so-soWhile the book has its fair share of issues—particularly around sexism—it might be somewhat forgivable given its 1970s–80s Japan setting. The story unfolds through multiple POVs, all tied to a seemingly random murder in an unfinished building in Osaka, involving the victim‘s son and the suspect‘s daughter.
pick“Some kindness you do not ever forget. You carry them to your grave, held warmly somewhere, brought up and savoured from time to time.”
so-soWhat I didn‘t enjoy as much was that he often comes across as arrogant, opinionated, and even a bit vengeful, constantly playing the victim. The title also felt a bit misleading — the “hard truths about startups” part didn‘t really come through. It reads more like his personal take on everything that went wrong rather than a true behind-the-scenes look at how he built his companies.
pick“We never thought of ourselves as witches, my mother and I. For this was a word invented by men, a word that brings power to those who speak it, not those it describes. A word that builds gallows and pyres, turns breathing women into corpses.”
pickLove the series, the second one while not completely upto the level of the first part, still did a wonderful job.
so-soThe book is so different from the movie (Slumdog Millionaire)
pick“We are bodies of broken bones. I guess I‘d always known but never fully considered that being broken is what makes us human. We all have our reasons. Sometimes we‘re fractured by the choices we make; sometimes we‘re shattered by things we would never have chosen. But our brokenness is also the source of our common humanity, the basis for our shared search for comfort, meaning, and healing.”
pick“But then again maybe a country that routinely prefers power over strength, and living over letting live, is no country for eight-spot butterflies.”
This book holds beauty and heartbreak on every single page.
panI have no idea why this is so highly rated, I found it so cringe!
pick“But what about the rest of us? What about the nobodies and the nothings, the invisible girls? We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns. We learn to wring magic from the ordinary.”
pick“Maybe this is what barbarians look like. (They look like everybody else.) That being said, one person‘s “barbarian” is another person‘s “just doing what everybody else is doing.” (How many can be expected to do better than that?)
pickIs it cheating if I read children‘s books in an attempt to salvage my reading goal for the year?
pickFirst time picking up a true crime book (till now it‘s only been documentaries & podcasts for me). Not sure if I like reading it as much as watching/listening, but overall a pretty enjoyable read.
so-so51/100
Have fallen so far behind my Goodreads challenge that at this point I‘m considering counting menus and cereal boxes.
so-soA bit far fetched but thoroughly entertaining!
pickUmm, a textbook thriller. Had all the twists and turns but sort of predictable!
pickTook me the better part of a year to finish this — but we finally did it.
pickTen Steps to Nanette is a Netflix comedy standup special unlike no others, it‘s not comedy it‘s trauma dumping which punches you in the gut. This memoir was an extended version of that feeling mostly.
pickConcept wise - 💯 Actual Story wise - 50!
pick“The books she borrowed were full of words like pay-gap and redline, and she noticed that in all genres, no matter literature or biography, men‘s fury stained the pages, sowing lines like white seeds inside of people‘s hearts.”
A deliciously dark and strange assortment of short stories ❤️🔥
so-so“Life without a friend is life without sun. Life without a friend is death.”
pick“Being half lost was worse than being fully lost - it was impossible to know which part of you knew the way.”
Desiree and Stella are two identical girls born in an all-Black world, inseparable as children until they grow up and apart. Both of them choose to live very different lives and worlds, one of them as White!
pickIt‘s sad when it‘s a psychological thriller related to kids!
pick“It takes a village to mend a broken heart”
A witty, funny, heartbreaking and heartwarming memoir of Dolly Alderton set in her 20s. This book is not preachy, it‘s just fun and light and full of funny anecdotes. The best thing about the whole book is her unwavering love and solidarity for all her female friends, especially her best friend Farly.
pickMom was right. Everything that is wrong with us and our generation can be blamed on the phone!
pick“Maybe this is all we need sometimes, for someone else to believe in the possibilities you see for yourself.”
so-so“Telling stories is one of the greatest powers we possess. It‘s like a dream you can fill with what you want. And the knight doesn‘t always have to save the princess; sometimes she saves herself.”
I would say about 90% of the book is truly amazing, the last 10% seemed too hurried and convenient 😅
so-so“Money overall a very exploitative substance, creating it seems fresh kinds of exploitation in every form of relationality through which it passes. Greasing with exploitation the wheels of human interaction generally.”
This book was a drag; paraphrasing from a random review I read online, this book felt like reading one long male ego!
pickA predictable but enjoyable thriller. I would suggest to read it instead of listening to it though, because the narrator sometimes exaggerates some of the characters voices!
panI‘m generally not the biggest fan of romance but I expected a little more from Colleen Hoover. This one felt like a forceful stringing of cliche tropes and moments with no real substance!
Especially when you come to know why the book is named Heart Bones *cringe*
pick“It puzzled him that she did not mourn all the things she could have been. Was it a quality inherent in women, or did they just learn to shield their personal regrets, to suspend their lives, subsume themselves in child care.”
Literary fiction at it‘s finest 💯
pickI‘ve never really given a thought about how all the books we read follow similar archetypes; precisely 7 as per this book.
pick“There is no peace for a woman with ambition. No love for a woman with a crown. She loves too much is lustful. Her power is too strong she is ruthless. She fights for vengeance she is mad. Kings are brilliant mighty godlike. Queens are deadly shameless accursed.”
Sums up the book.
pickA story of the first female cabinet minister of America who was instrumental in proposing Social Security to be introduced. Although the book is marked as Fiction, it reads like a memoir, and was wonderful. A wee bit narcissistic though!
panSlow and a bit pointless, most classics are not my thing so I‘m not the most reliable reviewer in this case!
so-soA coming-out story set in the 1950s; there were a lot of sub plots which served no purpose whatsoever so that bummed me out!
pickThe dry, witty dialogue of the protagonist was everything!
I picked up this book based on Bookstagram for a change instead of Goodreads and was surprised to see how many people really hated this book there!
I‘m doubly surprised since I absolutely loved this book! The best serial killer book I‘ve read so far this year!
pick“The word loss was inadequate. Loss just meant a lack, meant something was missing, but it did not encompass the totality of this severance, this terrifying un-anchoring from all that he‘d ever known.”
I enjoyed the book and special shoutout to the number and references to Bangla and Bengalis in the book.
Too much jargon however!
pickSuch a soft, beautiful read!
so-soToo many loopholes, but an intriguing read!
so-soA collection of seemingly bland short stories!
pick“It has been said that books find their own readers- but sometimes they need someone to show them the way.”
At first the book was a bit slow; seemed to be about too many people who never set foot outside their homes, but the book although lacking in any real depth grows on you!
bailed![[tagged book]](https://image.librarything.com/pics/litsy_webpics/icon_taggedBook@3x.png){kind=icon}
