midwifereading's reviews
817 reviews

It's been a long time since I cried for the sole reason that a book was over. Simply because I could have kept reading it forever. I cried because I can't read it for the first time, ever again. I do want to reread it at some point, certainly.

This book is literature at its best. Rich without being stuffy. Wordy without being grandiloquent. Slow without dragging. Dramatic without flair. 

How we all cringe now at the phrase, "strong female character." Helen and Ester are the types of female characters this old tired phrase was meant to describe. They give that descriptor new life.

One is a 64-year-old college professor on the verge of forced retirement, living with a debilitating illness in the year 2000. In 1665, we have the other: a young woman who has lost everything, and is willing to pay the required price just to think, read, and write. 

Neither are flashy. Neither lead throngs of followers, defying all conventions of their society. Neither are loud or brazen. Neither embodies fully the image that comes to mind when we think of the "strong female character." Not at the surface, anyway. You have to dig and wait patiently to see their strength.

Neither one is able to live out her full dream. Not the way Hollywood might portray it. Instead, both walk quietly the path before their feet with intelligence, deliberate action, and acceptance of the consequences. The stories parallel each other in ways I didn't expect. It's both more subtle and more intricate than you might think.

If you love, and I mean LOVE, the written word for its own sake, this book might be for you. It's almost entirely character driven. Though it moves very slowly, the pace feels right. If it moved faster, it would feel far less satisfying, I think. The title says it all. It's weighty. And so worth carrying!

I love Philip Yancey, guys. While I don't subscribe to everything he writes, I can't deny how helpful and encouraging his books are. 

This is not a how-to manual, but it does contain a lot of insight and wisdom about the Christian practice of prayer. It's accessible, grace-filled, and humble. It's also an easy read, but doesn't oversimplify. There are no easy answers, but quite a lot of food for thought and reassurance for the everyday believer.

This book is for normal people. 

I can't honestly say I liked it, but I definitely didn't hate it. It was, overall, okay. And truly, pretty good for a debut novel. But, just saying that is unhelpful if you're trying to decide whether to pick it up or not.

First, what I appreciated. I always appreciate stories from the female perspective, especially when it comes to the Bible and history. I also thought the language, cadence, and tone of the writing felt suited to the ancient time frame. It felt mindful and true to the time. I also enjoyed the flashbacks of life in Eden, and the imagining of how that might have looked. The portrayal of ancient life and culture was interesting and added welcome detail to the setting, which made it easy to visualize while I was reading.

The conflict between Cain and Abel was well done. It actually drew a good arc culminating in Abel's murder and Cain's punishment. I thought that setup worked well, and the plotline held up.

However, as biblical fiction goes, this isn't great. A blurb on the cover compares Eve to The Red Tent. The two are nowhere near the same! The latter is a well researched, thoroughly fleshed out work that leaves the biblical narrative behind for most of the book in favor of telling one woman's story. I had problems with that one too, but it's a worthy book that stands on its own quite well.

The former stays too close to the biblical narrative and reimagines it to reflect the author's own questions and doubts. I have no idea what her faith background is, but there are many times in which the story is somewhat sacrificed for lessons or questions the author is trying to get across. It's not quite on the nose, but it comes close. 

The timeline makes no sense. The entire main plot takes place over a summer, during which an entire city is built! A Sumerian-adjacent people all show up (essentially) in one day and build a city complete with a temple, a marketplace, royalty, and a long-standing, ready-made culture. No. Just...no.

Not one of the characters is likeable or relatable. Not. One. Granted, the chaos and struggle of their lives after the Garden has a believable, rough-around-the-edges feel that makes sense and really could have become a good foundation, but instead feels disconnected. I had high hopes, knowing that the story is being told from the female perspective, but it turns out that Eve and her daughters are simply female stereotypes with very little complexity. 

Complexity was valiantly attempted, as each woman/girl wrestled with their own questions, but not one of them ever really acted like an actual human with character and principles. Instead, they each were unrealistically isolated, in spite of the communal living and culture. Each one an island unto herself with very little relationship to the others. It makes little sense.

