Tanya Lisle

  • I’ve been not finishing a lot of books lately. It’s been a rough reading period for me, but I finally picked up something I was able to finish. In one day, at that! It’s been absolutely ages since I’ve been able to do that with something fiction.

    The story follows Abby and Gretchen, best friends in very different tax brackets at a prestigious private school. One weekend while trying acid for the first time, Gretchen disappears into the woods and is changed when she comes back. At first it seems like she’s dying before Abby’s eyes as she crumbles and talks about the feeling of hands and voices, leading Abby to think she was assaulted. When she suddenly returns to school looking like nothing ever happened, more confident and with a very different edge, Abby comes to realize that she’s been possessed and needs to get her friend back from the demon that’s inhabiting her body.

    The story is very late 80s-early 90s, which made it a lot of fun. There was a lot of setup that would have been cut from more modern stories to make it tighter and slicker, but I appreciated getting the background of everything that went into the end of it and understanding where things came from and why some things had more effect than others.

    At the same time, it can feel very slow at the start. It goes through Abby and Gretchen’s whole friendship and their arcs from when they first met to where they are now in grade 10, most of which has nothing to do with possession or anything that might imply the crux of the story that is to come. I appreciated it in the end, but while I was reading I was wondering when things would pick up.

    Overall, though, I really enjoyed it. It’s a pretty quick read, and once it gets going it’s really engaging. I enjoyed watching as things twisted, and appreciated watching as Abby and Gretchen had their friendship strained and really pushed past its limits. I do love a good story about friends, so I really enjoyed it.

    Amazon

  • As someone who is deeply burnt out at their current job, I’ve been taking a lot of random recommendations from people around books about burnout. I’m not really sure what I’m looking to get out of them yet, but something about having the resources makes me feel a lot better.

    Can’t Even is mostly an exploration around how burnout happens for the millennial generation, from being raised as a resume to get a good job and be a productive member of society to how jobs have continued to get worse as a result of companies investing less in their workforce and more in ensuring optimum productivity. I was actually a little surprised there was no reference to the Netflix book in here, because that would have been a fantastic parallel in some areas, but this author is originally from Buzzfeed which has it’s own set of issues.

    There are no real answers about what to do about it, only an explanation of why it’s happening, which I found frustrating at first but as I’ve sat with it I think it’s better that it doesn’t. I’ve been very irritated by the empty solutions and instead looking at the causes gives a bit more understanding that there may not really be a solution on an individual level.

    Overall, not a bad read! Not exactly optimistic and there’s a few takes that I don’t necessarily agree with throughout, but I enjoyed it as a read, especially at this point in my life.

    Amazon

  • Libby is really the only thing that is keeping me reading these days, I swear. The random books that come in seem to know just when I need something, and this one came in right as I was taking some time off of work because, well, I need the time off. And I needed a pretty calm read.

    The book follows two people: August and Emery. August in returning to the island after many years to bury his mother, but his return comes with the resurgence of all of the reasons he left. He was accused of murdering a friend in the midst of a fire and essentially run off the island, leaving Emery behind to continue living in a place that feels like it lives in stasis. But in the short time August is there to finish what he needs before leaving forever, the past comes back in strange ways and the truth of the mystery behind that death comes to light.

    It’s a very calm and atmospheric read, and one that was really hard to place in terms of genre. While there’s implied magic in some of the characters, it’s never really clear until the end one way or another whether it is actually a thing in the world. And while there’s the feeling of it being a murder mystery or some idea of a gothic horror, nothing really stands out in terms of how the story was told or where it ended up to really understand what I should be expecting.

    And really, the atmosphere was probably the best thing about the book. The characters never grow or change ((Which is expected in some genres, which is why the genre is throwing me)) only reveal more information. There were no surprises until the end when you get the definitive answer about whether or not magic is real and ultimately it feels more like the story ends than concludes. It’s a bit disappointing in that there is no feeling that there’s any justice or finality to what happened, only that everyone walked away to never speak of it again.

