Perfect by Cecelia Ahern – 3.5 stars
I wasn’t the biggest fan of Flawed to begin with, but I was curious to see how the story ended up. I did think this was slightly better than Flawed, but it still missed the mark for me.
It still bothered me how many times Celestine repeated herself. Especially about being Flawed and having six brands and all of that jazz. It felt like I was being hit of the head with that information a couple of times.
I still don’t see the chemistry between Celestine and Carrick. I also don’t see the chemistry between Celestine and Art. I would have rather there was no romance at all, to be honest.
But it was nice to see Celestine’s family come back and play a bigger role. I especially liked Celestine’s grandfather. I felt like he was one of the only characters that really had any substance to him. There were still times that I was incredibly frustrated with Celestine. But she did grow from the first book and she did learn from her mistakes. I was going to be really disappointed if she hadn’t made some of the choices that she did because then it would have been just a repeat of the first one where she trusted everyone.
I feel like this was a decent conclusion to the duology and I’m glad I read it. It just didn’t wow me.
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon – 4 stars
I seriously love Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
And I absolutely loved reading about her life and how she fought for what she believes in. She has accomplished so much and it really was inspiring to read about her accomplishments.
My biggest complaint is that the structure was a little sloppy. I kind of wish it had gone in a linear fashion to get a better, more complete picture of RBG’s life.
However, I love how easy this was to read. It felt conversational and yet it was chock-full of information.
I want to be Ruth Bader Ginsburg when I grow up.
When Breath Becomes Air by Dr. Paul Kalanithi – 5 stars
I absolutely flew through this book.
Dr. Paul Kalanithi’s writing is so beautiful and lyrical and it makes you not want to put the book down.
I love that while as the reader, you can feel the sense of urgency in the tone because of the deadline of Kalanithi’s impending death, you also can feel the sense of living he had. It was so interesting to see how someone who was used to being on the other side of the hospital bed ended up where he was. And to just read about how he managed to get back to neurosurgery out of sheer determination while fighting his cancer was so inspiring.
I’m not really doing Kalanithi justice in this review. But I just loved reading his words and his story. It was definitely one of my favorite reads of this year, if not of all time.
Given to the Sea by Mindy McGinnis – 3 stars
It breaks my heart that I only gave this 3-stars because all of the other books by McGinnis that I have read have been so wonderful.
She definitely tackles some hard-hitting topics with this one and I appreciate that she was able to do so in a fantasy story. She built a world that is full of racism, sexism, and ableism and does do a fairly good job at trying to combat each of these. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the world building, but I thought it was pretty easy to follow. I guess I just wish there was a little more to it.
One of my big issues was the 2 of the 4 POVs were in third person while the other 2 were in first person. I don’t mind multiple POVs, but switching between first and third was a little jolting. I do understand the need for Witt’s POV, but I kind of wish McGinnis had just stayed in first person for all of them. Dara was a cool character, but I didn’t much care for her chapters. I wish that there were more of Khosa’s background and that we got to see her life a little bit more.
I’m not that interested in any of the relationships that have developed throughout the story and honestly don’t see the chemistry between some of them. There was a love square that was going on that I wasn’t really a big fan of, but it kind of played out by the end of the book.
I am definitely interested in reading Given to the Earth to see how the story pans out because I wasn’t exactly sold on the ending of this one. I want to see what is going to happen with the rising sea and to find out what happened to Witt’s army and what not. It was an overall good book, but I definitely prefer her other works.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur – 4 stars
This wasn’t what I was expecting, especially when it came to the writing. But then again, I’m still a newbie to poetry, so I don’t know if it’s just my inexperience or if I just don’t care for the style of writing Kaur utilizes.
However, the content of this collection of poetry was powerful. I think my favorite chapter was ‘the healing’ – it was so empowering to read. It was beautiful to read the words of Kaur – especially since she was so open and raw with what she put onto paper.
There were a couple of times that the poems felt a little repetitive – especially when it came to talking about not needing a man and also allowing hair to grow on our bodies. But even with those couple of repetitions, I still really enjoyed this.
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