Dara, the six year old, was by far the most believable. Elliott did an excellent job portraying a little girl's perspective, actually. Her voice was the most authentic of the four. 

Eve was kind of a horrible person, which really bothered me. Completely immature, unlikeable, selfish, self-centered, and ridiculous. I could never be friends with someone like her. 

The birth scenes, as usual, were unrealistic and awful. I kind of just ignored those.

Then there's the incest, normalized. Sigh...I hoped the author's note might explain her reasoning for the relationship between Naava and Cain (and the hinted chemistry between Aya and Abel), but she doesn't even mention it. Granted, a lot of people who believe in the Bible believe that incest was the only way humanity could have multiplied in the early days, with the assumption that the gene pool was wide and deep enough at the time to support it. But - a whole city of people show up, and brother and sister still...? Was incest really taken for granted at the time? I don't actually know, but there should have been a historical note about it.

Content warning: there is some non-graphic sexual content that is almost Discovery channelish. It's not titillating or gratuitous, but more practical and matter-of-fact. For example, Adam and Eve watch the animals and try to learn from them...😳 Kinda cringey. 

To end on a high note, I do think Elliott wrote a decent first book. I think, if she learns to research better, and plot things out better, she could really produce some good stories!

 I can't honestly say I liked it, but I definitely didn't hate it. It was, overall, okay. And truly, pretty good for a debut novel. But, just saying that is unhelpful if you're trying to decide whether to pick it up or not.

First, what I appreciated. I always appreciate stories from the female perspective, especially when it comes to the Bible and history. I also thought the language, cadence, and tone of the writing felt suited to the ancient time frame. It felt mindful and true to the time. I also enjoyed the flashbacks of life in Eden, and the imagining of how that might have looked. The portrayal of ancient life and culture was interesting and added welcome detail to the setting, which made it easy to visualize while I was reading.

The conflict between Cain and Abel was well done. It actually drew a good arc culminating in Abel's murder and Cain's punishment. I thought that setup worked well, and the plotline held up.

However, as biblical fiction goes, this isn't great. A blurb on the cover compares <i>Eve</i> to <i>The Red Tent</i>. The two are nowhere near the same! The latter is a well researched, thoroughly fleshed out work that leaves the biblical narrative behind for most of the book in favor of telling one woman's story. I had problems with that one too, but it's a worthy book that stands on its own quite well.

The former stays too close to the biblical narrative and reimagines it to reflect the author's own questions and doubts. I have no idea what her faith background is, but there are many times in which the story is somewhat sacrificed for lessons or questions the author is trying to get across. It's not quite on the nose, but it comes close. 

The timeline makes no sense. The entire main plot takes place over a summer, during which an entire city is built! A Sumerian-adjacent people all show up (essentially) in one day and build a city complete with a temple, a marketplace, royalty, and a long-standing, ready-made culture. No. Just...no.

Not one of the characters is likeable or relatable. Not. One. Granted, the chaos and struggle of their lives after the Garden has a believable, rough-around-the-edges feel that makes sense and really could have become a good foundation, but instead feels disconnected. I had high hopes, knowing that the story is being told from the female perspective, but it turns out that Eve and her daughters are simply female stereotypes with very little complexity. 

Complexity was valiantly attempted, as each woman/girl wrestled with their own questions, but not one of them ever really acted like an actual human with character and principles. Instead, they each were unrealistically isolated, in spite of the communal living and culture. Each one an island unto herself with very little relationship to the others. It makes little sense.

Dara, the six year old, was by far the most believable. Elliott did an excellent job portraying a little girl's perspective, actually. Her voice was the most authentic of the four. 

Eve was kind of a horrible person, which really bothered me. Completely immature, unlikeable, selfish, self-centered, and ridiculous. I could never be friends with someone like her. 

The birth scenes, as usual, were unrealistic and awful. I kind of just ignored those.

