march? maybe?

Ah yes the month of quarantine...you'd think that'd be plenty of time for me to catch up on my reading and not, you know, dick around doing anything as long as it's not productive.

March Book Reviews

We Were Eight Years In Power (Ta-Nehisi Coates)

6/10 I'm giving this book a 6 instead of a 5 for its quality, rather than the actual amount of enjoyment I got out of it. This book is really a great look at African American race relations in America. Nominally, it covers the eight years of the Obama presidency, but it pulls in information about slavery, the Civil War, and many previous government administrations. It's incredibly well researched and informed and that's really my problem with it. Its language is a bit too formal and academic for me to really enjoy reading it. It has makes seem really interesting points! There's a lot of stuff about the subject that I didn't know about! But I just felt like I had to slog through a school reading to get to the part I felt engaged by. My favorite is probably the article from the 8th year, just because it leans more towards biographical and it was much easier to read. Still, this book definitely has worth, but it's really more of a case of pearls before swine in my case.

Run Hide Repeat (Pauline Dakin)

4.5/10 I was wondering whether to give it a three or two stars because objectively speaking it wasn't THAT bad. There were some parts that I might've enjoyed reading! But thinking about it again, I think my overall experience with this book was just 'I didn't like it'. It was filled with so, so, so much pointless bullshit. Every single tedious minutiae even when it had nothing to do with the premise of the book. I was led to believe that the author knew she was on the run, knew that there was something wrong every time they moved houses - but no, she just passed it off as a family quirk until the big 'reveal' way later in her adulthood. Then the rest of the book is her detailing every single one of their moves and houses and sometimes connecting it to the reveal. Also, the post-reveal was such an anti-climax it could only be real life. The way they dealt with it, even the way she tried to reveal the truth in the end, was just so boring? There was no real resolution, no complete, satisfying ending. It was a mish-mash of a biography that was written too realistic about its unrealism too be really engaging. Anyway, I think it just proves that sometimes, life can be stranger than fiction but fiction's a lot more fun to read.

Savage Appetites (Rachel Monroe)

6.5/10 This was a pretty decent read. I didn't hate it, but it wasn't amazing either. The factual parts of it was fun, in an article kind of way. I didn't care much for the author's own experiences, like at all. I feel like maybe it could've been more fun as a bigger collection of stories with less rumination or the same stories but with more insight on the why. Despite it's introduction, I wished for maybe a bit more time spend on why these particular women or rather women in general were attracted to true crime. Still, I liked the stories she choose and the roles in each one that she highlighted. It's a good way to pass the time.

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half full

Alright in direct contrast to last month, this month started off strong and ....uh...let's hope 2020 is NOT like this.

February Book Reviews

Voices from Chernobyl (Svetlana Alexievich)

9/10 I read this because someone said the TV show was really good, and while this was nothing like the TV show, it was still stunning. This is a great personal perspective of a tragedy too often popularized for it. The first chapter hits you with references to Chernobyl dramatized for its radiation, it's popularity as a location for sci-fi or horror movies, and its fame as a ghost town and nature reclamatio - and makes it clear that it isn't about any of these. It reminds you that this was a place, live with real people who truly had no idea what was happening. The horror of radiation was something that only happened in hindsight, overridden by the fear and ignorance of the evacuation itself. Especially as these stories are coming from survivors of a war in recent memory, the comparison between that war (in which you might die, but if you lived then you 'won') and this war (where it's the surviving part that's hard) was striking. I loved that she found anecdotes from people in all aspects of the tragedy, from the people just doing their jobs in clean up, the people who couldn't bear to part from their homes, the people in government, both those who lied and those who couldn't. It's a stark reminder that sometimes history tends to be remembered for the events, but the people themselves are often overlooked. That this book gives voices to them is something to be appreciated.

Vox Machina: Origins (Matthew Colville)

8/10 I'm pleasantly surprised by this comic book 'spin-off' of the first Critical Role campaign! While they're already on campaign 2, with fun new characters, there'll always be a special place in my heart for Vox Machina. The comic focuses on the unseen adventures of VM getting their start, which I think gave it the advantage of not having anything to compare it with (as opposed to the TAZ comic adaptation). I think they captured the characters really well, and I could definitely see events play out as they did in the actual show. (Maybe not too surprisingly considering the actors probably had a hand in it) The character interaction is fun and their progression into a party doesn't feel forced. It might be less enjoyable for a non-fan, but I definitely enjoyed it. Also, Vex was my fav in this one.

