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.

Read More

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.

Read More

sloooow summer

Every summer...the lethargy hits. Shoutout to my two book clubs because literally 2 out of the three books I read were forced upon me by them. So to make up for the lack of books read, I'll make the reviews longer. Again, shout out to my book clubs for making me take notes so I actually have something substantial to write longer reviews on.

July Book Reviews

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture (Roxane Gay)

7/10 'Those boys killed the girl I was, but they didn't kill all of me.' This book was a hard read. If asked for my straightforward opinion, I didn't enjoy it. But objectively, it's such an important book. I didn't enjoy reading such raw experiences and emotions but the fact that those kinds of feelings weren't undercut really just shows how heavy the topic is. I probably would've preferred a more clinical tone, one that laid out the facts and included some cold hard math. But really, that's the point of the book. To take a topic that a lot of people are removed from and might avoid talking about, and lay it bare.
I initially thought it was an overall essay by Roxane Gay instead of the collection of essays by various people that it actually was. It really varied wildly in tone and writing voice, which I didn't really like as a reading style, but again was great for making a point that sexual trauma takes all kinds of forms and people experience it in many different ways. Sometimes stream of consciousness, sometimes metaphorical, and sometimes brutally methodical. It's a book that is necessary and deeply real, but it's not one I enjoyed reading. And maybe that's what it should be.

What Happened (Hillary Rodham Clinton)

7/10 Okay, I know the whole point of this book is politics....but honestly it's too much polisci for me. It's just so in depth and long, written less with a close, relatable voice and more of a political analyst on TV voice. There's also a lot of repetitiveness. Huge sections of the book, including the introduction, afterword and the re-edited versions, just seemed like rehashing much of the same ideas. I get that it makes sense since current events move so fast, but even with the re-edits, it just sounded like more or less the same. She also loves to use quotes. They're all good quotes, but it just takes away from the experience if the reader is feeling moved by someone else's words. There's honestly just too many, and it lends to the feeling of alienation. (Especially compared to Michelle Obama's Becoming, which is why I wanted to read this book to compare the two.) She also tries to address some of her decisions that she was criticized for but a bit more lightly than I would've hoped.
Still, I can still feel that she's really an amazing woman. The book certainly feels defensive, even while repeating that she doesn't want to make excuses, but given the results I think that tone can't be helped. The way she talks about policy and her own political experiences really enforces how qualified she was to hold the positions she did, and the one she hoped to get. And good god, the criticism! The sexism! The fact that she had to check herself again and again because they weren't ready for her, whether it was in her college days or her election campaign. It's really no wonder people can't seem to relate to her, she can't seem human because she's been dragged for being human, for being too much herself. And in the book you can see her trying to be 'more real', and her frustration with all of it really comes through. 'Losing is hard for everyone, but losing a race you thought you would win is devastating.' The fact that she can be hopeful, even in writing, is a commendable feat. She wants to believe in the power of the people no matter what. and losing that kind of race and 'making a bet' that voters will care about policy more than optics is hard. I think for her to be writing about herself, she does a pretty good job talking about the aspects of the election. Like from a POV that's inherently biased, she paints a clear picture.
It's not a perfect book, and it honestly wasn't a fun reading experience. But I'm really thrown by the level of hate levered at her. She's such a wildly polarizing figure to people apparently on both sides of the political spectrum and I can't really understand why. I feel like there are worst people out there, but just the amount of hate she gets is kind of incredible. She was also pretty down to earth about who she is and what people think of her in the book. It's a tough thing to come to terms too. "Moreover, I have come to terms with the fact that a lot of people - millions and millions of people -decided they just didn't like me. Imagine what that feels like. It hurts. And it's a hard thing to accept. But there's no getting around it."
In conclusion, I really won't recommend this book to people who aren't interested in politics, especially American politics. I'm not sure what I think about her in terms of 'likability'. But I think she's a strong, educated woman who's been through a crazy amount of stuff and managed to come out on her own terms. Her perspective is a needed one and her story is definitely one for the history books. "This was worth it. I will never think otherwise. This fight was worth it."

