The Amazing Thing About the Way it Goes - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Title: The Amazing Thing About the Way it Goes
Author: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Genre: Essays
Rating: 2/5
# pages: 224
Date read: December, 2014

The Amazing Thing About the Way It Goes takes on the amazing in the ordinary in this side-splitting series of short commentaries. Pearl-McPhee turns her trademark wit and perspective to everything from creative discipline to a way you would never think about fixing your email situation. This book looks at everyday problems, and honestly, it won't do much to solve them, but at least you'll be laughing.


I love Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's essays about knitting. The rest of them? Unfortunately not so much. And as there wasn't a single knitting essay in this collection (which I knew ahead of time, so it wasn't a case of being disappointed by that - I'd just expected to enjoy the rest more), it could only just make it to two stars... it was okay, but no more than that.

Landline - Rainbow Rowell

Title: Landline
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 5/5
# pages: 320
Date read: December, 2014


Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble. That it's been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply... but that almost seems besides the point now.

Maybe that was always besides the point.

Two days before they're supposed to visit Neal's family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can't go. She's a TV writer, and something's come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her - Neal is always a little upset with Georgie - but she doesn't expect to him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she's finally done it. If she's ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It's not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she's been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts...

Is that what she's supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?...


After everybody and his uncle started raving about "Landline" I couldn't help put wonder, "Does it really deserve all that hype, or will it ultimatively leave me disappointed?". Especially when it ended up winning Best Fiction in GoodReads' 2014 awards as well! However, I'd had it recommended to me by people whose taste I trust, so I decided to give it a try.

It completely deserves the hype! It's the first book I've read by Rainbow Rowell, but if this is indicative of her writing style, it definitely won't be the last. The plot by itself is nothing special (sort of like The Lake House, only different), but when pared with Rowell's writing abilities, it just works. The feelings and emotions described are so real, and I found it impossible not to get carried up in the story and care about the characters. I could relate to them.

This is one of those books where its appeal is hard to describe, because it is not in the plot - it's in the characters and the emotions they provoke. I did think there was one tiny thread left hanging, but I can accept it as one of those that the characters themselves will sort out after the last page of the book (it makes sense in context - trust me).

So yes, definitely worth reading, and among the best books I have read this year.