Without You, There Is No Us (Suki Kim)

6/10 A journalist pretends to be a missionary pretending to be a teacher in North Korea. It's an interesting look at the world inside North Korea but unfortunately lacking a structure or meaning to it that might've made it even better. The parts that highlighted the atmosphere of country are probably the best parts for me. I don't make it a point to read memoirs about North Korea so there were a few things that stood out to me: feeling physically tired/drained all the time just because of the mental pressure of having to lie and self censor all the time, the monotony of routines there, not being sure whether the people there are lying out of fear or if they genuinely believe everything they're saying - and not knowing which would be worse. As a fake missionary, she also makes an interesting comparison between the God that the missionaries worship and the way North Koreans treat their leader. While these were all interesting anecdotes, I couldn't really get a sense of her purpose, which made lose sight of the book's purpose. There wasn't much development, just a straightforward log of her time there. The book left me feeling like 'what was the point...?' and kind of unsatisfied by the end.

How Carrots Won the Trojan War (Rebecca Rupp)

2/10 UNSUBSCRIBE FROM VEGETABLE FACTS. I'm begging you, please, stop giving me information about vegetables. This was a book club book but you know what, it's fine because I thought the premise was fine! Vegetables and their role in changing history! Maybe it'll have some interesting stories in a Buzzfeed listicle kind of way! It turns out even that kind of low expectancy hope was misplaced. There was no coherent outline save for each chapter being about a different vegetable. It jumps all over the place without any attempt at connecting the paragraphs. There's not even stories, it's literally just random vegetable facts. An example is the chapter that started off with 'how asparagus seduced the French king' and you read it and there's like two sentences about Madame de Pompadour liked to eat asparagus. That's it. Don't read this book.

All Men Are Liars (Alberto Manguel)

3.5/10 You know what, maybe Spanish fiction just isn't for me. I felt the same way as I did reading Shadow of the Wind, just thinking the entire time 'wow I really hate this writing style'. It's so hard cut through the layers to find a semblance of plot. Maybe that's the problem? That I'm looking for plot at all? The concept itself was fine; it sounded really cool. An account of a man's life as told by different people and the different ways people interpret a story and their memories. Doesn't that sound neat? Unfortunately the execution of said concept was excruciating to read through for me. There were so many tangents that I couldn't see the point to, random facts about random things that I didn't care for, and too much sex. And not actual sex, just a lot of talking about sex and describing it but not actually having sex. Like it's done not in a raunchy or erotic kind of way, just in that pretentious literary way where you feel like every character should just be asexual just to get them to stop. The ending was so super unsatisfying and maybe if I really tried I could come up with some thing about how it's a metaphor for life but I'm not an English major, I'm just a casual reader who's gonna swear off Spanish fiction for a while.

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new year new reads

This month started off kind of weak but ended strong! May 2020 be the same!

January Book Reviews

Queen of the Dark Things (C. Robert Cargill)

5.5/10 Sequel to the book I rated a 4.5 last time and after reading this out of morbid curiosity I've decided it improved by one whole point! I'd call it character development but its characters don't do that so...Let me just run down the list: same unlikeable protagonist, there was no foreshadowing in this book's plot in the previous one and it just came out of nowhere, the romance felt forced, there were certain parts of the book talking about women where it was just gross. (Like I have a particular beef with this last point because they have this section where a demon just goes on and on trying to sexually demean the protagonist and his love interest by talking about fucking and it's like? It's so uncalled for. The whole book is basic YA in tone and quality yet they put in adult language when it comes to degrading women? It's mercifully short compared to the rest of the book but like...no one asked for this?? You can write demons being mean in other ways that aren't so incredibly intrusive to the tone of the book??) HOWEVER, there was a plot unlike the last book which made it slightly more engaging to read through. The documentary style folklore interludes don't feel as jarring. The last part was kind of cool to read but with an undertone of YA wish fulfillment cool but it can be ignored. I didn't hate it as much as the last one! That's it.

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race (Reni Eddo-Lodge)

6/10 This book was a bit of a let down for me. It talks about some really relevant and crucial topics, it raises discussion with well sourced evidence both anecdotal and empirical. Unfortunately I just found it really boring to read through. It felt a little too dry and academic for me to really engage with it, with only little bits of the author's own voice punctuating it. It probably didn't help that I didn't really feel like I received a lot of new information? The majority of topics weren't big revelations for me personally but they were important topics and would make great points to make in a discussion about race relations. There was a bit of interesting focus on Britain's black history specifically that made it somewhat interesting for me just as a contrast to the more prominent version over the pond. Overall a quality book that just didn't quite capture me.

Recursion (Blake Crouch)

8.5/10 Amazing concept for a book. I blazed through this in a day. The whole first arc was so much fun to read. The whole False Memory Thing plays with one of my favorite tropes; the Lotus Eater Machine and it brings a vibe that's not unlike a really good Doctor Who episode. Unfortunately the focus shifted rather quickly away from playing with FMS and into the mystery behind its origins. While the rest of that plot was still tense and engaging to read, I found going into the whole memory device and method made it less interesting. A lot of the science and time-space paradox explanations I kind of glossed over but it wasn't anything negative against the book itself. Some things sounded kind of convenient but it might have been the same lack of attention to the book attempting to explain themselves. The most disappointing part, and the part that prevented me from giving it a 5/5, is probably the ending for me. The multiple re-dos got boring and the lack of on-screen (?) development for the romance didn't help. The ultimate solution felt anti-climatic; it sounded too easy and I wish they could've put more emphasis on how difficult it was or to have the characters reach the conclusion by themselves. Still, this book was a wild ride and I really enjoyed going through it.

