This was the perfect book to fall asleep listening to. It wasn't so much that it was boring, as that the cadence of the narration is very soothing.  The author employs a writing technique in which he makes long lists of things, often the latin names for plants or animals, that might interest the hardcore biologist and botanist enthusiasts, but I found lulled me to sleep, like a lullaby.  In fact, I would listen to the same chapter several nights in a row, having not made it to the end of even one chapter before I drifted off to sleep.  I would like to say that the book was light and pleasant, as he describes at length the natural spaces that he is so drawn to--and there is something compelling about how much he loves these spaces and wants to make sure they are preserved--and yet the racism of 1901 finds its way into a world it has no business being.  This is in addition to the complete exclusion of women from the narrative in any meaningful way.  All said, I just can't recommend it.

​Not recommended.

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Other than the writing of this book being above average, I basically have nothing nice to say about this story.  It is steeped in rape culture and sexual terrorism--the entire backdrop of the story is about missing young girls, abducted from their community, with the message being that the only way they can keep themselves safe is by staying home or being under the protection of the men in their lives.  As if that wasn't bad enough, [SPOILER ALERT: STOP READING HERE] it add in the wrongful conviction of a gay doctor who was actually trying to help young girls.  A young boy who saves one girls from kidnapping goes on a lifelong quest to find and save other missing girls that is self-destructive, obsessive, and downright weird. 

It is a complicated murder mystery, with so much many misogynistic themes and general themes that even the twist ending that plays with the idea that it wasn't what it seemed the whole time wasn't anywhere near enough to save it.  I guess if you like a book about a serial kidnapper who evades capture amidst an unrealistic plotline that is hard to stay engaged with and follow, while also being unnecessarily shocking, then you might enjoy this read.  It was not, however, for me.

Not recommended.
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I als odid not This is a reflective memoir by a long distance, thru-hiker, which in places is sort of a micro-history of trails across contexts.  This read like a book written by someone who has spent a lot of time walking by themselves reflecting on random things and then using those ideas as the springboard to explore tangentially related things which comes back to walking for long periods of time alone in order to think more about the topic they are obsessed with.  I mean, some of it was interesting for sure, but there was just a lot of ruminating and reflecting on wildlife, snails, ants, and humans over time and space to come back to the same concept of trails.  I found it pretty pedantic, going over the same points in different contexts ad nauseam. I did enjoy the chapter on Newfoundland, while really disliking the chapter on the deer hunt. I also did not love the reverence with which he talked about indigenous concepts.  It felt oddly detached and maybe performative.  Even after reflection, I can't really put my finger on why I didn't like how he wrote those parts.  Overall, it was a very masculine reflection on a life of leisure time and isolation that just did not resonate with me.

Not recommended.

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This is the best book I have read in a long time and I absolutely could not stop reading it, while also knowing while I was reading it that I didn't want it to end.  Even during the weird Part IX that doesn't go with the rest of the book's style, I was so drawn in that I was confident it was going to eventually tie back in and be worth it.

A rare story about friendship, I just don't understand how this is shelved in "romance."  While the characters have romantic relationships, this book is about deep, long term, complex relationships amidst the pain of grief and loss, illness and disability, and outgrowing relationships.  The main characters are gamers and then game developers---with their lives are consumed by their shared passion for their work, which is also their play.  We watch them go from the youngest geniuses in the room to the oldest ones.  

Since I was born within an year of the main characters, it was just so much fun to walk through their story, which is so steeped in technology and the evolution of technology, knowing exactly what those limits were at the time.  The worlds was so different before cell phones when you couldn't get in touch with someone and the ways in which those differences are weaved into this story, along with all of the games I grew up playing gave the story rich emotional depth for me.  

I loved how one character compares friendship to a tamagotchi-- you have to pay attention to it every day or it will die.  And so much of this story revolves around how video games are and are not like real life.  Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result, just like a video game.  Shouldn't we be able to do back to the safe point and try again, have a do-over.  This idea that when someone dies, we yearn to have a do-over, but also just anytime we do something that results in a less than ideal outcome.  The characters are so obsessed with Mario Bros at one point in the late 80's, that if they miss even a single coin, they would immediately restart the level.  As I read, I felt so much melancholia for the characters wanting to do that, but also reflecting on the ways in which I wish I could go back to the save point and start over.

Everything in this story relates life to video games.  A theory about child rearing and not wanting or guiding your child to be someone they aren't is to not get attached to the details of a new game project you are working on too early because that will just cut off the flow of ideas and stunt the potential of the game.  You have to just see where it organically goes first.  A theory about grief is that our brains create an AI version of those we love and when they are gone, your mind is tricked into thinking they are still here for a while.  But over time, the coding gets old and the hardware becomes obsolete until the high resolution, 3-D virtual rendition of them fades until it is just a black and white photo, without sound or smell or feel.  

There has been some push back against this book for its depiction of the relationship between a professor and a student that is abusive.  The criticism seems to be that the relationship is "normalized" in the book and, for sure, at the time the relationship is happening, the character in the relationship believes it is consensual and the other characters ignore it in large part, but if you finish the book, it is clear that with maturity, that is not how they situation that relationship in retrospect.  I think the way the author handles this issue is quite realistic and sophisticated.  I appreciated the nuance brought the topic, which clearly depicted not only how it was playing out at the time, but how the various people involved created narratives that allowed them to cope with the situation.

