Alright in direct contrast to last month, this month started off strong and ....uh...let's hope 2020 is NOT like this.
Showing posts with label graphic novel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label graphic novel. Show all posts
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Saturday, November 30, 2019
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.Sunday, June 30, 2019
six going on seven
Read quite a few books this month but...nothing too spectacular unfortunately. Had a lot of 'non fiction books with lots of pictures' going on though.
June Book Reviews
The Rook (Daniel O'Malley)
8.5/10 This book, settings-wise, is kind of similar to "The Atrocity Archives", a book if you recall, is a book I absolutely hated. Both books are about an administrator in a secret organization responsible with dealing with supernatural threats who uncover a deep conspiracy. So while I was intrigued by the premise, I was also a little on guard. Luckily, I need not have worried. This was a great page-turner of a book. Despite the long page count, I went through it in no time at all. I loved reading about the organization, the various paranormal happenings, and getting to the bottom of the mystery. Most of all, I really liked the characters. The protagonist is a woman who wakes up with no memory, with only letters written to her from herself as a guide. As the story went on I found myself actually missing the author of the letters, who effectively 'died' when her memories and personality was erased. I really liked this take on amnesia, as well as the new protagonist finding her new self. Still, there were a couple of parts where I felt the male authorship behind the female protagonist, but it wasn't too bad. A lot of exposition also comes from the letters, which while having a logical reason to do so and is usually interesting to read, is still just straight up infodump. It's literally the blandest way to present information. It's really a test of the story that I still enjoyed reading through everything. A really fun urban fantasy story with a good pace and enjoyable protagonist.Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery (David Attenborough)
6.5/10 This would make a neat gift for someone who's into natural history but otherwise is a pretty boring book. I didn't feel engaged at all reading about the lives of the several artists/scientists involved, which felt more Wikipedia entry than anything. I was disappointed that the majority of the book wasn't actually written by David Attenborough but instead a separate author for the different people featured. There were notes on the flora and fauna that were the subjects of the many natural history art pieces that were by Attenborough and these were probably my favorite parts. I would've loved so more of these notes, which were really just Fun Facts About Nature but really made me feel like I could hear Attenborough's iconic voiceovers. It also helped to give a little life to the subjects themselves and even a little to the artists that would've otherwise have just been well made but meaningless pictures. The only person I bothered to remember was Maria Merian who in her 50s went off to Surinam with her daughter as her only companion just to look at butterflies. She is the originator of the quote that gave the book its title "many amazing rare things which have never been seen before" and is, surprise surprise, the only female naturalist in the book.Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics (Jason Porath)
6.5/10 This would make a neat gift for someone who is in the teens and tweens but otherwise is a pretty shallow book. I hope you've noticed the similarities between the start of this review and the one above it. Both books are good books with their merits, but I am not the audience for them. This book is pretty clearly targeted towards younger readers, it has a cartoon-ish art style and a casual, more juvenile style of humor, both of which I didn't really like. To its credit, a good chunk of the book features historical female figures that I haven't heard of previously. I had mixed feelings on including myths and folklore together with actual historical figures but it was nice to read about. The entries I suppose are more introductions than anything so you can do more research on the ones that interest you but unfortunately none of them actually made me interested enough to do so. I would've preferred something closer to Broad Strokes, where the subjects are limited as to expand more on their lives and treated with a more personal passion rather than an overall broader 'feminist' tone. Still the scope of this book and its more progressive view on the more mature and moral ambiguity of some of its subjects make it a pretty good book for readers that aren't me.A Gathering of Shadows (V. E. Schawb)
4.5/10 OOF. Alright I didn't like this sequel. The first book was such a solid, well-rounded fantasy and this was? What was even the point of this? I got to about half way through the book and I was like wow this is so slow to get started! Then I got to two-thirds through the book and I'm like is this ever going to get started? Then I got to the final chapter and I'm like okay clearly nothing is ever going to happen. Nothing happened other than introducing one new character and just some introspective character studies. It had some plot with White London that went nowhere for most of the book. I felt like this could've been condensed into a couple of chapters - Lila is good at magic, Alucard is the prince's love interest, Kell wants to be free - a couple of points that could've been communicated through a couple scenes, not an entire book. Plus there was a lot more emphasis on love interests in this book. I liked the hint of something between Lila and Kell in the first book but in this book they don't meet for a good 80% of the book but instead spent it thinking about each other like?? I didn't feel like it was that deep! All the great worldbuilding and magic system from the first one was nothing more than fluff. I'm still gonna read the last book but I fully feel like this one could've been skipped.West (Edith Pattou)