World in a Grain (Vince Beiser)

8.5/10 This was close to a 9 but I ultimately decided it was probably bit too meandering and long, especially for someone less interested in geography. But I really enjoyed it. I liked that it talked about both human geography and natural geography. It's all well and good reading about the different ways sand can be used but it's nothing without how it's used by the people around the world. I felt like it was just the right amount of depth for me to be engaged without feeling like I'm missing information or that it's too academic. It's an interesting subject for something so close and ever present yet rarely discussed, particularly how many far reaching and varied impacts it has (sand gang wars??? stealing beaches??? illegal sand smuggling????). There was also great focus on non-Western case studies, like in the Middle East and Asia. I also appreciated how it ended on a mixed note, a reference to how similar problems are facing EVERY resource on Earth. It doesn't tell us the solution is as simple as just cutting back on something, but rather we all need to be accountable - whether it be as people or corporations.

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year end review ii

We poppin bottles!!! Celebrating once again, the only New Year's Resolution I kept! I'm just going to stop making resolutions and just hope I continue to read more books. I learned from my lesson of having a weird number and instead ended the year on a total of 75 books. It's four less than last year but at least it looks nicer. There's a lot of stats on page count and length on my Goodreads but mainly my average rating this year was 3.3 WHICH sounds bad at first but I went back to 2018 and it was 3.0 so...an improvement! Truly 'okay' reads. Anyway, time for more non-Goodreads tracked stats:

My monthly average was 6.25 books per month with May at 11 and August at....1. Again! I was busy reading light novels. Moving on!

The genre make up was 28 fiction, 22 nonfiction, 12 young adult, 6 short story, 5 graphic novel, and 1 each of children's lit and poetry. More or less the same spread as last year's, with slightly more YA and graphic novels, less fiction and somehow the exact amount of nonfiction.

In the fiction section, 14 of them were split equally by fantasy (7) and mystery (7) , and 6 of them were historical. Compared to last year contemporary fell from first place with me having only read 3 of them. Sadly, sci-fi failed to make the list at all.

As for non-fiction, science (7) was apparently my favorite. It didn't even crack top four last year so I guess this year I traded science fiction for science nonfiction. Gender issues (4) and history (3) were the next two subjects for this year. While gender issues was also a focus last year, biography and current issues both dropped. Lots of shake-up in the non-fiction department despite reading the same number of books!

For YA novels this year, I read the exact number of fantasy (8) as last year. Luckily there's a bit more diversity with mystery (3) and romance (1) rounding out the rest.

Half of the short story collections I read were fantasy (3) with the other half a variety of biography, mystery and sci-fi. (So at least I did read something in the sci-fi genre!)

In terms of authors...shout-out to my girls!! 49 of the 74 books I read had female authors and only 26 of them were male. A good 14 of the female authors and 5 of the male authors were people of color. Once again, Asian descent was the most common at 14 out of the 19.

Best Books of the Month

January: From Here to Eternity (Science, Nonfiction)
February: A Darker Shade of Magic (Fantasy, YA)
       honorable mention: Men Explain Things to Me (Gender Issues, Nonfiction)
March: Broad Strokes (History/Art, Nonfiction)
       honorable mention: The Westing Game (Mystery, YA)
April: The Giver: Graphic Novel (YA/Sci-fi, Graphic Novel
       honorable mention: Sleep No More (Mystery, Short Story)
May: Becoming (Biography)
       honorable mention: How Long 'till Black Future Month (Fantasy/Sci-fi, Short Story)
June: The Rook (Fantasy)
       honorable mention: Six of Crows (Fantasy, YA)
July: none :(
August: literally only read one book
       if I could pick a light novel: The Wolf Lord's Lady
September: Girl at War (Historical, Fiction)
October: none despite reading 8 books :(
November: The Fifth Risk (Current Issues, Nonfiction)
       honorable mention: Bottle of Lies (Science, Nonfiction)
December: The Moth Presents: All These Wonders (Biography, Short Story)
       honorable mention: Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (Mystery)

Best in Genre

Fiction (Contemporary): Everything I Never Told You [Not much competition but this really was a nice, short read dealing with, you guessed it, POC centered issues.]

Fiction (Historical): Girl at War [Despite reading 6 books in this genre, there also wasn't much competition to consider.]

Horror: Horrostor [I read two horror novels and I absolutely hated the other one.]

Fantasy: The Rook [It was hard deciding between this and Shades of Magic but I think my personal preference for urban fantasy tipped the scales.]

Mystery: Miss Marple the Complete Short Stories [While I did read a couple of other good mystery novels I just have such a bias for Agatha Christie and Miss Marple.]

