modernlove

Pop Culture, Self-Discovery, and Dark Humor

Party of One by Dave Holmes

July 10, 2016 by ModernLove 3 Comments

So it’s been just over three months since my last review. Not coincidentally, I started my new job just over three months ago. While I love it, it is a little bit of a time suck. I’m keeping up on my reading, but after 8 hours of sitting in front of a computer and talking to people, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer at home. It was going to take a very special book to get me out of my reviewing slump, and I found it. Dave Holmes’ memoir Party of One […]

7/10/2016 ModernLove's CBR8 Review No:18 |

Maybe I’m the unreliable narrator of my own life.

The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle

May 9, 2016 by scootsa1000 1 Comment

A few weeks ago, ModernLove posted a very enthusiastic review for The Great American Whatever, and I added it to my TBR. And shockingly, my library didn’t have it. So I whined a little bit and got them to order it, I just knew I needed to read it. And now here we are. Quinn is about to turn 17. He’s a talented writer who dreams of becoming a Hollywood screenwriter, just like his next-door neighbor, who years ago introduced him to the world of classic film. He’s had a rough go of it lately. His father abandoned the family (the timeline […]

5/9/2016 scootsa1000's CBR8 Review No:22 |

If Oscar Wilde was a Badass Victorian Woman

Soulless (Parasol Protectorate #1) by Gail Carriger

April 5, 2016 by ModernLove 4 Comments

Weeks ago, on a rainy Friday afternoon, I needed something fun and uplifting to read. The lovely people of the CBR Book Club Facebook page threw a slew of recs at me, and this was one of the ones I ended up with. Y’all are good. This was exactly what I was looking for, and enough outside my usual reading zone that it made me feel happy for expanding my horizons (I’m not always a sci-fi or romance reader, and this one definitely has both involved). I’ve started the second book in the series, and I was going to wait until […]

4/5/2016 ModernLove's CBR8 Review No:17 |

Driven By The Irony That Only Being Shackled To The Road Could Ever I Be Free

My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem

March 8, 2016 by ModernLove 1 Comment

Well, there’s something rather fitting about writing this review on International Women’s Day. It’s also complete luck, as I just happened to finally finish this book last night. It’s interesting, having read some reviews from people I know and trust, to see that this book didn’t quite meet their expectations. I guess I was lucky, in that I had none. I knew about this book from reviews, from it being Emma Watson’s book club pick. Truth be told, and shamefully so, I didn’t know much about Steinem and her life. I knew she was a major player in the fight […]

3/8/2016 ModernLove's CBR8 Review No:15 |

I Love These Books Forever

Tara Road/Quentins by Maeve Binchy

February 24, 2016 by ModernLove 4 Comments

We’ve been living in our house for just over six years. One would think that, in all that time, all the boxes would be unpacked. One would be wrong. Please never go in my basement. I, however, did and poking around a box of books found my much loved and much beaten up copy of Tara Road, by far my favorite Maeve Binchy book. I went on a streak of reading her in my early 20s, and I think I’ve read this book at least a half a dozen times (and at 659 pages, that’s quite the feat). Needing something to […]

2/24/2016 ModernLove's CBR8 Review No:14 |

A Quietly Lovely Book

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

February 24, 2016 by ModernLove 1 Comment

I was aware of the movie before the book. I read rave reviews, and it has Domhnall Gleeson, so I knew it was going to be on my List Of Movies To Eventually See (I am terrible at going to see movies in theaters for the most part). I’m not sure when I realized it was based on a book, a tidbit I filed away until Valentine’s Day. My husband and I aren’t necessarily the most romantic–okay, I’m not, so for us Valentine’s Day involved Deadpool, our favorite little cafe, and a trip to my wonderful local indie bookstore. Yay books! I […]

2/24/2016 ModernLove's CBR8 Review No:12 |

When Books Make You Throw Them

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

February 22, 2016 by ModernLove 2 Comments

Late last year I read the first book in Aveyard’s series about a young girl with extraordinary abilities. Because this is the sequel, there will be spoilers for the first book. If you plan on picking up this series (and I recommend doing that), then I would skip this review and go right to reading! Mare has such a fun story, one that I think greatly improved with this second book. I thought this was only a two-book series, and when I got to the end of this one, I almost threw it across the room (except not, because it was an […]

2/22/2016 ModernLove's CBR8 Review No:11 |

I Could Never Be Parisian

A Paris Affair by Tatiana de Rosnay

February 17, 2016 by ModernLove Leave a Comment

This was a “Oh hey, that looks interesting” book I picked up at the library recently. It was thin, had an interesting cover, and reminded me a little of The Paris Wife, which is a book I have a very fond place in my heart for. (Sidenote: Isn’t it strange how sometimes we love a book because of the book itself, and sometimes because of how we read it? I read The Paris Wife on a train from Dublin to Galway a couple summers ago and I couldn’t even tell you if it’s a good book or not, because it was just […]

2/17/2016 ModernLove's CBR8 Review No:10 |

Manimama on Book Club Discussion Post: Good OmensI think you hit the mail on the head here!
blauracke on Book Club Discussion Post: Good OmensAgreed, it was probably written at exactly the right time. I guess it's going to be interesting to see how this will work in the...
faintingviolet on Book Club Discussion Post: Good OmensI agree with you on #7, I think the way in which the book pokes at religion would be handled differently now, and in some...
MarkAbaddon on Book Club Discussion Post: Good OmensI think everyone would agree with that statement, I commented on it myself. It felt like it was included because it may have been expected...
Markabaddon on Book Club Discussion Post: Good Omens#1 I loved this book. It is one of the few instances of a collaboration where I cannot tell who wrote any particular passage. The...