Comments on: Stalled: Mini-Reviews

By: Catherine

Catherine — Wed, 13 May 2020 18:18:50 +0000

In reply to Christie Kline. I'm sure I was projecting my own attitudes of 'why is this all you want from life?'. I also think I had real misperceptions about Russia. That, whatever was wrong with it, it was still a highly educated country, open to birth control, and without rampant sexism. So, all these women finishing high school and getting pregnant blew my mind.

By: Christie Kline

Christie Kline — Sun, 10 May 2020 23:29:00 +0000

I just finished and loved Disappearing Earth, but I can’t disagree with any of the things you mentioned about, so you were probably right to not keep with it. Those women and their same stuckness didn’t annoy or depress me (though it was infuriating in that, girl, go get better for yourself way). I came to the book as a lover of loosely connected stories and wary of the missing children element. So I didn’t miss that the novel wasn’t very much about them.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 19:33:13 +0000

In reply to Laila@BigReadingLife. I always hesitate because negative reviews don't do as well as others, but, at the same, I feel like if all a reviewer does is write about 4-5 star books I'm not going to trust them as much. Same thing with DNFing all the time. I like the middle path!

By: Laila@BigReadingLife

Laila@BigReadingLife — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 18:42:56 +0000

I did not finish I Miss You When You Blink either… I read 7 essays and thought they were okay but they just weren’t grabbing me enough to keep going. It just wasn’t the book for me. I always appreciate when readers post about the books that they didn’t finish!

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 22:30:30 +0000

In reply to Allison | Mind Joggle. I did read your review because it made me feel better about setting it aside. It's just that premise! It's great territory to mine so I keep thinking if I kept going I'd get to the gold.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 22:27:17 +0000

In reply to Susie | Novel Visits. I'm sure if I'd stuck with it she would have gotten past the mommy stage and I would have found more relatable aspects, but It just didn't hold me.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 22:26:08 +0000

In reply to Harriet Tetley. That sounds fascinating! I love anything having to do with books and libraries.

By: Harriet Tetley

Harriet Tetley — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 18:03:01 +0000

Just finished The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson. What an amazing story. The Pack Horse Librarians, the blue people of Kentucky, A wonderful read.

By: Susie | Novel Visits

Susie | Novel Visits — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 02:06:44 +0000

I was happy to pass on the first two, thanks to you’r advice, but in general I liked I Miss You When I Blink. Parts of it like parts in some other nonfiction collections get a sort of “well dah” response from me and I think that’s because I’m a little older than many of the readers and have already figured out some of the “ah ha” moments for myself.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 00:18:20 +0000

In reply to Catherine.

Damn it. I am such a contrarian that now I want to read it just to see what made you mad. It gives me even more pause that she couldn’t hold your attention over a 272-page book. But that also helps when I think about giving it a go. If it were over 320 I’d say hell no.

Ha. I did survive, but it felt good to yell. JFC, it’s really NOT as complicated as people make it. Funny enough, I was at BevMo today and I found a bourbon that was “peanut butter bourbon.” I could have skipped the Clif Bar dunked in bourbon and had it premade. I love experimenting, but I didn’t have the guts to buy peanut butter bourbon without checking it out first.