Review: Sometimes I Lie

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't normally like mystery/thriller type books, as they're usually pretty predictable. This one was very well done, much better than Girl on the Train and way beyond Gone Girl but I think fans of either of those books will love this one.

This review is in exchange for a free copy received from the publisher.

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Review: The Mountain Between Us

The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Couldn't get into this. Narration felt stilted.

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Review: Origin

Origin by Dan Brown
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Exciting and fun build-up to an anticlimactic end.

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Review: Altered Carbon

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Aside from a few tiny details that reminded me of The Matrix, this was a very cool and imaginative story. I really enjoyed inhabiting this world for a while. Will definitely read the subsequent books.

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Review: Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone

Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brené Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A refreshing call for fairness and kindness at a time when we've never been more divided.

This review is in exchange for a free copy received from Goodreads giveaways.

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Review: The Power

The Power by Naomi Alderman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Quite the metaphor for how things are going with women right now.

Wow. Just wow. The overwhelmingly good reviews are all justified.

This review is in exchange for a free e-galley from netgalley.com.

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Review: William Shakespeare's The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh

William Shakespeare's The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love this series and its consistent quality.

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Review: Every Heart a Doorway

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Very sweet, dark fairy tale.

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Review: The Jesus Cow

The Jesus Cow by Michael Perry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought this might be a good read for the Christmas season but it's a Christmas book in the same way It's a Wonderful Life is a Christmas movie. It's really just Christmas adjacent. Still....good read for any time of the year. I'm a big fan of Perry's books, he's a gem of a storyteller. It was interesting to read him in the novel format.

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Review: Elmet

Elmet by Fiona Mozley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Brutal, but well told. Gotta admit I kept looking for more after the end.

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Review: Wonder Woman: Warbringer

Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It took me a little bit longer to get into this book than I thought it would. I did end up getting invested I. The characters and story and liked it quite a bit. I think my main hangup was due to comparing it to the movie. If you can stop yourself from doing that, it's much more enjoyable. Looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this DC series.

This review is in exchange for a free copy received from bloggingforbooks.com.

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Review: Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City

Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City by Kate Winkler Dawson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Felt like there was not enough material for either story so the two were smashed together. Epilogue felt very rushed.

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Review: The Fiery Cross

The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There was a dumb little thing that bothered me. She had mosquitoes and lightning bugs active in late March/early April. Maybe they hatch early in the east, but that would not happen in the Midwest. Then, later in the book, it mentions May being too early for mosquitoes. What the....
Anyway, I do really love this series. You have to to keep reading booking that are about a thousand pages each. It makes me wonder how long they are before her editor gets a hold of them.

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Review: Mudbound

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had a bit of trouble keeping the characters straight at the beginning but ended up loving the way the story was told. I hope Netflix did it justice.

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Review: Our Souls at Night

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great story. Nosy meddlesome people suck.

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Review: Sing, Unburied, Sing

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't always agree with book hype but this one is deserving. Very powerful.

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Review: Wonder

Wonder by R.J. Palacio
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wonderful.

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Review: The Black Moon: A Novel of Cornwall, 1794-1795

The Black Moon: A Novel of Cornwall, 1794-1795 by Winston Graham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not my favorite of the series so far. At least this was all new story, as it hasn't progressed this far on the show yet. The ending was excellent.

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Review: Manhattan Beach

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This felt a bit more driven by characters than plot but it was interesting the way all of their stories were woven together. She could have built more suspense by holding back some of the story until later but that doesn't seem to have been an important factor. I really liked this. I cared about the characters and she put them in an interesting point in history.

This review is in exchange for a free e-galley from netgalley.com.

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Review: David Bowie: A Life

David Bowie: A Life by Dylan Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The narrative style is a bit difficult to get used to, as it is told in snippets from all different people. Not sure if I like this style of writing at all, particularly in a book of this length.
Some of the stories are also redundant. Sometimes there were redundancies within the same story, which was even more annoying as it felt like something that should have been cleaned up in editing. Felt sloppy.
There are quite a few references to England-specific places, people, and shows that may be lost on people not from there.
There are a lot of interesting little tales here though. I didn't really know much about him before reading this so I'm not sure what is new news here and what is common knowledge. It's definitely not biased though.


This review is in exchange for a free copy from bloggingforbooks.com

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Review: An Unattractive Vampire

An Unattractive Vampire by Jim McDoniel
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm pretty sure there is a better title hiding in this book somewhere. This just seemed much longer than it needed to be. Although it was quite funny in some parts, making fun of the current cult of pop culture vampire, the humor didn't make up for its rambles.

This review is in exchange for a free e-galley from netgalley.com.

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Review: Super Better: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient; Powered by the Science of Games

Super Better: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient; Powered by the Science of Games by Jane McGonigal
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is pretty awesome. I've tried a few things and I think the ideas are legitimately valid. I may actually buy an Xbox now.

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Review: The Call of Cthulhu -

The Call of Cthulhu - by H.P. Lovecraft
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Finally got around to this. Was similar to reading Poe but more imaginative. On the whole, it wasn't as good though.