I love a book full of new ways to think about life and this one brought that, along with a wallop of emotion, initially in small moments, but ultimately in big waves.

I didn't realize until after I finished the book and looked up the author, that she is the author of another of my favorite books: The Storied Life of A.K. Fikry, which you can purchase here.
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Highly recommend.  

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I really liked Cutting for Stone when I read it about a decade or more ago, so I was excited for this book, which many people have raved about.  However, I found this book to be unnecessarily graphic and depressing.  For one, the descriptions of medical procedures were just too graphically detailed for me.  The lengthy descriptions of things like a swollen testicle surgery and seemingly endless GI procedures just grossed me out.  The many deaths of children was painful, but weirdly situated in the context of hope and resilience in a way that did not resonate with me.  The drug use, intimate violence, and generalized misery made the somewhat joyous tone of the novel feel like toxic positivity in a way that had me not enamored or inspired by the characters, but constantly aware that these were characters in a book, not actual people, and I found them shallow.  Even Baby Mol, called that well into her adulthood because of her developmental disabilities, was portrayed with a stereotypical sweetness that was overdone.

​Do not recommend.

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The foreshadowing in this book was a bit much.  The sense of dread and foreboding was painful. I didn't want to get attached to any of the characters because I just knew from the very beginning that no good was going to come to any of them.  I don't think it is a spoiler to say, this is indeed what happened.  I often love the storytelling technique where there are multiple, separate narratives that seem unrelated, but as the story progresses they begin to converge.  In this case, it took a very long time and in some cases it was hard to keep track of the many lives as they seemingly marched along parallel to the others until the very end.  

It is hard not to appreciate the complexity of the story or the quality of the writing and I can understand why this made this year's Greatest American Novels List by The Atlantic, but I didn't love it the whole way through.  Truly the agony of feeling that everyone was doomed made it very difficult for me to love the book.  I am not even sure what it was about the writing that gave me this sense, but for me it was a distraction to feel like while I did not know what was going to happen, I knew it would not be good.  Don't get me wrong, I generally hate a "happy ending," but this was taking the opposite too far.

All of this said, I cannot say I wouldn't recommend it.  Judah will possibly be thrilled with the Not Not Recommended it is thus receiving.

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Perky and face-paced, this friends, lovers, or something else romance was so good...until it wasn't.  Nothing about it felt cliched or trite...up until the very end.  The characters were dynamic and quirky, the relationship atypical and fun...until out of nowhere at the very end it turned into...well, spoiler alert...exactly like you would expect every other similar type of romance novel to be.  Even the dialogue went from witty banter to sappy crap in the blink of an eye.  The concept was so good and the writing was clipping along until bam!  It was an incredible let down.  I don't know what I was expecting at the end, but I wasn't expecting the exact opposite of what the rest of the book was--Why would you go from quirky, unpredictable, and funny to conventional, overdone, and derivative? No thanks.

​Not recommended.

Highly recommend this historical fiction about a chemist struggling in the masculine dominated world of academic science in the 1960s.  I fell in love with the geeky characters and the chosen family put together by the protagonist, who only compromised her unwavering commitment to end sexist stereotypes when there was no better choice--and even then, she pushed back.  The small details that wound through the books were powerful, like the pencil she always wore in her hair, which plays a role in bad times and good.  
The first book of 2023 for me comes in as must-read.

​Recommend.

The highlight of this book was the staying power of Sagan's thoughts on war, environmentalism, human nature, and reaching for the stars.  But actually, the real highlight was LaVar Burton reading the book!  His voice, mixed with the lyrical insights from the author was a powerful mix.  I wish that when they updated the book, they had also footnoted updated science to go with it.  I am a far cry from knowledgeable on this topic, but I felt like there were undoubtedly theories that have changed since this was written.  I felt, even while reading it, that spending time to understand or learn the science might very well mean that I was unlearning things that were correct now that weren't then.  But, with that asterisk, I just put aside most of the more technical sections and focused instead on the philosophical passages.  From that perspective, and in Jordie's voice, this was well worth the time.

Recommend.

The just released, long awaited (what I thought was going to be the last book) of The Outlander series, I've been looking forward to this book for quite a while.  Maybe the build up was too much, but it felt like this book was jsut trying to do way too much.  It ties up a lot of previously abandoned storylines, but she introduces a lot of new characters and themes.  I didn't find the book as smooth as the rest of the books in the main series.  It felt more like she took a lot of the side stories and strung them together rather than the tight novel I am used to from her. 

The characters in this book, particularly the new ones, are shallow and one-dimensional.  In particular, I felt the introduction of the Quaker women just did not suggest an understanding of Quaker spirituality or culture at all.  This was particularly disappointing since I was initially excited to see them included.  I was also deeply troubled by the continuation of Young Ian's storyline. I found the whole return to his Mohawk wife subplot unbelievable. I am waiting to see what Indigenous readers think, but I would describe that entire section as offensive.
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It took me a long time to finish it and I wasn't at all sucked in the way I was with the other ones.  In fact, there were times when I felt like I wanted to put it down for a break--which did not happen in the previous books at all.  I don't mean to say that it wasn't a decent book and the series up until now has been so addicting, but just wasn't everything I was hoping for.  The series is still worth it, particularly if you really want to enter a historical, fantastical world.

Not recommended--which is tough since I really liked the previous books.