Unrelated, I hate disqus. It still won't sync my comments, and I keep getting an error. I've deleted/reinstalled it twice and this KEEPS happening. Is anyone else getting this error? HALP! "WARNING: Check your Blogger settings ...we could not test your blog's settings...To prevent this, go to Blogger → Settings → Comments and set... to Anyone." Which it is set to. I don't understand.
Anyway... onward to the books!
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine- Gail Honeyman: 4 Stars
library ebook/library hardcover
I really liked how Honeyman dropped hints at why Eleanor was the way she was rather than just coming out and saying it all at once. Though she was abrupt and even rude at times, I could understand why she was the way she was, which made me like her quirks, even if others didn't quite "get" her. I also really liked how it was told in the first person, so we could really see what was going on in her head. I definitely did not see that twist at the end though!
" Some people, weak people, fear solitude. What they fail to understand is that there's something very liberating about it; once you realize that you don't need anyone, you can take care of yourself. That's the thing: it's best just to take care of yourself. You can't protect other people, however hard you try. You try, and you fail, and your world collapses around you, burns down to ashes." 280
"...Ignus aurum probat. 'Fire tests gold.' The rest of the phrase: '...and adversity tests the brave.' How true." 308
"Supportive. Supportive meant...what did it mean? It meant caring about my welfare, it meant wanting the best for me. It meant laundering my soiled sheets and making sure I got home safely and buying me a ridiculous balloon when I was feeling sad."
Love and Other Consolation Prizes- Jamie Ford: 4 Stars
library hardcover
| The story is told in flashbacks by Ernest Young. We see Ernest as a young orphan boy shipped off to the promised land only to be sold to the highest bidder- a Madam at a local brothel. And then we see him today, with his two daughters and lovesick over his wife's dementia, trying desperately to keep his wife's former profession under wraps from his news-reporter daughter, who's doing a piece on the 1909 World's Fair before the upcoming one. Beautifully written, but extremely bittersweet and left me wanting more from what happened between then and now. |
"Ernest searched the crowd for someone, anyone to come forward- to shout and holler, to wave his or her hat int he air. But no one appeared. And his mother was gone forever. Ernest felt utterly alone in a gathering of fashionable strangers." 61
"He kept his mouth shut and took a deep breath, exhaling from a place in his chest that ached with sadness and longing. He couldn't bring himself to speak about the things he wanted, either for himself or for the people he loved, so he turned away. He pretended to be interested om a display of fur coats made from mink and fox, though he couldn't look at them without remembering the wild and beautiful things that had been trapped to make them." 211
Smothered- Autumn Chiklis: 2.5 stars
Netgalley
I requested this book because I thought it would be relatable. Though I'm no longer a recent college graduate, I was once and I too had an overbearing mother and had to move home after graduation because I didn't have a job lined up. I also really enjoy YA novels. This read more like YA than adult fiction, even if it was about a college graduate, yet it was completely unrelatable. Six months after graduating, she still had only applied to one job. She wallowed away every day whining about she couldn't find a job without actively seeking one out. There was no real plot. I also didn't like any of the characters. They all seemed like rich and self-entitled brats (including the mother) with the exception of Theo, who was the only one who seemed even remotely "real." The journal-style formatting and the addition of medical reports, texts, and articles made it a quick read, but I literally had to put this down for a bit because I was so tired of her incessant complaining and juvenile behavior.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Currently reading: Summer Sisters- Judy Blume
What are you reading?
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