Search All Book Reviews
Title
Author
Stars

Search will return a maximum of 100 results.
12345...LastPage 1 of 24


Kiki's Delivery Service
by Eiko Kadono


Had to read the book. The movie is so cute and one of my favorites
 
 


Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson


I re-read this one as part of the Massachusetts Center for the Book reading challenge for January. I read it in 7th grade and hated it. Probably because I usually hate being told to read something and my teacher had a great deep voice that could lull anyone to sleep. This time round I found it a fun adventure. Except that I couldn't understand a word most of the characters were saying.
 
 


Making Movies
by Sidney Lumet


A must read for movie lovers. A visionary director giving brilliant insight into the wonders of film making.
 
 


The Spectacular
by Zoe Whittall


I actually requested this book by accident, while looking for a book by the same name, different author. But the premise looked interesting and I'm glad I read it! It's primarily told from two perspectives (Missy, the daughter; and Carola, the mother), though there's a brief interlude from the perspective of Missy's grandmother/Carola's mother-in-law, Ruth). I liked the set-up of the book, that the two different viewpoints weren't the 'how will these two things be realted?' framework which feels overdone lately, and I also thought it was great that the grandmother was from the paternal side—it was unexpected and gave a different perspective. Missy is a musician, on tour with her band. She grew up with an unconventional childhood as her parents started a commune and her mother left when she was young. Needless to say, that complicated their relationship which was non-existent for a while and then fraught. Each of the three women tries to find authenticity in the book, to figure out who they are and what they want and what they can control, given the confines of their time. A very emotionally interesting book.
 
 


One True Loves
by Taylor Jenkins Reid


This is an early book by an author I really enjoy. This one was intersting too but definitely didn't grab me the way her later books do—maybe that shows her growth as a writer. But it was still a good book and the premise is really interesting. Emma Blair marries her high school love, Jesse. She wants to get away from MA and the bookstore her family owns. He wants to stop competitive swimming. They move to CA and travel the world, having adventures together and living an incredible life. But, 364 days after they get married, Jesse disappears in a helicopter crash. Emma is obviously devastated, and in an attempt to heal she moves back to MA. Slowly, she starts to recover. A chance run-in with Sam (who worked at her parents book store when they were in high school) leads to a relationship, happiness, and an engagement—a second chance for love. Until Jesse is, miraculously, found. He's been stranded, alone, on a Pacific atoll and in a desperate attempt to get home, swam himself far enough to be rescued by a ship. And now that he's back, what happens with Emma, with their marriage, with Sam? Emma has a choice to make and so many things to figure out. This one really makes you think about what you might do in a similar, impossible situation!
 
 


The Orchardist
by Amanda Coplin


This book is slow and quiet, but not boring. The characters are complicated and richly drawn, as is the location in the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the twentieth century. William Talmadge is a farmer, an orchardist, and he lives alone after the death of his mother and the disappearance of his sister. His life is solitary, and quiet, and routine—until two pregnant teenagers appear on his land. They're scared, feral, and both drawn to and afraid of him. He takes them in, on their own terms, giving them the space they need. But then armed men show up looking for them and set off a chain of events.
 
 


The Woman with the Cure
by Lynn Cullen


AN interesting novel about the search for a polio vaccine/cure. In teh 1940s and 50s, polio was absolutely dreaded—killing people or leaving them with lifelong injuries. Dorothy Horstmann is a scientist (a very rare female in a world of competitive men) who isn't focused on "winning" the race or "beating" her competitors—she just wants to beat polio. She carries on through microaggressions, having her ideas dismissed, or having the credit taken by others, but makes an enormous breakthrough in discovering that polio lives in the blood. This breakthrough leads to a vaccine, and it's interesting to see how things are develoepd. Polio was always one of those diseases you get a vaccine for but don't really know anything about—soo this historical novel about it's development was very interesting.
 
 


Along the Winding River
by Aimee Runyan


This book was told from three perspectives: a daughter (Beth), a father (Max), and a German engineer during WWII (Johanna). It's a dual-timeline story (present day and WWII), the kind where the disparate story lines converge at the end. The subject was interesting but I just didn't really like the writing.
 
 


Lessons In Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus


I haven’t finished the book yet, but I wanted to log this in since it’s the last day of summer reading. I am loving this book. While the way Elizabeth, and a lot of women, were treated in the 1950s and 1960s is infuriating, I love the way she handles herself. I can’t wait to see how her story ends.
 
 


Blessings
by Anna Quindlen


A beautifully written book that both warms and breaks your heart. It’ll challenge your idea of “family” and is full of messages of change and redemption.
 
 
12345...LastPage 1 of 24