Reviews and Comments

Relatively standard literary fiction, but lovely and satisfying.

Hoo, boy, this was tough. “On Earth…” was one of the best books I’ve read this century — I absolutely loved it — so maybe my expectations for this much more straightforward novel were too high. But I found it incredibly disappointing. It was a bit corny and predictable, something I might expect to be picked for Oprah’s Book Club. Except for a few beautiful sentences, it was missing much of the creatively poetic prose of “On Earth…” I didn’t find any of the characters’ actions and emotions to be particularly believable. Even the ending could have basically read “and they all lived happily ever after.” I hope Vuong redeems himself with his next book.

This book wanders about, somewhat aimlessly, in the territory between memoir and sociological examination of how divorce has been treated in different eras and cultures. I loved this weaving in and out, and so much of what she says about her own marriage and divorce really resonated with me, but it may irritate some readers. A cautionary note about the audiobook is that the author reads it herself, and pronounces “with” as “whiff,” which became surprisingly grating over the course of an entire book. Maybe opt for the print/ebook version.

For the first 3/4 of this book, I found it very tedious, a literature’d-up romance novel. I had hoped that some details dropped in the beginning of the story would turn into something interesting, but they didn’t. However, the remaining 1/4 of the book changed my mind entirely.

Loved it. I’ve worked in tech for 20+ years, and so much of this resonated. The author is a very entertaining writer, and she makes her points while keeping the plot moving.

So slow and long that I couldn’t finish it. Got about halfway through. The character development was interesting, but not interesting enough for a plot that hasn’t gotten anywhere by the halfway point.

A good friend recently took his own life, and he did it in a hotel. So the coincidence of my starting to read this book literally a couple weeks later probably put it off on the wrong foot with me. Also, I don’t typically read this sort of “elevated mass-market” fiction, so maybe my unenthusiastic reaction to this book is partly an unenthusiastic reaction to the category. This one was recommended to me, so I read it without knowing anything about it. It’s an entertaining story that doesn’t really say anything meaningful, and the characters are amusing but forgettable. The story is relatively contrived. This book felt like it was written with the author’s eye toward selling a movie or Netflix series based on it. But I enjoyed the process of reading it, and I’m sure the Netflix series will be enjoyable too.

I love Nelo Case, and I wanted to love this memoir, but I felt like it was mostly the story of her making sense of her childhood and adolescence and moving past the way it affected her, and that’s a great reason to spend time in therapy, but a less great reason to write a book. I related to a lot of it, and I enjoyed her prose style, but I felt like I could have skipped it.

Not exactly a relaxing read, but essential learning for Americans in 2025. This first book of three covers the incidents, political maneuvers, and social trends that started in WWI and eventually led to the Nazis taking power.

I enjoyed The Overstory, but thought it was a bit overstuffed with characters and could have used a better editor. The author must have gotten that feedback from others, because Playground gets it just right. It's a little too on-the-nose with setting up characters who represent opposing views of "technology will save us" versus "technology will ruin us," but I loved the way the story unfolded and the lyrical descriptions of the underwater world.

WARNING: There is a scene of a dog being harmed towards the end of the first chapter. Just skip ahead when you first see a dog mentioned, while the narrator is child.

A beautiful and inventive novel, both funny and touching. I loved it.

I was getting very tired of this book until I got to the last 15-20%. And then I LOVED it. I wish the first 80-85% had been tightened up a bit. And, no spoilers, but the structure is an exact copy of a 2019 book that was turned into a limited series a few years ago. We read it for my book club, and I’m not sure we’ll have too much to talk about, as everything about it is relatively light and forgettable. It was nevertheless an entertaining read.

A subtle and beautiful portrait of post-World War II Japan, viewed through the eyes of an unreliable narrator. It examines the way the people who supported the totalitarian society (and informed on their friends and neighbors) dealt with their guilt (or lack thereof) and social ostracism.