Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

The Herd by Andrea Bartz ~ Book Review

Morgan

The Herd with 7 Layer Bars

Ballantine Books
Genre: Mystery
Release Date: March 24, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

I was instantly intrigued by the premise of this book since it’s classified as a mystery, but definitely doesn’t have a traditional plot. The storyline radiates around The HERd, an elite, all-female coworking space founded by Eleanor Walsh. This seemed incredibly random to me, but I loved it. Having previously worked in a building that housed a bougie coworking space (that I may have snuck around once or twice) I could easily picture the goings on and loved the weirdly relatable aspect of the mystery. The story opens with Katie, who has just moved to Manhattan, meeting with Eleanor about the potential of joining The Herd. Her sister, Hana, is the head of PR there, so her chances are good. When Eleanor fails to show up to make an important announcement at a prestigious The Herd event, Katie, Hana, and their friend Mikki, work to try to figure out what happened to her, while also trying to keep secrets from their past hidden.

This book definitely explores toxic female relationships, especially when it comes to getting ahead in career success. I thought this was really interesting in conjunction with a thriller. That being said, there was also kind of a lot going on and it could get confusing to keep track of characters (that might have been partially because I listened to this as an audiobook). I was intrigued to find out what happened to Eleanor and why, but some of the darker twists just didn’t feel like they fully gelled with the rest of the book. I would’ve liked more of a focus on The Herd itself, and more time with Eleanor, but nonetheless, this was an enjoyable and different type of mystery for me.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Buy The Herd at an indie bookstore near you
The Herd on Goodreads

Book Review, Nonfiction, Uncategorized

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo ~ Book Review

Morgan

White Fragility with cookies

Beacon Press
Genre: Nonfiction
Release Date: June 26, 2018

I found this book very informative and powerful. The way it’s written is largely shaped around the author’s own experiences with examining and uncovering her own internalized racism as a white person, and her experiences working with companies to explain and help prevent how racism manifests itself in the workplace. Because the book was written so personally, it helped me identify places where I could relate to what was being described. The book centers on the idea of White Fragility. DiAngelo explains that “socialized into a deeply internalized sense of superiority that [white people] either are unaware of or cannot admit to ourselves, [white people] become highly fragile in conversations about race.” Although this wasn’t comfortable for me to examine, it is critical for white people to do so. 

DiAngelo describes a multitude of workshops she’s given during which attendees proceed to ask questions, or make comments that perpetuate the exact issues surrounding race that she had just covered. This continuous illustration of white fragility and the difficulty white people have in accepting the societal racism that privileges them was eye-opening and frustrating.

DiAngelo also formats this book as somewhat of a workbook, frequently providing questions and answers that can be brought into conversations where the reader identifies white fragility at play. I appreciated that she was not only offering insight into an issue, but also providing solutions to help deal with it. DiAngelo also illustrates times when she has said or done things that were racist, and how she felt when she was called out, as well as how she internalized these situations and moved forward in an effort to do better. This allows the reader to see that they will make mistakes and missteps, but this is not all-defining. Combatting white fragility is not passive, and cannot be completed by reading a book, but this was a really informative and comprehensive introduction, and one I will likely revisit in the future.

Buy White Fragility at an indie bookstore near you
White Fragility on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Uncategorized

The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis ~ Book Review

Morgan

The Lions of Fifth Avenue with succulent and snack mix

Dutton Books
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release Date: August 4, 2020 (Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy!)
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

As a book nerd and a Fiona Davis fan, I was very excited for a book set around the New York Public Library. The book is split between 1913 and 1993 with narratives from Laura Lyons, who lives in the library with her family, and Sadie Donovan, who works there. As is always the case with Fiona Davis, the historical context is incredibly rich and detailed. Davis explores the role of the Heterodoxy Club in Greenwich Village in 1913 — a group of women discussing radical (at the time) feminism, and suffrage. I had no prior knowledge of this wonderful nugget of history and it was fascinating to experience it through Laura. Her character’s reactions to attending group meetings were believable and made for a strong understanding of her character, especially as she attends journalism school and strives to be more than just a wife and a mother.