The Moon in the Palace (Weina Dai Randel)

6/10 A quick, average read. A fictionalized story of Wu Zetian, China's only empress regnant. While that definitely sounds like it would be an amazing read, this is only the first book in a duology and it covers her time as a concubine rather than a consort. Thanks to that, nothing really happens and she doesn't really do anything except fall in love with the Emperor's son. There's like a girl who pretends to be her female friend but is really only using her to get close to the Emperor but that's literally a default character in these harem plotlines. I guess they get some points for Wu Mei not hating her, and seeing her as two sides of the same coin but that's it. The heroine doesn't really even have any scenes with the emperor. I really can't help but compare these books to Chinese novels of the same subject or their drama adaptations and really...they just fall so short. Is it my bad for wanting to get the same reading experience without struggling through the Chinese language??

Read More

may flowers

This is crazy. I read so many books and only two of them were for my book club. And it was overall a really, really good selection too! About 8 of the 11 (!!) books I read were four and five stars! Incredible!

May Book Reviews

Call Them By Their True Names (Rebecca Solnit)

7.5/10 The second collection of essays by this author that I've read. I liked that it covered a pretty broad range of subjects. The foreword was really good and I was slightly disappointed that the subsequent essays didn't have as much to do with the title idea that names have the power to change how something is viewed drastically. Another low point for this were the essays about Donald Trump. Her writing style changes a lot when on the subject of Trump and I don't really like it. Maybe because it sounds more emotional and personal but I think I much prefer her style in other essays. My favorite essays were the case studies, I feel like it was a lot easier to get into than some of the more scholarly (?) pieces. In particular I really liked 'Death by Gentrification'. I liked the points she made about events having ripple effects as well as the importance of audience. 'Preaching to the Choir' was especially great because as I was reading I was thinking that she makes some great points but only people who already agree with her would read this - then I read 'Preaching to the Choir' which was such a timely response. Overall a very relevant and well-written collection.

The Lost City of Z (David Grann)

6.5/10 "On the margins were sea monsters and dragons. For ages, cartographers had no means of knowing what existed on most of the earth. And more often than not these gaps were filled in with fantastical kingdoms and beasts, as if the make-believe, no matter how terrifying, were less frightening than the truly unknown." I couldn't help but compare this to "Lost City of the Monkey God" because well...just look at the titles. Plus they're both about a modern journalist chasing an old mystery in the Amazon. I have to say though, I did like this one more. This book interwove both the modern journalist's PoV as well as that of a Victoriahn-era explorer, which made it for a more interesting read. Still, there were some parts that I thought were really slow going and superfluous. It didn't have many tangents as the Preston book though which I appreciated. I also enjoyed at the focus given to the indigenous groups living in the Amazon. An interesting look at exploration in the early 1900s, with a well-written portrayal of one of its most prominent figures.

How Long 'till Black Future Month? (N. K. Jemisin)

9/10 Despite the less than stylistic title, I loved this collection of short stories. It's in fact one of the few short story collections where, even though there still were a couple that were just alright for me, I really enjoyed the good majority of the stories. I previously read the Fifth Season by the same author and while I liked it, it wasn't a full 5/5. In these short stories though, every part that I did enjoy about that book and her writing were on full display. The characters, which I didn't feel as attached to in the Fifth Season, were just interesting and fleshed out enough to have an impact in a shorter story. But in particular, the author's worldbuilding, which I loved in the Fifth Season, is even more enhanced by the format. The way she doesn't waste time explaining her world but instead builds it up naturally as you go along is one of the best I've ever seen. While the limited length forces it to be more simpler, it's much easier to grasp and it's a testament to her skill that there's an intriguing setting and concept in all of the stories. Even if a story slightly fell short in one or two aspects, the incredible way she treats world building in each and every one of them is amazing. The many LGBT+ and PoC perspectives are really just the cherry on top. My favorites are: "The City Born Great", "Red Dirt Witch", "The Effluent Engine", "The Narcomancer", "Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows" and "Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters".

The Prince and the Dressmaker (Jen Wang)

8/10 Not much to say about this one honestly, it's just a great graphic novel for young readers. The art style is fluid and easy to follow. The colors are lovely, the characters are realistic. The theme of gender fluidity and coming of age are well represented without being too heavy or complicated. The only complaint would be that I really wish it was longer, if only just so we could get to see more of the author's beautiful dress designs!

