Books I've Rated 4 / 5
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RabbitsA Novel
Finished
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The Spear Cuts Through Water
Finished
Another book that gets the “I’m clearly too dumb to fully appreciate this” bump. It took me a long time to get through, even on audio. I set it aside a lot. The writing is very poetic and often abstract, and it jumps between times, places, and perspectives regularly. On audio, at least, some of these jumps are very disorienting and hard to follow. I think it’s a very artful book, but I can’t say I enjoyed it.
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The Perfect Divorce
Finished
I had kind of forgotten how the first one resolved so it took me a bit to catch up to events. Fun thriller. The twists and turns were fun, kept me guessing, and didn’t usually feel cheap once revealed.
I hope—expect?—there will be a third book that wraps up Sarah’s arc. If I’m supposed to be satisfied that she just keeps getting away with it… I’m not. It’s not that her adversaries are good, but she’s, you know, also not good. -
The First Sister
Finished
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Cleat Cute
Finished
Pretty far outside my wheelhouse and the “spicy” scenes were prolonged and graphic, which I don’t judge it’s simply not what I read books for, but the relationship was absolutely charming and as a soccer fan I had a lot of fun with the setting—it’s also clear the author is immersed in the woso world for a bunch of reasons, and that added to the authenticity. Very fun read.
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A Fate Inked in Blood
Finished
I didn’t realize what I’d gotten myself into when I started this book, but honestly I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the “spicy” parts, which I don’t tend to read books for, flowed perfectly well from the non-spicy parts (unlike Iron Flame), and I found the plot engaging, the world interesting, the romance (again, not really my primary motivator to read a book) compelling-enough. The writing is fine, not excellent – a few phrases stick out and start to get annoying, but it’s ok. I’ll pick up the second at some point.
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The Other Mrs
Finished
I was pretty sure I had this figured out from very early on and while I wasn’t wrong I didn’t have the whole thing, so what I had sussed out was joined by things I hadn’t or things that took me much longer in a pretty satisfying way.
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The Atlas Six
Finished
The first characters we’re introduced to seem like the most obvious and ham-fisted “enemies to lovers” I’ve ever seen and I wondered what I was in for, but as the book goes on it gets stranger, less predictable, and frankly the writing gets better (and also stranger, at times). I would not have guessed, starting out, that I’d like this book any more than so much “is it YA, or isn’t it?” fantasy I’ve read over the years. But by the end, I really liked it. Will pick up the sequel soon.
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When No One is Watching
Finished
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Famous Last Words
Finished
Chewed through the audiobook in two days so that’s gotta count for something. Not necessarily a stand-out thriller but it had me hooked all the same.
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How Are You Going to Pay for That?Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics
Finished
Lots of interesting stuff in this book. Oddly though the actual title of the book seems to be … not really the main thrust. The main thrust is all the things that need to be done; how those things are paid for seems to mostly be “it’s not actually that important” and I think that’s fair but it makes the book title kind of funny.
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Careless PeopleA Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
Finished
I think this reinforced a lot of my existing feelings about Facebook and Zuck and despite my disdain for hand-wringing about “echo chambers” I do have alarm bells going off off when I notice that type of thing is happening: am I receptive to this info because it’s compelling and legitimate or because I want it to be true? I did not go in with any real preconception of Sandberg and her portrayal here was pretty shocking. Started out as a kind of “well I guess it makes sense that a powerful person behaves this way” but it gets worse and weirder as it goes on.
I intend to seek out some more info about some of the stuff in this book, but I will say very little in here seemed on its face to be unlikely to be true given other things I know or have heard—or if not “true” then at least an honest recollection of events.
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Ashes of the Sun
Finished
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Scythe
Finished
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Before They Are Hanged
Finished