my opinion matters

I have a new podcast called My Opinion Matters and I am super excited to share it. I have been recording the second episode this week, hoping to post it soon to my RSS feed and iTunes. I have also submitted it to Google Play, so that link will be coming soon as well. You can subscribe above at the top or at the right of this page. Thanks so much!

Once in awhile, you get to read a piece of literature that makes you stop and think about the world in a completely different way. Maybe it was the story of a culture you didn’t know about before, or a thriller with a character you just can’t forget, or a fantasy/sci-fi novel that transported you into a different world. this cover has multiple meanings and they are all Jason. Maybe you read Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Of course, the cover art is amazing, and really makes you want to pick it up. Whatever, people judge by the cover — don’t care if you’re supposed to or not — we do. Reading the dust jacket, it seems like an okay story that might be interesting. The dust jacket doesn’t even begin to cover it. Ha, cover it. I crack myself up. At the beginning, it seems as though you’re really a thriller that will undoubtedly turn into something ridiculous or unbelievable. However, as the story begins to unfold and you actually find yourself interested in physics concepts you n...

Written by Clare Mackintosh,  I See You  starts like every other psychological thriller I’ve read lately. Vague character details? Check. Swapping narrators? Check. Tone changes in italics? Check. So I figured it would be similar in tone and in narrative. I was still looking forward to the read, but didn’t expect much. Not my copy. Found this picture on google. Same cover art, though. I was wrong. The writing and character development was so intensely realistic and I actually had a nightmare about it last night, and I had only read the first fourth of the book. I know that sounds bad, but it’s actually a really good sign that the book is engaging and feels like real life. I don’t live in London, so other than some of the wording and processes that don’t necessarily make sense to a Midwestern girl from Ohio, I felt like I could be the main character. The dueling narrators didn’t bother me like it has before — I think because they were telling two distinct but c...

Dressing yourself is wicked difficult. I know that sounds juvenile, but deciding what to wear every day is the worst. Boys have it easier, and so does everyone who wears a uniform to work. I recognize that is not a popular opinion, but I miss wearing a uniform — decisions are already made for you. It’s because of this difficulty that most of my closet is full of black and grey. Dr. Malcolm from Jurassic Park (the book, not the movie), was right when he said,  “In any case, I wear only two colors, black and gray…These colors are appropriate for any occasion…I believe my life has value, and I don’t want to waste it thinking about clothing. I don’t want to think about what I will wear in the morning. Truly, can you imagine anything more boring than fashion? Professional sports, perhaps. Grown men swatting little balls, while the rest of the world pays money to applaud. But, on the whole, I find fashion even more tedious than sports.” However, I recognize that in the corporat...

G o see this movie. Right now. Like, leave work if you have to. And it might be better if you leave work and see it during the day because it is scary. Daniel Kaluuya is incredible. The write-up of this film is as follows from IMDB: “A young African American man visits his European American girlfriend’s family estate where he learns that many of its residents, who are black, have gone missing, and he soon learns the horrible truth when another frantic African-American warns him to “get out”. He soon learns this is easier said than done.” I think I would change some things and write it this way: “A young black man visit’s his white girlfriend’s family, and they are crazy. More craziness ensues.” I’m not big on scary movies in general — when I saw  The Babadook , I had to stop watching because I was so scared I started hysterically crying. And trust, that is not an overstatement. My poor boyfriend never got to watch the rest. Get Out  is a genius piece of art. And...

F irst of all, I’m jealous of anyone who owns this hardback copy because the water on the front of the dust jacket is bumpy and I think that’s cool. I read this on my Kindle Fire, borrowed from the library. Not the same as bumpy water. This picture is not bumpy. FYI. I was worried I was starting to get sick of this psychological thriller genre — it’s definitely popular at the moment and apparently it’s all I’m reading. This book is also super popular with book clubs, which can be sort of a toss up whether or not that’s positive. The one genre I refuse to read is historical fiction, and for some reason lots of book clubs embrace it — read a biography, if you want to know the history of something. But don’t read  The Other Boleyn Girl  and pretend like it really happened. It didn’t. But I digress. And also, I’m going to do my best not to spoil this book, but I want to discuss it in detail, so you have been warned. There may be spoilers ahead. But if you’re anythin...

I have been waiting to read Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris, this book for awhile, and it seems to be on every book club list I’ve seen in the past few months. Usually that’s a good sign, but most of the time it also means it’s some sort of melancholy love story that takes place in the 1910s or is a court case from the deep south. Still, the premise sounded interesting, and I like this genre of psychological thrillers from a female perspective. They are fast reads, exciting, and they really hold your attention as long as they’re written well. Thankfully, this is one of those. Boring cover art, good read While this story is told only by one narrator, Grace Angel, the timeline moves from the past to the present each chapter. Most of the time it works because you want to understand the secrets and why Grace and Jack act the way they do in public. However, it in the middle of the book it just gets tedious, and I found myself rushing through the “past” chapters to find out what’s ...