Then there's the incest, normalized. Sigh...I hoped the author's note might explain her reasoning for the relationship between Naava and Cain (and the hinted chemistry between Aya and Abel), but she doesn't even mention it. Granted, a lot of people who believe in the Bible believe that incest was the only way humanity could have multiplied in the early days, with the assumption that the gene pool was wide and deep enough at the time to support it. But - a whole city of people show up, and brother and sister still...? Was incest really taken for granted at the time? I don't actually know, but there should have been a historical note about it.

Content warning: there is some non-graphic sexual content that is almost Discovery channelish. It's not titillating or gratuitous, but more practical and matter-of-fact. For example, Adam and Eve watch the animals and try to learn from them...😳 Kinda cringey. 

To end on a high note, I do think Elliott wrote a decent first book. I think, if she learns to research better, and plot things out better, she could really produce some good stories!

I was right. From the first page, I knew this would end up as a four-star read for me. If I hadn't been interrupted by a birth and the need to sleep, I would have finished it in one sitting.

Haunting, flowery, vivid, beautiful, tense, sad, and unexpected, The Hazel Wood is everything a real fairy tale should be. Everything.

It's a bittersweet story flecked with horror and light. All at once hopeful and terrible, it's the kind of mixed-up that reflects real life and dreams and all the things we long for and fear.

It belongs in the same tanks as Coraline and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. One foot on Earth, the other among the fae.

I loved it.

I enjoyed this overview of the English language! I'm sure some of the statistical information is outdated, since it was published in 1990, but it's still well worth reading! I appreciate my mother tongue more than I have before. 

Bryson can be a little verbose at times, but overall, I found this a pretty casual read. It's well-written, and a bit academic, though not out of the realm of the average person with a curiosity to know more about English. 

I definitely had to look up a few words, but this made me feel like I was actually learning something! (Mainly, I learned how much I don't know about English!)

**some spoiler-ish talk**

It took me two weeks to read this. I don't know how much of it was because of its slow pace, or because I have had an especially busy couple of work weeks. (It's raining babies here, y'all.) 

Normally, a book people describe as slow will turn out to be one that I really enjoy, but this one didn't really work for me. I never had an urge to DNF it, but I also rarely felt urgently compelled to pick it up.

Ann Patchett's writing is superb, lyrical, and descriptive. Her characters have depth, and the relationships are especially complex and honest. The whole hostage/terrorist dynamic adds a layer that you are invited to forget right alongside each character, only to have stark reminders creep up on you. You just know this can't end well. But you lose sight of that in the hope that, somehow, against the odds, it will turn out okay.

It doesn't.

And the epilogue felt unreal and unbelievable to me, though I suppose it makes some sense. 

I desperately wanted a happy ending for this story, but all we're given is bittersweet at best. I don't always need a happy ending, by any means, but I did this time. 

The slow, melancholy pace is shot through with bright glimpses of hope, but you know, all along, it's not true hope. I almost wished everyone had died, so it's properly tragic. That would have been easier to swallow for me personally.

I can see why Patchett is a favorite author, and her acclaim is well-deserved! Yet, I don't know that she's right for me. Anything less than five stars feels wrong, objectively speaking, but since my ratings are exclusively based on how the book was for me personally, I can't rate it higher than I have.

Overall, I liked this one well enough. I appreciated the glimpse into Maud's life (I didn't know she went by Maud), her personality, her goals and ambitions, and her heartbreak. I felt I could know this favorite author of mine better because of it.

There were times I felt the author reaching for L.M. Montgomery-esque descriptions, but couldn't quite get there. Especially the passages where Maud wonders what Anne would do, and "hears" Anne's voice. I found myself cringing. None of those felt Anne-ish to me, really. I those would have been better left out.

It also jumps around the timeline in confusing ways that I don't think served the story as well as something more straightforward would have. 

Overall, it's got the bones of something good, but not as much flesh and blood to fill it out. I think I should pick up an actual biography instead.