Sadie’s narrative focuses on a series of thefts occurring at the library. Although she never met her, Sadie discovers that she is a descendant of Laura Lyons and that there were rare book thefts that also occurred while Laura lived in the library. She becomes uncomfortable that this may put a target on her back as being involved in the current thefts. Her portion of the story felt less rich to me than Laura’s, probably because I didn’t learn as much historical context.

As much as I enjoyed the majority of this story, I struggled with the ending. Sadie’s sudden quest to find someone who knew Laura and discuss her life with them seemed jarring and unbelievable and the ultimate conclusion of the thefts fell a little flat. That being said, I really loved learning about New York City in 1913, and seeing Laura struggle with her ambitions, her sexuality, and the sexism that surrounded her.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
The Lions of Fifth Avenue on Goodreads
Buy The Lions of Fifth Avenue at an indie bookstore near you

Book Review, Nonfiction, Uncategorized

Julie & Julia by Julie Powell ~ Book Review

Morgan

Julie & Julia with blondies

Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: September 1, 2005
My Rating: 🍪🍪.5

I’m generally a big fan of food writing, and I’ve heard about Julie and Julia, both the book and the movie, for years, so I decided to give it a try. I knew the general concept: Julie Powell attempts to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in a year. I really enjoyed the way that the Project, as it is called throughout the book, helped give Julie’s life structure and meaning during a time when she felt aimless. She’s stuck at a job she’s not passionate about and living in a crappy apartment in New York City with no concrete direction for her life. This very unique choice of a challenge started off as just something to apply herself to, but ended up being so much more for Julie. As her blog chronicling the Project garners more attention, she is approached by media outlets, and obviously, eventually gets a book deal.

As much as I liked this overarching theme of finding a creative outlet to help feel fulfilled, the minutiae of the book felt painfully repetitive to me. I understand that there are only so many ways to say that cooking some french dish did not go according to plan, but I found myself skimming entire sections because I felt like I had read them already. I definitely think this book could have been cut down considerably, and packed a more substantial and concise punch.

Conceptually, I enjoyed this book, and it was interesting hearing about a blogger before blogging was all the rage, but after a while, it lost my interest.

My Rating: 🍪🍪.5
Buy Julie and Julia at an indie bookstore near you
Julie and Julia on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Horror, Uncategorized

The Patient by Jasper DeWitt ~ Book Review

Morgan

The Patient with Brownies

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Thanks to the publisher and BookishFirst for my copy!)
Genre: Horror
Release Date: July 7, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

The Patient is one prolonged cliff-hanger. Written in the format of an online forum, each entry flies by and makes it easy to whip through in just a couple of sittings (it’s also only 224 pages). I loved the way this was written. It made for such a unique interpretation of the story and a really fun reading experience. The forums are written by Parker as he begins a job as a doctor at a mental hospital and volunteers to work with the most feared patient there: Joe. Joe has been there since he was a child, and no one knows what’s wrong with him. Furthermore, the orderlies and doctors who care for him can only seem to do so for a few weeks or months before experiencing psychotic breaks themselves. The terror that Joe inflicts is often graphic and disturbing, and is definitely where the horror aspects of this book come into play.

The reason this book isn’t rated higher for me is perhaps because of a misunderstanding of what genre it is. I was expecting some sort of science-based conclusion of Joe’s ailment, but what I got instead was a sudden supernatural twist that frustrated me. Although the concept ended up being innovative and interesting, it wasn’t what I anticipated, or wanted, from the conclusion of Joe’s story. If this had been marketed as including more aspects of science fiction, I likely would not have had such a big problem with how it turned out.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Buy The Patient at an indie bookstore near you
The Patient on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance, Uncategorized

Dear Emmie Blue by Lia Louis ~ Book Review

Morgan

Dear Emmie Blue with jam cookies

Atria Books
Genre: Romance
Release Date: July 14, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

I was not emotionally ready for this book. Dear Emmie Blue is a love story, but it’s so much more than that. First off, the concept is adorable: Emmie sends a red balloon with a note on it up into the sky when she is struggling deeply as a teenager. When Lucas finds the balloon and emails her, he becomes her ‘Balloon Boy’ and thus begins a lifelong friendship. Adorable. Before you decide you have the plot entirely figured out from the synopsis: you don’t.