    Overall, it was mostly an okay read. It was what I needed for the time, something calm that didn’t ask too much in terms of complicated plots or characters. The perspective shifts threw me at first, but once I got used to it, it was a pretty chill book with a disappointing ending.

    Amazon

  • I’ve been having a rough time of things, so reading hasn’t been happening as much as I’d like. But I did get one of my holds in and got it finished before I had to turn it back in, so let’s see what I decided I wanted to check out several months ago.

    The book follows Jess, a kid who comes from a book smuggling family who has the opportunity to get into the Library of Alexandria where he can better help his family smuggle books. While there, he uncovers more about what it takes to be a part of the library, and some of the darker aspects of how the library works to keep their secrets and prevent the public from access to the information within.

    The world is one that took me a bit to understand. At first I thought it was meant to be a straight alternate history where the Library of Alexandria did not burn but had instead been privatized, but there’s a lot of subtle and not so subtle magical elements in it that threw me off. It’s revealed slowly and very matter of factually, where Jess is not entirely new to the world so a lot of information is presented much more as fact than something that is explained. Which, honestly, I really like and once I got it I was in.

    The story gets a lot darker than I expected from this story about a bunch of kids in a school to pursue their ambitions to this much more political game that is being played with them as pawns. While Jess is bright and able to eventually recognize what’s happening, it’s clear that he’s not in a place to actually do anything about it. At least, not in this book.

    Overall, I really enjoyed it. The pacing was quick and, once I got a better understanding of the world, I was in and I really enjoyed watching the story unfold. There’s a lot of interesting characters besides Jess and they all feel very well rounded, each with their own mysteries that I was excited to uncover. Definitely worth the read!

    Amazon

  • I had been having a rough time of things, so I just needed to read something. Anything that was available. none of my holds had come in and I was not able to get into anything that was in my digital purchases TBR, so to the library and picking something at random!

    Normally I would talk a little about what the book was about, and there was a story to this book, but I cannot do that. I am aware that there is a character named Jane, that a girl named Lily went missing, and that there is an asylum with a bunch of people in it, but I cannot tell you much more than that. I cannot remember this book at all, and I just finished it last night.

    Some of it is likely due to the aforementioned inability to get into anything, ((And health issues flaring up again, yay brain problems)) but also some of it is the framing device that made it hard to get attached to anything happening. The story is told through the perspective of a bunch of ghosts that are watching Jane as she goes about her life, which made her story feel like it was so distant from what I was supposed to be paying attention to. Even though Jane was the throughline, I never felt like I was supposed to be paying attention to her so much as the characters in the foreground, and those characters did not stay on topic.

    I think this was ultimately just not for me. I’ve never had a book vanish from my mind so quickly after reading it and, though the prose did have a nice quality to it, I think it was just not a good match for what I was looking for.

    Amazon

  • Today in books I added and completely forgot about, I have a feeling I thought this was going to be another book like How to be Everything. And it kind of was, but mostly was not.

    Range is an argument for and a series of stories about not specializing and instead getting a broader background in terms of education and experiences. Each chapter takes a slightly different perspective on how either specialization doesn’t provide the insight that might be required to accomplish some big endeavour and gives them a limited view, or how people with very wide and varied background were able to bring perspectives that were able to create something great.

    I thought it was a really interesting read. As someone who has often been in work situations as the only one who has a broader background, it’s come in handy and it’s interesting to see how that can be applied much more broadly to wider applications. It’s good to see that this personal experience appears to be not so isolated to just myself.

    Overall, I thought it was a really interesting read. Definitely worth checking out if you have some time, and especially if you’re feeling like you’re meandering in life.

    AMAZON

  • You know when you pick up a book that was recommended as a business book because you tried to read something fictional and you just couldn’t get into it, but it turns out that business book is actually just a whole allegory told as the story of penguins? Yeah, I didn’t either.

