diff --git a/_data/books.yaml b/_data/books.yaml new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6b5f31 --- /dev/null +++ b/_data/books.yaml @@ -0,0 +1,2134 @@ +--- +- gr_id: 204640575 + title: Fang Fiction + author: Kate Stayman-London + rating: 3 + read: 2024/09/08 + review: 'If you’ve ever wanted to wake up one day only to realize Buffy/True Blood + were basically documentaries, this book might be for you!

I was pleasantly + surprised to discover this was a good-vs-evil-vampire-shenanigans book rather + than a romance novel (absolutely minimal spice if you’re worried). It has: pop + culture references, feminism, queer characters, fan fic about fan fic (it’s meta, + think about it), witches, some serious topics (like sexual assault) but also some + teen angst vibes (as a treat). And most importantly, an actual plot!

The + only negative was that the writing was sometimes repetitive, but hey: I didn’t + rewatch the entirety of Buffy at least twice for its literary writing.

Thanks + to the publisher for (my first ever) e-arc.' +- gr_id: 62926938 + title: The Seven Year Slip + author: Ashley Poston + rating: 4 + read: 2024/09/01 + review: Another little weird romance, this time with time travel. Extremely cute, + not wholly unpredictable. +- gr_id: 59475768 + title: The Invocations + author: Krystal Sutherland + rating: 3 + read: 2024/09/01 + review: Magic little witch girls solve a serial killer mystery. Very cozy summerween + read. +- gr_id: 181853964 + title: Happily Never After + author: Lynn Painter + rating: 2 + read: 2024/08/20 + review: Full of cliches and bad writing. I remember liking “Better than the Movies” + which is why I picked this up, but I wasn’t into any bits of this one. +- gr_id: 56179372 + title: 'Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery' + author: Brom + rating: 2 + read: 2024/08/19 + review: Hell hath no fury like a witch scorned by puritans. Premise is fine but + the writing was sooooo slow and predictable. I almost didn’t finish it. The spoopy + drawings were a wonderful treat though. +- gr_id: 199261152 + title: A Novel Love Story + author: Ashley Poston + rating: 3 + read: 2024/07/31 + review: Ashley Poston writes the slightly weird sweet stories, and I think that’s + a welcome change. She’s basically like the Twilight Zone of romance books — sometimes + there’s ghosts, and sometimes there’s imaginary book towns, and even though the + story or characters could do with 15 more minutes in the oven, you probably won’t + regret nibbling on it. A raw cookie is still better than no cookie. +- gr_id: 21400742 + title: Outline + author: Rachel Cusk + rating: 0 + read: 2024/07/26 + review: 'I DNFed at 50%. In this book characters don’t talk to each other; they + just monologue for 50 pages at a time about their life and things they experience + and how they interpret them internally, but they’re never talking with one another. + It wasn’t for me, in the same way that reading philosophy isn’t for me: I do not + care about people’s inner emotional life if they only tell me about it and I’m + just there to consume the fire hose.' +- gr_id: 56179382 + title: Comfort Me with Apples + author: Catherynne M. Valente + rating: 3 + read: 2024/07/07 + review: I really liked the first 80% of it, and slightly disliked the ending. The + premise has “don’t worry darling” / “westworld” vibes, but I was hoping the ending + to be weirder than it ended up being. +- gr_id: 96177629 + title: Good Material + author: Dolly Alderton + rating: 3 + read: 2024/07/06 + review: Men really would do anything but go to therapy. Even men written by a woman. +- gr_id: 39927096 + title: 'Less (Arthur Less, #1)' + author: Andrew Sean Greer + rating: 3 + read: 2024/07/05 + review: There’s this bit where the main character (a writer) is telling someone + else what his book is about, and this is their reaction:

“A white middle-aged + American man walking around with his white middle aged American sorrows. It’s + hard to feel sorry for a guy like that.”
“Even gay?”
“Even gay.”