Time Travel (James Gleick)

6.5/10 It was really, really hard to give this one a score. The premise seemed interesting enough - a history of time travel as it exists in physics, philosophy and storytelling. What I didn't expect was for the first two categories to outshine the latter. Maybe it was because those parts were so much harder to get through, but it just felt like there was A LOT of physics and math and philosophy. Like, so much philosophy. And they were fairly academic, to the point where I'm sure only someone with a basic foundation in those would actually enjoy reading through those chapters. I am definitely not one of them. I'm an arts kid. Do not make me look at equations. In contrast I felt the most interesting parts, the parts about pop culture specifically, were too brief. There were some works that were given some more attention but most of them leaned towards the historical rather than the present mainstream. The part I was most looking forward to, the Doctor Who references, was little more than one sentence references and a short recap of one episode with little discussion actually about it. But despite my struggle to get through what felt like 2/3rds of the book, I do feel like it has a lot of merit, especially for those who are more academically inclined. It had a lot of great concepts, like the fact that time travel wasn't even a concept until relatively recently because it was only through industrialization that our societies progressed fast enough to see massive changes within a single generation. It has a lot of great quotes, a lot of good things to think about so I think objectively, it's a good book. But, probably not the best one for me.

Truly Devious (Maureen Johnson)

8/10 A pretty solid YA mystery! It did take me a while to actually get invested in the protagonist and her side of the story, but once I did I really enjoyed it. The book is written in two timelines, one mystery from the 1930s and the second in modern day. The protagonist is kind of the typical YA novel lead, she's "quirky" in that she has "strange" interests in true crime and is obsessed with murder mysteries and wants to be Sherlock Holmes. Like alright, literally no one thinks that's weird but in true YA fashion her parents just want a sporty prom princess and she feels isolated until she gets to her new school full of genius weirdos just like her! So yeah for the good first half of the story I was more interested in the 1930s mystery than whatever was going on with her daily school drama. But once the mystery of the present day actually happened, I was a lot more into it. By the end of it, I was even entertained by her love interest side plot! So yeah, it had a rough start but hooked me in the end. The worst part was that it ended on a cliffhanger which solved pretty much neither mystery so...

The Vanishing Stair (Maureen Johnson)

8/10 ...I pretty much immediately picked up the sequel. You can't just end a mystery without revealing anything! Thanks to the first book eventually successfully getting me in, I was really eager to find some resolutions in this one. And at least there was one...for the 1930s mystery. But unfortunately it ended on ANOTHER cliffhanger and it looks like we won't know all the answers until the final book comes out in 2020. While cliffhangers are good for maintaining interest, it made me give up on any type of thinking I was doing in the first book in trying to figure out the mystery. It's too much of a pain to try and track a solution through three books, one of which isn't even out. Still, the mystery kept me interested throughout this one and there's still a bit of will they or won't they for the love interest that I didn't mind. For both books, the LGBT+ and anxiety representation are also part of the perk. I'll definitely be reading the final book once it comes out.

American Kingpin (Nick Bilton)

6/10 A true crime book about 'Dread Pirate Roberts', creator of a site on the Dark Web selling drugs called the Silk Road. I previously heard about it briefly on an NPR podcast but this book really went into details. Like, almost too many details. It wrote more like a character driven story, with POVs from both DPR side and the police side. Overall, it was a pretty interesting story but the writing felt a bit too cliched. There wasn't any really great standout thriller moments and I really didn't like how the author would end like every other chapter with some dramatic cliffhanger. I think I made a similar complaint once about another book but when your chapters keep ending with stuff like 'little did they know...these days would be their LAST' it just takes the tension out of it. I'm also kind of cautious about how they chose to write from the subject's POV when the subject himself never gave an interview or had any input in writing it. Still, the events themselves were engaging enough to read about, even if the writing wasn't the most inspired.

Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng)

7.5/10 I had high expectations for this because I loved 'Little Fires Everywhere' but this one wasn't quite up to par. I did like the themes it was addressing, which were similar to that other book: parental expectations, racial disparities, complicated family life, etc. But this one wasn't quite as grounded, with a nonlinear style of storytelling that, while never confusing, failed to give me the same connection with the characters. It could also be the historical setting, which lent weight to the interracial marriage issues, but obviously didn't have the same gravity to me as issues in the present day. I also felt that the characters were a bit one-note, being defined solely by one aspect that they didn't feel as fleshed out. Despite the short length, a lot of it was really just repeating the same problems over and over. There was also a few major misunderstandings which I understand can be realistic but is still frustrating to read. The old 'you could've just solved this by talking to each other'. Other issues I felt was a bit too easily solved, like the mother realizing her daughter's true motivation just by finding a cookbook? It was all just a bit too removed for me. Still, there were emotional moments and its themes, while a bit heavy-handed, still resonate today.

