en-US Sun, 27 Apr 2025 04:12:41 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7522466375 Sun, 27 Apr 2025 04:12:41 -0700 /review/show/7522466375 Mike gave 3 stars to I Might Be in Trouble (Hardcover) by Daniel Aleman


Ok, I like this, not gushing about it, but liked it.
I am going 3.5 stars on this one
Yes, the first bit is about each hookup. But, his dead guy hookup is the whole story.
This main character is a soft, wimpy, poor me kind of guy. Now, he is trying to cover up something that likely doesn’t need covered up.
The book has the reader wondering, “wth are you doing.� That was purposeful by the author I think.
The conundrum of reading about this author messing up his life, while writing a book about messing up his life had me at first wondering what I was getting into, but overall, it worked.
]]> Review7519141246 Fri, 25 Apr 2025 19:11:30 -0700 /review/show/7519141246 Mike gave 3 stars to Steamy: A Menopause Symptomology (Paperback) by Susan Holbrook
Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for the advance copy of this book. Not my usual book, but this is a book every man should read. Understanding the women in our lives and what their bodies are doing is good for every relationship. This is a 3.5 for me.
The way the author put this together was interesting and funny. I like how nine of the chapters are long and drawn out. I also like the connections she made to her own life and history when discussing each of the symptoms. ]]> Review7507461832 Mon, 21 Apr 2025 14:39:21 -0700 /review/show/7507461832 Mike gave 4 stars to Favorite Daughter (Hardcover) by Morgan Dick
Thank you to the Penguin Randomhouse Canada and Net Galley for the advance copy of Favourite Daughter.
This book was a page turner, I enjoyed coming back to it each opportunity I had to read.
With half sisters who did not know each other having their lives converge, it sets the scene for the story to develop.
Touching upon family issues, substance abuse and relationships, this book had a realistic theme. Its strength was the realistic struggles of the main characters, as their difficulties were real life concerns people have.
The story is not fast moving but the length and plot were perfect. ]]> Review7496781447 Thu, 17 Apr 2025 14:09:09 -0700 /review/show/7496781447 Mike gave 5 stars to The Tiger and the Cosmonaut (Kindle Edition) by Eddy Boudel Tan
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the advance copy of The Tiger and the Cosmonaut.

This book is so good and I am confident that readers will love this book regardless of your regular genre is.
Strictly speaking, this is a mystery/suspense book, but it checks so many other boxes.
From a mystery standpoint, there was no hokey, crazy, stupid storyline that makes you roll your eyes. Rather, it is laced within the social justice story within, making it both believable and relatable. There is one thing that is not believable. To not give away anything, I will say the not believable part below. For that one item, I am going to take away about half a star and call this a 4.5.

This is so well written, the family dynamic, the secrets within the family and within the town are pure gold.

Although a fairly easy read, the moment that the most significant twist occurs is so subtle that you would miss it. Even if you would miss it, the author fairly quickly ensures that you understood the twist. Even though I caught it, I went back to read it, wanting to consider how well it was worded.

As for my notes.
The language right from the beginning was beauty. For example
"Most people arrive from the coast along a road that clings to the edge of ancient boulders, wearing a lifetime of moss. After some time the road veers away from the sea into the endless forest. The sounds of the wind are muted by trees that reach into the sky,

Above highlights the wonderful writing throughout.

There is a sense of wonder so early in this.
Just two chapters in:
We know that the twin brother went missing many years ago and dad is now missing.
Is this a serial murderer, aliens, other criminal activity? Did Dad finally go looking for his son. Does the forest around them a play a part, or the nearby sea?
The reader is hooked to find out what happens next.

Then moving into the story, we start to see the theme of living in small town British Columbia, coming from Asia.
There are a number of situations where the minority Asian community tries to fit in.
Two that stuck with me
1. Mom always wanted to fit in with the group of ladies. She never could. She fought back in her feisty way.
2. Vince was beat up, white guys, no charges they were released.

And again, description and language:
"Did you know Mike owns a hardware store? The guy who thought north was whichever direction was right in front of his face. He's President of the town's business association. Ryan's married with kids, and Trevor's a volunteer firefighter. These guys are almost respectable, at least on the surface.
Doesn't that describe so many racist people?

Another theme: You only know what discrimination is if you have the lived experience.
I understand that, except what sometimes happens is allies are pushed away because of this sentiment. Allies that are willing to listen, learn and try to be a positive help are important.

Another theme is the story of 2nd generation Canadians trying to fit in and losing their culture to do so, and finally mom and dad who don't fit in Bruenei or British Columbia, what a very difficult life.

As indicated, so much going on here.
Now, below, a spoiler, because this must be said.