And + that’s basically how I feel about this book. +- gr_id: 984210 + title: 'Eclipse (The Cleave Trilogy #1)' + author: John Banville + rating: 0 + read: 2024/05/23 + review: I DNFed this book but not because it’s bad. It’s truly so beautifully written, + like prose poetry, but I’m 60% in and absolutely nothing has happened. There’s + only so much poetry I can read about the mundane of a slightly weird middle aged + man. You know how people say they’d listen to Morgan Freeman read the phone book + because his voice is so perfect? I feel like that about this book, only it turns + out after 6 hours the phone book gets a bit slow. +- gr_id: 63094957 + title: The Rachel Incident + author: Caroline O'Donoghue + rating: 3 + read: 2024/05/06 + review: Coming of age in Ireland. I can’t remember if I queued this because I’m + on an Irish kick (it is; I am) or because someone said it reads like sally rooney + (it doesn’t). +- gr_id: 194802722 + title: Funny Story + author: Emily Henry + rating: 0 + read: 2024/04/27 + review: '' +- gr_id: 60683957 + title: Check & Mate + author: Ali Hazelwood + rating: 4 + read: 2024/03/30 + review: Ughhhhh I wanted to hate this so much. I don’t like YA, I don’t like books + that open with a thousand pop culture references to really pander to their audience + (gen z in this case), I don’t like martyr main characters and most importantly + I have a really miserable hate/hate relationship with chess. This book is super + unlikely and it’s like The Queens Gambit but without drugs and mostly just about + the rom com and yet here we are. 4ish stars. I enjoyed reading it and I’ll probably + remember nothing from it in a week. What a world. +- gr_id: 49090884 + title: Tender Is the Flesh + author: Agustina Bazterrica + rating: 4 + read: 2024/03/30 + review: "“The human being is complex and I find the vile acts, contradictions, and + sublimities characteristic of our condition astonishing. Our existence would be + an exasperating shade of gray if we were all flawless.”

I love reading + some of the community reviews for this book that are like “this worldview is so + unlikely! I can’t believe humans would ever do this” because this is 100% absolutely + what humans would do. The reason why I liked this book is because it’s not even + the world building that’s grim — it’s the ending, and I can’t tell you why without + spoiling it.
" +- gr_id: 60784546 + title: 'Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)' + author: Rebecca Ross + rating: 3 + read: 2024/03/08 + review: Read this on a beach, which it was perfect for. It’s like a You’ve Got Mail + but with war time correspondents and magical typewriters. If you’re put off by + fantasy, don’t be — the magic stuff is minimal, the focus is on the rom com. +- gr_id: 32758901 + title: 'All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)' + author: Martha Wells + rating: 4 + read: 2024/03/08 + review: Loved the premise, and it has me hooked for the series. The story is a short + and classic shenanigans in space — I imagined it as a cheesy Event Horizon vibes + adventure. +- gr_id: 61324696 + title: Brutes + author: Dizz Tate + rating: 3 + read: 2024/03/07 + review: Mehhhh. I didn’t know what was really going on most of the time, which I + think improves my memory of this book? Like in my mind it was gonna be real good + and weird, but it wasn’t in reality. I liked how weird those kids were but they + needed to be more murdery or horrory or culty or something. +- gr_id: 61771675 + title: Hello Beautiful + author: Ann Napolitano + rating: 4 + read: 2024/03/07 + review: A 3.5 stars rounded up. I love an intergenerational literary family drama. + I think the book maybe wants itself to be a modern Little Women? It was well written + and enjoyable, even if I didn’t really connect personally with any of the characters. +- gr_id: 51196859 + title: 'How to Pronounce Knife: Stories' + author: Souvankham Thammavongsa + rating: 4 + read: 2024/03/04 + review: Beautifully written but heartbreaking, a very Can lit combination. What + broke my heart the most was the loneliness of immigrant parents, stuck in this + liminal space of not quite here and definitely not there anymore, especially as + their kids moved on. I have one of these parents, I am one of these children, + so I overflowed with empathy and sadness quite a bit. +- gr_id: 101124639 + title: Bright Young Women + author: Jessica Knoll + rating: 4 + read: 2024/03/02 + review: Sometimes I felt the writing was a bit too “the little woman that could” + for a story about serial killings, but it doesn’t hurt the story, or tbh the reader. + The reality is that the 70s weren’t very kind to women. Even though this is fiction, + it’s hard to read about the police incompetence, victim blaming, and homophobia + and not believe it happened for realsies. It still happens now; of COURSE it happened + to sorority girls in the 70s. +- gr_id: 13538873 + title: 'Mr. Penumbra''s 24-Hour Bookstore (Mr. Penumbra''s 24-Hour Bookstore, #1)' + author: Robin Sloan + rating: 4 + read: 2024/02/23 + review: Remember when you were young and used to read these adventure books where + a group of heroes would get together and go through trials in quest for a holy + grail? This is that book, only instead of wizards and dragons it’s got Google, + secret societies, and books and libraries. If you, like me, live in San Francisco, + the local references might also warm your heart. +- gr_id: 52857700 + title: 'House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City, #3)' + author: Sarah J. Maas + rating: 2 + read: 2024/02/12 + review: This book was a messssssss. Could’ve done with the whole first third of + the book. Could’ve done without the entire Ithan storyline which was deranged + and felt a lot like someone was rolling a dice trying to pick what things to happen + next. Bryce was a bit of a wanker throughout. The ending was just pure chaos. + And yet, I’ll prolly still read the next SJM. +- gr_id: 29751398 + title: The Power + author: Naomi Alderman + rating: 3 + read: 2024/01/31 + review: What a great and clever premise and grim execution. I truly hoped the entire + time that the women wouldn’t turn into violent and abusive men, but I guess when + given the chance and a little bit of power, we’re all just a version of lord of + the flies. +- gr_id: 75513900 + title: 'Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy, #1)' + author: Lauren Roberts + rating: 3 + read: 2024/01/08 + review: Very, very Hunger Games vibes. Unlike HG, I didn’t really understand the + motivation of most of the characters for participating (like, death for shits + and giggles? Weird hobby to have), but it didn’t really affect the story. +- gr_id: 58476152 + title: Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century + author: Kim Fu + rating: 3 + read: 2024/01/07 + review: 'More like a 3.5. I think the title is very smart and I really appreciate + it: each story is about a little horrible thing someone does; it’s not even that + important in the grand scheme of things. So good!

