Reviews and Comments

I want a break between romance books, so reading the least romantic book I can find.

Book was built around the sex scenes, which were successfully done. Very much a candy, wish fulfillment type of book.

It was odd that the central conflict of the second half of the novel was resolved more or less off-page.

Book club pick. Peaked at it a little and it looks hot.

This was also very enjoyable, but not as exciting or novel as the first installment. I feel like the author is putting pieces into place for something larger, and I'm interested to see if ART returns and how their relationship develops.

Murderbot is a really compelling character. The story was a little thin, but it served mostly to introduce the character.

Murderbot's clearly depressed and has social anxiety, but deals with it the best they can. I loved the ending, but wonder if we'll see the Preservation crew again.

Freedom is a pure idea. It arises spontaneously, without instruction.

Head part of this as a audiobook, and then the file corrupted. Looking forward to finishing.

Uneven collection that often overexplained itself.

The author really doesn't believe in "show don't tell" and footnoted and explained every little thing, especially in "Buffalo Bird". One egregious example: Text from story - "like a child hiding during a telling of the Rolling Head story" footnote: "The is a particularly terrifying sacred story that Cree and Métis people tell during the winter months." Yes, Chelsea, I gathered that from context!

Favorites were "Michif Man" and "Maggie Sue" (the latter I seem to like more than most reviewers). These had the most compelling characters and did the most conceptually.

Seeing some praise for "Unsettled", which I find surprising, I thought the worldbuilding there made little sense.

Wavered between 2 and 3, but it brought enough new and interesting ideas to the table for 3. Just wish the author let the reader figure it out a little more.

Book club pick.

I like Baum better as an idea man than as a writer. The characters and lands he created are memorable and worthy of their cultural impact, but things in the story often happen quickly and without explanation. Sometimes explanations are given that don't make sense.

Dorothy is noticeably younger than in the movie version.

It was funny to me how casually violent the book is, except that, when Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch of the West, they explain explicitly through dialogue that it was unintentional.

The movie really tightened up the story and made it better structurally.

I did not think this was an allegory for bimetallism.

Reading to prepare for the movie, to prepare for reading Wicked, to prepare for the Wicked movie.

Sequel to a book I read earlier this year.

I had kind of a sick day Saturday and read this whole thing over a period of two days. It had that special magic where you can't wait to get to the next page.

The author did a very skilled job of drawing different characters and political factions, and the psychological portrait of Lomeli was well done and unexpected.

The author said that the unnamed prior Pope wasn't Francis, but he definitely felt like Francis.

The twists in the last 20% of so left me kind of cold and felt dated. Obviously they'd be emotional events for a faithful Catholic, but the fact that they were presented as shocks felt kind of 2000s.

Will definitely see the movie.

Reading in preparation for the movie.

Overall pretty average, with a few standout moments. I thought the scene with the sandbenders was a good character moment for Sozin.

This was notably less experimental than the Yee books. Yee tried to experiment with genres, this felt like a treatment for a prequel season of the cartoon.

I appreciate that the author was handed a difficult task with "your protagonist must be a good person and likeable, but is also best friends with teenage Hitler".

The author had a strange tic where he didn't entirely avoid the word "kill" or "die", but would often substitute "end" or another euphemism. It felt like the publisher only allocated him a certain number of uses.

The lengthy reading time wasn't due to length or quality of the book, I just got very busy at work and reading election news, and fell out of the habit of reading.