Dreaming of a Divine Life: One Woman Remembers Her Truth That May Awaken Us All!
Book
Dreaming of a Divine Life is the inspirational true story of a woman who built her life back up...
Eugene O'Neill: A Life in Four Acts
Book
A major new biography of the Nobel Prize-winning playwright whose brilliantly original plays...
The Cut Flower Patch: Grow Your Own Cut Flowers All Year Round
Book
An inspiring guide to transforming a small patch of ground, be it on an allotment or in a garden,...
The Damselfly
Book
An unsolved murder. A community turned against each other. A killer close to home...Katie Taylor is...
Exorcism: A Play in One Act
Edward Albee, Eugene Gladstone O'Neill and Louise Bernard
Book
Shortly after the debut of Exorcism in 1920, Eugene O'Neill suddenly canceled production and ordered...
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Those People in Books
Sep 13, 2019
The book makes some good points about social class, but it does it all so slowly. There are a few twists, yes, but they don't come often enough, and I had a decent idea about a few of them. Maybe the drawn out element was meant to mimic the neighbor's "agony," but good grief. The book is told via police reports and narratives. We learn early on there was an incident in the neighborhood, but don't know what happened or who was involved. I was definitely interested in knowing what went on, which is why I kept plugging away. It's pretty clear early on that nearly everyone has a reason to harm everyone else; kind of makes me glad for my eight acres.
So, overall, while curiosity kept me reading on this one, and I enjoyed a few of the twists, it was definitely a slow read filled with a lot of annoying characters. Maybe if I'm brave enough to pick up OUR HOUSE, it will be more my jam. 2.5+ stars.
Alchemy of Bones: Chicago's Luetgert Murder Case
5.0
Rate It
Book
On May 1, 1897, Louise Luetgert disappeared. Although no body was found, Chicago police arrested her...
Al Franken, Giant of the Senate
Book Watch
#1 New York Times Bestseller “Flips the classic born-in-a-shack rise to political office tale...
Biography comedy politics
Six Cats a Slayin'
10.0
Rate It
Book
Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel, are busy decking the halls for the holidays when an...
Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Trouble Girls in Books
Jun 3, 2021
The premise of this book sounded amazing -- a queer "Thelma & Louise." Unfortunately, it all fell apart for me. Rather than being a #MeToo rallying cry, this was a depressing and stressful read, featuring two teens who make a bunch of stupid and ill-fated decisions.
I definitely understand the overall idea for TROUBLE GIRLS and even why Trixie and Lux run, afraid that no one will believe their story. But the choices they make along the way--spending their money on junk, not trusting each other, stealing and lying... and everything else. It's maddening. They do not act like two smart girls on the run, but two idiots who do not believe in one another. Trixie's infatuation with Lux clouds everything, and Lux comes across as this adored princess with no real personality of her own.
We're (eventually) told a bit of Trixie's backstory, including why we have to read the word "hog" in what feels like every other darn sentence, but the character development here is severely lacking. Trixie has a sick mom and a dark secret. Lux... likes makeup and her camera? I think this story would have would worked so much more if we knew how and why these two teens ticked. Why, exactly, was Trixie so in love with Lux? How exactly did Lux feel back? There's a weird switch that turns at some point in the book, and it made no sense to me. If you're going to give me a queer story, give me queer characters who truly feel for one another and whose love is based in reality.
Trixie and Lux's story is supposed to have a #MeToo angle to it, and it does, in some ways, but this was not a #MeToo anthem to me. It's two girls running away, trying to figure out maps on the back roads, and making poor decisions as they flee what they've done. While, again, I understand why they run, the story I wanted to read was Trixie and Lux returning to Blue Bottle and fighting along side the Intersectional Feminist Union and the other women they supposedly "rally" with a few misplaced social media posts. It was these women and Judy, Trixie's co-worker back home, whose life I wanted to know about--I would have enjoyed that book much more!
Overall, this book can tug at your heart strings, but also frustrate you to no end. There was much to its overall premise, but most of it did not work for me. 2.5 stars (Trigger warning: sexual assault, rape)