Sarah Mac > Recent Status Updates

This is the only book on my TBR that’s part of the new challenge. I’m not really invested tbh, so I’ll probably chip away at it in between books I’m more excited about.

I’ve looked at a couple threads where people rank the books of The Expanse, and it shocks me that a lot of people put Abaddon’s Gate above Cibola Burns. I find the non-Holden perspectives in this book to be so much more compelling/interesting. Murtry and Baja in particular seem believable considering the landscape and story progression.

I’m ready for this book to be over. There was a point exactly at the 50% mark where I said to myself “oh the book is ending” and I should have DNF’ed it when I saw there were 6hrs left. This isn’t a bad book by any means, it just isn’t for me. I actually find it to be rather boring, I don’t care about any of the characters, and the stakes have never been believable.

Weirdly trends more lit-fic than sci-fi, which isn’t exactly my preference.

I actually think I would prefer to read a non-fiction book about reform and residential schools.

Maybe this is a hot take, but I don’t need/want this topic to be fictionalized. I think there can be some merits to making horrible things more palatable, but I personally rather hear the details.

Only reading books with yellow covers apparently.

I don’t think I’m the audience for this book but I am going to finish reading it. It’s not bad, it’s just not for me. Tbh it might be the WWI setting, the book is very atmospheric but I think I was picturing more of a fantasy bend.

So, not so funny story… An ex-roommate of mine pretended to be Native. Without going into doxxing level detail (for me, not them), this was a big news story in my city. They massively profited off of pretending to be Native… Anyways, our friendship ended about a year before we stopped living together. I can’t help but wonder if they rationalized their actions the same way June continues to throughout the book.

Vera Wong, master of deflecting anything and everything under the sun.

I’m sorry, but how in the actual hell has she managed to survive on maybe 26k a year? And now adding a baby to the mix?? There’s no way.

The Guncle was one of my favorite reads of 2024 and I’m sad to say that this book is missing the same charm.

The male narrator is awful, he’s trying too hard and ends every phrase with -uhh.

Actively trying to finish/catch up on some series. There’s so many fantasy/science fiction books that people rave about that I want to start, but if I do I know I’ll never finish the old ones or the new ones. I’ve been reading way too many standalones lately because I’m avoiding picking up more series.

For the record, I’ve never seen this movie.

The ending was very unexpected and I don’t know what to make of it. I had no inkling of the curve ball that was thrown in the last hour of the audiobook. Wut.

I think this book just isn’t for me… falls into the category of it’s not bad, I just don’t care.

Another book I’ve had on hold since last year. Not sure what I think so far. For some reason I thought this book would trend more sci-fi over lit-fic, but it’s definitely the opposite.

Leaving this unrated for awhile. Overall, I found the book to be pretty disappointing, which is a shame since Connie undoubtably had a big impact on media for women and women of color. Sad. Had this book on hold since November of last year.

I’m going to be really honest here, the narration is incredibly stilted. Turns out being a reporter/journalist does not translate into book writing/narrating in Connie Chung’s case. This book is largely a ‘tell not show’ chain of events throughout Connie’s career and often lacks self reflection.

Highly recommend. Best fantasy book I’ve read in a while. In my opinion of course.

Started a new book purely because I need to finish Blood Over Bright Haven in one listen uninterrupted.

I need to read more fantasy books.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s really good and I’m enjoying myself, but I can’t help but feel that the themes of this book would be more impactful if there weren’t hints of romance.

Going into this book, I thought I knew a lot about the Golden State Killer because of the absurd amount of true crime podcasts I used to listen to, but now I realize exactly how superficial my knowledge is. There’s so many fine details in this book that I’ve never heard before.