Romance: The Bride Test [Just having read a romance novel I didn't hate is a miracle already.]

Graphic Novel: The Prince and the Dressmaker [It's just cute!!!]

Biography: Becoming [HANDS DOWN. One of my favs this year period.]

Science: Bottle of Lies [This had some competition! The true crime vibes of this one really helped.]

History: Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust [This had no competition.]

Short Story: How Long 'till Black Future Month [Debated hard between this and The Moth but the sheer creativity and the longer story format is what I'd go for.]

Young Adult: Truly Devious [Takes the top spot among all the fantasy YA I read this year. Just gotta switch it up sometimes I guess.]

The Best & the Worst

Five Stars (5) vs One Star (0)

Okay, rather than this being a reflection of how good or bad this year was I think it's more of a reflection of how my rating system has tended towards just not giving absolute one stars. It's true that I probably didn't hate any book but...there have been some books I've seriously disliked. If I had to pick one then I'd go with 'Fool'.
The humor was coarse and roll-my-eyes asinine and shallow. The male wish fulfillment ONCE AGAIN ruins the entire thing, reducing female characters to nothing more than talking cardboard set pieces. I'm starting to see a trend in the type of books I hate. The worst is probably the wasted potential of what could've been a witty dark comedy featuring a Shakespearean tragedy told from the point of view of a fourth-wall breaking, overlooked jester. It wishes it could have what Deadpool has. Anyway, I'm the real clown for reading this. In the new year, let's not repeat these mistakes.

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fireworks emoji

It's the end of a decade but only two years of me starting to read again. Still, it's something to celebrate!! I've made it two whole years!!! I probably could've finished more books this month but the holiday season slowed me down. Also I wanted to keep the total amount of books read at a good whole number.

December Book Reviews

If Cats Disappeared from the World (Genki Kawamura)

4.5/10 This was a weird limbo of a book for me. I don't know if its the writing style or the translation that's throwing me off but there's something about the painfully plain and stilted phrases that makes it such a bore to read. The contents don't really help its case either. It feels like it's trying to be an introspective, emotional piece; it is after all, about a man reflecting on his life as it comes to an end. But the protagonist isn't very interesting or likeable. There are some aspects where it seems like he's trying to be "relatable" : he works in an unchanging government job, he has a hard time forming meaningful relationships, he's estranged from his parents etc. But then they add in aspects where it removes him from that audience surrogate role where he has personal and specific issues with his dad or his fervent love of movies. It's a weird balance that neither makes him more sympathetic nor interesting to read about. Even the draw of the book, the titular disappearance of cats, was dealt with in a really disappointing way. Overall, I think it had the potential to be a nice short story that ruminates on all the different components that make up a person's life but the execution unfortunately fell short of the concept.

Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (Agatha Christie)

8/10 Not much to say about this one except I just love Miss Marple. I'm always delighted by her concept: a quaint, Victorian elderly lady who only knows village gossip stories but manages to solve cases no one else can. I love her approach of solving cases by studying the human condition rather through logic puzzles just because methods of committing crimes may change but motives never do. There's a foreword by the author who says Miss Marple is more suited for the short stories (compared to Poirot who 'demands a full length novel') and that's definitely the case. She shines in this format, and Tuesday Club Murders is my favorite example of it.

Horrorstor (Grady Hendrix)

6/10 I really liked the set up of this one. It reminds me of a really good creepypasta/SCP of an endless Ikea that people are trapped in. And the beginning did deliver on those expectations, it had a great atmosphere that also reminded me of House of Leaves, another horror story that's based on a architectural space. There was some fantastic use of the storeroom space and tension that came from the setting. Unfortunately, the 'ghost' or antagonist of the space was revealed really early on and I think that ruined a lot of the mystery for me. I was hoping they'd center the horror more around the space itself but the latter half of the story almost entirely was just based on this ghost of a prison/asylum which number one, is as about as cliched as you can get and number two, could've been set anywhere else. The protagonist and the fellow characters were just okay for me. The whole fake product pages were a nice bonus but I wished it could've transitioned into horror more subtly. A book with a great beginning and an average ending.

The Bride Test (Helen Hoang)

6.5/10 This was a cute book! I enjoyed reading it. It's the typical set up of a Cinderella romance novel, complete with convenient contrivances and unlikely coincidences but cute nonetheless. Bonus points for a POC protagonist and actually giving her problems and points of views that would match her background rather than making her POC for the sake of it. I also enjoyed having a lead on the autism spectrum and I thought it was portrayed rather well. The main thing I didn't really mesh with was that this book was........TOO horny. I know some people prefer more smut in their romance and maybe it's because I don't read too many romance novels myself, but I was thrown off with how much of their relationship was based on physical attraction. The lead literally gets a boner the first time he meets her. I would've liked it if the relationship was developed more, instead I felt like it was really rushed and I couldn't really enjoy the process of them falling for each other over the general smut teasing. Still, despite its problems, I found it a fast, entertaining and easy read.

