Thoughts on Books

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Around The Year in 52 Books 2018

I skipped on Around the Year in 52 Books last year, but decided to participate again in 2018. I only pledged 20 books for the challenge as I didn't want to constrict my reading. This is a wrap up of the books I read that fit this year's challenge.

A book with the letters A, T, and Y in the title: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

A book from the first 10 books added to your TBR list:

A book from the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Azgard: The Ship of the Dead by Rick Riordan

A book linked to Earth - either in title, cover, content, setting, author, etc):

A book about or inspired by real events:

A book originally written in a language other than English: The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani

A gothic novel: Listen to Me by Hannah Pittard

An "own voices" book:

A book with a body part in the title:

An author's debut book: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

A literary fiction:

A book set in Africa or South America:

A book with a plot centered around a secret (forbidden love, spies, secret societies, etc):

A book linked to fire:

A book with a unique format/writing structure:

A narrative non-fiction: The No Spend Year by Mivhelle McGagh

A book you expect to make you laugh: I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo

A book with a location in the title:

A book nominated for the Edgar Award or by a Grand Master author:

A book rated 5 stars by at least one of your friends:

A book written in the first person perspective:

A book you have high expectations or hope for:

A medical or legal thriller:

A book with a map:

A book with an antagonist/villain point of view:

A book with a text only cover:

A book about surviving a hardship:

A book linked to water: The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan

A book with a 'clue' weapon on the cover or title (lead pipe, revolver, rope, canglestick, dagger, wrench):

A short book:

A book set in a country you'd like to visit but have never been to:

An alternate history book:

A book connected (title, cover, content) to a word "born" in the same year as you:

A suggestion from the ATY2018 polls:

A book featuring a murder: Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

A book published in 2016, 2017, or 2018 by an author you haven't read before: I Love You Too Much by Alicia Drake

A Women's Prize for Fiction winner or nominee:

A science or science fiction book:

A book with a form of punctuation in the title:

A book from Amazon's 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime list

A book by an author with the same first and last initials: Call me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

A book that takes place underwater:

A book with a title that is a whole sentence: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez

A ghost story:

A book that intimidates/scares you:

A book linked to air:

A book where the main character or author is of a different ethnic origin, religion, or sexual identity than your own: We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby

A book related to one of the 7 deadly sins (pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, sloth):

A book from one of the Goodreads Best Book of the Month list:

A book with a warm atmosphere:

An award winning short story collection:

A book published in 2018: Still Me by Jojo Moyes

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I Believe In A Thing Called Love by Maureen Goo (Margaret Ferguson Books, 2017)

Synopsis Desi Lee believes anything is possible if you have a plan. That’s how she became student body president. Varsity soccer star. And it’s how she’ll get into Stanford. But—she’s never had a boyfriend. In fact, she’s a disaster in romance, a clumsy, stammering humiliation magnet whose botched attempts at flirting have become legendary with her friends. So when the hottest human specimen to have ever lived walks into her life one day, Desi decides to tackle her flirting failures with the same zest she’s applied to everything else in her life. She finds guidance in the Korean dramas her father has been obsessively watching for years—where the hapless heroine always seems to end up in the arms of her true love by episode ten. It’s a simple formula, and Desi is a quick study. Armed with her “K Drama Steps to True Love,” Desi goes after the moody, elusive artist Luca Drakos—and boat rescues, love triangles, and staged car crashes ensue. But when the fun and games turn to true feels, Desi finds out that real love is about way more than just drama. (Goodreads)

Rating 4 stars

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I Love You Too Much by Alicia Drake (Little, Brown and Company, 2018)

Synopsis Set in the heart of Left-Bank Paris, this is the story of Paul, a lonely, quiet boy who makes an astonishing discovery and confronts that brutal turning point in adolescence when he learns he must leave the privileges of naivety behind. (Goodreads)

Rating 4 stars

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The No Spend Year by Michelle McGagh (Coronet, 2018)

