read harder challenge 2018

Good, I suppose? Does this even count as a western? I’m counting it.

A Lost Lady by Willa Cather

December 31, 2018 by narfna 2 Comments

And I am once again reminded that most of the time lit-fic is just not my thing. Willa Cather is good with words, but I just don’t get her writing. I chose this book as part of the Western challenge for Read Harder, and because I’ve owned it for years and years and years. It was a quick read, only 150 pages, and I read through it in a night. But I didn’t get very much out of it. A Lost Lady is about a woman who is idolized by our narrator, and as she grows older, the bloom begins […]

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12/31/2018 narfna's CBR10 Review No:173 |

Don’t let the cover mislead you. There are no grizzlies on the Appalachian Trail.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

December 18, 2018 by narfna 4 Comments

I added this book to my TBR the very first day I joined Goodreads in July 2008, so yes I do feel accomplished for finally having read it. And it was a good time! I was a bit worried based on a few reviews I’d read ahead of time that it would be dated, and it was a tiny bit (mostly in some jokes Bryson makes that read a little fatphobic to my 2018 eyes and ears, but would have been absolutely bog standard in 1998). But overall, this read like any other Bryson book I’ve read. He’s an observant […]

12/18/2018 narfna's CBR10 Review No:165 |

The madwoman in the attic.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

November 30, 2018 by narfna 2 Comments

I don’t know why I’m surprised I didn’t enjoy this. I nearly always react poorly to post-modernism. But, I really *wanted* to enjoy it. Every time I’ve read Jane Eyre, I’ve thought Bertha Rochester, née Mason, got a really shit deal. I’ve also thought it was really suspect that we don’t actually get any evidence of her going mad prior to being locked in an attic for years and years. I mean, if I’d been locked in an attic for that long maybe I would start getting a little violent and develop a fire bug, too. And who even knows what […]

11/30/2018 narfna's CBR10 Review No:155 |

“It was stupid not to live your life to the fullest when you could die tomorrow, and I sure as shit wasn’t about to take hell for that from some macho skullhead idiot.”

Fortune's Pawn (Paradox, #1) by Rachel Bach

September 10, 2018 by narfna Leave a Comment

This was fun! I think I might have had even more fun with it by audio, or hard copy, but all my library had was the e-book. I don’t know why, but I have a really hard time maintaining focus on e-books if they’re not romance. Anyway, hard copy or audio for the sequels, most definitely. Devi was a fun protagonist. She is extremely good at her job, and she is very ambitious. She wants to be a Devastator, the most elite fighters on her homeworld of Paradox. And she doesn’t want to wait until she’s old, especially since armored […]

9/10/2018 narfna's CBR10 Review No:109 |

Double cannonball with a kissing book.

A Gentleman Never Keeps Score (Seducing the Sedgwicks, #2) by Cat Sebastian

August 28, 2018 by narfna 10 Comments

Cat Sebastian is now six for six. Not a stinker among her published books so far (though to be fair, I haven’t *loved* all of them (Unmasked by the Marquess was fun, but didn’t hit me in my swooners). A Gentleman Never Keeps Score, though saddled with a truly execrable cover*, features more of what I love about her books: two fully realized leads who have good chemistry, and who are kept apart not by asinine plot machinations and outside forces, but by character flaws and life circumstances and their own stubbornness. And any time there is a miscommunication between […]

8/28/2018 narfna's CBR10 Review No:104 |

This graphic novel is cute as hell, and the art is beautiful. #CBRBingo

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

August 13, 2018 by narfna Leave a Comment

This was so cute! I love Jen Wang’s art, and she’s apparently just as good at story as she is at bringing a world to life visually. The Prince and the Dressmaker is about Frances and Sebastian. Frances is a seamstress who accidentally catches the eye of the crown prince of Belgium, Sebastian. Sebastian has a secret. When no one is watching, he loves to wear beautiful dresses. He hires Frances to make some for him, but his plan to not show her his face falls through almost immediately, but to his surprise, she accepts him immediately and becomes inspired […]

8/13/2018 narfna's CBR10 Review No:98 |

Right book, right time.

The False Prince (The Ascendance Trilogy, #1) by Jennifer A. Nielsen

August 3, 2018 by narfna Leave a Comment

This is one of those times where a book hit me just right, and it was just what I was in the mood for at the time of reading it. I was craving something fluffy and maybe a tad predictable, yet comforting, after reading some downer books about tough subjects. And this perfectly fit the bill. I’m not the target audience for this book, at all, but I still really enjoyed it. (I would have been obsessed if I’d read it when I was a kid.) The premise here is that our main character, Sage, is a fourteen year old […]

8/3/2018 narfna's CBR10 Review No:91 |

Texas noir. #CBRBingo

Bluebird, Bluebird (Highway 59, #1) by Attica Locke

August 2, 2018 by narfna Leave a Comment

Project: Catch Up On Review Backlog commences. No promises on the quality of my next ten or so reviews. I just want to get them done. (This will probably unfortunately result in subpar reviews for books that deserve much better.) Let’s start with a book I finished over a month ago, Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke. First things first, this book was incredibly well done. It’s a crime book set in Texas, featuring a black Texas Ranger as its protagonist. I knew that going in. I also knew that the author had previously said that her books were “too black […]

8/2/2018 narfna's CBR10 Review No:88 |

Caitlin_D on “I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.”I actually found the book because of the adaptation!
Tracy on Diets Don’t WorkI'm glad it was helpful. There was also some info about exercise that stood out. For years I've joked that I don't have endorphins, and...
Alexis on would you say it’s time for our viewers to crack open each other’s skulls?I am impressed that you had the fortitude to read this. Assuredly I do not. Most of the bestselling nonfiction books now are political in...
narfna on Not Every Essay ResonatedI ended up not rating this one because it was so hard to get through in a way that was unrelated to the actual writing....
Scootsa1000 on The girl anchors the stage, sucks in the male gaze, and, depending on who she is, throws her own gaze back out into the audience.I’m in a Starbucks right now and Kool Thing is playing. Weird. How did I not know this existed? Buying on audible right now!