I love magical realism + as a concept, and unsurprisingly, I loved the magical realism stories the most: + “Liddy, first to fly”, “Sandman”, “June Bugs” were my absolute favourites. Normal + situations infused with a weird and magical thing. In these stories, everything + is possible. “Climbing nation”, on the other hand, lives entirely in the normal, + real, world, and it’s still very good.
' +- gr_id: 22544764 + title: Uprooted + author: Naomi Novik + rating: 3 + read: 2023/12/26 + review: I thought this was just ok. A lot of my friends loved it, and it won awards, + so I expected to like it a lot more. I really like the premise, I think i just + don’t like the pace and the writing style. In the last 20% I was antsy to finish + it, skimming over paragraphs, without really caring how it ends; I remember having + a similar problem with the Scholomance series. It just all felt… tedious. +- gr_id: 62039153 + title: 'The Stolen Throne (Dominion, #2)' + author: Abigail Owen + rating: 3 + read: 2023/12/24 + review: '' +- gr_id: 57693245 + title: 'The Liar''s Crown (Dominions, #1)' + author: Abigail Owen + rating: 3 + read: 2023/12/24 + review: A little fantasy adventure, as a vacation treat? Very ACOTAR-like. +- gr_id: 62047984 + title: Yellowface + author: R.F. Kuang + rating: 3 + read: 2023/12/19 + review: This book stressed me out! I think it’s a well written book, about a relevant + and interesting topic (who gets to tell which stories/where does inspiration end + and plagiarism begin/the book industry is a mess), but I can’t say I truly enjoyed + reading it. When I say I like “fucked up books about fucked up people”, those + people are not usually inherently awful, and I want to cheer for them. As this + the book progresses, I have less and less empathy for the main character (which + I don’t think is what the author intended). In the end, it’s a story about hubris + and dramatic irony, which makes for a really stressful read. I think I really + don’t like books with unlikeable narrators. +- gr_id: 122773864 + title: Rouge + author: Mona Awad + rating: 3 + read: 2023/12/17 + review: 'Cults and skincare and Tom cruise, oh my! I like Mona Awad’s writing (and + brain tbh) because it’s a funny/weird commentary on very specific pockets of society + I care about, wrapped in an absurd horror story. I have no idea what’s going to + happen next, and I’m just enjoying the ride. Unfortunately I feel this book is + not as well done as Bunny: it’s a bit too long, the thing with the mirrors isn’t + explained as well as I would’ve liked, the main character’s internal monologue + is sometimes too much. All this to say: I’ll read her next book too.' +- gr_id: 42268742 + title: The Dry Heart + author: Natalia Ginzburg + rating: 4 + read: 2023/12/11 + review: 'I really disliked the writing style at first, but in the end, it’s the + dry writing style that makes me like this book. It’s a composed, almost clinical + retrospection of a deeply unhappy marriage and a shitty husband. Even though the + writing feels detached and devoid of emotion, I don’t believe for a second the + main character is. It’s a very honest story of the bad choices women make in relationships + and the denial and blind hope they have that maybe they can fix it. It’s not written + in an extremely sentimental way because shit happened, and nevertheless she persisted.