Synopsis Michelle McGagh has been writing about money for over a decade. You'd think that would make her a whizz with her own cash, right? Wrong! Spending with abandon and ignoring bank statements were her modus operandi. Just because she wasn't in serious debt, apart from her massive London mortgage, she thought she was in control. She wasn't. Something needed to be done but rather than cut back here and there, Michelle's approach was more radical. She set herself a challenge to not spend anything for an entire year. The No Spend Year is Michelle's honestly written and personal account of her challenge. But it is more than that, it is also a tool for life that will help you get to grips with your own financial situation. She talks about money in an accessible, unintimidating and often entertaining way and interspersed throughout are really brilliant personal finance tips and life hacks about interest, mortgages, savings , pensions and spending less to help you live a more financially secure life too. (Goodreads)

She doesn't really go to specifics on her entire year, so if you're expecting a step-by-step procedure, this is not it. She does give advice that is useful, especially if you're not well versed at finance and are prone to headaches when you see the words 'loans' 'mortgages', 'pensions' - money related words. Some of her advice here are also plain common sense, especially on things we tend to overlook. Specifics wise, I have to point out that this is not a general finance book. It depends on your situation and your location whether any of her tips and advice are applicable to you. She lives in London, which is a vibrant city and is in good ranking, so people who live in active cities with good economic standing can relate to her situation.

Rating 3 stars

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What To Say Next by Julie Buxbaum (Delacorte Press, 2017)

Synopsis When an unlikely friendship is sparked between relatively popular Kit Lowell and socially isolated David Drucker, everyone is surprised, most of all Kit and David. Kit appreciates David’s blunt honesty—in fact, she finds it bizarrely refreshing. David welcomes Kit’s attention and her inquisitive nature. When she asks for his help figuring out the how and why of her dad’s tragic car accident, David is all in. But neither of them can predict what they’ll find. Can their friendship survive the truth? (Goodreads)

- I'm going to start with the only thing I didn't like: the plot twist and how it was handled. It weakened what seemed to be an extremely strong and amazing book. It went downhill from the moment the twist was revealed and everything was messy and it tried to get out of the hole it dug itself into.

+ I loved David and Kit. I really liked their friendship. I hoped that it wouldn't go on the romance territory because honestly, both needed a friend at that moment in their lives. I guess the romance was necessary to bring David out of his shell, but Kit could still bring David out of his shell without them kissing and holding hands. They could have built a kind of friendship that would last a lifetime.

- I don't get how David's good looks is relevant to the story. Buying him new clothes and getting him a haircut that shows his face isn't going to make him a different person. It just makes everyone hypocrites because now they pay attention to him because of the way he looks.

I was ready to give this 5 stars because the first 2/3 of the book was strong. The characterization was good. The friendship was good. Since it's inevitable for the story not to lead to romance, the transition was good too. It was the climax and that whole secret that weakened this book for me. It's not a terrible book not to merit a re-read, but it was a disappointing way to end, even if they end up on happy terms.

Rating 3 stars

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The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (Vintage Books, 2005)

Synopsis From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child. (Goodreads)

+ Didion is very articulate. If I were in the similar situation and felt the same things, I don't think I could have placed all my emotions down as articulately and heartfelt as did. I would probably be writing all my emotions in caps-lock and flowery descriptions.

- I got lost in some chapters of the book. There would be a train of thought, then it would tangent in a lengthly piece then jump back in again to the original though.

Memoirs are very personal. The reader cannot discount the author's experience because they are theirs and theirs alone. I thought it was a good book overall. I think I would have benefitted more from this if I read it in one sitting. It's hard to shift back to the emotional state Didion is revealing to you if you keep on shifting in and out of the selection.

Rating 3 stars

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Still Me by Jojo Moyes (Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, 2018)

Synopsis Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the superrich, working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger second wife, Agnes. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her new job and New York life. As she begins to mix in New York high society, Lou meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. Before long, Lou finds herself torn between Fifth Avenue where she works and the treasure-filled vintage clothing store where she actually feels at home. And when matters come to a head, she has to ask herself: Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you reconcile a heart that lives in two places? (Goodreads)

Personally, I think that it's okay to skip the second book and go straight to this because the author recaps what happened in the second book. This can work as a standalone, but the first book is necessary to knowing Louisa's essence.

- I didn't like the 'letters of Will' section. While he talks about his stay in New York, Lou doesn't necessarily follow his footsteps, nor was it given any importance or relevance in the story. It felt like a filler section so the story can segue to the next section without problems.

