Viola Davis is so raw and vulnerable here and her ability to connect her childhood to the way she navigates both her life and her career is compelling. I do think there is some awkwardness with the writing and structure but not enough to ruin the reading experience. If you enjoy this, please also pick up some of Maya Angelou’s autobiographies. I see some similarities there.

girl, whatever

This is a fun time! I love the game-like quality and seeing Floralinda’s character growth throughout the story. The fairy, Cobweb, is so funny and I even love the witch by the end. Great if you want a short audiobook!

You know what? Hell yeah. This is so sweet and I devoured it! It's cozy and beautiful and it's exactly what I need after days of spiraling.

this is fun. unsettling and then chaotic, exciting ending with humor throughout. if you grew up in the southern US, I think this will be especially relatable

I mean, I guess. idk, this was fine but the writing isn't the best. it was interesting especially in the first half but it got repetitive after that so the back half is a big of a slog.

much of this is plodding along and then something really interesting will happen and then we plod along for a bit. I did really enjoy the ending where Grann discusses the impact of this event, the literature it inspired, the people who weren't able to tell their side of things, and the reasons the story is so different depending who you ask (empire).

What do you mean it's over? 😭😭 I miss them already 😭😭😭😭

I've read almost all of Samantha Irby's essay collections now and the others are fun but there are several in here that go on for far too long. I skipped a good chunk of the sex and the city one. I'm sorry I did not care one bit.

wow! everyone read this duology right now! Octavia E Butler is an unmatched talent. she was able to make me invested deeply in characters in a scifi setting (kindred) and now a dystopian in this duology when I've had trouble connecting to characters in these genres before. the fact that this was written in the 90s is, at first, surprising because of how accurate it is to the world we're living in right now but then sad because we've always been heading here. I did find some kind of comfort and power in all of that, though.

this is fun. nothing groundbreaking but a good time

I love the format of this - going through all the magazine stories for the last edition of The French Dispatch. It's silly and zany and visually stunning. It's Wes Anderson. I do think some stories are better than others but my favorite is the one with del Toro.

It's funny how your childhood interests actually don't change all that much. In high school, I read and watched a lot about the New York music and art scene at this time and revisiting that through Patti Smith's eyes is romantic and beautiful and sad. I felt this longing for a world that doesn't exist anymore (something I'm feeling more and more often lately) and I think the writing quality really added to it.

There are some sweet moments in this but overall the pacing makes this book feel 500 pages long and kind of just boring.

I was skeptical but had no reason to be. this is very good. takes the original idea and expands it in such an interesting way. I love you, Nia DaCosta! I love you, Jordan Peele!

This is such a beautiful story that is about the way people within the art world interact with each other but the themes more broadly apply outside of that group. At first, there were a couple of perspectives that I wasn't super interested in but over time they started to grow on me and I became more invested.

everything I had watched or read about what happened at Sarah Lawrence left me with this confusion as to how Larry kept it up for so long. I always believed the telling of events but that piece just hadn't clicked for me yet. there is a chapter in this book that, when read aloud on the audiobook, suddenly made it all click. in this chapter it's just Larry talking and talking nonstop and the bombardment of praise and advice and cutting remarks circling around each other made me really feel what that must have been like.

In 2026 they would have forced Andy to go on ozempic

I especially like the sections that connect MLMs to the current government in the US but I think beyond that, if you have read or watched a lot about these types of schemes, there isn't a lot of new information. It is, however, a good overview of pyramid schemes and MLMs for someone who is new to the conversation.

rip Phillip you would have loved chatgpt

I mean 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I used to have nightmares about Ben Stiller and his kids when this first came out.

I love you, Vincent Price!

ocean vuong can create characters that feel so real. they feel like people you know and I got so invested in their lives throughout the course of this book. my heart broke for them over and over and the ending DESTROYED me. I miss Sony and Hai and Grazina and BJ and Russia and Wayne and Maureen already.

geez that was grim

this is so messy! I think the main character is a bit unlikeable at the beginning but that's on purpose. she goes through this journey at work and it's tense and frustrating and sad and I just enjoyed all of it.

Scarlett Johansson playing an actress playing an actress playing an actress.

this movie is visually stunning but also sometimes showing the realities of farm life (birthing and needing to kill animals) but it's also this push and pull romance between the main characters. I do feel like we got to know John more than Ghoerghe so there was a bit of unbalance there but ultimately, it was refreshing to see a queer story with a happy ending.

I kept saying “oh my god who cares?” But as soon as I was about to dnf, she would bring up an interesting and relatable topic. This happened over and over for the entire book.

all these stars are for Zyll (and round boy)

I really like the conversations surrounding the push and pull between science and religion at this time. There's also just a lot of drama and that was fun to read about. Also these people were just eating anything? The guy who got down on the floor and picked up and identified bat pee? WILD. Everyone said he was acting a bit strange at the end of his life and I can't imagine why.

this was a little funny. nice, short audiobook. plan to continue the series.

I really love the first half of this and the way information is revealed. being in the mind of this "artificial friend" means you're seeing the world differently than humans would and the world building happens maybe slower than some people would like but that's the main appeal for me here. I do think the second half wasn't quite as interesting and the ending is a bit dissatisfying. maybe that's the point.

This was fun and I really was invested in the mystery but the reveal was a bit... Idk it felt weird.

I had no idea where this was going and any given moment and even when I thought I had all the answers there was something else.

They really do have a world of stories at the library.

omg this is INCREDIBLE!! good for her!!!

Felt like being sad Also I miss teaching English pre- 2020 sm

Took a while to get there and when it finally did, the interesting part felt rushed. I appreciate what it was doing but I didn't care enough about the characters for this to be as impactful as it could have been.

Children of the Sea 5 Nineteen Thirty-Seven 4 A Wall of Fire Rising 5 Night Women 3 Between the Pool and the Gardenias 4.5 The Missing Peace 3.5 Seeing Things Simply 4 New York Day Women 3.5 Caroline's Wedding 5 Women Like Us 4.5 In the Old Days 4.5