I + read this in a review and really liked it: “Ginzburg, an antifascist, a feminist, + and the first translator of Swann’s Way into Italian, writes for any woman eager + to fit her bourgeois unhappiness to a form that can accommodate a quick and definitive + ending. When should a woman kill her husband? Final answer: when it’s the only + way to free yourself.” — https://www.publicbooks.org/b-sides-natalia-ginzburgs-the-dry-heart/' +- gr_id: 62092265 + title: The Late Americans + author: Brandon Taylor + rating: 2 + read: 2023/11/21 + review: Ugh, this was not for me. It’s about not very nice people being cruel to + each other, insufferable art school wankery, and very short sentences. I don’t + know if toxicity is a common attribute of M/M queer relationships (which all but + two are in the stories, and which I am not). I do know that in the two stories + with women protagonists, the men are abusive and horrible to them, so all of this + feels like a deliberate choice. In every single relationship described, sexual + or not, at least one of the men is toxic, narcissistic and unable to produce an + ounce of empathy. Was I supposed to feel hopeless with men as a genre when I was + done with the book? Because I am. What a bleak, bleak novel. +- gr_id: 26032912 + title: 'The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air, #3)' + author: Holly Black + rating: 3 + read: 2023/11/18 + review: '' +- gr_id: 26032887 + title: 'The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2)' + author: Holly Black + rating: 4 + read: 2023/11/17 + review: 'I swear I’m also reading actual literary books, but at a snail pace because + all this faerie shit only takes me a day to read and keeps ending on a cliffhanger. + I am weak and need to know what happens. Weak!

I liked this more than + the first book, which felt very YA. This has a bunch of intrigue and shenanigans + and mild character growth from emo king himself. Related: where were all these + faerie goth boys when I was in highschool??? I would’ve drawn fan art and everything. + Come to think of it, maybe it was a disguised blessing they weren’t around.' +- gr_id: 26032825 + title: 'The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1)' + author: Holly Black + rating: 3 + read: 2023/11/10 + review: '' +- gr_id: 90202302 + title: 'Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)' + author: Rebecca Yarros + rating: 3 + read: 2023/11/09 + review: I am so glad none of the unhinged time travel tiktok theories were true. + I am less glad the writing and editing has gotten worse. +- gr_id: 16176440 + title: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves + author: Karen Joy Fowler + rating: 3 + read: 2023/11/07 + review: I have mixed feelings about this book. Here’s notes that I left myself while + reading:
- the childhood memories are kind of written in the voice of a child, + and the problem is I don’t want to read what children write
- it left a vague + taste of trauma porn in my mouth. I don’t like reading about the horrible things + us humans do to animals. It breaks my heart more than reading about human tragedies, + and this book had a lot of that
- this book is fiction but reads like a biography + and I don’t know how to feel about that. Do I trust all the science related facts + in it? Do I trust that the chimp anecdotes are true to the real humans and chimps + they’re based on? Is this the author’s story to tell? I honestly don’t know. +- gr_id: 56552949 + title: 'In the Company of Witches (Evenfall Witches B&B, #1)' + author: Auralee Wallace + rating: 3 + read: 2023/10/21 + review: A little witchy murder mystery for Halloween, as a treat? +- gr_id: 60784605 + title: Maame + author: Jessica George + rating: 4 + read: 2023/10/11 + review: Quiet grief, messed up families, depression, the importance of being seen, + friends who love you with the strength of ten. I enjoyed the writing even though + it took me a while to finish it. I felt a strange amount of empathy for this person + I’ve never met — I didn’t want to rush reading, and life kept getting ahead of + me. +- gr_id: 55858638 + title: 'The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance, #3)' + author: Naomi Novik + rating: 0 + read: 2023/10/04 + review: '' +- gr_id: 55559887 + title: 'The Last Graduate (The Scholomance, #2)' + author: Naomi Novik + rating: 0 + read: 2023/10/03 + review: I don’t want to rate this because I spite-read most of it just to find + out how it ends (a cliffhanger, so stay tuned for me spite-reading the next one + too). I don’t know if it’s because I ate an edible for the second half of this + book, but I didn’t enjoy 1) the magic world building rules and regulations I didn’t + follow or really get motivated to care about and b) the inner monologue of the + narcissist teenager. I think the main character is like 17, so it checks out, + but it went from competent heroine to hero complex faster than I could get on + board and I just wanted to be dooooone. +- gr_id: 63219094 + title: 'Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)' + author: Rebecca Yarros + rating: 4 + read: 2023/10/01 + review: 'This is extremely good. Initially I was a snob and gave it fewer stars + because it’s not a “literary” book, but then I was so amped up realizing I needed + to wait a full month to read the next one, that I decided to embrace my full trash + book rat form and go the full mile. Loved every minute of it: competent heroine? + Enemies to lovers? A cliffhanger? Sassiness? Also, who knew dragons were so sassy?' +- gr_id: 40132775 + title: 'House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City, #2)' + author: Sarah J. Maas + rating: 3 + read: 2023/09/30 + review: I thought most of the book was a bit of a slog. I can’t stand Hunt, there + was a big lore dump, and there were way too many characters. Everything pops off + in the last fifth, and as Emelyn said “we’re so back baby” +- gr_id: 209936 + title: Fauvism (World of Art) + author: Sarah Whitfield + rating: 0 + read: 2023/09/26 + review: I should’ve checked the publication date, and that’s on me. A book about + painting wildly with colour in which 85% of the photos are in black and white + is…not ideal. +- gr_id: 60701439 + title: Big Swiss + author: Jen Beagin + rating: 3 + read: 2023/09/08 + review: 'I have no idea how I found this book. Maybe it was a random Goodreads recco + I clicked on? None of my friends have interacted with it! I know exactly why I + decided to read it though, and that was the first comment on it, by someone named + Emma: “my favorite genre is literary fiction about messed up women doing crazy + sh*t”. Girl, same.