- It was predictable. I think I've read or watched something similar to what happened here. Lou was basically a nanny/assistant that thinks she's friends with her boss, then her boss screws her over and she's out of a job. Sounds familiar?

- There was a part in the book where Lou thinks she would have molded herself for Josh, and became the perfect girlfriend, but if you'd see her character in the first book, I don't think it's in her character. That whole Josh thing is out of character for Lou. With the exception that he looked like Will, I don't think Lou genuinely liked this person, and that she was just overtaken with how much he looked like Will.

+ It was a decent read, overall. I liked her friendship with Margot De Witt.

Rating 3 stars

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Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson (Katherine Tegen Books, 2018)

Synopsis Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.” Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history. True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder. (Goodreads)

+ A book I read in one sitting is a plus in my book.

+ This was a page turner. It combines the stories of two murders. There are a variety of characters involved. The school sounds amazing.

- I might not be on board with the romance aspect of the story. The roots of it seems childish - he was annoying, she got annoyed, then it was 'Oh, I like you'. Maybe I'll get on board with it in the next installments.

+ This was an entertaining mystery book. I would love to know more about the first murder (not the present one), especially with the cliffhanger.

Rating 4 stars

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Listen to Me by Hannah Pittard (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016)

Synopsis Mark and Maggie's annual drive east to visit family has gotten off to a rocky start. By the time they're on the road, it's late, a storm is brewing, and they are no longer speaking to one another. Adding to the stress, Maggie — recently mugged at gunpoint — is lately not herself, and Mark is at a loss about what to make of the stranger he calls his wife. When they are forced to stop for the night at a remote inn, completely without power, Maggie's paranoia reaches an all-time and terrifying high. But when Mark finds himself threatened in a dark parking lot, it’s Maggie who takes control. (Goodreads)

+ This was a well-written book. The whole affairs takes place in a day, but the author has managed to weave in information and thoughts through the actions of the characters without it being too much.

- The last pages were quite a let down. The synopsis made it seem like it's a much graver event, considering what Maggie went through. I thought she was going to take control of things in such a way that she would have a break through. That is not what happened, and I hate what happens afterwards.

- Because of the event in the final pages, the book made it seem like it was Mark who had a break through. I guess he needed the redemption because he was a douche the whole time. But no, just no.

I wanted to give it a higher rating, but I was let down with how it ended and what happened during the climax. I liked how the author wrote - the paragraphs were slow, but expressive. I didn't mind the pacing, but an ending could ruin a book for me.

Rating 2 stars

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We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby (Vintage Books, 2017)

Synopsis Sometimes you just have to laugh, even when life is a dumpster fire. With We Are Never Meeting in Real Life., "bitches gotta eat" blogger and comedian Samantha Irby turns the serio-comic essay into an art form. Whether talking about how her difficult childhood has led to a problem in making "adult" budgets, explaining why she should be the new Bachelorette--she's "35-ish, but could easily pass for 60-something"--detailing a disastrous pilgrimage-slash-romantic-vacation to Nashville to scatter her estranged father's ashes, sharing awkward sexual encounters, or dispensing advice on how to navigate friendships with former drinking buddies who are now suburban moms--hang in there for the Costco loot--she's as deft at poking fun at the ghosts of her past self as she is at capturing powerful emotional truths.(Goodreads)

+ Samantha Irby is a funny writer. She's snarky, and her essays are conversational, so it feels like she's talking to you.

+ Her essays are very personal, with topics ranging from her dating life, to her family life, down to her cat. I particularly enjoyed the essays about her cat.

- Even if the essays are funny, not a lot stayed with me. I also failed to connect with some of it.

Rating 3.5 stars

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Grace and the Fever by Zan Romanoff (Alfred A Knopf, 2017)

SynopsisIn middle school, everyone was a Fever Dream fan. Now, a few weeks after her high school graduation, Grace Thomas sometimes feels like the only one who never moved on. She can't imagine what she'd do without the community of online fans that share her obsession. Or what her IRL friends would say if they ever found out about it. Then, one summer night, the unthinkable happens: Grace meets her idol, Jes. What starts out as an elusive glimpse of Fever Dream's world turns into an unlikely romance, and leads her to confront dark, complex truths about herself and the realities of stardom. (Goodreads)

I don't really have anything much to say about this book except that it was entertaining. I wasn't in love with it, but it was something that I really enjoyed. If you are a fan of boy bands, this might be a book for you. Nothing was what it seemed behind the scene, and it was an eye opener for the main character.