East (Edith Pattou)

7/10 This was one of the books that I loved when I was younger and although I only had the vaguest memory of it I remembered enough to find it by googling 'a prince who's a bear and a girl washes wax'. It's a re-telling of a Norwegian folktale called 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon' which is already super poetic and I love it. Upon re-reading though...it wasn't as quite good as I hoped it was. For one, it's really, really long. For a YA book, it might not be that bad, but I don't feel like its difficulty is really up to YA levels either. It's in a weird place. The plot and its character are relatively simple and a lot of its length seems to be padding. The parts that were added in to flesh out the re-telling didn't really add anything to change it so I wish they could've trimmed it down and just stuck to a straight re-telling. It's weird because the book does span a few long periods of time but most of it was shortened by saying 'it was hard at first but [the heroine] soon got used to it' or something along those lines. The book was in multiple POVs which could've been interesting but two of them, Father & Neddy's. wasn't really all that necessary. They didn't do much beyond the first part. In comparison, the male lead, the White Bear, didn't even get that much page-time. Still, the fun of the original folktale is one of its strengths and it does a good job in translating that to a modern story, even if there's a bit of padding. The characters are likable, if not terribly distinctive. There a lot of potential here and at least it did make such a lasting impression on me.

Becoming (Michelle Obama)

9.5/10 I've always liked the Obamas, but as a non-American, I never really bothered too much to follow along with the politics and news so I was never a 'fan' of them in the same way I'd be a fan of a movie star or singer. But after reading this amazing biography and immediately searching up interview clips of the Obamas afterwards, I can say that's somewhat changed. I loved this book. Despite the fact that I looked at the 900 ebook page count and kind of balked, and despite the large chunk dedicated to her early life, I never felt bored reading it. She writes her story in a way that's so incredibly human and kind that you can't help but be moved. She's so educated and qualified and dignified in so many ways and writes about her husband in the same light that even as a non-American I feel like they were lucky to have them as the First Family. Her relationship with the people in her life, especially her husband, was so sweet and personal - I could've read a hundred more anecdotes. Even the way she writes about political opponents or the disappointment of the 2016 election, she does it in a way that never feels mean but rather emphatic and hopeful. Honestly, what an icon. It was a pleasure to read, and if I had one complaint, it'd be that I wish the parts about her time as First Lady was even longer. "Life was teaching me that progress and change happen slowly. Not in two years, four years, or even a lifetime. We were planting seeds of change, the fruit of which we might never see."

Read More

fourshadowing

I've all but abandoned every other monthly goal except for this one so fingers crossed

April Book Reviews

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (HP Lovecraft)

6/10 GODDAMN this was hard to get through. Not necessarily because it was bad, but just the dated tone combined with his own writing style made it difficult to process all the information. This was the first book this year that I had to renew to be able to finish it. Overall, because most of his stories are first hand accounts of events that happened in the past, the tense over the protagonists' survival is pretty much lost. A lot of the horror still feels informed, like it might we that we're too used to images of Cthulhu but reading about characters freaking out and tripping balls then having it described as a squid dragon...doesn't really have the intended effect. My favorite parts are the world building and the horror of humanity rather than the unknown. My least favorite is the dumb curiosity killed the cat characters and, you know, the racism. But I'm gonna get my library card's worth and review every single goddamn eldritch story. (italics are my reccs)
Dagon: Unremarkable, the usual Lovecraft setup, only notable in a footnote that informs us how much Lovecraft hated the smell of fish. 4/10
The Statement of Randolph Carter: I actually really liked the stinger line at the end, that was pretty great. 6/10
Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family: Again, the ending was kinda cool, but the intro took way too long to get there. 4.5/10
Celephais: Interesting in that the horror element is missing, had some cool world building in this one but not much plot. 4.5/10
Nyarlathotep: I didn't know dude was Egyptian. 3/10
The Picture in the House: I just find it funny how he writes the 'reveal twist' sentence in italics every time like it's meant to surprise us but we've already seen it coming a mile away. 3/10
The Outsider: A different concept, even if it is, again, one we saw coming. 4.5/10
Herbert West-Reanimator: A longer story of connected events and it pays off. Even if you question why at the end of each story the narrator reaffirms how aghast he is, he keeps showing up in the next one - like get out man. 7.5/10
The Hound: Another story about how white man's inability to resist shiny things destroys us all. 4/10
The Rats in the Walls: An actual bit of ghoulishness in the reveal (because of course, people are the real monsters) and a great ending. 7/10
The Festival: All I can think of is people riding crocodiles. 3/10
He: That sure is him alright. Unremarkable aside from all the racism, which at this point is overt in enough of his stories that it too is pretty much unremarkable. 4/10
Cool Air: While it was pretty obvious from the start, it was decent and at least memorable for the different concept it used. 5/10
The Call of Cthulhu: The titular story and while it didn't blow my mind, it was solid. It also has my favorite line: "The stars were right again, and what an age-old cult had failed to do by design, a band of innocent sailors had done by accident." 7/10
The Color Out of Space: An overall enjoyable read, and I liked that there wasn't too much description of the eldritch horror in this one but did drag on a bit. 5/10
The Whisperer in Darkness: It was good but I felt like it had potential to be greater. First of all, hard to take monsters seriously when you start describing them as crabs. Second of all, protagonist is dumb af and seriously is so blind to any sense of horror convention that it could only be a middle class white guy. Third, the concept of monsters mimicking humans and having human allies is pretty unique among his stories but I felt like it didn't take full advantage of it. Still, 7/10
The Shadow Over Innsmouth: A scene with actual tension takes place in this one, incredible. The origin story was pretty interesting to read too. 6/10
The Haunter of the Dark: Unremarkable, typical Lovecraft set up, typical white guy screwing over everyone else because he has too much free time on his hands.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Alan Bradley)

