This was pretty darn good, but I didn't love it nearly as much as her "Horseplay."This was pretty darn good, but I didn't love it nearly as much as her "Horseplay."...more
You know when you go to those really fancy restaurants? Maybe it's been a long week and you're stressed, hungry, tired, and overstimulated. You just wYou know when you go to those really fancy restaurants? Maybe it's been a long week and you're stressed, hungry, tired, and overstimulated. You just want something nourishing to eat and soothe you. But everything on the menu has at least one off-the-wall bananas ingredient. And your friends with more grown-up palates are raving saying things like, "Oooh! What an unexpected pairing!" or "I wouldn't have expected that to work but the flavors play off each other wonderfully!" Meanwhile, you're in the background asking the server to take 15 things off their garden salad or a flatbread and wondering if you should just make do with the more recognizable pieces of bread and eat soup or eggs at home.
Anyway. All that to say, unexpected isn't always all it's cracked up to be. People say "predictable" like it's a bad thing. It can also mean "dependable." Or "steady." Or "exactly what you wanted when you wanted it."
This book is like that. It's every Hallmark movie you've ever seen. It's Sweet Home Alabama. It's How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. It's Runaway Bride. It's When Harry Met Sally. It builds on traditional romcom foundations to offer something sweet, thought-provoking, and original. The characters are fun. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it....more
It was . . . fine. It was a book club book so I persevered where I might not have otherwise. I liked Molly's voice initially but it quickly became graIt was . . . fine. It was a book club book so I persevered where I might not have otherwise. I liked Molly's voice initially but it quickly became grating -- not because she is written as neurodivergent (I adore All Systems Red) but because she was inconsistently written as neurodivergent and it threw me off. ...more
This is exactly the sort of book that I don't usually read, but I got drawn in by the promise of birds (I found it on a list of "books bird lovers wilThis is exactly the sort of book that I don't usually read, but I got drawn in by the promise of birds (I found it on a list of "books bird lovers will love") and by the excellent writing. The writing remained excellent throughout the book, there were good bird parts, and I really liked the opening and closing chapters/images.
However. The rest of it is exactly why I stick to fiction. There are Secrets (with a capital S), betrayals, broken relationships that are never restored, heartbreak, violence, death, and threats to kids. I didn't care for any of that. I moved through it quickly, because someone said it had a hopeful ending. It certainly didn't read as hopeful to me (though certainly elements of it were).
This is such a wonderful book. It's deep and rich, broadening and thought-provoking. It's the kind of book I used to read back before I had kids, backThis is such a wonderful book. It's deep and rich, broadening and thought-provoking. It's the kind of book I used to read back before I had kids, back before a global pandemic, back before I woke up every single day worried about the climate and the fall of civilization.
It's the kind of book that I would never, ever read today except that it was a book club pick. It is also compulsively readable, beautifully written, and very, very well done. I couldn't put it down. I read it in a kind of furious rush, scowling at the pages but unable to stop turning them.
I highly recommend it except that also I don't recommend it at all. Not an easy book, but such a good one....more