Rating 4 stars

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The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani (Penguin Books, 2018. Translated from the French by Sam Taylor)

Synopsis When Myriam, a mother and brilliant French-Moroccan lawyer, decides to return to work, she and her husband are forced to look for a caretaker for their two young children. They are thrilled to find Louise: the perfect nanny right from the start. Louise sings to the children, cleans the family's beautiful apartment in Paris's upscale tenth arrondissement, stays late whenever asked, and hosts enviable kiddie parties. But as the couple and the nanny become more dependent on each other, jealousy, resentment, and frustrations mount, shattering the idyllic tableau.(Goodreads)

+ The first paragraph is a fantastic start of the novel. It dives right into the conflict, making the reader want to read everything immediately. It grabs the reader's attention, and it is something I look for in thrillers.

+ It plays the mystery well. The book presents conflicting accounts on who the nanny is and how she really was. She acts differently around other people, making it difficult to grasp who she really was and that adds intrigue to the story.

- It does slow down around 60% in and it rushes the conclusion once you get to the last 5-10 pages. I wanted more for the conclusion.

+ It is a page turner. Based on the translation, it's well-written. It's articulate, but also has descriptive narrative. The author voices out the thoughts of the characters in various situations, so one isn't left guessing about how this or that character reacted.

Rating 4 stars

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Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman (Picador, 2017)

Synopsis Andre Aciman's Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera. Each is unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, when, during the restless summer weeks, unrelenting currents of obsession, fascination, and desire intensify their passion and test the charged ground between them. Recklessly, the two verge toward the one thing both fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy. It is an instant classic and one of the great love stories of our time. (Goodreads)

+ I don’t usually like film cover of books, but I love the poster and I am so glad that it looks great as a book cover

+ Elio had a lot of thoughts. Since the story is told from the past, he would reference what he wrote in his diary about his thoughts on Oliver, and his thoughts on the relationship and such. He had opinions on sexuality, he talked about his passion, that fire he felt. He would agonize endlessly about his feelings, thus making this a deeply personal tale from Elio’s perspective.

+ This was a well-written book. It had a lot of note-worthy passages. It does use a lot of metaphors, though it doesn’t repeat itself. My vocabulary is terrible so I had to research the definition of worfs, but it seemed like he picked out suitable, non-generic words that enhanced the character’s thoughts and emotions.

+/- It is a slow moving book, but I personally don’t take it against it. It will take time to read. There are some parts that it could do without because the author leaned on making Elio’s character develop through the retrospection of the relationship.

It’s hard to separate the book from the film if you’ve digested both mediums immediately after each other. There’s a disconnection between book Elio and film Elio. The film does make some creative changes, but it didn’t take away the essence of the book.

Rating 4 stars

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China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan (Doubleday, 2015)

Synopsis On the eve of her wedding to Nicholas Young, heir to one of the greatest fortunes in Asia, Rachel should be over the moon. She has a flawless Asscher-cut diamond from JAR, a wedding dress she loves more than anything found in the salons of Paris, and a fiancé willing to sacrifice his entire inheritance in order to marry her. But Rachel still mourns the fact that her birthfather, a man she never knew, won’t be able to walk her down the aisle. Until: a shocking revelation draws Rachel into a world of Shanghai splendor beyond anything she has ever imagined. Here we meet Carlton, a Ferrari-crashing bad boy known for Prince Harry-like antics; Colette, a celebrity girlfriend chased by fevered paparazzi; and the man Rachel has spent her entire life waiting to meet: her father. Meanwhile, Singapore’s It Girl, Astrid Leong, is shocked to discover that there is a downside to having a newly minted tech billionaire husband. A romp through Asia’s most exclusive clubs, auction houses, and estates, China Rich Girlfriend brings us into the elite circles of Mainland China, introducing a captivating cast of characters, and offering an inside glimpse at what it’s like to be gloriously, crazily, China-rich. (Goodreads)

+ This was a good end to Rachel Chu’s arc. While it did rarely focus on her relationship with her family - and more of the rich people shenanigans - I liked how things were resolved on her end. She connected with the family she knew she never had.