    The book follows a group of penguins as they discover that the iceberg they call home may not survive the winter. It starts with one, Fred, who finds the problem, and then spirals as he finds people to help figure out a solution to the problem, resulting int he penguins changing their whole way of life as they get buy in from more and more of the colony and deal with the detractors. And the whole thing is an allegory for how to approach change management within a company.

    I thought it was fantastic, honestly. Not everything is going to translate one to one to an actual organization and it does paint a somewhat ideal version of how things could end up going, but overall I thought it was a pretty effective way to get the message across in a way that wasn’t as bland or overly “This is the only way to do it and I am the only one is right”-ish as many of the books I read do it. It really was a lot more showing than telling, which I appreciate, and illustrating how this whole thing could happen.

    If you’re looking for a bit of a business book that is honestly a lot more effective than other books out there, definitely check this one out. It’s pretty great, informative, and also has some really lovely illustrations throughout it.

    AMAZON

  • I have been publishing since 2012, putting out several books a year for a decade, and took the last year off of publishing. At first, that was an intentional choice. The actual plan was to use the year to try out a few stories that I wasn’t sure about and give myself the space to not like something and still have something that I could get ready for publication the year after.

    That plan fell apart pretty much immediately. Between the flood and getting sick with a chronic condition that I have not yet recovered from (I might one day, but it’s going to take a while) I have had to learn a lot about rest and figure out how I can still consider myself an author when I am not writing. Or when I am incapable of writing.

    The thing I’ve come to realize in my time of forced rest is that the way I was going before, with time spent working almost every evening on writing the next book and making sure I was always busy with another new project, was probably not sustainable in the long term. I have needed the rest for a while, and finally circumstances allowed me to take it.

    And rest has been hard. It’s not something that comes naturally to me by any means. I want to do things constantly, but this rest and the new habits that I’m building as a part of it are good for me in the long term, regardless of health. Spending hours on the computer churning out 5000-10000 words in a day in order to meet deadlines may mean that the stories get done faster, but ultimately that rate is not good for me.

    I had my productive decade. And now I am entering an era of rest. Expect books much more slowly, as I try and find a new balance with where I’m at now.

  • Time to tackle the digital TBR! There’s not as many books in there as I thought (Or maybe I just haven’t been looking at the right place) and it’s been ages since I got these so this should be interesting. I don’t even remember when I got these ones…

    Four Thousand Weeks looked like a productivity book and even started like one, but quickly devolved into a discussion on time and what the purpose of productivity is. It’s an interesting intersection of what productivity practices teach and why being productive isn’t necessarily the best thing for us as people.

    As someone who has been learning an awful lot about rest the last year and trying to make life better for myself in the long run, I really resonated with some of the discussions around how the things you once did for enjoyment become things you have to do for income and the loss of enjoyment in the name of productivity in general. The idea that you can just… not for a while is strangely comforting.

    Overall, I really liked it, even if it wasn’t what was expected. There are legitimate tips in the book, but if you’re looking for something that goes more into the purpose and intent of productivity and rest, this one is a great read.

    AMAZON

  • Did I forget I had a digital TBR as soon as I finished off my physical one? Yes. Did I just pick the pretty cover off of my books to maybe read from the library instead of looking at the blurb to find out anything about it? Also yes. Did I even read the subtitle that is directly on the cover? You know the answer here.

    Sway is a discussion about unconscious bias and how it’s an underlying part of life in general. It’s a lot of research around how there is a lot of historic and structural bias, which then leads into how people interact with one another, and some of the more subtle forms of how it shows up. It was a more difficult read than Design Justice, which covers a lot of the same subject matter, but I found myself liking it more because it didn’t feel like it was trying to offer solutions ((Which ultimately didn’t feel like actual solutions)) so much as just highlighting that the issues exist, how they appear, and how they affect people.

    Also will say that the one star reviews on this one are a lot of fun.

    Overall, it’s an interesting look at the pervasiveness of unconscious and implicit bias and how it affect people in their daily lives. If that sounds like something you’re interested in, check it out!

    AMAZON

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