4.5/10 I didn't like it and I didn't hate it. It lost a lot of its appeal for me after the main draw of the first book - the folktale - was left behind for a more traditional fantasy fare. Unfortunately it was pretty bland. I wish that the male hero could've been a little more prominent? It's a request I almost never make but honestly, not sure what the point of having Charles there when he's almost completely ineffectual. Either have him be a side character like in the first one or have him do a lot more than...just be there. I guess the slight angst from the amnesia is alright...Also even the quest that the female protagonist went on this time was just going around in circles. A lot of anti-climatic fights with the villains happen. They go from one locale to the next with no real suspense or intrigue. Such a entirely forgettable book.The Umbrella Academy (Gerard Way)
4.5/10 This was....interesting. I guess. Honestly, it's not really for me. It's an interesting world, but because it's so out there, being thrown into it with little exposition didn't really help. It jumped all over the place, the characters were barely developed. I had no time to get attached to anybody before stuff happened to them. The plot moved way too quickly. I don't know if that's just the nature of comic books but the Apocalypse Suite felt like a five volume set compressed into one. There was so much happening. I felt like it had a lot of potential, especially with Vanya. Their powers could've used some more demonstration as well. Maybe that's why the Netflix adaptation was so popular? Because the world and set up intrigued me but the pacing was too fast and some of the art style & details put me off. Worth checking out the show maybe? But didn't really like the comic.Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures & Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs (Paul Koudounaris)
5/10 Who would've thought that a book talking about ancient catacombs and skeletons covered in jewels would be boring? And yet, here we are. It was so hard trying to read this book. It was dry as the corpses it was talking about. Maybe it's because I'm not religious or Catholic, but the way they wrote about the history of these skeletons was so cut and paste. Or maybe it's because I'm not academic enough? Either way it's not really a book for the casual, barely interested reader. Still, the pictures are neat and the skeletons look cool so...there's that.How to Fracture a Fairy Tale (Jane Yolen)
6/10 I've been disappointed by fairy tale retelling compilations time and time again...but I keep coming back. This one was actually pretty okay as things go. Really 'okay' as it had it's ups and downs. I think I actually liked the more original stories more than the ones that were obvious retellings. The usual suspects like Snow White or Little Mermaid or Cinderella, where you could tell immediately which story it was they were using, I didn't like as much. Without a full book to flesh out the characters in their own way, the changes felt cosmetic and shallow. Even with the changes like giving the heroine more agency, ultimately it was still in black and white morality. Rather the ones where the author used elements from lesser known folklore to create a fairy tale of her own were the best. Because the parody wasn't obvious, the writing style she used really shone through as it sounded like a real folk tale, something that could've come straight out of Grimm's own books. My favorites in this style were 'Great Grandfather Dragon's Tale' and 'Godmother Death'. The tone of the book was also all over the place, all of them of varying quality. Some were retellings, some sounded like traditional folk tales, and other's just felt like a regular short story with fantasy elements. 'Mama Gone' was one that I liked but barely felt 'fairy tale' like. There were quite a few Jewish stories which were interesting by themselves, but didn't feel like fairy tales at all. Truly mixed reviews with this one.Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo)
8/10 A solid action fantasy that's a fun read as long as you don't think about it too hard. It had some really great set-ups, enjoyable scenes, memorable characters and strong story but the devil was in the details. I really liked the characters, but it felt way too weird that they were seventeen-ish. One moment I'd be thinking 'wow they're really cool' then the next moment they'd do something really awkward and I'd be like 'oh right they're like, 17'. The cognitive dissonance between the more emotional character moments and the more action/plot focused moments really thew me off. I loved reading the latter more, seeing all their skills in action whereas the romances were awkward enough to remind me that I was reading about teenagers. I actually liked the overall set-up more than the actual heist, although there were some character moments in it that I enjoyed as well. There were also other little details like how I felt some of their motives for joining the heist, especially Kaz's, were a little weak, how easy it was to bypass some of the difficulties at the heist and the limits of Grisha powers. Still, as long as I didn't think too hard, it was a great read with good characters and a decent plot.Friday, May 31, 2019
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."Tuesday, April 30, 2019
april showers
A truly average month for reading.