7.5/10 A solid, fun mystery novel!  The main character can sometimes be a little annoying as a precocious pre-teen brat, but the brilliance is that that's exactly what she is! An 11 year old written so that she really feels like one, aside from her prodigious interest in chemistry. She makes mistakes and takes actions that feel expected from an 11 year old. The story and plot, especially with a subject as seemingly dull as stamps, kept things rolling and made me invested in what happens next. The ending was a little predictable, but what led up to it was fun to follow as the protagonist connected the dots between all the clues we were given in the beginning.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Rachel Joyce)

7/10 I have the feeling that this is a 'good' book but it's not really for me. The main character is an old man who reflects on his life as he walks on the titular pilgrimage. There are themes of regret, the passing of time, missed opportunities, different kinds of love and how they change. It's well written, but I feel that these are things that you can really appreciate a lot more if you've gone through lots of experiences already. I enjoyed how they wrote the point of view from the wife's perspective a lot. Overall, it's not a book that changed my life but it's one I can see changing others'.

Homegoing (Yaa Gyasi)

9.5/10 What an experience to read this. The book begins with two sisters separated by colonialism, one who stayed in her home in Ghana and one sold into slavery. As they continue to follow generations of that split, it takes us through decades of history on two different continents. Although the main character of each generation only takes the spotlight for the length of a short story, you can really feel that each of them has a story to tell worth listening to. Not every story has a happy ending or really even an ending, but that's what makes it feel like the stories of real people. Even with those brief looks, the impacts of colonialism, history of slavery and institutional racism on two different continents are brilliantly portrayed. It's not something that you feel the book is preaching to you either, rather, like real life, it's something in the background that you only connect to those issues if you have an understanding of them. Above all, the constant theme of family both ancestral and domestic is something anyone can relate to. This novel was a journey in very sense of the word and one I recommend anyone to take.

Educated (Tara Westover)

7.5/10 This was a fairly interesting book to read in many ways. I compared it a lot with Hillbilly Elegy as both books are focused on children growing up in isolated, rural areas who go on to higher education at prestigious schools. There are lots of differences of course, especially religion and upbringing, but I did end up enjoying this one more. Although there were some points where I wanted more empirical explanations or scientific studies of economics and mental illnesses like the ones in Hillbilly Elegy, I realized that by not having them made the story seem more human. Most of all I liked that the book didn't even slightly try to generalize her story and it was much more emotional and introspective. It also benefited from not being solely centered on the American culture & experience like Hillbilly was. Still, I think this book is better served if treated like a fiction novel rather than a nonfiction memoir, as it loses its realism for its humanity. It also suffers from parts that seem to repeat and events that are similar to each other but don't seem to have too much of an impact. Of course the repetitive and disjointed events are reflective of memories, and we feel manage to feel the progress or lack of it that much more because of it. It's not quite a streamlined narrative to be a fully fleshed out fiction but too full of logical holes to be a satisfying nonfiction. But again, a world that seems so far removed from the norm is a pretty fascinating read and I enjoyed it.

