Nothing I can say about this one that hasn't already been said, just didn't like it. I feel stupid too because I read the sample and loved it, so decided to spend $15 on the full thing and realized the beginning is the only part I even liked. It's actually very clear and fun at first, then devolves into insanity. I knew it would weird but didn't know it would also be incoherent. I kind of skimmed the last half or so because I almost never DNF books. The writing actually was nice except the constant "it ___ like so much ___" find a new turn of phrase lady. At least now I know what side of the love or hate it I'm on.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - a heavy book about grief and family. written beautifully and in a delicate fashion.

Decided to read this to fill in a gap and enjoyed it.

Aside from the handful of spelling issues it wasn’t bad. I never understand how publishers allow those things to happen so often

Slightly different start to the year than what I usually read, due to a friend book exchange. My goal for this year is to read 52 completely new books, meaning rereads (which I do quite often) do not count. I’m a full time university student, and closing in on exam periods now, so i’m slowing down quite a bit.

Hi all, former 52-book reader here determined to get out of my reading slump. I picked up this admittedly junk food read of a book — the ballad on songbirds and snakes — as an easy reentry into the world of books. My goal for 2024 is to beat my 2023 number (11 books) and work my way back to 52 books in 2025.

This was an engaging page-turner for someone who’s fallen out of the practice of reading. Feels like a natural prequel rather than an afterthought to the series.

Just started but I’m already liking how it’s written and the plot! I’ve heard great things about this book.

Maybe this is the book Percy Jackson wants to be when it grows up. It’s pretty amazing how different stories created from the same source material can be. The writing was certainly excellent but also incredibly dense in a way I found a bit off-putting. I’m no scholar of ancient Greek culture, but I have pretty good founding in most of the mythology and I found myself struggling to place characters in their proper reference outside of the two chapters where Updike was extremely specific about it. I understand after a little more reading that he didn’t really intend to create a one-to-one correlation between the two, so maybe I was just distracting myself by trying to make it fit. In any event, it’s not going down as one of my favorites.

Finished Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh (4.5/5).

Here are my updated stats for my 2024 personal reading goals so far now:

• Pages Read: 12,520/48,000 (26% done goal, behind by 1,644 pages)
• Pages read by day stats:
  • Mean: 117
  • Median: 109
  • Mode: 109
• Books Read: 39/108 (36% done goal, 8 books ahead of schedule)
• Days Read: 107/366
• Average Rating this year: 3.97

Two young men, Rufus and Mateo, receive a call from Death Cast, a service that calls people to let them know they'll die before the day ends. Rufus and Mateo spend their last day living like they've never lived before

This was a sweet book that focused on making the most of the life you have. Honestly I love the concept of knowing the day you're dying and wish that was explored more thematically. But I understand that wasn't the point of this novel. I just kinda wish it was

3/5 stars

A short book that can be read in a single long sitting by even the slowest of readers.

I wanted something short and quick because I've read a few long ones recently.

It's a good story with a good message (its not about sales tactics at all) but I don't think I got as much out of it as I could have because I rushed it. I may read it again later to get more out of it.

Finally done with thr 6 volumes. What an amazing reading even for a re read!! Absolutely devoured it!!

This beautiful thing moves right up into the top two books I've read this year along with Beautyland. Mister Mason moves right onto the read-everything list. This book was so up my alley it may have redefined my alley.

There is some murder and mayhem here. But mostly it is about the silence you can find in the trees. About respecting nature. About the therapeutic effects of birdsong. Oh and a delicious apple and the seed that starts it all.

4/5 rating. This is my second Tana French book, The Witch Elm being the first French book I read. I can definitely tell In The Woods was one of her earlier books, but I really enjoyed it and might jump right into the second book of this series.

for those who read 50_100 books per year. do you remember the ideas in the book after some time pass. like if you gor into a discussion about some book you had read a year ago , would you still be able to dive deep in that discussion.

how long it takes you to finish a 300 page book , is it normal if it takes about 15 hours

i also have a problem when reading , that i would read everything even though it looks like all the 10 pages are just repeating the samd idea , but i have a fear of missing out or something like that.

if anyone have any advice , i would be gratefull.

About 150 pages into The Ruins and it's definitely fitting the bill for wanting to read a good horror story.

Halfway through The Brothers Grimm and it's classic, and quaint, but way more terrible than the fairytales I was told growing up in the 90s in the US.

Just started The Egg, 3 stories in. How clever and intriguing!

What's everyone else working on? Anybody who's read these, feel free to comment, and don't worry about spoilers because I'm familiar enough with what I'm reading. Happy reading, friends!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Here’s what I’ve read so far this year. If I could recommend just one of them then I’d go for This Other Eden by Paul Harding. Truly wonderful writing, heartbreaking and touching. I didn’t really like The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, unnecessarily long and not something I enjoyed stylistically.

Let me know if you have any recommendations based on this list.