April Book Reviews
The Last Hope (Erin Hunter)
5.5/10 I'll be real, I heard that (spoiler alert) Firestar dies in this one and I wanted to see how it went down. So basically, I loved the first Warriors series, the original one focusing on Firestar & his journey. I read a bit of the second series, but quickly lost interest. I never forgot my cat son though, and when I heard that this book was where his story ended (kind of, I'm sure he gets up to all sorts of antics in StarClan), I really wanted to find out how. So basically, I wasn't super interested in the actual characters from the Power of Three series. I'm kind of weirded out by the fact that StarClan used to be just this higher power that occasionally contacted very special cats to them just being regular cats except they live in another forest. The fact that the climax was a bunch of real cats straight up fighting ghosts...? Weird. But I'm not gonna lie, I did cry when reading Firestar's scene. It's not like the writing was exceptional in anyway but the fact that this character was the FIRST protagonist, that we know him from when he was just a smol kitty, to see him meet a pretty symbolic end made me emotional. It felt kind of rushed, kind of fast, but it is a book for younger children after all. Listen, I just love Firestar a lot okay.Saga, Vol. 1 (Brian K. Vaughan)
4.5/10 I know, I know everyone loves this series. I know it's critically acclaimed. It's just really not my cup of tea. I didn't like any character in particular, certainly not the main characters. The narrator kind of had me interested but she doesn't even show up as a character in her own right. I'm not a fan of the random sex or the alien design. The Romeo and Juliet storyline didn't really feel wholly engaging to me. I'm sure others would find those exact things interesting, but it's just not my thing. I'm not into it.Felicity (Mary Oliver)
6.5/10 A collection of poetry. Not much to say here really, I've never been a fan of the newer style of poetry coming out from young adults - you know the ones, meaningful sentences without capitalization broken up by paragraph breaks. Not to say they don't have merit or they can't connect with a reader, but just that I'm probably not the intended audience. For this collection, I felt like there was a rhythm and feel to the poems that I enjoyed. They seemed to bear some similarity to an older style of poetry that I prefer. I also liked that the topics ranged from the natural world to life to love. However that being said, there wasn't one poem that I really felt moved by or one that I felt like I wanted to write down and remember. Poetry is arguably one of the more subjective genres, so I don't feel like it's anything against the book itself.Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales (P.D. James)
8/10 The last short story collection I read by P. D. James was 'The Mistletoe Murders' which I enjoyed. I thought it was a solid read, even if nothing particularly stood out to me. In this one, she replicates the classic Golden Age style of murder mystery that I love so much with the same dependable quality. I did enjoy this one more than 'The Mistletoe Murders' however, because of the overall theme, which focused on the point of view of the guilty. While generally 'the narrator did it' or 'reverse whodunit' show up from time to time, to have the entire collection of stories be focused around that was really interesting to me. My favorite was probably 'The Girl Who Loved Graveyards' followed by 'A Very Desirable Residence' and 'The Yo-Yo'.The Giver: Graphic Novel (P. Craig Russell)