Lia Louis is an incredibly talented writer. Her descriptive language lit up my senses, I could practically feel, smell, and hear the scenes she depicted. The way she captures falling in love, through Emmie, was incredibly relatable and real. I don’t know if there’s a word like ‘tearjerker’ but about feeling butterflies in your stomach, but that’s what this book did for me. That being said, it is also a tearjerker. This isn’t a fluffy romance. Emmie’s past haunts her heartbreakingly through her story, and the losses she experiences in the present are painful. Louis does such an incredible job of creating unique, detailed characters, that the loss of one of them to Emmie felt like a loss to me as well. I was also obsessed with the dialogue in this story. The banter and cheeky comments between friends and love interests had me fully smiling as I read.

I think I’m still reeling a little from this book, as I’m having trouble consolidating all my thoughts. It is, overall, a beautiful story. The theme of finding your own chosen family was such a unique and wonderful addition to the book. This type of love further bolsters its classification as a ‘love story.’ To summarize, I fell in love with this book: the writing, the characters, the dialogue, the complex and bittersweet storyline. It made me physically feel a wide range of emotions in a way that books are rarely able to do. Grab some tissues, read this book, and then let me know so we can gush about it more.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
Buy Dear Emmie Blue at an indie bookstore near you
Dear Emmie Blue on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

The Guest List by Lucy Foley ~ Book Review

Morgan

The Guest List with Butterscotch Bars

William Morrow
Genre: Mystery
Release Date: March 19, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

I have very mixed feelings about The Guest List. It was extremely spooky and atmospheric, with wonderful descriptions. I liked the remote island wedding premise — isolating a group of characters this way makes for an eerie setting perfect for a mystery. The story opens as a series of guests (as well as the bride and groom) are arriving on the island. Chapters are narrated by different characters: bride, wedding planner, best man, etc., and they each have a distinct voice and story to tell.

I don’t really know what happened for most of this book. It is over 300 pages (granted, I listened to the audiobook), but there wasn’t very much going on. The backstories of the characters filled in most of the actual meat of the story. As for action happening on the island, there was a lot of talk of the groomsmen’s time together at boarding school, and the group of them getting rowdy, drunk, and annoying. This seemed repetitive.

It took a really long time for the backstories of each character to start coming together and painting a picture of the ominous truths at large. Once this got going, they snowballed faster and faster and I was in awe of how each character’s past experiences coalesced around the same motive. I’d say the last quarter of the book had me completely hooked and unable to stop listening, but it took a really long time for me to get to that place. 

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Buy the audiobook on Libro.fm (Thanks to Libro.fm for my copy!)
Buy The Guest List at an indie bookstore near you
The Guest List on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner ~ Book Review

Morgan

IMG_5578

Atria Books
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: May 5, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪

Oh man, this was a Big Bummer for me (sorry, I had to). Big Summer is definitely marketed as a light beach read (just take a look at that gorgeous cover) and the first half stays true to form. Daphne is a plus-sized instagram influencer. Following an explosive fight with her best friend, Drue, and a fat-shaming boy, Daphne channels her anger and embarrassment into empowerment, embracing her body and spreading body positivity on her accounts.

I really appreciated this transformation of her character, and seeing how her lowest moment became the catalyst for her career. This was such a unique backstory for a character, and I loved it! I find it really interesting to see stories about influencers, since to me this still seems like such a novel career. The descriptive writing was fantastic and I could visualize Daphne’s life perfectly.

As the story progresses, Drue makes a sudden reappearance in Daphne’s life to ask her if she’ll be her Maid of Honor. They haven’t spoken for years. Drue is the worst. I lost a lot of respect for Daphne’s character when she agreed. It felt like she was negating all the growth she’d experienced from her past. And then. In the midst of a series of over the top glitzy wedding preparations, there’s A Major Twist. At this point the book completely switches genres and tries to become a thriller? That’s when it really lost me.