So, the big twist, different twin brother than we all thought. I can buy that to the public. However, the family (other than one member) never realized, did not know the difference between the two twins? Not believable. I know identical means identical. I have had identical twins in my class, it is a tough for me, however, the students knew the difference and their parents certainly knew the difference. I would have liked it better if during his reveal, the parents said they knew but allowed him to continue being the other twin for a variety of reasons.
]]> Review7484119616 Sat, 12 Apr 2025 20:28:25 -0700 /review/show/7484119616 Mike gave 4 stars to The Lightning Bottles (Hardcover) by Marissa Stapley
Here is what I would put in my Venn Diagram

Pros/cons
I am going to start with the stuff that fits in both pros and cons

Romance: Any suggestion that this is not about the romance or the love story is just an attempt to highlight the subtexts. The entire story is about Jane and Elijahs love story.
The reason I place it as both pro and con is because I am okay with some romance as long as the subtexts can support a great story.
Neat and tidy ending: Again, I can live with an ending that gets tied in a neat bow. Those that don’t, I would expect that the rating would suffer.

Cons: There are some far fetched storylines. Most notably, moving in next door to a major Lightning Bottles fan, who has seen signs of Elijah. Also, can a famous man really disappear? I’d say yes, but it would take a lot of money, money that they have, but Jane would need to help with this.

Pros
I think it is quite well written.
The different timelines and the connection between those timelines was well done.
I thought the author did a great job of making me dislike certain characters (Kim), while really feeling for others (Jane)
Definitely nostalgia as this is following the timeline of Nirvana, amongst others. I think the Irish singer was fashioned after Sinead O’Connor, which is another pretty good story.
Definitely realistic in the portrayal of the male frontman and his female support. How the public treated her, the paparazzi, the headlines, all felt accurate. ]]> Review7476743866 Wed, 09 Apr 2025 19:30:00 -0700 /review/show/7476743866 Mike gave 3 stars to One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (Hardcover) by Omar El Akkad
I am going with 3.5 stars but this one I am rounding down.

I don’t think I will say much as this book has created a significant amount of division on here already.
I will say that I agree with many ideas in this book. I also agree with some of the criticisms that have been mentioned regarding the delivery of the book.

It is a short read, and the material is interesting and relevant. Although not a high rating from me, I do recommend it. ]]> Review7467636121 Sun, 06 Apr 2025 12:49:18 -0700 /review/show/7467636121 Mike gave 3 stars to Story of Your Mother (Hardcover) by Chantal Braganza
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of Story Of Your Mother.

For a man, I believe I am emotional, nostalgic, don’t mind a bit of romance and try to understand and care about the other genders world. However, I don’t think this book was meant for me. There were lots of sections about child parent relationships that I could connect with, but, many that are really about mother and child.
The second concern I have with this book is it is quite short. It is 180 IPad pages, which is already short. But, with many, many short chapters and only half a page or less used at the end of each chapter, I can safely call this a novella.

The third concern is the fact that this is a series of essays, that loosely fit together, each chapter was put together in ways that did not seamlessly fit together. In fact, one could say, it was all over the place. I do think she was trying to put together a bunch of seemingly unrelated parts to represent how she felt as someone made up of many parts, but it didn’t totally work.

I will say, this is poetically written, although a number of grammatical and word errors did hurt the delivery at times.
I believe there will be moms who relate to this book, but overall it was not for me. ]]> Review7464821877 Sat, 05 Apr 2025 12:07:46 -0700 /review/show/7464821877 Mike gave 5 stars to Cattail Lane (Paperback) by Fran Kimmel

Thank you to Edelweiss and Simon and Schuster for the advance copy of this book.
I would say in many ways this does get tied up in a neat bow, but not completely. There is some romance in this, but just enough, not too far. There is definitely one prediction that any reader could make that was accurate, but I am okay with that.
Characterization
Near perfect: The father who just found out he has a teenage son was so well written. The teenager attitude, excellent. The different personalities at a care facility was well portrayed.
The reader could really see this playing out in real life.
Storyline
Believable, and relevant. It progresses at a reasonable pace. The ending made sense, not hallmark, rather, each character makes decisions based on their needs in the story.
The length of the book was great, nothing felt like it dragged on.
Emotions
You will feel hopeful, you will feel frustration, you will feel happy (like there is hope in our cynical world), you will be mad and maybe a little sad.

As for the Forest of Reading, I think people will eat this one up, it’s a contender, not just for most top ten lists but for the prize. ]]> Review7463192715 Fri, 04 Apr 2025 19:14:43 -0700 /review/show/7463192715 Mike gave 4 stars to In Exile: Rupture, Reunion, and My Grandmother’s Secret Life (Paperback) by Sadiya Ansari

I found myself thoroughly enjoying the sections about Tahira, even as we were learning about the power a man has in this culture as the eldest son had more say over the family than mom did.
Working through her journey was quite interesting.
As the story turned back to Saniya’s own journey, I found she wrote with her natural journalistic style. While well written, it was not as engaging.
Her theme of considerations of trauma was informative and thought provoking.
I thought she did a good job of being genuine in her self actualization, almost like she was taking the journey at the same time as the reader.
This honesty helped make the book what it is. ]]> ReadStatus9264551957 Wed, 02 Apr 2025 18:22:43 -0700 /review/show/7457939696 Mike wants to read Nero by Conn Iggulden
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