Reading, Writing, and Me

You Are Here  by Karin Lin-Greenberg Overview: The mall is dying, but it's also still such a hub of life. From the bookstore to the hair salon to the food court, the mall brings together a group of people that would never talk to one another without the uniting fact that they all work in the mall. The book traces the individual and intertwined lives of a handful of people who depend on the mall. Overall: 3.5 Characters: 3.5 I've been struggling to figure out if the characters fell a bit flat or if the writing just didn't gel with me and that kept me from really getting into the characters. I think these two things are probably more related than an either-or thing, but I'm still struggling with how these characters didn't quite work for me, and at the same time, I did feel endeared towards them by the end of the book.  There are a lot of characters, and they are revealed through their own sections of the book where they're the focus of the close third. They might...

Last year, I read 126 books, and unlike a lot of people in the online book community, this wasn't typical for me. I'd done it before in high school when I attended asynchronous classes and spent some summer days reading on the couch without moving. But 2023's total was the most books I'd ever finished with 2017 coming in close at 119 books. Since high school, my life has gotten much more chaotic, and I couldn't imagine hitting those numbers again. In college, I've typically averaged around 35 books a year. I didn't expect much out of 2023 either, but as I gained reading momentum, I wanted to try to hit a three digit number of books read at least one last time.  I completed this goal while taking 19 units both semesters and working part time and then working full time through the summer, so I didn't have heaps of free time to devote to read. Having managed to read over 100 books in less than ideal reading circumstances, I thought I could offer up more spe...

The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers  by Sarah Tomlinson (Release Date: 2/13/2024) I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts here are my own. Overview: Mari is a mid-level ghost writer who has stumbled into the chance of a lifetime to score a bestseller by writing the memoire of a woman greatly attached to famous 70s band the Ramblers. Desperate to score a career saving hit, Mari is focused on uncovering the secrets around one of the original band member's mysterious death in 1969. She's willing to sacrifice just about anything to get to the truth. Mari is immersed in the dark, twisted, weird, and sometimes dangerous world of celebrity where she finds surprising allies and dangerous adversaries along the way. Overall: 4 Characters: 4 A lot of what's difficult about this book is that Mari is our protagonist, but she spends all of her time trying to extract a different story and is focused on these rockstars. This leaves Mari in a weird spot in the na...