emmiemerereads's reviews
190 reviews

This book came to me at the perfect time, for a number of reasons. (1) I am a leader with staff who undoubtedly are feeling burned out, (2) One of my workplace goals this year is my own leadership development, and (3) Duh, it's a book; there's never a wrong time!

The Coaching Through Burnout book was born from a course the author taught during COVID, which makes so much sense. The pandemic most certainly increased workplace burnout across the board. Working for a public PK-12 school district, I can attest to its impact, which I'm not sure we ever will recover from. I could go on and on about all the reasons my team is feeling burned out (being asked to do more with less, feeling disrespected and under appreciated, etc.) but what you want to know is, how will this book help me? 

The book gave me much of what I was hoping for - practical strategies to help move them through these challenges, and also keep myself out of the burn zone. I took pages and pages (and pages) of notes, some with questions that were answered as I read through, and some that I need to do more research on. I so appreciated the at-home or in-office exercises Anderson-Turner offers, as well as the guided questions for reflection after.

Her writing isn't preachy or there to make anyone feel bad. Instead, she offers real-life examples and anecdotes, and thoughtful advice on being a leader your team can lean on. I especially connected to the parts focusing on how doing so not just makes someone a better leader, but by taking some pressure off themself, stops that leader from feeling burned out.

I'd definitely recommend this to anyone in a leadership role. If you're lucky enough to read it before your staff are in burnout territory, it will definitely help you to see the signs and stop it from happening altogether.

I was gifted a free digital copy by Love Books Tours. All opinions are my own.

An easy but wonderful reimagining of a number of myths and folklore, plus three new tales. I loved reading about these amazing women and how love tied into their stories. It wasn’t the love stories that defined them, and in fact I’d say each of them defined their romances. While at times some of the women were more insecure or unsure about their lives or even themselves, their beautifully told tales saw them grow into strong, autonomous women.
Read the book and stay for the author’s notes for insight into the myths and folktales, as well as her inspirations for each.

The Art Thief is the true story of Stéphane Bréitwieser, who stole hundreds of pieces of art valued at more than $2 billion. He never sold a piece, and never intended to, instead amassing the collection to display in his own home.

I put this book off because I wasn’t in a place to commit to a nonfiction story about a guy stealing artwork. Oops, my bad because this book was so good, read like fiction, and I was hooked from the start. 

Credit to author Michael Finkel for writing such an immersive narrative. At times I had to remind myself this was nonfiction. Finkel’s writing was easy, descriptive, and engaging. The book is a mix of quotes from Bréitwieser, interviews with psychologists, and accounts based on police and court statements. 

I have probably a basic appreciation of art. I’m certainly not an art aficionado and I’ve never thought about or looked at art the way Bréitwieser must have. But reading this makes me want to revisit that approach and get to a museum stat!

This story is fascinating and the book was an easy five stars for me.

I knew this would be a five-star read from the start. I loved every second of reading, couldn't wait to find out what would happen to each character, and at the same time didn't want their stories to end.
The Liberty Scarf is broken up into three parts, each written by a different author. While the three authors have different writing styles and you can tell it wasn't written as one flowing story, the three parts absolutely blend together.
The three parts are concurrent-ish, taking place mostly in London and France from about 1915-1918 during World War I. Part I, Iris is a burgeoning fashion designer stuck working in the backrooms for the Liberty of London department store. She meet and falls in love with Rex, who is called back to the war. Iris designs a scarf, in which she includes the words to an Emily Dickinson poem they shared. Their story ends with a will they-won't they find their way back to each other.
Part II is Genevieve, a French-Canadian by way of America, who works as a telephone operator for the U.S. Army. En route to France, Genevieve has a stop in London, and while at Liberty of London meets Maxime, a pilot with the French army. Maxime gifts her a Liberty scarf (duh, designed by Iris!) and they are separated by their duties to the war. Later in France and caught in an air raid, Genevieve comes upon a soldier/violin player hit in the arm. She uses her scarf as a tourniquet with the hope it will save his life.
Part III goes back to begin before the war where we separately meet Belgian nurse Clara, and French violinist Roman, who serves the Belgian army as a member of its orchestra. The two meet when Clara is working as a nurse at a hospital for injured servicemen and Roman is a patient. The two fall in love and are separated when Roman is called back. We're then taken to Roman being caught in an attack where he is hurt and a stranger ties her scarf around his arm to save him. 
Thank goodness we're given an epilogue where we learn the fates of the characters. Trying to keep this spoiler free so I won't say any more but it's a nice circling back to each of the women and the scarf that made its way to each of them.
This book features three strong, independent women at a time when that was not the norm. Fighting against societal standards and expectations, each woman paved her own path. Iris, Genevieve and Clara all had women BFFs who also were awesome in their own rights. While blended together as one, each of these stories had enough depth to be their own book. I would have loved more of some of the supporting characters, but understand why those pieces had to be shortened.
The stories nicely carried through themes of the beauty of, and power in art - whether through design, fashion, architecture or music. I loved the idea of one scarf touching (literally and figuratively!) each of the characters, and it definitely makes you think about how we all are connected.
I've never read from any of these authors before but absolutely will seek out more from each of them. I appreciated that the author's notes indicated which book part each author wrote, so depending on which section the reader connected to the most, you can favor that author.