The Moth Presents: All These Wonders (Catherine Burns)

8.5/10 A really fantastic collection of stories from the podcast based on people from different walks to life talking about a single moment in their life. Although the majority of stories were from authors, comedians or other public speakers, there were a few that were from regular people with regular jobs. And although the majority of the stories were of extraordinary events of everything from the death of a loved one to the first flyby of Pluto, there were also a few that were just a mundane event plucked from the everyday. And while I enjoyed both of types, I do appreciate the little outliers because I felt like it made the concept that much more meaningful. I cried about every other story when reading it, it was so real and emotional. The only reason I was debating between a four and a five star was because it also felt a bit like TEDtalks. It's short and punchy but even as I was tearing up, I also felt on a meta-level it wasn't as impactful as a full story with a connected narrative. Still, it's an incredible, well-written (spoken?) collection and I loved reading it. "I find myself born into this universe. It's a wonderful place. It's a strange place. It's also a scary and sometimes lonely place. And every day in my work, I try to discern through its noisy manifestation, its people, dogs, trees, mountains, stars - everything I love - I try to discern the eternal music of the spheres."

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs (Caitlin Doughty)

6/10 "The flames are the great equalizer." The second book of hers that I've read this year as it turns out. I didn't like this one as much as 'From Here to Eternity' but it wasn't a bad book. It's definitely targeted more for younger readers, which is the main reason why I thought it was just okay. Still, I think it's pretty enjoyable to read and it has some interesting questions and answers. Not much to say actually...it was alright.

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journalism, murder and fantasy oh my !

I didn't feel like I was really rushing to get through a lot of books this month but I did end up with quite a feel. I think November just felt really, really long. Like I'd be looking through the list of books I added and be like 'damn, that was ages ago but it was still this month??' (Side note, I love the book ends feel of having two four star investigative journalism books at the start and end of the month. I should try to do that more.)

November Book Reviews

Bottle of Lies (Katherine Eban)

8/10 This was written almost like a true crime thriller and I think it really helped me get into the story and keep me immersed even through the various legal and medical jargon, not to mention the myriad of names. There were some parts where I felt like it was getting long, but the story and writing style managed to get me back in easily enough. There was a part where they went into the backgrounds of various companies and the timeline jumps around in decades so it was a little distracting. The amount of organizations and peoples is already enough to keep track of without mergers. The author also briefly mentions better generic alternatives so I wanted more elaboration on it but it didn't really go anywhere. Not that I really felt that this book suffered from a lack of information. I also enjoyed that it was very objective. The author didn't try to say the generics were the villains and the FDA were the heroes but instead showed the various shortcomings and accurately presented the pressures of bureaucracy. The ending was kind of a downer, realistic but a downer. It's a testament to how slowly a case study like this can move when the story follows its start in the 1980s and still hasn't reached a real conclusion in 2019. It's pretty incredible to read about something like this, which most people don't really think about too much. It's a great combination of the products of investigative journalism and a firm, engaging writing style. A definite recommended read.

The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited! (Clint McElroy)

6/10 I think part of why I didn't like this book as much as the first one was because of how much I enjoyed this arc in the actual podcast. I was really looking forward to seeing it in comic form, but my expectations were too high I supposed. While it's impossible to include every single joke from the podcast into the comic, I just didn't find it as funny even though I didn't feel that way for the first arc's adaptation. Part of it might have been the feeling of time; listening to the podcast and following them along from the planning to the murder investigation to the final reveal felt like a long process. That process felt super condensed in this one which made it lose some of its tension and stakes in my opinion. There were also some action lines that I found it hard to tell what was going on. Also hard was seeing various hints dropped hinting at further developments but instead of feeling like it's foreshadowing it feels more like I just missed a reference. I'll still be on the lookout for the next volume though, mostly because I didn't enjoy the podcast of that arc as much so who knows, maybe the comic version will change my opinion instead!

Stiletto (Daniel O'Malley)

6/10 I really liked the first book in this series and was a little disappointed when this sequel didn't knock it out of the park in the same way. There were familiar parts that I liked about the book like the humor, the writing style and more of the world building. Unfortunately the characters didn't endear themselves to me in the same way that Myfawny or Thomas did in the first part and while I liked that she still had parts in this one (and we got to see her being the boss she rightfully is), it really took away from the actual protagonists. Not only could we fully focus on fleshing out either of the heroines, we also didn't get to just enjoy Myfawny through the whole thing either. I liked Odette more than Felicity, but neither of them really did much to actually get to the ending. It's especially egregious for Odette because she was so involved but everything was concluded without her volition at all. The side plot about the crystal murder that Myfawny was involved in ALSO wasn't solved by her own active participation. I think this should have been a short story collection set in the same world instead because I really do like reading about the various mini cases and historical tidbits but they're just distracting tangents that put a damper ont he actual plot. Also, of all the complaints the worst one I have is this: I CANNOT believe Odette and Felicity didn't get together. Chopra was there for one chapter and shows up at the end just to be a love interest for Felicity even though Odette was right there!! The enemies to friends to lovers!! The Romeo and Juliet of it all!! They went through so much together and in the end they're just gal pals?? I feel robbed.