The mystery part of this book fell completely flat. It was unbelievable in a way that wasn’t thrilling and exciting: I just blatantly didn’t believe it. The conclusion seemed random and I didn’t think it made a whole lot of sense given the arc of the story. If this book had continued as a light read, like the first half of the story, I would have loved it. Unfortunately, the split personality of the narrative just didn’t do it for me.

My Rating: 🍪🍪
Buy Big Summer at an indie bookstore near you
Big Summer on Goodreads 

Book Review, Fiction, thriller, Uncategorized

The Safe Place by Anna Downes ~ Book Review

Morgan

The Safe Place with Lemon Bars
Minotaur Books
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: July 14, 2020 (Thanks to BookishFirst for my ARC)
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5

I love an atmospheric thriller. When the setting takes on a life of its own, I am all about it (which I think I’ve reiterated in many reviews). The Safe Place absolutely has this characteristic. Emily, our down on her luck, broke, jobless protagonist jets off to a sprawling estate in France to be a housekeeper for a virtual stranger. Emily falls into a very overused thriller character mold, but I was mostly able to look past that as the story ramped up. Her ditziness and inability to take control of her life made me believe that her character would accept a job abroad when the handsome, charming CEO of the company she used to work for, Scott, offers it up suddenly. His special treatment makes her weak at the knees, and I could perfectly see how Scott’s charisma would have someone like Emily dangerously spellbound.

One aspect of the writing that really stood out to me is Downes’s ability to write incredibly unique characters. In sharp contrast to Emily’s airheadedness, was Scott with his shocking yet subtle self-injury practices. The constant state of pain he forces himself into allows the reader to see that he is deeply unsettled, and made me want to know why. Once Emily arrives at Querencia, the French estate, she meets Scott’s wife Nina and daughter Aurelia. Nina seems glamorous at first, but her compulsions about her daughters safety and mysterious illnesses indicate that all is not what it seems.

Emily is cut off from the outside world little by little, and believes she is forging a close connection with both Nina and Aurelia. The more she observes about their lives and their mysterious family house, which she is not supposed to enter, the more Emily begins to question what is really going on in their little slice of paradise. The contrast between the description of the beautiful setting and Nina and the house’s sinister qualities and occasional eerie scent of rot and decay, had shivers running up and down my spine.

The twists in this book strayed away from those common to other thrillers. I couldn’t guess all how the clues and secrets fit together and I was pleasantly shocked as the story unfolded. 
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
Buy The Safe Place at an indie bookstore near you
The Safe Place on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Uncategorized

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger ~ Book Review

Morgan

The Devil Wears Prada with brownies

Broadway
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Release Date: April 15, 2003
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

I absolutely adore the movie adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada and yes, I did watch it before I read the book (many, many times in fact). I’m not sure why I never thought to pick up the book until now — I might have been a teensy bit scared of being disappointed.

I think the key for me to enjoy this story was to think of it as a standalone, and not consider its relation to the movie. Did I picture Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway while I read? Maybe a little bit. But I digress. The Devil Wears Prada follows Andrea Sachs as she embarks on her first job out of college, in New York City. She lands the role of assistant to Miranda Priestly, the editor of Runway, a glamorous fashion magazine. Andrea has dreams of someday being a writer for The New Yorker, but she figures a year at Runway will be a foot in the door of the publishing industry.

The majority of the book focuses on the insane errands and impossible tasks that Miranda tosses Andrea’s way, but Andrea’s personal life is fleshed out as well, much more so than the movie. She struggles with her relationships with her family and with her boyfriend, with trying to find an affordable apartment in Manhattan, and with a friend who is dealing with a drinking problem. This rounding-out of her character kept the scenes at the office from getting repetitive. 

There are some key plot differences between the movie and the book, especially near the end, and Andrea’s character is depicted very differently. As much as I did enjoy reading this, I think I actually prefer the movie, but that might just be because I’ve seen it so many times, and am used to the story going a certain way. Nonetheless, Miranda’s antics, and Andrea’s growth throughout her time working at Runway still make for an entertaining and interesting read for sure.

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Buy The Devil Wears Prada at an indie bookstore near you
The Devil Wears Prada on Goodreads