The Creative's Mind: How Exceptional Artists Think, Make, and Perform by Jim Afremow; Phil White ⭐⭐⭐ Some of the chapters feel like they were written by publicists. I thought there would be a bit more about overcoming challenges and less gushing. The recaps at the end of each chapter felt like too much and were redundant and reductive. I think my favorite chapter was on Erik Larson, author of narrative nonfiction. There were some interesting tidbits but there was a ton of repetition.
Far and Away by Amy Poeppel - I really liked The Sweet Spot and loved Musical Chairs by this author, so I was ready for some madcap adventures. But this book I had trouble enjoying - some parts were funny, but I a lot of time annoyed by the characters’ behaviors rather than charmed by them. Around 75% in, it finally started to pull things together and that last part I really enjoyed, so the experience overall ended up feeling mixed.
One Final Turn (Electra McDonnell #5) by Ashley Weaver ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The only reason I didn't finish this sooner was because I was "saving" it. I enjoyed the change of setting with most of the book taking place in Portugal. I also appreciated how the action kept going through most of the book and I thought "how will they resolve these storylines in time" but it did so and provided the satisfying ending I wanted. I will be exploring the author's backlist and I hope she will create more stories with characters that I enjoy as much as these. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King - This is a tough one for me to review as reading this was a really mixed experience for me. I liked the premise and the settings, but as the book went on it started to drag for me. I became somewhat tired of the two younger characters. I wanted more to be offered from Meng's perspective which was only brought forward near the end and was too brief. I thought the total lack of explanation for Monica's mother's behavior was really odd, and didn't really understand her father at all either. I also thought too much time was spent on repeatedly describing the physical nature of the Reforging process which felt like an unnecessary and unpleasant detail to repeat over and over. There were aspects of this book I really enjoyed but overall my experience was frustrating. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