Malice (Keigo Higashino)

7.5/10 Not the first murder mystery I've read from this author but the first in his Detective Kaga series. As for how it stacks up...not bad. A pretty solid mystery. I didn't particularly enjoy the first person 'journal entry' style but it did help set up the twist in the story. I loved the unreliable narrator set up, especially how you know it's unreliable but it still manages to trick you. This is especially the case for the first confession because you do feel that it wraps everything up so neatly but you're still aware of the amount of pages left in the book so both you (and the detective) are left with a sense of unease. It's a cool structure of you thinking 'oh it's over BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE alright now it's over BUT WAIT!" There's a lot of clues that you think are red herrings until they're not. Spoiler: HONESTLY THE CAT THING I really did go oh of course the victim was like that because he was so mean to the cat, but then the author straight up points out to reader that that's the trick! Unfortunately, despite how interesting I found the structure of the story, the actual murder and motive are a bit lacking. With the amount of planning the culprit went through, the motive felt like a cop out - although I guess you can't complain it didn't have a theme and stick to it. Detective Kaga's own experiences with bullying was a little too helpfully relevant and I found him not as developed or interesting a character as the detective (particularly compared to Detective Galileo). Still, not a bad read and a murder mystery I could easily recommend.

Stories of Your Life and Others (Ted Chiang)

4/10 Wow I did not like this critically acclaimed short story collection. I had high hopes starting it, not just because of the countless great reviews, but because I actually enjoyed the first story: 'Tower of Babylon'. It was a interesting take on a well-known Biblical story and there were a lot of quotes I liked from it. Most importantly I could read through it and it had a plot, things that I felt were sorely lacking from the rest of the stories. A lot of the stories felt like reading academic essays or debates on the subject of choice and while I'm sure the content has a lot of merit it doesn't mean anything to me if I'm just desperately flipping through the pages hoping it ends soon. 'Hell Is the Absence of God' was nice in that it had some really unique world building and somewhat of a plot, but felt like a theological discussion log instead. 'Story of Your Life' also had...something? But it sure didn't feel like a plot to me. It did feel easier to read, aside from the linguistics essay excerpts. I went to read the summary of the movie it was adapted into and at least that felt like it had a plot. I don't know if it was supposed to be implied or it was there and I just completely missed it but either way, I wouldn't have reached that conclusion myself just by reading the story.

Confessions (Kanae Minato)

6.5/10 The book started out strong for me, maybe because it started like the conclusion of a mystery novel. You had the 'detective' giving their summation, pointing out the culprit and how the crime was done...complete with a mic drop of their own. But then it starts getting complicated as the story continues after that and I felt that a lot of the extra information dragged down the story. On one hand, it serves to add shades of grey to every single character but on the other, it's a bit of cliche to reveal that the culprits suffered from childhood trauma. It was interesting how it made the 'detective', the one who suffered most from the crime, into someone of a mixed morality herself. I think I would've liked the book to end the same way it started, with a little ambiguity. I read the summary for the movie adaptation which did go with an unconfirmed ending and I thought that would've been a lot more interesting. It wasn't a bad book but I felt it might have been better.

Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust (Hedi Fried)

8/10 A really great, easy to understand but straightforwardly moving book about the personal experiences of a Holocaust survivor. The format of a simple Q&A makes it an easy read and while it could be argued that it's a too simplified view of the events, I think it's a good basis upon which further reading could be built on. The personal point of view also led to some information that I might not have expected. Things like how after the war many survivors kept an overstocked fridge because of hunger they experience in the camps, or how some women chose not to have children out of fear that it would happen again. I also enjoyed the forthright way she spoke with quotes like 'I never met an SS soldier who was kind' and in answer to the question 'What was the best?' she replied 'The best? Could anything have been the best? When I got this question, I was confounded. Nothing was good, but there were moments when we could forget where we were and laugh.' I think one of the most striking anecdotes she had was a time when she and another girl managed to smuggle a leaf and a branch from a tree outside into their rooms. Simple snapshots like these really underlined how cruelly sparse the conditions were, how little sense of life and future there was and how people tried to find hope in even the smallest things.

Dreams and Shadows (Robert Cargill)

4.5/10 This book was 741 pages and for the first 500 of them I literally could not care less about any of the characters. It was a weird mix of excerpts from a folklore specialist that introduces whatever fairy or fair folk shows up in the preceding chapters and said chapters of random fairies doing random things to random people. There are a couple of 'main characters' but for the most part I really couldn't care about what they're all doing. It was on the last 30% of the book where the characters are grown up and living in Austin that it takes on the semblance of an actual plot. I did like reading about Colby as a wizard living life amongst the Other Side though Ewan wasn't all that interesting still. It picked up more in the last 10% with the culmination of all the events but it just went all to pieces when it turned out the ending was just......a waste of time. I'd be hard pressed to call an ending where everyone dies and no one strays from their destiny/nature a tragedy when the book told you it was gonna be that way with no inclinations that there might have been hope for a better ending.