This book was weird and at times gross in the same + way a train wreck is: you can’t stop watching it and you’re not sure why. All + the characters in this book are massive weirdos and not totally likeable; the + story at times feels oddly clinical (a dry obgyn having sex with someone who transcribes + interviews for a living? Brilliant!), and wildly violent and triggering at others. + And yet? I kinda loved it. I thought the ending was kind of weak, but not enough + to put me off the book.

This is for you if you like absurd realism and + big weirds; otherwise there’s a high chance you’ll think it’s humourless and off + the rails.' +- gr_id: 50042494 + title: Ghosts + author: Dolly Alderton + rating: 3 + read: 2023/09/01 + review: 'The good: this was a pretty accurate and often funny depiction of the misery + of being a single woman in her 30s in 2023. The apps suck, the friends get weird, + the men are insane, all on top of the other personal problems all human beings + are plagued with. It’s all true; this story tells no lies.

My problem + with this book is that I don’t know what it wants to be — it hits too close to + home but isn’t satire, it is a light and easy read but isn’t a rom com, the characters + are too generic for this to be truly about the people, and the criticism isn’t + punchy enough to be more than feminism-lite.

I think I expected this + to be more literary and less chick lit, and maybe that’s on me. But I also didn’t + feel good when I was done reading; I thought “yeah, it’s not that great being + a woman sometimes eh?” and I was bitter, and didn’t know where to go from there.' +- gr_id: 42815544 + title: Bunny + author: Mona Awad + rating: 5 + read: 2023/08/29 + review: This book is wild. Is it body horror? Is it magic? Is it a made up schizophrenic + event? I still don’t know. At any point in the book I had no idea where the the + story would go, and it was delightful. It’s got the same bananas vibes as Jennifer’s + Body, with added satire about art school wankery, and a really good writing style. + What a treat! +- gr_id: 60415700 + title: Now Is Not the Time to Panic + author: Kevin Wilson + rating: 4 + read: 2023/08/21 + review: 'Kevin Wilson writes weird stories and I like them. In both this and “Nothing + to see here” you’re told the premise of the book in the first pages; you take + it for granted, and then you read about the people around it. In this book, two + teenagers make a poster that accidentally makes everyone go crazy. It’s like a + memoir of a summer of absolute chaos that never actually happened. There’s not + a ton of morals or lessons that you need to take out of it: it’s a weird story, + and I liked it.' +- gr_id: 44778083 + title: 'House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City, #1)' + author: Sarah J. Maas + rating: 4 + read: 2023/07/28 + review: 'It is with deep regrets I must inform you: I have become a Sarah J Maas + girlie. I think I liked this more than Acotar? Bryce is a very competent lead, + and I’m sold on the magic universe lore.' +- gr_id: 61246258 + title: Pineapple Street + author: Jenny Jackson + rating: 1 + read: 2023/07/22 + review: DNF; gave up halfway. I expected some sort of franzen/great gatsby character + development book, but instead I got absolutely insufferable rich people that seem + to have no redeeming qualities. I didn’t see any interesting criticism or commentary + about how awful these people are — it just felt like a soulless narration of their + extremely boring and obnoxious lives. +- gr_id: 62628727 + title: Romantic Comedy + author: Curtis Sittenfeld + rating: 3 + read: 2023/07/19 + review: Easy plane rom com! It’s basically the story of Pete Davidson dating Ariana + Grande, if Ariana Grande was actually a middle aged singer and Pete Davidson was less + obsessed with his face. It’s got a whole section of flirting via email which is, + as a purveyor, probably my favourite narration mechanism.

