heathero621's reviews
390 reviews

Happy Place, by Emily Henry

emotional lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was a cute romance, but not my favorite.  I think that Emily writes some good books, but none of them blow me out of the water.  The story was predictable, but I think most of these books are.  I liked all of the characters and liked that it was about a group of friends.  I was reading this book before bed, so it was slower going for me and I think that it maybe made the book a little slower and not as enjoyable for me.  It's also a bit too sappy at the end.

The Golden Spoon, by Jessa Maxwell

lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I had read some not great reviews of this book, but then I read a good review by someone I trusted, so I decided to pick it up.  It is a take on The Great British Baking Show, but it is a show that is filmed in the US and spans a week.  It tells the story through the contestants and one of the show's hosts.  It wasn't a great work of literary fiction, but it was a fun and easy read that I enjoyed.  It was easy to read through and I wanted to see how the book was going to end.  There weren't any crazy twists, just some little ones that made sense to the story. 

Hijab Butch Blues, by Lamya H

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

This is a memoir book that I read, surprising!  It tells Lamya's story of growing up Muslim in her home country (it is never named) and the US.  To finding out that she is a lesbian and how she navigates that along with her religion and family.  This books talks a lot about the Quran and mentions passages in it and so many of the stories are the same as ones that I've heard about from the bible, but with different names and I found that interesting as I had no idea.  I like how she thinks deeply about these passages and how they relate to her life.  It actually made religious stories more accessible to me.  It is infuriating, but not surprising, to read about all of the times where she is asked for ID or questioned about being somewhere because she is wearing a hijab.  I do find it a bit sad that she has to stay anonymous because she doesn't want her family finding out about her and her relationship to women.   

Magic Season: A Son's Story, by Wade Rouse

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

This book is about Wade Rouse's complicated relationship with his father.  This book was a Mom Advice book club selection for 2023 and when I heard the synopsis of Wade and his father bonding over their love of baseball I wasn't super interested in it because baseball is not my jam, but the book was so much more than that.  I listened to the audio, which was good.  The relationship with Wade and his father is really complicated because they are so different in what they believe and the lives that they live.  His story reinforces the concept that children need their parents no matter how complicated it can get.  If Wade and his dad were not related, there would be no way that they would keep in contact.  There is a lot of baseball references, but it never got to be too much.  The ending is sad and I wished that I had a hard copy of the book to be able to remember some of the things that Wade said that were really poignant.  

Tell Me Everything, by Minka Kelly

challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.25

I listened to Minka's memoir and it was another good one!  I really like listening to celebrity memoirs.  I don't know how I first got introduced to Minka because I never watched Friday Night Lights, but I knew of her, but I knew nothing about her life.  She had a crazy life and unlike Paris, she had to work more for getting where she did.  To me, the book was mostly about her relationship with her mother. 
 The relationship was dysfunctional, but you can see how much they loved one another and I felt like it was Minka's way of honoring her mother, bad and all.  The ending is sad and when listening to the book you could hear all of the emotion in Minka's voice.

Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains, by Alexa Hagerty

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

I was really excited to read this book because the blurb made it seem like it was going to be how forensic anthropologists put together bones of dead people to figure out how they died.  There is some of that, but I feel like the book was mostly about the time in the 60s-70s in Latin America during a time when the dictators had a lot of people killed and thrown into mass graves.  I only knew a little about that time, so learning more was interesting, but I really wanted to know more about the forensic anthropology part as I found that those were the most interesting parts of the book.  There was a book that I read last year that is along the same lines of this one, but they are digging up bodies at a school in FL that housed boys (Colson Whitehead based the Nickel Boys on that school), and I found that book to be very more compelling.  

Paris: The Memoir, by Paris Hilton

dark emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective fast-paced

4.0

I listened to the audiobook that was narrated by Paris and it was an enjoyable listen.  Her voice didn't quite always match up to the voice that I remember from when she was at her peak, so it makes me think that it was a more exaggerated voice for the cameras.  I learned a lot about Paris that I had no idea about.  It was interesting to learn about her.  When she was at her peak, I honestly found her to be annoying, but now looking back I can reflect on her life and what was going on during that time and have more empathy for her.  She mentions a couple of times in the book that she has had to work hard to get what she wants and where she is and she mentions being privileged, but it doesn't come off as sincere.  I don't think that she honestly knows how privileged she is and what a leg-up she got by being born into her family.

How to Human: Three Ways to Share Life Beyond What Distracts, Divides, and Disconnects Us, by Carlos Whittaker

challenging funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

I follow Carlos on IG and love what he has to say a lot of the time.  I wanted to pick up his book to see what it was like.  The contents of the book was very much in line with what he talks about on IG.  I learned more of the backstory about how his account got popular.  He has a lot of good things to say about learning to listen to those that don't believe in what you do or agree with you.  The parts of the book that were not for me were the religious parts.  He's a very religious guy and there was a lot of that in here.  I could've done with less or none.  For those parts, I mostly skimmed what he was writing about.

Trace Evidence, by Charif Shanahan

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

3.0

This is a collection of poetry that I picked up.  It deals a lot with racism and being a black/Moroccan man in the US.  I didn't feel as though this collection moved me or resonated with me as much as other collections that I've read this year (Jose Oliveras' book I enjoyed much more).  There were some that stood out more than others, but overall it was just ok.  I do love the book cover!

Maame, by Jessica George

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I enjoyed this novel about this young woman living in the UK, taking care of her dad who has Parkinson's.  It was a good story and kept my attention.  The book deals a lot with grief, but after having just recently finished A Living Remedy (a nonfiction novel about the loss of parents), Maame's experiences just didn't really ring true to me and I was wishing for more in that respect.