book reviews

Reviews of books by relationship gurus, dating experts, and cautionary tale-tellers.

Attached?!
Have you ever wondered why your relationships are the way they are and why you experience love the way you do? For years, it has been a question on my mind that feels like an endless dating pool that doesn't seem to pan out. Was I looking for love in the wrong places?
By Lauren Eimicke6 years ago in Humans
What If It's Us
I don’t really know where to start with this one because I am still processing the overwhelming feeling of enjoyment washing over me. I could not put this book down! I thought that this book was brilliantly written, fabulously executed, and brought a genius concept to life. Written by two amazing authors, “What If It’s Us” is an absolute pleasure to read from start to finish.
By Kurt Mason6 years ago in Humans
Until We Meet Again
The history of this planet we call home is riddled with many highs and many lows. I believe we can all agree that 2020 has been a low year in more ways than one. Something I've realized during these troubling times is how distant and removed the crisis around us can feel when we aren't experiencing it or being impacted by it first-hand. I had a similar revelation when reading "Until We Meet Again: A True Story of Love and Survival in The Holocaust".
By Ciara Brooke6 years ago in Humans
Through The Mind's Eye...
There are days when, for some reason, I feel out of sorts. Not sick or ill, just not myself. Some years ago, I apparently suffered from depression, so I am acutely aware of what that particular experience is all about. This time however, I could not place a finger on what it truly was that was bothering me, so I decided that having been doing this internal work for some fourteen months now, I knew how to explore this further.
By Joseph Willson6 years ago in Humans
A Doll House Analysis
A Doll House is a play written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879. In this era, women were expected to be dutiful wives to their husbands while they supported their families financially. In the play, we are introduced to Nora while she is dealing with conflicts between herself and other characters in the story, as well as an overbearing self-doubt that she harbors until the very last scene. As the entirety of plot unfolds, she bases her every decision around how her husband will react to her well-hidden secrets. Everything ends up boiling down to how trapped she had become in her life, which pushes her to finally leave everything behind in order to live for herself. In addition to the title’s clear symbolism of feeling always controlled, Torvald’s use of the nicknames provide some similar ideas that focus more on Nora’s desire to escape and be her own person outside of the domestic life that she was expected to live.
By Teddy K.6 years ago in Humans
Book Review - The Marriage Break
For years I read romance books. Not the cheesy kind with half-naked men or ladies with half-exposed breasts spilling out of their bodice on the cover, but respected romance books by Lesley Pearce, Erica James, Penny Vincenzi, etc.
By Conny Manero6 years ago in Humans
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage is a collection of 9 short stories written about ordinary people living in Canada. Character lines are completely people you can see anywhere, existing sometimes even in yourself. And the story sketched under the pen of Alice Munro is just like everyday stories that mothers often murmur to each other when they have the opportunity to gossip. A woman suffering from a disease, the relationship between her two grandchildren, childhood love now suddenly meets again or the elderly with brain disease are moved to a nursing home. Alice Munro didn't have a big sword, visualizing her characters beyond normal to everyday life.
By Thao Thao Tran6 years ago in Humans
Reads Must: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Yanagihara's somewhat epic tale of modern friendships and relationships in general isn't your typical heart string tugging read. It is reflective, thoughtful, and ultimately dazzling in it's take on the trials and tribulations of four equally engaging male characters. It follows Jude, Willem, JB and Malcolm as they tackle their insecurities, pasts and anxieties over the future. Just as in life, often even the most harrowing events are tinged with a sense of hope, joy even. Though the book begins with an equal focus on all four protaganists, it smoothly turns into being mainly about Jude, the most tortured of the four.
By NoBeige6 years ago in Humans
A Single Green Light
A Single Green Light The Great Gatsby (1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald) by Liv Atterson Francis Scott Fitzgerald is one of the greatest American authors to ever live. His works have sold millions of copies and still do almost one-hundred years later. Mostly known for his book The Great Gatsby, a book that is not even 200 pages, is one of the most celebrated works in American literature. This story is told during the summer of 1922 and focuses on the life of Jay Gatsby--a self-made millionaire, who lives next door to our narrator Nick Carraway. With Fitzgerald's novel's known to hold an abundance of symbolism, one of the most iconic symbols being the green light. Is the light at the end of Daisy's dock a symbol of wealth or is it a symbol of desire for Daisy's herself? When readers first see Gatsby he is fixated on the green light and as his relationship with daisy slowly evolves, the connection of Daisy and the green light slowly becomes stronger.
By Liv Atterson6 years ago in Humans
“The Heart of Things”
Walking into my job each day was tiring. Dealing with unreasonable customers and nagging bosses was what I had to look forward to. I hung my worn purse on the coat hook behind the green door in the office and turned to ready myself for another all consuming long shift of corn meal and asking people “what can I get you honey?”
By Bri Price6 years ago in Humans
THE SUMMER OF JORDI PEREZ (AND THE BEST BURGER IN LOS ANGELES) BY AMY SPALDING
SYNOPSIS: Seventeen, fashion-obsessed, and gay, Abby Ives has always been content playing the sidekick in other people’s lives. While her friends and sister have plunged headfirst into the world of dating and romances, Abby’s been happy to focus on her plus-size style blog and her dreams of taking the fashion industry by storm. When she lands a great internship at her favorite boutique, she’s thrilled to take the first step toward her dream career. Then she falls for her fellow intern, Jordi Perez. Hard. And now she’s competing against the girl she’s kissing to win the coveted paid job at the end of the internship.
By Ashley Nestler, MSW6 years ago in Humans
'Transcription' by Kate Atkinson (Book Review)
Kate Atkinson is an English writer with multiple novels and awards to her name. Her latest, released in September 2018, is Transcription, a novel following the life of Juliet Armstrong as she enters the world of spy-craft during World War II. However, Atkinson's novel isn't only about espionage, but also includes humor, romance, a look at the reality of humanity, and literary callbacks to other famous works. Atkinson takes the good and the bad of the world and creates a believable, yet also quite an unbelievable heroine/simple girl in Juliet. Readers are unsure of Juliet's true motives (or if she even has any). She's a girl, just like any of us reading the novel, who simply get caught up in the casualties of war. However, Atkinson has audiences rooting for Juliet to find love, to make it through her crazy spy missions, and to maybe even figure out who she really is along the way.
By Kristen Barenthaler7 years ago in Humans