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Review: The King in Yellow

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm not certain what the point of this was.

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Review: The Turn of the Screw

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I don't understand why these public domain digital books all seem to have so many errors in them. Who on earth are they hiring to transcribe these things?

Not very scary for a ghost story.

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Review: The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Good Halloween read but not too scary for wusses like me.

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Review: The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to read this before seeing the movie so I finally got it from the library. Quite the life this family lived and Walls is really good at telling their stories. It was pretty depressing though and I don't think I want to see the movie anymore.

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Review: A Horse Walks into a Bar

A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Quite the story.

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Review: The Countess

The Countess by Rebecca Johns
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really want to read some non-fiction about Countess Bathory, but this was the only book my library had. I thought it might at least be good for a Halloween read but it just didn't jibe with what I wanted.

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Review: Ringworld

Ringworld by Larry Niven
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I don't like to judge books harshly if they are part of a bigger whole that I am yet to be familiar with. That said, this did not live up to the hype I heard about it. I found it to be pretty boring and I couldn't visualize some of the concepts. Don't think I'll read any more of the series.

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Review: Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge

Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge by Paul Krueger
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I thought this would make a good October read but it was too ridiculous to be borne.

This review is in exchange for a free e-galley from netgalley.com.

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Review: Standard Deviation

Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was well written and the characters were interesting but, as a whole, I didn't fall in love with it.

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Review: When Dimple Met Rishi

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I watched The Big Sick right before the library finally sent this book through from my holds list. Apparently it's the inadvertent week for arranged marriages as a sub-topic.
Anyway, this was really cute and sweet. I enjoyed reading it.

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Review: Rabbit Cake

Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some books need to have disclaimers before critical chapters that warn you to stop reading if you don't want to embarrass yourself by crying in public.

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Review: Cat's Eye

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought I'd heard somewhere that this was a creepy story but it wasn't. There were disturbing elements but it all seemed very realistic and plausible.

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Review: Warleggan: A Novel of Cornwall, 1792-1793

Warleggan: A Novel of Cornwall, 1792-1793 by Winston Graham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought I'd be in to new material by now but this book was covered in season two also. I need to rewatch it and figure out how they crammed so much in.

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Review: Jeremy Poldark

Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Most of this was covered in season two of the show so I wasn't very surprised. I thought the show would do one book per season so I have some catching up to do.

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Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was my banned book read for this years banned books week. I saw it wound up on a few lists but I don't really get why. Maybe the stuff about God. The again, the reasoning for banning any book never makes sense to me.
The only thing I knew about this story was that the title was a Sherlock Holmes reference. It was an interesting read. I did skip reading the appendix, because I don't like math.

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Review: The Master and Margarita

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Glad I finally got around to reading this one. It was quite funny. I kept feeling that it could have ended on any of the last ten chapters though.

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Review: Kojiki

Kojiki by Keith Yatsuhashi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Interesting and unique story. I look forward to reading book 2.

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Review: MachoPoni: A Prance with Death

MachoPoni: A Prance with Death by Lotus Rose
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Um......

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Review: The Trouble with Goats and Sheep

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was good but it would be interesting to see it rewritten as a series with each book told from one characters point of view.

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Review: We Are Never Meeting In Real Life

We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm not huge on essays or short stories, but this was very good. I identified a bit too much with the story describing the things she thinks about when she thinks about dying ( What's on my browser history? Is my outfit suitable for wearing forever as a ghost?)

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Review: Lilli de Jong

Lilli de Jong by Janet Benton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is haunted by the ghost of Dickens.
This review is in exchange for a free e-galley from netgalley.com.

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Review: The Book of Esther

The Book of Esther by Emily Barton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have to admit, I don't know much about Jewish folklore or the religion in general. At times while reading this I felt a bit out of my dept but the author still made the story accessible for any ignorant fool, such as myself. That said, it is fiction, so you don't have to worry too much about not knowing your facts. An interesting aspect I enjoyed is that it was very easy to get suspended in time. It felt like this should have been taking place in the distant past and then something would happen to bring you back to the 1930's, or the more modern age in general. A lot of interesting topics are covered in this book, including what it means to be a woman and what makes up our humanity. Really interesting story.

This review is in exchange for a free copy received from bloggingforbooks.com.

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Review: Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens

Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Makes you laugh. Makes you think. Makes you feel a bit more connected to another human being.

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Review: Future Home of the Living God

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's been at least 15 years since I've read a book by Erdrich. I was a bit surprised to find her channeling Margaret Atwood. It worked though. This story is sad, beautiful, and poetic. I need to get caught up on more of her work.

This review is in exchange for a free copy received from Goodreads giveaways.

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Review: Riders

Riders by Veronica Rossi
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Well that was pretty ridiculous. The next book might be better if it has a different narrator.

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Review: The Cuckoo's Calling

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't know why I thought this would be bad, she's an excellent storyteller.

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Review: Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss

Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss by Joel Fuhrman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Yup. The real deal here. I'm going to follow his initial plan for a while so I can stop counting calories. Nutrient density makes way more sense. Just ordered a few of his cookbooks too.

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