Spin the Dawn (Elizabeth Lim)

4.5/10 Look...I wanted to like this book I really did. I love anything vaguely Asian themed and the whole magic seamtress thing is kinda of neat. But this book was so boring. The prologue was boring, it was Mulan inspired in that the heroine dresses up as a boy to take the place of her father to be the palace tailor but that's where the similarities end. The first part was for me the most interesting, taking on various sewing challenges to prove herself to be the best, a bit of court intrigue, stuff like that. But that part's quickly over and instead the story embarks on a generic fantasy quest to find fantasy materials and they experience fantasy dangers etc, etc. She uses her magic sewing abilities literally once during that whole quest. And it's not even very well explained how her magic scissors even work compared to magic needle or thread or something. The romance was also a bit out of nowhere for me. I don't really know at which point the male lead went from 'curious about this crossdresser' to 'having an all consuming love that he would risk his life for her even though he's an enchanter and they're never supposed to fall in love oOoOoO'. It was cute when they did fall in love but there was no steps there. The ending also felt just kind of underwhelming rather than cliff-hanger like. Basically the whole thing was underwhelming.

The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy (Michael Lewis)

8/10 I think the title could've been better without the subtitle because just the 'Fifth Risk' is such a good starter. I love where it comes from, when a civil servant is asked about five possible risks that an employee in his position has to worry about and after listing things like 'nuclear accident' and 'electrical grid' and 'North Korea' his so-called 'fifth risk' is something much more simple and way more dangerous: project management. 'It's what you fail to imagine that kills you.' This book was a great, easy to read, quick but concise delve into the myriad of bureaucratic jobs that no one really thinks about but are nevertheless indispensable for the maintenance of a functioning society and government. It of course focuses on the Trump presidency's new replacements for former Obama appointed employees, and just how terrifyingly ignorant and mismanaged that process was. Although Trump being associated with those two things is nothing new, it is eye opening to read about all the new ways his government manages to prove it. More importantly though, it highlights the unacknowledged facets of the government and paints a clear picture of what they do and why it's so important. The main downside is that it ended kind of abruptly and that reading pieces like these always makes me disappointed they're all US-centric because I'd love to read similarly well done journalism in my local government.

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Here's to long commutes on a tour bus without internet!! I read a lot of these books while I was on tour through parts of Eastern Europe. I tried my best to read whatever selection of ebooks my library had available that were set in the countries I visited (mainly Bosnia and Croatia) but...it wasn't exactly a cornucopia of choices. Also because I didn't have a chance to write actual reviews, all of these are going to be shorter by virtue of me trying to remember their contents and piecing together whatever I jotted down on my Notes app.

October Book Reviews

The Tiger's Wife (Tea Obreht)

3/10 What was the point of any of this?? I stumbled my way through this book. It's so aimless, pulled together with random anecdotal stories and folktales. It's a weird mix of fact and fiction which by itself would be fine, but if only there was something resembling a plot to pull it together. Is the titular story of the tiger's wife supposed to represent something? Was the narrator's grandfather supposed to have anything to do with anything?? Because if it was I guess I was just too dumb to get it. I borrowed this book because it was supposedly set in Bosnia and I wanted to see its historical background used more than just vague mentions of a war and a 'City' and nothing else.

The Cellist of Sarajevo (Steven Galloway)

6/10 I really wanted to read books set in Bosnia because the idea of it seemed so incredible to me. The fact that a war happened just 20 something years ago and now you walk through the streets of a modern city with a tour guide talking about moments from the war like it's some ancient historical fact is crazy. This book is supposed to based on a real event featuring a real cellist, so I was hoping for it to be much more grounded and descriptive than it actually was. Instead, each chapter is told from a different point of view character so it ended up being much more introspective and non-linear than I would've liked. Still, it does have moments of events that puts the siege into vivid clarity; reading about places like the 'Sniper Alley' or the number of shells that fell on the city feels unreal until you read about characters experiencing everyday life as a real person would've. On that note though, my least favorite POV character was the sniper, who was supposedly a young female genius marksman. Like you have all these regular people trying to live their lives and suddenly this YA novel protagonist appears. It really takes away from the emotional impact. Overall this book wasn't as emotional as I would've expected or as grounded as I would've liked but for the most part it gave a look into what life might have been like.