Bonus points + for all the SNL behind-the-scenes research that went into this; we love an author + who does the work. +- gr_id: 61986136 + title: The Guest + author: Emma Cline + rating: 2 + read: 2023/07/19 + review: 'This book stressed the shit out of me. The main character is unequivocally + awful, with no redeeming qualities, and her decisions made me physically anxious. + I barely finished the book, hoping the ending would be worth it. Narrator: it + wasn’t.' +- gr_id: 53138095 + title: 'A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #4)' + author: Sarah J. Maas + rating: 2 + read: 2023/07/16 + review: Ehhhh I should’ve stopped with the third book. I don’t care about Nesta, + or the new pile of made up politics added to the stack. It was kind of a slog, + peppered by like really excessive smut. +- gr_id: 41150487 + title: Red, White & Royal Blue + author: Casey McQuiston + rating: 3 + read: 2023/07/04 + review: What better way to celebrate the 4th of July in America than by reading + gay smut about the prince of England and the US president’s son? Easy read, far-fetched + story, minimal spice. Great rainy day activity. +- gr_id: 50659472 + title: 'A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)' + author: Sarah J. Maas + rating: 3 + read: 2023/07/03 + review: A bit long, a bit too fantasy, wrapped with a ribbon a bit too well at the + end. I can also go a few hundred years before having to hear the word “mate” in + a non-Australian way. +- gr_id: 60435878 + title: Carrie Soto Is Back + author: Taylor Jenkins Reid + rating: 3 + read: 2023/07/03 + review: Predictable but fun! +- gr_id: 50659468 + title: A Court of Mist and Fury + author: Sarah J. Maas + rating: 4 + read: 2023/07/01 + review: Man, I know this is a trash fantasy series, but this was good. The plot + fliparoo from book 1? Excellent. A main male character who’s like anti-patriarchy? + Excellent. The world building? Also excellent. The writing? Honestly not enraging. + I didn’t expect to like this, and I might get made fun of for it, but it was like + “hunger games” levels of good imo. +- gr_id: 50659467 + title: 'A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)' + author: Sarah J. Maas + rating: 3 + read: 2023/06/30 + review: 'Very “Beauty and the Beast” vibes, but where the beast is always kind of + a babe, and the beauty is also a hunter who is trying to save the world. Also, + fairies and magic and stuff. If you’re worried this has any kind of smut, don’t + be: it’s all pg-13. Great beach read material.' +- gr_id: 57238523 + title: Fiona and Jane + author: Jean Chen Ho + rating: 3 + read: 2023/06/30 + review: I’m not super sure I got what the book was about. I thought it was gonna + be about Fiona and Jane’s friendship and how it changes over time, but in most + of the stories, Fiona and Jane weren’t key parts of each others’ lives. I don’t + know why the stories are out of order chronologically, and I don’t know why some + characters are written from Fiona’s perspective — the voice is very similar to + Jane’s, and it doesn’t add any Fiona-specific insight. It’s also not exactly adding + insight about Jane’s view of the situation; they’re kind of “and then this happened + to Fiona” chapters that are interesting to read, but I’m not sure I understand + where they fit. I don’t mean to shit on this book, it was a fine read and I wasn’t + mad about having read it. I just wanted a more cohesive plan, I guess. +- gr_id: 148355 + title: My Life So Far + author: Jane Fonda + rating: 5 + read: 2023/06/20 + review: At some point in the pandemic I was in a deep existential depression with + the world, and started listening to Jane Fonda narrate this book. I’d go on a + walk, listen to a chapter and felt a bit better. Hearing her talk with so much + honesty about her fuckups, regrets, feminism, activism, daddy issues, body issues, + politics, boyfriends, etc, made her feel like my imaginary mentor and friend. + I went on walks with her, she told me oddly relatable and personal stories from + her life, and I learnt something about myself. I’m sure part of my adoration of + this book (and tbh Jane Fonda the person) has to do with this strange routine + I created around it. I’m also sure that now that it’s over, I dread taking a walk + without it. +- gr_id: 59364173 + title: I'm Glad My Mom Died + author: Jennette McCurdy + rating: 4 + read: 2023/06/09 + review: 'I was too old when she was on Nickelodeon, so I went in not actually knowing + anything about her. After reading this book, I know at least two things: 1) being + a child actor can fuck you up real good and 2) I’m also a little bit glad her + mother died.' +- gr_id: 25334576 + title: Grief is the Thing with Feathers + author: Max Porter + rating: 5 + read: 2023/06/05 + review: "“Perfect devices: doctors, ghosts and crows. We can do things other characters + can't, like eat sorrow, un-birth secrets and have theatrical battles with language + and God.”

