nothingforpomegranted's reviews
637 reviews

I honestly loved this. I heard about it from the Fated Mates podcast and knew this was going to be for me, and it absolutely was. I can’t read too much romance close together or they all just blend together in my head, so I kind of set this up for that situation by insisting on reading the first in the series first, but I still really enjoyed this. The sex scenes were sexy indeed, and they were just so into each other! I appreciated that the tensions came primarily from outside factors and not from the protagonists themselves, but I have to say, I missed some of the pining that I expected in a best friend’s little sister romance. I do love a pining hero. 

A fascinating and disturbing exploration of the cultural zeitgeist of true crime fascination—Eliza Clark frames this novel as a controversial nonfiction book written by an author of questionable credibility. She creates a wholly believable scenario just in the introduction and afterword of the book, with a full-blown tragedy sandwiched in between. The primary story is that of the murder of Joni by her high school classmates. The book (within a book) is structured in four parts, each semi-narrated by one of the three perpetrators, including a substantial amount of prose written by the author. 

While immensely disturbing (so much so that I had to put the book down at several points despite its gripping nature), the book also depicted a meaningful sample of teen girl angst in the early 2010s, which was both cringy and relatable. I’m not sure I ever want to read another book like this again, but I was certainly engrossed, and it made me feel feelings!

I enjoyed this a lot at the beginning, and I noticed significant parallels to On Beauty by Zadie Smith with the family branches, different political attitudes, and especially the teen daughter thinking just a bit too highly of herself within university politics. However, just like with Smith’s novel, my enthusiasm started to wane as the novel continued, and I wasn’t so interested as I reached the end, which was a bit disappointing. 

I think I like quiet, character-driven novels, but there’s some limit when I start to desire more drama. 

I heard about this series from the Fated Mates podcast because Sarah MacLean described the plot of the second book as a brother’s best friend who comes to the defense of a ruined lady only to discover that the rumors of her lost virtue are actually true! 
This first book concerns that brother himself, who is on a mission to find his father’s former mistress in order to save his sister’s dowry. Turns out, the best person to help with the job is the mistress’s niece, who just so happens to be the woman John had not stopped thinking about since their rendezvous in a garden under secret identities. The two rivals—divided by history of family scandal—travel through England to find the mistress and fall deeply in love along the way. 

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

I wasn’t expecting much from this, just a lighthearted book about a library, but I really love these characters. At the end of the book, I even found myself tearing up, thinking about the  relationships between parent and a child and the way memories stick with us. Each story was unique, and I loved the way that they tied together through the library. The  
 
was
 
a
 
truly fascinating character, and I loved the sneak peek into her life from the receptionist at the market.

I was expecting this to be informative and a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it ended up being a book that didn’t take anything seriously at all. The entire thing seemed like a joke or a satire, and I was disappointed because the concept actually sounds incredibly interesting! I would love to read an accessible academic history of many of these places, and instead what I got was a lame comedy special. 

I’m not quite sure what to rate this book. I understand that the whole purpose is that the film within a book within a book within a book is intended to be confusing, but I’m having a hard time even coming to conclusions. For most of the book, I was really enjoying both the strange layout and intertwining experience of the text and the stories, but I think I expected to have a few more loose ends tied up by the conclusion. I am glad to have read this, and it was definitely the right decision for me to read this independently of any other books, but I’m quite ready to return to more typical reading. 

The Navidson Record is a fascinating concept of a film, and I think that was my favorite aspect of the book. On the other hand, all of Johnny Truant’s footnotes were intriguing, though some of them were utterly disturbing and over the top, and while I think it was mostly intended to augment the rest of the story, I ended up preferring the time in Zampano’s story than the confusing back and forth about Johnny’s personal history. 

I think I’ll need to listen to a few more podcasts and read some more literary analyses to continue processing what’s happening in this book, and I’m looking forward to understanding other close readings. 

- interesting to discover that the structure was based in part on that of the Talmud

This was a lot of fun to read and discuss in our family book club. I really enjoyed the chapters about yeast and fermentation, and I loved drawing the parallels between booze and bread. Certainly those two chapters were the most engaging for me because I had a schema for understanding them. Some of the final chapters, particularly about the body and the brain made scientific references and used vocabulary that was unfamiliar to me when talking about compounds and processing. That made it a bit harder for me to appreciate the content, despite the casual pop science tone of the narration. 

Rogers included excellent anecdotes throughout the book, and I laughed out loud at several points. I’m curious about Maria the Jewess, who may have invented the still, and I particularly appreciated the quoted stance on whiskey contributed by a Michigan state senator in 1958.  

I don’t remember exactly which Everand list I found this book on, and I’m not sure what prompted me to pick it up, though I imagine it had something to do with the comp to Boys in the Boat. I love the Olympics, and I enjoy sports stories, and this seemed to have interesting history. However, this book was so short and so fast that I didn’t feel like I really got an insight into the characters’ experiences and motivations that led them to accomplish amazing athletic feats. 

I would be interested in learning more about the history of Hawai’i in this time period!

Nate is the child of immigrants and a Harvard graduate with a promising book deal and regular freelance reviewing gigs. Perhaps in the manner of many twenty-something Brooklynite men, he is simultaneously (or alternately) extremely confident and extremely insecure. Nate has recently broken up with his girlfriend of a year or so, Elisa, and he reflects on her mostly disparagingly, with occasional fleeting images of her beauty and his appreciation for her. When he meets one of Elisa’s friends at a dinner party she hosts, Nate is surprised to find her both attractive and appealing, and they begin a relationship that lasts about five months. Nate wrestles with his confusion about the fact that she is the kind of woman he believes he wants, and he genuinely likes her, but he finds that he isn’t attracted to her anymore. With that frustration, he begins to find everything Hannah does irritating. While he’s able to reflect on the vicious cycle of insecurity this creates, eventually the relationship fails. 

This is a novel of manners, slowly following our protagonist from bar to bar, book event to book event, interacting with the people of the town and industry with the occasional plot point thrown in there beyond the personal reflections. I enjoyed this book, though it was one I could just set aside and forget about for days until I finally decided it was time to just pick it up and finish it.