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Julie Dao)

5/10 "She would bloom where she was planted and let her roots close around the throats of her enemies" It's an interesting concept, the whole rise of the evil queen from Snow White told from the villain's point of view AND set in fantasy ancient China. Unfortunately it was less inner palace drama and more dark magic shenanigans than I would've liked. I wanted more of her rising in power as a female politician, consolidating her power in the ruthless harem environment and proving her intelligence in more interactions with the emperor. Instead I felt like it spent too much time in her pre-concubine life and a lot of emphasis on the whole dark magic corrupting her part. Still, while she did get the usual troubled childhood for sympathy points I do like that she knew what she ultimately wanted: the seat of the empress. Again, slightly spoiled by prophecy and magic but whatever. What parts we did get of the things I liked was fine and I felt she was a believable anti-heroine. If the sequel continued with her point of view, even with the dark magic and all, and we were able to see her downfall from her side I might have been interested but alas...

Kingdom of a Blazing Phoenix (Julie Dao)

3/10 Wow they really took everything I liked from the first book and threw it out the window. The sequel is told from the point of view of the 'Snow White' in this story. Rather than court intrigue and the heroine outwitting the evil empress with intelligence, she instead spent like one chapter in court before running off and turning this into a super standard, super boring chase-the-magic-macguffins fantasy adventure story.  I liked what little they had referring to the empress starting out as just a normal girl but I really wish she could've become more of a duo protagonist. There were even references of her resisting the dark magic serpent god! Not only that, I really liked the empress' inital dynamic with the emperor in the first book as a couple who didn't necessarily love each other but respected the others' intelligence and strength. It would've been more interesting if they grew apart because of her inability to have children or her changes due to the magic's influence but no, she apparently just started poisoning him and there was zero time spent on their relationship. Plus, they kept her old childhood love interest after all that jazz in the first book about her sacrificing that love for power. Even worse, even after everything, the heroine isn't even the one to defeat the evil queen!!! What is even the point!!!

The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery (Barbara K. Lipska)

6/10 It's a really neat case study and the title really lays out the premise immediately. It was definitely interesting when she was describing her illness and it really does seem scary when you're reading about it from her point of view because she was so unaware that anything was wrong with her. On top of that, how her family felt that something was wrong but didn't even think it might have been a serious medical issue. It really helps bring attention to mental illnesses as 'invisible' diseases, especially considering how many might go without diagnosis because all the people involved never think of it as a possibility. However, for me the overall tone of the book was a bit too 'memoir-like' with a lot of information on her background and lifestory that I felt slowed the pace a bit. Still the short length prevented it from being too boring to go through and there were some points that stood out. I think it could've been summarized better into an article and it would've made a more engaging read.

Third Girl (Agatha Christie)

5/10 A typical Christie mystery. It had all the usual trappings of a Poirot novel including: his more emotional/human side, his tendency to get mixed up in matchmaking, and him making hidden plots on the side. The eventual reveal was a bit out of the left field and the process that let up to it had just too much speculation (sorry to Poirot but I'll have to agree with local author Ariadne 'detectives think too much' Oliver). Not too memorable but I didn't hate reading it.

This Is What Happy Looks Like (Jennifer E. Smith)

3/10 I just want a cute, fluffy romance story that I don't cringe at is that so hard? Apparently my standards are just too high. The beginning was so fake; I can look past the premise of a superstar accidentally emailing a random girl and falling in love with her through that because let's face it, that kind of dumb set up is what I'm looking for in a short and sweet romance novel. What I couldn't look past were the emails themselves; not only did they read more like texting, it was full of quotes about Charlotte's Web and happiness lists and what fake high schoolers sound like when they're in a Disney original movie. In the end, the whole email plot was pretty much abandoned after a couple of chapters. There was one misunderstanding where her friend meets up with the guy and I thought they were going to run with that but instead they instantly solved it by having the guy think it can't be the right girl because he doesn't instantly feel a connection. Her troubles with her best friend were there just for drama, there wasn't real logic to it. The romance wasn't developed at all, it was more like the story saying they fell in love in about 10 pages with the rest of 400 pages about them dealing with various problems. The only thing I liked was the girl's issues with her estranged dad because it was the only thing that felt realistic and emotionally interesting but in the end they never really expanded on it.

Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World (Stephen Brusatte)

6.5/10 With the popularity of this non-fiction book, I really thought it was going to be a lot more readable. Instead it just felt really, really long. Granted, it wasn't as fully academic as it could've been but on the other hand, it also wasn't as accessible as it could've been either. If I tried really hard I supposed it did follow somewhat of a chronological format, but it wasn't very clear and overall felt like it moved from one topic to another with no clear structure. Still, there was a lot interesting and new information about the dinosaurs and progress in various theories such as evolutionary links and the cause of the extinction event. I have a note where the author casually mentioned the evolution of whales from land animals where I just wrote 'WHAT'. I also found it funny how the author kept making fun of the T-Rex's tiny arms whenever he mentions them, including an entire chapter gushing about them as the true kings of North America at the same time throwing shade on their barely functional arms. The upside of an updated book on them also means more expanded looks on feathered dinosaurs and the relation of modern birds to them. I thought one of the best points the book made was that dinosaurs aren't extinct, they're here in a dazzling variety of species walking and flying among us still.

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