It’s not poetry, it’s not fiction, it’s not really about crows + and it’s not really a guide. It’s maybe a small breath/meditation/witnessing of + grief and healing. I thought it was absolutely beautifully written, in a bit of + an unhinged way that I adore; writing anything immediately after finishing this + book makes me feel dumb." +- gr_id: 123857278 + title: Raluca nu s-a culcat niciodată cu Tudor + author: Cristina Chira + rating: 3 + read: 2023/05/29 + review: Mi-au plăcut aproape toate povestirile; mi-au dat cumva o nostalgie pt o + viața pe care nu am trăit-o. +- gr_id: 61718053 + title: Happy Place + author: Emily Henry + rating: 4 + read: 2023/05/09 + review: Emily Henry can do little wrong in the romcom genre, imo. I think the miscommunication + between the two main characters could’ve been a little less…excessive, and the + ending was a bit whack (it all worked out a little TOO easily). Not her best book, + and still a banger compared to the rest of the genre. +- gr_id: 7331435 + title: A Visit from the Goon Squad + author: Jennifer Egan + rating: 3 + read: 2023/05/03 + review: 'I’m a big nerd, so I liked the writing, and how the author experiments + with form. I liked the general concept: a story fed to you a bit at a time, out + of order, about seemingly unrelated people but whose lives are interconnected. + But overall I feel a bit like I do about some paintings: I can appreciate and + respect them, without needing to put them on my wall.' +- gr_id: 60604190 + title: Georgie, All Along + author: Kate Clayborn + rating: 3 + read: 2023/04/15 + review: Quirky female lead, introvert but not grumpy male lead, absent of tropes + that send me into madness. +- gr_id: 40189670 + title: Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating + author: Christina Lauren + rating: 3 + read: 2023/04/15 + review: Overall a sweet friends-to-lovers story; not my choice of ending but whatever. +- gr_id: 58082714 + title: The Nineties + author: Chuck Klosterman + rating: 4 + read: 2023/04/09 + review: 'The nineties are a bit weird for me: I was born a bit too late to be a + gen Xer, but because I grew up in Romania, which got the western world on a delay, + I had all the experiences of a gen Xer. I didn’t have the internet but, tragically, + I also didn’t have the phone on the cover. In grade 8 I was just about to get + into Nirvana, but then I teleported to Canada, where suddenly it was the future. + I feel a bit cheated out of my full post-nineties teenage potential.

Anyway, + this to say: this is a very Chuck Klosterman book. Most of his essays take 2 apparently + unrelated pop culture subjects and connect them, like clear Coca Cola products + and Radiohead (by going through mtv’s real world - climate change - biosphere + 2 - anything is possible - anxieties over cloning - KID A; bam). I’m into that, + and i was into this book.' +- gr_id: 50548197 + title: 'A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1)' + author: Naomi Novik + rating: 3 + read: 2023/04/05 + review: Very Harry Potter, easy read, YA fantasy vibes. I think if it came out when + I was a teen I would’ve liked it way more than HP, because the main character + is actually competent in their own right. Anyway, I’m probably committed to the + whole series now. +- gr_id: 36206591 + title: Love and Other Words + author: Christina Lauren + rating: 2 + read: 2023/03/25 + review: 'I am so angry this gets 2 stars out of spite. The first 70% of the book? + Amazing. “The next Beach Read by Emily Henry” I was going to write. Five stars. + It had my favourite romance tropes: childhood best friends; friends who read; + now/then story development. Recipe for success! The writing was even quite good! +

