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 Year of Yes – 364
And that’s the end of climbing season for 2021. We finished in style and closed down the gym. We were the last people there for the last 45 minutes. We both had a good night. I climbed two stem 11bs. I will call that a win. I also did a lot of journaling today and finished my book and wrote reviews and did some planning for 2022. So net net it was a really productive day and still felt restful. Yes to good days. #yearofyes #karenikayearofyes
3.5 stars I liked this sweet novel about an aunt whose nieces come to stay with her for the summer as a way to give her sister and husband to recover from the loss of their third child. It’s sweet and there’s a romance but there are also some major issues in this book around death, loss, abandonment, and belonging. All of them are explored and taken seriously but still handled lightly. It was a fun read.
Sweet story about how it’s never too late to save yourself.
I might have read too many Hoover stories. I can tell where they will go, I can tell what will happen and I just don’t think the characters are as well developed or complex as I wish they were. I liked the idea of confessions and the paintings but the evil characters are too evil and the good are too good.
really wonderful and touching short story. loved it.
I read a lot of mixed reviews about this book and several people said the first part was very boring. I totally didn’t feel that way. I listened to this on audio and the narrator was excellent. I was recently in the Galapagos so I really enjoyed hearing about that amazing setting again and true to form I didn’t see the twist coming and Picoult took it to some interesting places. I enjoyed this one.
This is absolutely, undeniably and unequivocally one of my favorite reads of 2021! I cannot wait until it comes out so I can recommend it to people who I know will appreciate it, too. I know some will dislike this book and even as I was reading it and tried to recount the premise to my kids and husband, they thought it was reductive and done because it’s such a hard to premise to explain but they are so wrong. It is excellent. “Everything offended Jessica, which is inevitable when you move through the world in search of offense.” First of all, Emily St. John Mandel’s writing is exquisite. It’s quiet and descriptive and delicate and a pure joy to read. When I first started the novel, I wasn’t sure where it was going and I wasn’t sure it was going to hold my attention. But her writing was so good and her characters drew me in immediately. I felt connected to every one of them and I was rooting for them. “( We were still thinking in terms of getting work done. The most shocking thing in retrospect was the degree to which all of us completely missed the point.)” Bits and pieces of how the future unfolds were also interesting to me. There was just enough to make it interesting and not so much to make it totally scifi or fantasy. The parts around the pandemic were also just enough there to be relatable and interesting but not enough to be suffocating (since we’re still in this pandemic, i am not finding enjoyable to read pandemic books.) And then there were the amazing connections, twists or whatever else you call them. I figured one out way sooner than the second one which by the time I figured it out, I was so excited by how clever it was that I actually laughed out loud. I understand that different people might go different ways on this book but, for me, it worked 100% and I loved every single minute I spent with it. I cannot stop thinking about it and smiling. with gratitude to netgalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
“There was comfort in knowing that you could say just what you wanted and not worry about what the words meant because in the morning they would be gone and so would you.” I did not connect with this book, no matter how much I tried. I picked it up and put it down at least twenty times in the month of December. I liked the idea of three siblings connecting through the death of their father. Two of which are from other mothers and two of which didn’t know about each other. I liked the premise but the execution didn’t work for me. “Maybe he was really sorry and it was possible to believe that somebody had wronged you but still not really wish them to be dead. Maybe there were sort of gradations to revenge that should exist and some things you shouldn’t do.” I found myself unable to connect with any of the characters which makes it hard to read what’s mostly a character-driven story. I found the story to be quiet but not in a peaceful way. So my attention kept drifting. I still managed to make it all the way to the end but this one will not stay with me even though parts of the writing and descriptions were really beautiful. with gratitude to netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
This book totally didn’t do it for me. I didn’t really understand what the author was trying to say and I didn’t connect with any of the characters or the plot, I’m sorry to say. I am confident that others will understand more than I did and will enjoy the book more than I did. Some of the pieces I liked were the connection of the two women and some of the work scenes and the descriptions of the world. I liked the descriptions of the Louvre and the drawings Bertie did. This one was just not my cup of tea. with gratitude to edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars I really enjoyed reading about a part of history I knew absolutely nothing about. This is about a nurse and an Irish deserter during the Mexican-American War. It recounts the suffering of the Mexicans and the horrible ways in which American soldiers treated the Irish (and other immigrant soldiers.) I felt that the character development and writing could have been deeper. The subject matter was harrowing and eye opening and the history itself made the book completely worthwhile to read. with gratitude to edelweiss and Atria Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