Too scattered. The writing is all over the place

Based on the true story of Alma Pihl, the only female jewelry designer at the House of Fabergé, The Fabergé Girl takes place at the height of the Russian Revolution. The book is as much a story about class warfare and social uprising as it is about the beauty of and in art, and the determination of one woman to stand up for herself and prove a woman’s worth.

In the book, Alma is a woman ahead of her time. A talented artist, she fights her way in to the prestigious House of Fabergé, going against her family and social patriarchy.

Ina Christova’s writing is lovely and the imagery was outstanding. I couldn’t get enough of the descriptions of Alma’s art and the Fabergé creations. Definite themes around the beauty of art, less so subjectivity and more so (I think) in context of wealth and access.

I was fascinated with the chapters detailing the Russian Revolution and wish I knew more about it. I had no idea there was a class war with such violence against the people. It definitely piqued my interest in the topic and made me want to learn more.

A key part of the book is the public fear, pursuit and judgement of witches or possessed women, and the role of the church. It’s written that Alma has what I’d describe as spells, where she sees visions or scenes and her body shakes, eyes wide open, etc. The fear of these witch hunts drove much of the storyline but seemed a bit unfinished and her magic was explained away too quickly for me.

I have no idea how much of the book is true to Alma’s life as there is nothing at the end or in an author’s note expounding on the history or the titular character. I also was hoping there would be details on the reality of the witch hunts, and at least some historical context around the Revolution. All of this can be researched but I would have loved to have heard directly from the author on these pieces and her experience writing it.

Lastly, both the digital copy I was provided and the one available on kindle unlimited were awful quality and difficult to read. However I’ve seen pics from folks with the hard copy and it is STUNNING. If you can get your hands on a physical book, you’re much better off.

I was gifted a digital copy by Love Books Tours. Opinions are my own.

I love a good Paris book and this is definitely one! With her teenage daughter Eloise, Coco moves from London back home to Paris. Coco has left her boyfriend and business partner after something bad went down with the business (yes, you'll find out what that was later on!). She finds herself in a bookshop owned by the outlandish Valerie, who hires Coco to work at the shop. Coco takes on the responsibility of running the shop's book club, and we're introduced to a fun cast of supporting characters. Among the group is Henri, who butts heads with Coco right from the start but provides for fun interactions.

I had just recently read and enjoyed Rebecca Raisin's "Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel" so I was for sure going to read this one. After joking on the author's instagram that I was denied the book on NetGalley, she reached out and sent me a digital copy. 

A mostly lighthearted, fun read, the book has a few times with more down tones - but never so much that it brought the vibe down. There's a twist involving Eloise that I 100 percent saw coming but that didn't take away my enjoyment of the story. Mostly I just thought this was a fun book and found myself smiling throughout. The book club members were fantastic, and I laughed out loud at their interactions. I really loved that some of the narrative was actually Coco getting lost in her own thoughts; super smart and not something we see a lot of. 

I really enjoyed the callback to Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel. Done so that if you haven't read that book, you won't be miss anything, but certainly a little bonus if you have read it.