beckykphillips's reviews
362 reviews

I very much enjoyed A Bit Much, a collection of poems from Lyndsay Rush, aka maryoliversdrunkcousin on your social media pages everywhere. The collection is sorted into four categories so you can peruse at your leisure as the mood strikes you. I listened to this as an auidobook and really appreciated Rush's narration of her poems and always truly enjoy experiencing them as they were intended to be read out loud. 

If you enjoy Rush's sardonic sense of humor that also veers into tenderness, I definitely recommend this collection. There were several throughout that stuck with me - including the poem about an engagement ring and how..."the setting is delicate and we should be gentle with it...and f*ck me up if that isn't great relationship advice." Equally lovely are her poems dedicated to celebrating women's accomplishments that are not tied to their partners or children, although there are poems that celebrate that, too. 

Her poems around letting go and her affirmations poem are two that I could use taped above my dresser or on my work desk, motivating, tender, but with a good humor about them. If you need a little lightness in your life, get a copy of this collection. 

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy.

The Naming Song enters us into a world that sounds remarkably like our own, but one that's been changed after something fell from the something tree.  In this world, it is the named versus the nameless, the named attempt to restore order to the world by convening diviners to come up with names provided by the Sayers, while they chase out the nameless from the world. Except, our narrator is an unnamed who is a Courier, responsible for bringing names of things provided by sayers to the world. The Courier soon finds herself on a mission as she tries to make sense of the world as she knows it.

The Naming Song contains a unique world that I keep thinking back to and is so expertly crafted by Jedediah Berry. I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator is absolutely incredible - she really captured me and held me along this ride. She captured so many different voices and her emotions felt like exactly true to what the characters would be feeling throughout the story. The world took me a minute to get my bearings and she helped anchor me. 

While The Naming Song may be billed as a sci-fi/fantasy, it has a dystopian edge to it that I enjoyed.  The number 12 train in the story reminded me of Snowpiercer, with hierarchy present and constant movement. The Black Square also had hints of Station Eleven and its Shakespeare troupe that goes around telling stories so that people remember what happened before and have a connection to the culture despite whatever else may be going on. Of course, the book is so much more than just those connections I made. 

The importance of words, stories, and their meaning and what it means to name a thing is a theme that I'll continue to digest. Although one of the pieces that will stick with me most is how the world in The Naming Song runs on ghosts, as fuel for war machines, or as slaves, who are sometimes forced to continue the work that they did while they were living through their death. 

If you're ready for a world of dystopian adventure with a hint of coming of age and some sci-fi vibes mixed in - this is the book for you and is one of my very favorites of the year. Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy.

In The Courting of Bristol Keats, we meet the titular Bristol, as she works to repair her and her sisters' lives in the small town of Bowskeep after their mother disappeared and their father suddenly died after being hit by a car. Bristol has been receiving letters from someone claiming to be her aunt, although neither of her parents had siblings, and curiosity and poverty get the better of her once the most recent letter promises a rare painting in return for her presence. As you might imagine, the meeting with Bristol's aunt is not as simple as it seemed and she finds herself making a bargain with the Fae to try and help save their world and maybe even find her father. 

I had a good time throughout this book, although the beats of the story will feel pretty familiar to anyone who has been in the fantasy/romance genre for even a little while. I did find myself rather overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters throughout the book. I listened to this as an audiobook and wished I'd had a cast of characters to be able to keep everyone straight. 

We have a host of recruits, who are all folks from the mortal realm who have been recruited into Danu, the area of Elfame where Bristol finds herself. These include Avery, Julia, Hollis, Sashka, and Rose. We have Tyghun, the current king of Danu and eventual love interest of Bristol, and his band of knights including his sister Melisand, her girlfriend and merperson Costa, Cully, Glynniss, Quin and others I know I haven't forgotten. We have the Tyghun's advisors including Eris and Madame Chastain. Tyghun's brother, Cale, has been taken by Cormik, our big bad of the story and leader of an undead army. Additionally, we have the council of Danu including Sorba, a lord who keeps wanting to kill of Bristol, Lady Berrington, Lord Alistair, and Sloan. Not to mention some others that pop up here and there like Fritz, a mysterious ferret shape shifter, King Roderick of one of the other Fae lands, Georgina, his daughter who also happens to be the mayor of Bowskeep, and Lord Fentley, who is Julia's brief love interest. 