- I didn’t like how Rachel was written here. While she was still the simple person like the first book, there was a different kind of Rachel that emerged in this book, which in hindsight was okay, but there is something about her that kind of irked me.

+/- This read like a lengthy gossip column. I loved how entertaining this is, with the overextravagance of the people involved and the drama they had. With that said, the book’s narrative was a bit over the place. While the first book had a strong central narrative that connects all the characters, the central narrative here was pushed aside to accommodate the drama and ridiculous spending the characters had. It resulted to an uneveness in tone, and not one that is easily overlooked since there really isn’t a rootworthy character here.

+ The brother, Carlton, was a great addition to the already colorful cast of characters. I’m looking forward to reading more about him in the final book.

Rating 4 stars

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We Come Apart by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan (Bloomsbury, 2017)

SynopsisNicu has emigrated from Romania and is struggling to find his place in his new home. Meanwhile, Jess's home life is overshadowed by violence. When Nicu and Jess meet, what starts out as friendship grows into romance as the two bond over their painful pasts and hopeful futures. But will they be able to save each other, let alone themselves? (Goodreads)

-I usually like Sarah Crossan's books, but this was the first one that took me forever to read. She usually incorporates heavy themes in her books, but this was overkill. There's arranged marriages, abusive relationships, bullying, among other things. I get that, but when she adds attempted assault to the lives of two miserable people? Overkill.

-There was too much things going on in this book. While I wanted both Nicu and Jess to have better lives, but it seems like what I got from the book is that if you have a crappy life, chances are your life isn't going to change.

Rating 2 stars

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The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury, 2013)

Synopsis Armed with a suitcase and an old laundry bag filled with clothes, Kasienka and her mother head for England. Life is lonely for Kasienka. At home her mother's heart is breaking and at school friends are scarce. But when someone special swims into her life, Kasienka learns that there might be more than one way for her to stay afloat. (Goodreads)

I won't be using the bullet point format for this post because this is going to be a quick one. I like the way Sarah Crossan writes, even if I am wary of verse-type books. I am not a fan of poetry, and I don't want to spend time trying to decipher this and that in a work of fiction.This sounds poetic but straight to the point. This isn't one of her strongest works though. She is currently known for her 2016 release 'One', and that was really good. Her use of words weren't as powerful here as it was in One, but it was still a solid read.

Rating 3 stars

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I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez (Alfred A Knopf, 2017)

Synopsis Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family.But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role. Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed. But it’s not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first kiss, first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister’s story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal? (Goodreads)

- It took forever to pick up the pace. The first 160 pages were spent with her bemoaning her life. It picks up for 20 pages, then spirals down again to another rant fest on how terrible her life is.

- I’m starting to think that the way Julia was written and how she is supposed to be perceived is deliberate. There are unlikable characters that you root for, and there are unlikable characters that you don’t really care for. Julia falls in the latter. All she did was complain, and while I understand that she is a teenager and everyone has a different familial life, did the author really have to spend a lot of pages to establish how terrible Julia thinks her life and everything around her really are? I think a chapter or two would be sufficient, and the story can move on to what the synopsis promised.

+/- The whole rambling feeling of the book, with Julia blurting out sentence after sentence, and thought after thought sounds like how a normal person would usually converse with themselves. However, it wasn’t a format that I enjoyed, mostly because it took forever for the story to go somewhere.

As of writing, I have finished 2/3 of the book, and nothing promised in the synopsis was still there. I thought this would be a book about sisterhood and finding and understanding your identity. I think everything that made me want to read this book would be squeezed in at the last 30-40 pages or so. Even if it does end up to be a really good part, I don’t think I can recommend this book at all. I think there are other similar books that can talk about these topics in a more direct and elegant way. This isn’t one of them. While I am tempted to not finish the book, I have read way too much of it to stop now.

Rating 1 star