I know it's only March but still this is probably the only New Year's Resolution that's lasted this long
March Book Reviews
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Alexander McCall Smith)
7/10 An interesting concept for a mystery novel, although I have mixed feelings on the execution. I liked the uniqueness of the setting, which really came to life in the novel; Botswana with its cattle herds and dusty roads. I also enjoyed the vivacious personality of the novel's leading lady, Precious Ramotswe. She's no-nonsense, a good observer of human nature, but not always confident nor infallible. A truly refreshing stand out from the calm armchair detectives and the tough hardboiled private eyes. What I didn't like was the editing style of the novel. It jumped from case to case without a clear timeline, sometimes even interrupting an ongoing case with another, then inserting flashbacks and POVs about both Ramotswe and the people around her without much connection to any story. Although I was a little bothered by it, Mma Ramotswe and her beloved Botswana was fresh enough to keep me entertained.
Swimming Lessons (Claire Fuller)
4/10 Listen, I can understand why other people might like this book. I can see the appeal, but I am not the audience it's trying to appeal to. I did not like this book at all. The premise about a mother's disappearance, and clues being revealed through scraps and letters hidden in books seems straightforward and intriguing enough. But instead what I got was a main character that seemed out of it most of the time, a first half that didn't do much with the concept, a disappearance that seemed so devoid of mystery that you wonder why there was anything to ask about. The 'letters' themselves were supposedly written by the mother, but it was written pretty much exactly like a novel. I think they tried to justify it by saying she was in a creative writing course but seriously, no one writes letters like that. I just couldn't bring myself to care about this family or any of their experiences, nor did I care for the artsy literary references like I get it...you read books.
Tortall (Tamora Pierce)
4/10 I'm pretty disappointed by this book. I loved the Tortall series of books by the same author, who wrote such well-rounded, complex heroines each with her own different but genuine and memorable coming of age stories all set in a world that was vibrant and exciting. But I couldn't find that in this companion book. It's not even about the fact that the original characters barely show up, but that regardless of if they do or don't the stories just fall flat. The tone of the stories just felt so different from main series that I felt like it was only the names connecting the worlds together. Even when the original characters make an appearance they just don't have the same impression. This compared to when predecessor characters show up in subsequent novels in the main storyline and they feel completely natural. If anything, I'd just take the chance to recommend everyone to please read original series because they're all really good, just pretend this one never existed.
Angry Optimist: The Life and Times of Jon Stewart (Lisa Rogak)
5/10 A pretty average book overall tbh. Not too bad but nothing mindblowing. I liked that the author gathered opinions from both people who praised and criticized Jon Stewart. But I didn't finish reading the book and feel like I had gained some newfound insight into the man, or even an interesting summary of his life. For people looking to know a little more about him, I'd recommend just reading his Wikipedia page, and for fans who already know the man, I'd recommend uh, I guess just re-watching old Daily Show clips.
The Girl Who Married a Lion: And Other Tales from Africa (Alexander McCall Smith)
6/10 I enjoyed this! My favourite part of his detective series was the setting and these were all stories born from it, even if the nature of these stories made it much more fantastical. I generally like reading fairy tales and myth from all over the world, so I liked being introduced to some new ones. Most of the time they came off as a little bare but I appreciated them being deeply connected to the land they're from. They're stories that couldn't have come from any other place, from the witch doctors to the flora and fauna of the Savannah. I liked that some of them didn't really have a moral or lesson to tell but I also liked the ones that did. A nice, short read about folklore I haven't seen much of before, even if it was a bit simplistic.
Orange is the New Black (Piper Kerman)
6.5/10 Not a bad read on a world that seems so foreign to me that it's no wonder it got adapted into a TV series. The closed off, literally and figuratively, world of the female prison system is brought to life in this autobiographical book featuring a victim of the war on drugs. The book highlights many of the problems with prison systems as well as humanizing the people in those systems. I enjoyed seeing the different personalities around her and the spirit of female camaraderie surrounding her. Of course, her experiences are colored by her own thoughts and opinions, as well as by virtue of being an upper middle class white woman. Nonetheless, because the setting is so engaging, the book was an entertaining read.
Take Me With You (Andrea Gibson)
3/10 Listen, I'll be frank. I don't like the trendy new poetry books. I'm a snobbish elite, an old person ranting about the established but that's my goddamn opinion. So I don't care for poems that are just run-on sentences, or even worse, just sentences but with space breaks in between. I don't like poems written by young adults where love is talked about like the greatest and worst thing on earth. It's fine if I see it on tumblr, but when it's a published book of poetry it just seems too much. There are a couple of verses and poems I like in here, but more than less I like it in the same sense I would click like on Instagram and move on.
The Hidden Life of Trees (Peter Wohlleben)
8.5/10 After reading his Hidden Life of Animals and really not having too high of an opinion of it, I was curious about the author's first work that made him notable in the first place. And after reading this one, I would totally agree with the general opinion. Unlike his Animals one, which I felt mainly provided anecdotes to concepts that were pretty widely agreed upon, this one actually provided some new knowledge. It's not groundbreaking to suggest that animals treasure their families and have human concepts of community, but it is interesting to have those ideas applied to trees and plants. Not to mention, this book provides far more scientific information to accompany the presentation. It briefly made me even want to go outside to look at real trees while reading this and any book that can make me even entertain the thought of hiking, however briefly, is a formidable one.
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