The sprawling cast of characters made it tough to understand where the story was going and felt like there were several loose ends that got abandoned throughout - like what's going on with the Council these days? Where are the other kings that weren't Roderick? 

The audiobook narrator does a fantastic job though with a giant cast of characters being able to give a unique voice to each one and I really appreciated her stewardship throughout the book. 

I'll likely check out the next one in this series - unlike some of the other folks, I was actually pleased with how it ended and thought it was a nice change of pace from some of the other books out there that leave you with massive cliffhangers. 

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy of the book.

I can confidently say I have never read anything like The Coiled Serpent before and this collection of sixteen short stories embodies a vibes book where the vibes are both classy and gross. Camilla Grudova's writing is incredible with lush descriptions of all of the different horrors that occur in each story. Even when the stories do not necessarily go into stomach-churning territory, there's always something just a little bit wrong with everyone there. 

The book starts off strong with Through Ceilings and Walls, where a woman ends up on a mysterious island trying to discover what’s going on there. She finds that all of the inhabitants worship The Crown, struggles to figure out the food situation and...somehow the plumbing is all…poop. It’s poop all the way down. Further into the book, in The Green Hat, we meet Angelica who works for a chemist responsible for making a particularly deadly, green poison and get to know the chemist and his motivations better as well.  But perhaps my favorite story was Madame Flora's, both a tonic and a person, who restores menses in a world where women aren't allowed to eat meat or go to the bathroom in public. 

If any of those tastes even begin to pique your interest, I would recommend the book - it made me literally feel sick to my stomach with the descriptions at times, but I couldn't help but keep going. 

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Unnamed Press for the advanced copy.

I am a diehard Parks and Recreation fan, it is my ultimate comfort show and I have watched it countless times, so when I saw Jim O'Heir (Jerry/Larry/Gary)  wrote a book on his experiences while he was on the show I jumped at the chance to get to read it. What you get is a lovely memoir both of his career and experiences in general combined with recollections of Parks and Rec itself. Jim is joined in his memoir by familiar faces like Chris Pratt and Retta, along with folks who were more behind the scenes like Mike Schur and Allison Jones. 

It was really great to get to know Jim better and this book made me want to give him a big old hug. Some of his experiences surrounding the show with being othered really broke me - particularly being left out of the men of Pawnee shoot. Additionally, the fact that both he and Retta weren't in the main credits until the final season was something I'd never noticed before, but I found ridiculous that they weren't included sooner as they were both such important and excellent characters. 

Overall though, you get to learn so much about the family like cast and the ups and downs of being a network show that was constantly on the cusp. Seeing the show come together through Jim's eyes was a unique opportunity and I definitely need to check out his podcast to get even more of his lovely insights. 

My only regret is that my eARC did not include all of the wonderful photos that will be included in the final book. If you're a fan of Parks and Rec and specifically want to learn more about the loveable Jim O'Heir I definitely recommend it. 

Thank you so much to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced copy. 

Without expecting it, this was probably the best self help book I’ve read with actually hopeful and helpful advice. Maybe the best scam was the scams we made along the way. And in this book we get all the scams from Scam Goddess, Laci Mosley. Body scams! Confidence scams! Family Scams! Romance Scams! Both directly from her life and from the public realm. 

I have really enjoyed Scam Goddess the podcast, but did not expect to find myself relating so hard to Laci's people pleasing tendencies at the outset of the book, a theme that repeats itself throughout. She talks about her days as an over-achieving student and how she feels that in order for people to like you, you need to have something to offer them. I had never thought about it that way and that really stuck with me, and is also part of how someone find themselves more likely to get scammed.

While I think it would be incredibly easy to become cynical in the face of scams, Laci advocates for the exact opposite. Empahsizing throughout that while "This book is about how to spot scams, but it's not about becoming cynical to the world, it's not about turning away from an opportunity to pay it forward...Everything is a scam, but not everyone is a scammer. Be vigilant, but don't close yourself off from the world and the people in it." 

I had the distinct pleasure of listening to this as an audiobook and obviously Laci is an amazing narrator of her own book. I love her as a podcast host and she does not disappoint in reading her own memoir either. 

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Hachette Audio for the advanced copy of the audiobook.

It had been far too long since I'd read a Chuck Palahniuk novel and Shock Induction reminded me that I have been missing out on his unique and incisive writing style. 

