I am always down for some "maybe you can go home again" family drama which is totally what I was expecting to receive here. What I got instead was a pretty comprehensive explanation of OCD that presents itself in the form of intrusive thoughts, along with the story of the Beck family who were always fairly dysfunctional, but who truly haven’t been the same in over a decade when Henry died. Told through the voice of youngest daughter Eliot, this is a story of first love, of family, of grieving, and of The Worries that plague her mind.
I don’t know that this will be for everyone. I understand “Boose’s” brain could be triggering for some and potentially exhausting for others. But I hope people give it a chance.
4 Stars
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review....more
Generally when a movie I am interested in gets released I immediately Google it to see if it was a book (because, duh, the book is nearly a
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Generally when a movie I am interested in gets released I immediately Google it to see if it was a book (because, duh, the book is nearly always better – except Forrest Gump - I will eternally shame that book for being turrrrrible). This time around, however, I bitched and moaned about why American Fiction was not being released to one of the twelve thousand streaming services I subscribed to and then only after it won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay did I think “ADAPTED?!?!?!?! WTF ADAPTED!” because . . . .
And then! And then I effing DID finally Google it and discovered it was by my recently discovered best friend Percival Everett who totally blew my mind with The Trees and whose books I have been picking up every few months or so because he’s just brilliant.
After being on the library waiting list for what felt like a billion years my turn finally came around and I got to crawl around in Thelonious (Monk) Ellison’s head for a while. I will stand behind my gif above and say I truly am not smart enough to understand all of the fishing and woodworking interludes that were thrown in here, but the gist of the main story was well worth the price of admission and I’m whining even more that the film went to some bullshit MGM+ or whatever crap that I DON’T pay for monthly.
As I said, the story here is about Monk – an author of previously published (but don’t really sell) smarty smarts who has been receiving rejection after rejection from publishing houses for his newest novel. After seeing the praise and glory, hundreds of thousands of books sold, million dollar movie rights and a knockoff “Oprah’s Book Club” singing the praises of a new release entitled We's Lives in Da Ghetto Monk takes to the keyboard and pens his own “true plight” *cough satire cough* of the “Authentic Black Experience” under a pen name – only to receive even MORE praise than the aforementioned “Ghetto” (including a National Book Award nomination – for which he is on the judging panel). Then you add in a “maybe you can go home again” subplot featuring a brother, sister, aging mother and a box full of dearly departed dad’s secrets and you have nearly a home run of a novel.
And talk about life imitating art. Erasure originally was released over 20 years ago, got nominated for the Pulitzer and yet most people probably never even heard of it until it was finally made into a film. If you haven’t taken time to read Everett yet, you are truly missing out and should add him to your TBR post haste.
When I tell you I was willing to shove people out of the way to get my hands on an early copy of Abbi Waxman’s latest release – I’m probably not exaggWhen I tell you I was willing to shove people out of the way to get my hands on an early copy of Abbi Waxman’s latest release – I’m probably not exaggerating much. That’s why it sucks so bad that I didn’t really love it.
I thought this was going to be a “maybe you can go home again” sort of story with an obvious addition of an unrequited love who now gets to be “quited” (I know that’s not a word). And the storyline of an “Amelia Earheart” or “D.B. Cooper” sort of long-thought dead dad returning from the wild had my attention. Sadly, nothing much even happened with the dad stuff until nearly 70% and I didn’t know I was signing up for a porny so that wasn’t really my idea of a great time either.
Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I still HIGHLY recommend Nina Hill or The Garden of Small Beginnings or Other People’s Houses or I Was Told It Would Get Easier. They all just made my chick lit loving heart go cluck cluck cluck.
2.5 Stars
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley! ...more
The husband was out of town last week so I was perusing the 50,000,000 streaming services we subscribe to for something brainless and fun and cutesie The husband was out of town last week so I was perusing the 50,000,000 streaming services we subscribe to for something brainless and fun and cutesie to maybe watch. I ran across this title and was almost positive it was a book first and turns out I was right. So then I do what I do and I didn’t watch the movie, but instead immediately went to the library to download a copy to read instead.
Now that I’m finished I’m seeing the Goodreads’ rating sits at 2.85?!?!?!?
I’m wondering if maybe Grant Ginder was simply ahead of his time because stories about dysfunction junction starring not the nicest people in the world have become sort of the rage. And these people weren’t even that bad once you got to know them a little. (Except for Mark. He was a real twat.) After being trolled incessantly for daring to not love all the things about Remarkably Bright Creatures - Cameron in particular – it was nice to read a story where the attitudes/behaviors/choices of each character were explained and everyone ended up with a believable redemption arc.
I liked this one enough for several of you who didn’t ; ) I hope the film version is just as good. ...more
I get she’s a BookTok sensation who has outsold Jeebus, but just stahhhhhhhhp.
Only Love Can Hurt Like This is the epitome of a Lifetime romance movie. It is sappy in all the best Nicholas Sparksy sorts of ways and will probably make a lot of people who have functioning human hearts shed some tears. For me, I was 100% in as soon as I got a movie montage sort of makeover featuring a 1960s Airstream?
Kelly (and the Book Boar)
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