Read More

three times lucky

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.

Read More

on a roll

Wow two whole months of reading look at me go

February Book Reviews

Three Dark Crowns (Kendare Blake)

8/10 My first book for February and it was a solid YA fantasy novel! Consider me pleasantly surprised. I haven't really enjoyed YA Fantasy since I was in high school so I guess you could say they really know their target audience. When most plots are 'girl discovers she's the one, gets involved in drama (usually involving royalty), and there's at least two guys who fight over her', I can get pretty cynical. But the premise for this one starts out with three queens with different powers who have to fight for one throne. So I thought that well, the worst case scenario is that 'three girls discovers she's the one' and it'll still be a step up from the usual. Plus the cover looked nice. And luckily it was better than the worst case scenario! All three girls are equal protagonists with fleshed out personalities and characteristics. Their powers and backgrounds are varied enough to make it interesting, including the secondary characters around them. I wasn't even that bothered by the romance, which they didn't make integral to the plot. My favourite thing was that the book never presented you with a clear candidate to root for, and it made the book worth reading. Of course it's a YA fantasy novel so of course they have sequels (ugh), but fortunately the ending hooks weren't too 'cliffhanger' and good enough that I felt satisfied reading it. Overall a solid read, although perhaps I'd still only recommend it to people who enjoy YA fantasy or at least, people who once did.

It almost doesn't matter what happened in the beginning because Katherine's ending blew it out of the water like HOT DAMN GIRL. Crawling back from literally hell with her teeth clenched and fingernails broken, I love it. "I want my crown, and then I want my revenge." I LOVE IT. Can't say the same for Arsinoe, who was my least favourite (not that I hated her or anything), whose ending had a out of nowhere reveal that secretly she had a power all along. What kind of cliche?? Although in hindsight her name should've been a dead giveaway. It's literally like a letter away from arsenic. Mirabella I really like as well and I'm rooting for her bringing her sisters around. Rooting for that OT3 end!!

One Dark Throne (Kendare Blake)

5/10 It took everything I liked about the first book and abandoned it pretty much. It focused more on the romance, A LOT MORE, and Katherine's deal was kind of complicated and instead of the unique approach of fleshing out each of the three protagonists, it became more of a straightfoward linear story. It also focused a lot on one particular side character and while I feel the kind of 'plot twist' they have going for her, it really wasn't what I picked up this book to read about. It basically just became another average YA fantasy novel; with girls discovering she has a long lost power, guys fighting over girls...etc. Is it better because it's spread out amongst three (four?) characters? Eh, not to me. It's not bad, but it's not mindblowing. Instead of being pleasantly surprised at a refreshing take on a genre I previously considered stale and cliche, it just reinforced my prejudice.

ALSO they took my favourite thing, Katherine as hell personified and revenge deified, and MADE IT A BAD THING!! Like no!!! They were all like oh its some evil spirits possessing her and her boyfriend was totally not being evil by pushing her into a pit because that's how they were ~*raised*~ like shut up!!! And they made Arsinoe a bigger character but her character is just not unlikeable. Then the hope I had of Mirabella's sweetness managing to band the sisters together to take down the world together was......not realized. Of course making the 'real' heroine be some side character, sure that's a bold move but she's not even that compelling of a character. NOT TO mention the new side character's power is some ooh ancient power that hasn't been used in forever oooh. Ugh.

Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House (Alyssa Mastromonaco)

3/10 A long-winded title and a long-winded book. I really did not enjoy this book. It may sound mean, but just reading through the first chapter and...it just sounds like a white lady wrote this. And not in a good way. I can't pin down anything specific but I disliked the author not even halfway through the book. Once again, I go back to expectations vs reality when it comes to books. I picked it up hoping it would be a thoughtful and interesting look into what it's like working closely to President Obama on Capitol Hill. Instead what I got was pages of the life and detailed health issues of some lady I've never heard of with some stories of the president in between. It really sounds mean, but I seriously do not care. I didn't come here for her biography, although I'm sure she feels like this is her biography. There's literally a chapter titled "Some Personal Shit You Should Probably Know". No, I really don't. And certainly, as woman working in a male dominated space, there should be plenty of surprising stories - or at least some that'd make you go 'hey I didn't think of that.' But other than some stuff about tampons, there really wasn't anything that jumped out at me. The only thing I took away from the book was like man I sure wish Obama was still the POTUS and I'm not even American.

