December 2020 Wrap Up

this was a really smart really mature novel

i liked it well enough i thought it achieved its purpose of satirizing stalinism but given my background in russian history there wasn't a whole lot that was new to me in here

of the three of these the disappearing earth is the one that i liked the most but i was enjoying it much more in the early sections

this book was really great i loved it i learned so much from it

unlike group by christy tate which i literally cannot recommend to anyone there is a reason why licensed therapists have been highly critical of that book

i'm not sure what was missing between these two chemistry wise but i just never really felt the spark between them

this one may not have been quite as amazing as maybe you should talk to someone by laurie gottlieb which quickly became one of my all-time favorite nonfiction books i love that book

i really loved this book as i suspect everyone who loves magpie murders will but for me it fell a little short of being as good as its predecessor largely because it took such a long time to get into the second mystery

silence is so deep and the moth and the mountain were both just decent i thought they were largely unremarkable largely unmemorable

like the other dickens novels i've taken on up to this point i liked aspects of this i do think dickens is really funny i was laughing a lot when i was reading this and also the mystery surrounding oliver's parentage was a really unexpected thing in this book i actually really liked that part of it but my issues with dickens pretty much still stand i think he takes way too long to get to the point

then i felt like it had the writing style of rules of civility by amor tolls which is my all-time favorite novel

silence is so deep and the moth and the mountain were both just decent i thought they were largely unremarkable largely unmemorable

it's all interesting stuff don't get me wrong but it's told in such a stiff way and that is so confusing to me because this author is a broadway critic you would think that he would attempt to insert his own commentary throughout or that he would attempt to put his own voice in there whatsoever and he just didn't

so while i wouldn't say that this book is heartwarming it definitely is a testament to the power of books and reading because of all the joy and the hope that this library and its books gave to the citizens of this town during this time

this was one of the easiest five-star ratings i've ever given in my entire history as a reader

i felt the same way about the essex serpent which was really beautiful but just too character focused for my liking

the plot is very reminiscent of the interestings by meg wolitzer which is one of my favorite novels

every single short story within that collection needed to be there and by the time you get to the end everything comes together in such a perfect way you see how everything is interconnected like the most beautiful challenging jigsaw puzzle