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.