“Normalcy bias is a result of the brain’s preference for stable patterns.” I have taken several courses by and read all the books of Jane McGonigal’s twin sister, Kelly. Even though I’d watched her TED talk, before this, I’d never read Jane McGonigal’s work and didn’t know anything about her work with Institute for the Future. When I saw this book, I thought it was remarkable and decided I wanted to learn more. The premise of this book is about practicing ways to start imagining different potential futures. She introduces different ways to stretch your mind and many, many different scenarios of what possible futures could look like. They are far ahead enough to make most of these scenarios plausible (all are based on some type of fact or development from today) but not so far that you can’t connect to the timeframe. “Nearly fifty years ago, psychology researchers discovered something remarkable: if you want someone to believe that a future event is likely, you just have to ask them to imagine it happening, in as much vivid detail as possible.” She presents many different scenarios and then asks a lot of questions to help you imagine it. If this scenario were true, what would you do? There are many different areas where she encourages you to stretch your mind, your thinking and of course your imagination. Some scenarios resonated more with me than others, of course, but I found myself caught up in almost all of them. It didn’t take me long to visualize them and almost viscerally feel many of them. “Collect and investigate “signals of change,” or real-life examples of how the world is becoming different. Let these signals spark your curiosity. Follow the trail of clues wherever it takes you.” I loved this idea of collecting “signals of change” because it really enhances your ability and willingness to pay attention to the world. I love how she talks about the ways in which she challenges her students to come up with things that they think are absolute truths and then goes hunting for signs that those “facts” could in fact change. This book will stretch your mind. Jane’s playful and really inspiring tone is hard not to get swept up in. It’s encouraging, motivating and a really mind-opening book to read. with gratitude to edelweiss and Spiegel & GrauIngram for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
“Foundation regrets are trickier than the other three deep structure regrets I’ll describe in upcoming chapters. Remember that what distinguishes regret from disappointment is personal responsibility. Disappointments exist outside of your control. The child who wakes up to discover that the Tooth Fairy hasn’t left her a reward is disappointed. Regrets, in contrast, are your fault.” Even though I am usually a fan of Daniel Pink, I disliked this book almost immediately. As it turns out, regret is not a topic I like to read about. It’s not even because I have a lot of regrets. Maybe it’s because I don’t have many? I tend to think, think, overthink, before I leap into a situation and then once I’ve leapt, I stop thinking about it and commit fully to the course I’ve chosen. I wasn’t ready to find out if that wasn’t the right course of action. “People who asserted their identities rarely regretted it, even when those identities ran counter to the dominant culture. People who suppressed their identities talked about denying themselves the potential to live fully.” The book didn’t really address that, to be honest, or maybe it did and said to do mostly what I do but in a slightly different way which was, in fact, helpful. It also had some great gems like the one above, a solid reminded to be who you are and that you rarely regret not hiding who you are. “But they may also be the most collectively uplifting. There is something heartening about grown women and men waking up at night despairing over incidents decades earlier in their lives in which they hurt others, acted unfairly, or compromised the values of their community. It suggests that stamped somewhere in our DNA and buried deep in our souls is the desire to be good.” Or these stories that many people regret unkind actions they’ve taken towards others. I remember in my 20s, I was talking to someone who was quite unkind to me as a kid and she said “oh we were just kids.” I’m glad to find out many people aren’t like that and can understand the consequences of their actions. “In the Powerball case and many others, minimizing regret is not the same as minimizing risk. And if we don’t anticipate properly, we end up making the regret-minimizing choice rather than the risk-minimizing choice.” I also loved this. Because I think I do this quite often. Maybe this is why I usually don’t have many regrets so the next section was quite helpful to me. “To Use Anticipated Regrets in Your Decision Making: 1. Satisfice on most decisions. If you are not dealing with one of the four core regrets, make a choice, don’t second-guess yourself, and move on. 2. Maximize on the most crucial decisions. If you are dealing with one of the four core regrets, project yourself to a specific point in the future and ask yourself which choice will most help you build a solid foundation, take a sensible risk, do the right thing, or connect with others.” This was likely the most profound part of the book for me. Asking myself how much will this decision matter in the course of my life (in 5 years even) and then choosing the action accordingly was an obvious and yet profound learning for me. I also loved the idea of projecting into a future and checking with myself on which choice will help. In the end, I was very happy I read this book and I recommend it. with gratitude to edelweiss and Riverhead Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. |
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