8/10 I picked up the book because I vaguely remember reading 'The Giver' in class when I was young but the only thing I remember about it is that it was good. I had wanted to revisit the book so when the graphic novel adaptation came out, I thought it would be a good chance. Because I don't really have any solid memory of the original book, I'm just treating this on its own rather than judging it based on how good of an adaptation it is. And I do like the story! It felt short but sweet. I loved the ambiguous ending, even if the plot itself was little predictable. I also really liked how they were able to convey the visuals of Jonas' ability to 'see beyond' in color. Not sure how it holds up next to the book itself, but at least it was a graphic novel I enjoyed reading.My Sister, the Serial Killer (Oyinkan Braithwaite)
6.5/10 The book is about a woman who gets a call from her sister to help her clean up a murder, and it's not the first one she's gotten. A really cool idea but unfortunately didn't live up to my expectations. I was expecting it either to be a full on tense, thriller mystery or a black comedy, satirical type of story. My impression of it was instead that it was serious, but the disjointed style of writing failed to give it any gravity. While it never felt confusing, it did feel hazy which lost some of the tension. Still, the characters were really interesting, especially the protagonist, if not altogether likeable. I had mixed feelings about the ending, but it was one that suited the story. Overall, not bad but with how intriguing the initial concept was, I was left a little disappointed.Friday, November 30, 2018
no book november
November Book Reviews
Pachinko (Min Jin Lee)
8.5/10 In all honesty, this should've been a 9+ book for me. It had everything I loved; themes of family and identity, a sweeping narrative that takes us through 70 years of history and four generations, thoughtful in-depth looks at social issues...and don't get me wrong. All of that was great. But unlike similar books like Homegoing, it didn't leave as much as an impact. The later generations failed to grab me as much as the earlier ones, and there were parts that seemed rushed or not elaborated on enough. Still, I really appreciated how it highlighted the social issues of the time, which still echo down today. The issues of race, identity and homelands is of course at the forefront, but also interesting to me was the casual way the misogyny of the times were portrayed. I really liked how natural it felt, that things were expected of women and no one really questioned it, especially the women. The ordinary way it was a part of the world made it even more extraordinary and I really appreciated the lowkey approach. While it still was a good book, it just lacked that extra factor for me to consider it one of my favs.
The Adventure Zone: Here Be Gerblins (Clint McElroy)
8/10 A solid adaption of a well-loved (and well-deserved) D&D podcast! I've listened to the first arc of this podcast before, which is what this volume is based on. The two things I really appreciated about TAZ were the humor, and the unconventional ways they change up the typical high fantasy D&D environment. I thought this graphic novel managed to convey both rather well! I especially liked the colorful, almost casual comic style. It works for their style of humor by having comedic expressions and exaggerated scenes rather than detailed fantasy artwork. I also liked how they incorporated the fourth wall breaking DM comments. I'll be on the outlook for their next arc!Women Talking (Miriam Toews)
4.5/10 I can definitely see where the value of this book comes from. The set up is a prime metaphor for women's issues as well as the role religion plays in those issues. There's a lot of discussion to be had about the characters, the choices they make and how that reflects on society today. But...I did not enjoy reading this book. Honestly, if I was forced to write on essay on it for a class I might have appreciated this book more. But as a reader, the writing felt unbearably tedious and rigid, the topics repetitive and dull...and all this with its short length too. The worst part of it is, (and this might too be a metaphor) the POV for this women's conversation is a man. And such an annoying one too, I really could not stand his random facts. I went back and gave Animal Farm a higher score after reading this because both of them seem like they'd be really good study topics but at least Animal Farm was way more engaging to read.Women & Power (Mary Beard)