The Mistletoe Murders and Other Stories (P.D. James)

6.5/10 It delivered on what was promised: short murder stories styled after the classic authors of the Golden Age of Mystery. Although none were particularly outstanding or memorable, each was pretty solid and made for a fun read. There were a couple stories that seemed more open-ended than I'd liked but on a whole I was pretty satisfied. I got what I came for. I'd recommend this book for anyone looking for a tasty bite-sized mystery. It's nothing too suspenseful, plot filled, or action-packed. I think the book's own closing remark summed it up best: "My dear Aunt Jane, I don't think I'll ever have another case like it. It was pure Agatha Christie."

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (J.D. Vance)

6/10 A fairly interesting and dramatic portrayal of the author's life growing up in the working class white families of America's Rust Belt. The author takes derogatory terms like 'hillbilly', 'redneck' and 'white trash' and not only illustrates their nuances but also wears them like pride. Through the retelling of his childhood growing up in Middle America, he examines the social, economic and cultural changes happening in the not insignificant portion of the population living there. Although I felt removed, again due to it being set in America with heavy emphasis on American culture, it was a thought provoking look into a vastly different way of life. However, I also felt that because his experience is so deeply personal, he tends to lean too heavily on the idea that many of the poor are poor because they choose to be. He repeats a dangerous rhetoric without fully fleshing out both sides of the argument but at the same time generalizing his experiences as a representative of his particular culture. It feels ultimately one-sided. Still, it's an absorbing read, with a dysfunctional family and a narrative about moving through class barriers to the top. But I think it's a good idea to keep in mind that it's not without its flaws and it is only one story out of countless others.

Norse Mythology (Neil Gaiman)

7/10 On the surface, this feels like a very basic introduction to Norse mythology. The major players are present and the most famous stories are included, or as many as possible in less than 300 pages. The stories are written very simply, without the typical gravitas or fantastical language usually reserved for myths and legends. There's parts of the dialogue that even sound modern, usually for comedic effect ("Thor, shut up"). I feel like it's a very good book for kids to read as their first look at Norse mythology. But despite the simplicity of it, there were certain lines and certain parts that stood out to me. I especially enjoyed the references to Ragnarok the most and they stuck with me the most. To quote the author himself, "It was the fact that the world and the story ends, and the way that it ends and is reborn, that made the gods and the frost giants and the rest of them tragic heroes, tragic villains."
Also, if you're a fan of Marvel's Thor movies, you'll probably enjoy the way Thor and Loki are written here. The uncomplicated writing style makes the characters seem very human, and it's not hard imagining Marvel's Loki and Thor in many of their exchanges like this one: “'I hope you know what you are doing.' 'Of course I do,' said Thor. But he didn’t. He was just doing whatever he felt like doing. That was what Thor did best."

Dear Ijeawele, Or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

6.5/10 A basic but solid introduction to feminist ideas. It doesn't go too in-depth, which I mean, what do you expect from 80 small pages? But it has some pretty good ideas for not just being feminist but generally a good human being. It's nothing too mindblowing, but I'd recommend it for people who are raising children themselves which is the premise of the book. If parents could keep some of these ideas in mind while teaching their daughters or sons, it probably wouldn't hurt.

Read More

guess what I'm still doing

Still reading!! I guess you could call me a bookworm :)) In that I consume books without truly understanding or appreciating anything.

January Book Reviews 

The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

7.5/10 First book for my New Years resolution of one book per month! I picked it because It was less than 200 pages and I mean, might as well start off with one goal accomplished right? This book is pretty much like The Little Prince. It reads kind of like a children's fairytale but makes it pretty obvious that everything is a metaphor for life. Follow your dreams! The world works in mysterious ways! Listen to your heart! I might sound sarcastic but it is actually a lovely little story. I don't think it matches up to The Little Prince, but it's not a bad read.

Bellevue Square (Michael Redhill)

2/10 Emboldened by my success at finishing a 200 page book, I tried reading another one and I HATED IT. The two points were pity points. Okay, maybe some points for the initial premise which sounded promising and interesting enough to make me pick it up. That and it was a Giller Prize Winner and people kept asking for it. I mean, if people are willing to pay money for it without knowing anything then I can at least try it out right? Well, I'm right but there's no heartwarming ending where it's a lesson of taking chances or whatever because I totally hated this book. It started out alright and moving forward with the blurb I read it was pretty good. Then it started getting...weird...and trippy...and confusing and totally threw me for a loop but not in a good way. It wasn't like wow what a rollercoaster of a ride, it was more like drinking something at a party and finding out it was spiked with drugs. I expected a little unusualness but it just threw out reality and didn't even resolve any of the questions it raised at the end. In summary: I hate having to suggest this book just because it was the grand prize winner. Down with the system!!

