single piece because of how closely each book ties into the next. It's a lot to ask for people to invest in this book, especially because it feels like a necessary first step to better things to come. The good news is, an adaptation is coming.

This was wild. Halfway through, I was wondering where else the story could "go" and how Holmes had managed her audacious scheme for so long. Then, the story kind of flips into how Carreyrou broke it, and it was a fresh wave of feels and engagement. This was told really well, it was gripping, it was interesting from a bad science, business practice, and HR point of view. Even if you've only heard of Theranos in passing, I think this is a good read for just about anyone.

Quick, entertaining revenge fiction. There was a moment in the middle where I had to check in with myself like girl are you rooting for murder right now? This book did a good job looking at the guy's methods of manipulation and abuse. They were overt things, but also ways he withheld compliments or time or said underhanded things. It was wild.

The ending was a little strange. It didn't head in the direction I thought it would, but the more I thought about it, the more okay I was with it.

Book 3 of #7in7readathon 2018

4.5 out of 5 stars

Though, this is one of those books that is super hard to rate and review. It is a memoir, deeply personal by definition, addressed to a young black man, to Coates's son. But still, it was offered to me to read and consume and it was a mostly positive experience. There were only a few places where the words seemed a little rambled or disconnected, where Coates's thoughts went in a direction I couldn't follow or that I wasn't sure connected to what he was saying as a whole.

Overall, though, this was moving, thoughtful, emotional and well-written. I really loved the repeated themes of the body, the Dream, and the things that come between the world and the author.

Reading this was a long time coming for me and I'm glad that I finally did!

3.5 stars

I read this based on an rec sent via Instagram because I enjoy Elena Ferrante. This was beautifully written and once I started, I gulped it all up in one sitting. It left with a lot of thoughts and feelings that ended in a mixed review. I love the format, I love the way the story was fed out to us, I love the big themes of ties, of family, of happiness.

I didn't like the tropes this kind of fell into when it comes to literary fiction about infidelity. I didn't like that it painted the woman as hysterical. It was purposefully undone, this story, letting each piece and each point of view fade. I enjoy that in theory, because family and relationships don't get tied up with a bow, but in practice, it's not as fun for me as a reader.

Definitely glad I read it. I keep wanting to bring this book up and talk about it. It's even something I can see myself rereading. Not perfect but definitely an experience.