6/10 I feel like this book might have been way more compelling as an actual lecture or even better, a TED talk. It's an interesting angle she takes by comparing the treatment of women in Greco-Roman historical context to that of Western society today, especially with the influence that the culture had on Western civilization. Still, this book didn't really present anything mind blowing. There were some points that I thought were interesting and I still remember, such as points on Medusa and the fashion choices of women in power both in the past and today. But there were other points where I felt like the references she was making felt a little forced, or weren't as unique and memorable. Even the topics that I did like, the entire thing was a bit too short for her to go in-depth and expand on them. Overall, it was an alright read but not exactly epiphanic for me.A Murder in Time (Julie McElwain)
5.5/10 Alright, so this book could've been half as long and it would've been twice as good. Honestly, it's not a bad concept: FBI agent slips back into time, solves a murder, flirts with a handsome marquise. What's not to love? But the book has so much goddamn filler. The intro and build ups take way too long. Like saying "and he'll murder again!" once as a chapter closing is fine but when they do it 5 times it just ends up with me going "bitch I hope the fuck you do". The protagonist is also way too much of a Mary Sue. It's not enough that's a top FBI agent in a male dominated world, she's also got some BS backstory about her being a superbaby (and therefore also parental figure issues? I don't know). She's got all the spunk and sass of a 21st century gal! While some of the characters are presented as having a 'modern' attitude, most of them are just there to make the protagonist look good by saying dumb, presumably historically accurate things. It's just too unbelievable sometimes. And speaking of unbelievable, the almost non existent build up for the main couple. Still, despite all my complaints, it was easy to read and good in a fanfiction standard kind of way. I'm sort of curious how the story will continue from this book. Like I said, it's a neat concept and it could be fun as a mystery series with the MC solving cases in the past. Now if all of them could just be...shorter.Undead Girl Gang (Lily Anderson)
8/10 I actually really enjoyed this book! It does have all the trappings of a typical high school YA fic, the stereotypical cliques, the loner 'outcast' protagonist, but it also manages to turn some of them around. I really like the concept to begin with and I liked the blend of mystery novel with a hint of urban fantasy. What I loved most about the whole Wicca and spells element of the book was that it didn't try to push the idea that it was all real and everyone can do it as long as they buy the right ingredients from their local New Age/Occult shop. "Spells are just prayers with more steps and a name that scares people." I expected it to go the other way considering the premise is literally about a spell that succeeds in bringing people back to life, but I'm pleasantly surprised. I liked the cast of characters and the female friendship theme. At the heart of it, that's really what a lot of the appeal is with witches and Wicca and covens, especially for teenagers. We're all just trying to be a little less lonely.Wednesday, October 31, 2018
boo-ks
The real terror is not reading a single book I definitively loved. That and my ever growing pile of books to read while I do anything but read them.
but I guess it added a mild bit of individuality. Like I want to say that this book had good ideas but didn't go anywhere with them but...did it even have any good ideas? Ehh....