I was already pretty much lost on this book but when she stole a plane and flew it to some random town then starting burning down the tent that her doppelganger was giving a speech on about her book which was about her........like........calm down.

The Inner Life of Animals (Peter Wohlleben)

5/10 After the mind-fuck mess that was Bellevue Square, I decided to read a book in the totally opposite direction: a non-fiction book about animals and the natural world. And you know what, there is a heartwarming ending in which I learned a lesson and that lesson is: no matter how different the genre, there are going to be books that I dislike no matter what. Isn't that great? Granted, it wasn't a book that I hated but I don't particularly care for it. A lot of the book is just the author saying 'do animals really [human emotion]? It can never be proven by science but here's some anecdotal stories that say yes!' Which was really not what I picked up this book for. I mean, animals are great and there are lots of chicken soup for the soul stories that attest to the incredible complexity of animals. But I could find those on the internet! I just felt like I finished reading this book and learned almost nothing new or interesting, except for the fact that apparently the author is against the treatment of pigs raised as livestock. So. There's that.

Modern Romance (Aziz Ansari)

9/10 FINALLY!! After the disappointment of the previous two books I was like man I feel down, maybe I should pick a lighthearted humour book instead. And finally a book that delivered on my expectations. It was indeed, a light-hearted humour book. And not only that, I did learn a lot of new things! I can't speak for how reliable the research was except that it seemed legit but I did like how they covered the topic of romance in the modern age. They complied both hard numbers and collected anecdotes and complied them all with funny commentary to give a pretty interesting look at romance between now and then as well as in the US and other places of the world. It wasn't a laugh a minute type deal, but mixed the data with the comedy in an easy to read way and the writing was clever in some parts. The thing I appreciated the most about this book, and what I feared would be its biggest failing, was that they never took sides. They showed the ups and downs of dating whether it was in the pre-internet age or on Tinder; whether it's arranged marriages or meeting in a bar. It never tried to say which way was 'right' but stressed that it depended on the person, and how willing you are to work for a relationship that really makes it or breaks it. And I'd say just that conclusion alone is worth a read.

Ascent of Women: A New Age is Dawning for Every Mother's Daughter (Sally Armstrong)

6.5/10 A pretty good look at the rise of feminism in all parts of the world, although it's marred by a few drawbacks that prevent it from being a truly remarkable piece of work. I enjoyed that they didn't focus entirely on Western feminism and its rise in developed countries. Instead, most of the book contained stories and events happening in places that most people would consider the last place for women's rights: Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and parts of Southeast Asia. That focus also made some parts the hardest to get through, not because of the writing, but of some of the truly terrible things happening. It's definitely an eye opener for those who tend gloss over the horrifying details behind words like rape and female genital mutilation. While it's filled with stories of optimism, the author also does her best not to neglect to mention the overwhelming challenges and barriers still in place before anything can be really celebrated, which I appreciated. One of the biggest drawbacks is that in a world that's rapidly and constantly changing, the 2013 book is already outdated. It's hard reading about the women's roles in the Arab Spring and knowing the political situation in Egypt right now, but the book serves as a good reminder of things that are possible, no matter how small, that can be accomplished by women no matter where they are.

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Irin Carmon, Shana Knizhnik)

8/10 A surprsingly good read about a figure I really didn't know a lot about! The book lost a bit of relevancy for me because I'm Canadian so I still feel a bit detached from the drama of the US court system. But even with that, the book managed to portray a portrait of a woman who quietly persisted and patiently fought for what she deserved. Through her 80 years of challenges and successes, we could also see some of them reflected in the progress of feminism in the US as well. Although it does provide a limited view, that of mostly middle class, Caucasian women, but an interesting view nontheless. What I like most about RBG is that she's not an explosive, revolutionary figure. In her own words, she didn't like to 'rock the boat'. But it also didn't mean she went along with whatever people said. When it came down to the things that mattered to her, she took a stand in her own way. An enjoyable read about an impressive woman (and just a bit of a messed up political/justice situation).

Read More