Shock Induction explores a phenomenon where incredibly bright teens are committing suicide at an alarming rate, and we soon find out the culprit behind this is an organization called Greener Pastures, that auctions teens off to the highest bidder to become influential members of society at the highest levels. We follow Sam Deel and Garson Stavros down the rabbit hole as they are inducted into this world. Along the way, Palahniuk provides us excerpts from A Guide to Greener Pastures, full of stories of families and their efforts to get into the institution, and we read testimony about the ESE program, a project designed to get more teens literate by infusing books with different manners of substances so that you directly experience what happens in the book. These interludes are all in the name of Shock Induction. 

Despite the fact that I'm not entirely sure I understood the whole book, I was down for the ride. I found myself googling items from the book like "Jim Carrey syphilis" and "Self-Amputation of Penis and Tongue after use of Angel’s Trumpet" two things I was rather horrified to find were entirely true, but I should not have been surprised.  I was really invested in Sam's journey throughout the book and why she had been selected to go Greener Pastures. I also very much appreciated the broader critique of the commodification of every single thing and experience. 

Overall, I definitely recommend the book - if you've enjoyed Chuck Palahniuk's writing before, you'll feel right at home. 

I was very excited about the premise of this one as I really enjoy romantasy and especially loved the idea of revisiting a world similar to the Crowns of Nyaxia series. Unfortunately though, this just didn't work for me - I felt like I was getting a firehose of tropes right off the bat. We have a hundred years games for peace where humans fight to impress the vampires that have taken over, a main character who only remembers 5 years of her life, and is trapped in a brothel. The main characters, Estrella and Nyght, were a bit too insta-love and on top of that, we Nyght saying "Who did this to you?" within the first 5% of the book. 

I will say, the duet narration was a real treat - both narrators did a great job and I appreciated having each one come in and out as different characters spoke. In the end though, it just wasn't enough to keep me engaged and stay the course. 

Thanks very much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy.

I made the mistake of starting The Night Guest prior to trying to wind down for the evening and did not want to put this book down. The Night Guest hooked me in with Iðunn's first trip to the doctor to try and figure out why she is constantly exhausted and bruised. The initial encounter with the doctor and her the desire understand what's wrong *and* have it be easily fixable from a doctor is highly relatable as someone with a chronic illness. Similarly relatable was the results inevitably coming back normal and well meaning friends and acquaintances try to provide advice, including all of the alternative medicines and essential oils to try to fix you. 

As the mystery with Iðunn's illness unfolds, we get hints into what is going on - her fitness tracker has her at 40,000 steps and when she eventually enables the GPS, she finds she's heading to the same place each night. Along the way, we meet her married coworker and ex-lover, Stefan, her dead sister's boyfriend, and plenty of neighborhood cats. 

I really enjoyed the novel overall - it's very tightly written, and the increase in Iðunn's desperation gets more and more evident by the single line entries that we get within the book. I could feel the intensity ratchet up, and the writing was further animated by the incredible narrator of The Night Guest, Mary Robinette Kowal. Mary's ability to inhabit the emotional state of Iðunn was fantastic, and I also really appreciated having her pronunciations of Icelandic names so that I could better understand how to say everything myself. 

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me an advanced copy of the audiobook. 

It's the end of the world and I feel fine about Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend. We follow Danny Foster and his girlfriend Mara as they go for a two week long getaway on a newly-developed resort on a small island in the Bahamas. But, things quickly unravel when the sun appears to explode, encasing the entire island in darkness, cutting the resort off from communications, and leaving everyone to fend for themselves as the island begins to get colder and colder. 

There is plenty to like about the book, the quips on masculinity and how men are supposed to act were good commentary throughout the novel and I liked seeing Danny come into himself as the book progressed. Even small things like having Mara worry about not having travel insurance when the sun explodes felt very real. Having the initial villain be an MLM owning, God-Fearing exercise queen was delicious. However, I couldn't shake the feeling that everything came off the rails too quickly and spiraled faster than made sense as I was reading. The situations the characters find themselves in within 24 hours of the sun dying were absurd, and only increased in tragedy as the book continues. The rapid descent into fascism had the bells in my head ringing about the the Stanford Prison Experiment, and turns out I was not so far off in the end. 

I listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator, Stephen R. Thorne, did such a wonderful job that I will absolutely be seeking out other books that he reads. Even if ZSDNR was disappointing, I was delighted to find a narrator who really brought the story to life and made every character feel real with their unique voice. 

Thank you very much to NetGalley and RB Media for the advanced copy.