October Book Reviews
Meddling Kids (Edgar Cantero)
5.5/10 This book had its highs and lows for me. I liked the concept of a Scooby gang-esque group reuniting after they grow up and re-investigating an old case only to discover that there was real supernatural forces involved. The kids themselves though...didn't really grow on me. Andy especially, her whole character was built around her crush on Kerri, to the point where it was getting kind of overbearing. Like girl, you're not a teenager anymore, keep it together!! My favorite character was honestly probably the dog. The beginning took way, way too long and I really struggled to keep going. The high point was definitely the last few chapters when they returned to the house and the action really kicked in. While it had plenty of nods to Lovecraft canon, the vibe itself was nowhere near actual Lovecraft stories. I was also thrown off by the writing style changes but really loved the twists at the end. Overall, it was fine but it could've been better.Split Tooth (Tanya Tagaq)
1.5/10 Um. Let's just say I'm not a fan of this style of writing. I get that it's supposed to be poetic, but it just threw me off. The random events, the random poetry, the random New Age spiritualism, the random animal sex, listen...I just. It's just not my thing. You could call it 'a mystical journey of the relationship between man and nature, a look at the shamanistic rituals of the past' and I could call it 'a woman giving a fox a blowjob'. You could call it 'weaving a line between reality and invention, an ancient myth reborn in the present' and I could call it 'a bad acid trip'. Let's agree to disagree and never speak of this book again.The Perfect Girlfriend (Karen Hamilton)
4/10 I'm not a fan of domestic thrillers and unfortunately this book didn't change my mind. It wasn't exactly bad, it was just more of a genre I'm not particularly into. There were some parts, especially in the beginning, where I was interested in where the plot was going or what the protagonist was going to do next. But after the climax, I felt that it had less direction and the main character didn't impress me as much, instead growing more far-fetched and crazy in a mental kind of way than realistically sinister. While the ending with the 'twist' reveal was fun, I wasn't so much surprised at her final actions as I thought she would've done it sooner. It was easy to read through, I'll give it that, but it didn't do too much for me.Lovecraft Country (Mat Ruff)
7.5/10 "But even the talk of magic wasn't that peculiar, for most of them spoke of it as they would of money, or politics or any other means of bending the world to their will." It was an interesting read, and there were definitely some high points, but overall it failed to really pull me in and the story seemed vaguely disjointed. Rather than an overarching story with a clear focus, it kind of jumps around POVs (albeit with the same underlying plot), and I had a hard time really getting in and focusing on finishing the book. Still, it had some neat ideas and great moments. The Lovecraft part of the title is more of an homage to his themes than anything stylistically or tonally similar. Still, I'll give it props because it touched upon the one theme that so many other works inspired by Lovecraft have failed to address: the racism. It really added an unique quality and the setting of the American Midwest during the Jim Crowe era isn't a common location for horror which was great too. A story with its highs and 'meh's but it wasn't bad.How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men's Feelings (Sarah Cooper)
7.5/10 A hilarious, fun to read, but not anything groundbreaking or fresh. It's pretty much what the internet has said and pointed out countless times, the sexism that women face in the workplace. There's multitudes of similar stuff on social media that talk about double standards and man-splaining. None of the things she says is particularly standout but it was still funny to read. The layout and formatting of the book was great, the stuff it talks about is definitely real and I like that it didn't try to go too heavy. It was light on subsistence but sometimes that what you need, just some humor to help point out the ridiculous. It's definitely a fun book and I think it'd make a fantastic present for all the HBIC.Monstress, Vol.1: Awakening (Marjorie Liu)
5/10 Monstress has some amazing art, incredibly detailed, the world is beautifully imagined and the character designs are gorgeous. I like its mix of Western and Eastern art style, so it doesn't come off as completely one or the other. However, it falls short in terms of introducing you to the setting itself. It's a pretty high fantasy world, with various factions, races and histories. But the story just throws you in media res, there's no time to fully grasp what's going on at all. There seems to be two groups fighting a war? People with animal ears? The main character has some monster thing inside her? There are two kinds of talking cats??? While mildly intriguing, it's way too confusing for me to actually be invested in the story.Alice (Christina Henry)
4.5/10 Ehhh...so this book is supposed to be dark, gritty re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland. First of all, like there isn't enough of those but I'm the one who decided to read it so we'll let it pass for now. But even with that common premise, there's nothing too much to differentiate it. Like we start off with Alice in an asylum! Wow! Groundbreaking. The characters in the story are humans in this one, like okay. There's some random love interest who's older than her and she like loves him immediately with almost zero buildup? A lot of the 'darkness' feels like it comes from a need to be edgy rather than actually making it sinister. The ending was so anticlimacticbut I guess it added a mild bit of individuality. Like I want to say that this book had good ideas but didn't go anywhere with them but...did it even have any good ideas? Ehh....