And then it turns out these two main assholes didn’t speak for ELEVEN + years over a giant misunderstanding from when they were 18 that could’ve been + solved with a phone call and maybe 2 hours of therapy. Laaaaaazy.' +- gr_id: 58662507 + title: 'Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3)' + author: Tamsyn Muir + rating: 4 + read: 2023/03/20 + review: This had the same vibes at Gideon, but fewer bones and memes. I don’t really + know how to review these books! I read them in a very very long sitting and they + still don’t make complete sense, but in a good way? And, as my friend Emelyn said, + “the banter is primo”

I am very invested in the series and I can’t believe + it’s almost over. +- gr_id: 43352954 + title: This Is How You Lose the Time War + author: Amal El-Mohtar + rating: 3 + read: 2023/03/14 + review: "(This is like a rounded up 3 stars. Maybe 2.5 stars?)
This was very + beautifully written, and I like the premise, but I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand + the world building, and I definitely didn’t understand the time travel shenanigans + at the end. It all felt a bit nonsensical. I might get it if I go back and reread + it and think really hard, but that feels like homework and I’m not in school anymore." +- gr_id: 55710822 + title: 'Better than the Movies (Better than the Movies, #1)' + author: Lynn Painter + rating: 4 + read: 2023/03/11 + review: Am I too old to be reading high school prom-roms? Most definitely, but since + my prom sucked I think I get like 5 free passes.
If you liked For all the + boys, etc, you’ll also like this. +- gr_id: 60784355 + title: 'Linocut: A Creative Guide to Making Beautiful Prints' + author: Sam Marshall + rating: 0 + read: 2023/03/04 + review: '' +- gr_id: 39325105 + title: 'Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #2)' + author: Tamsyn Muir + rating: 3 + read: 2023/03/01 + review: I liked this less than Gideon, partially because I rode a rollercoaster + of interest while reading it. The first third was interesting but kind of slow + and maybe a bit predictable? I was convinced I had predicted the rest of the book. + In particular, this entire chunk didn’t have as much of the silly writing of the + first book, and I was concerned the book might take itself too seriously. Shit + got real silly and popped off in the last third though, which was great. Also + I ended up being 95% profusely wrong with my predictions. Love a good surprise. +- gr_id: 42036538 + title: 'Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)' + author: Tamsyn Muir + rating: 5 + read: 2023/02/22 + review: 'The story is: fantasy shenanigans with bones and nerds in a gothic mansion. + The writing style is: extremely silly. The main characters: hot and sassy and + I want to be their best friend. I read this in one long sitting because I genuinely + couldn’t put it down once I started it.

10/10 no notes.

PS potential + criticisms one might have but I surprisingly didn’t: “the names are hard”, “the + world building is tedious”. I rarely enjoy fantasy world building but I rather + did here. It’s a weird world, yo! Bonecromancy!' +- gr_id: 58758622 + title: Mad About You + author: Mhairi McFarlane + rating: 0 + read: 2023/02/20 + review: '' +- gr_id: 58950845 + title: 'By the Book (Meant to Be, #2)' + author: Jasmine Guillory + rating: 0 + read: 2023/02/20 + review: '' +- gr_id: 58724801 + title: The Bodyguard + author: Katherine Center + rating: 0 + read: 2023/02/18 + review: '' +- gr_id: 55904454 + title: 'While We Were Dating (The Wedding Date, #6)' + author: Jasmine Guillory + rating: 0 + read: 2023/02/18 + review: '' +- gr_id: 55577690 + title: Snowflake + author: Louise Nealon + rating: 4 + read: 2023/02/17 + review: I read this because someone recommended it as “Sally Rooney for people who + hate Sally Rooney”, which I thought was funny because Sally Rooney wrote my favourite + book of all time. However, I think that comparing Louise Nealon with Sally Rooney + is unfair and unproductive - we don’t compare all American authors just because + they’re American and write about people. This is a coming of age story, with fucked + up families, with messy addictions and mental illness, with magic realism, and + the eternal worry that you’re becoming your mother. And it’s a great story, with + legs of its own. +- gr_id: 58065414 + title: Funny You Should Ask + author: Elissa Sussman + rating: 3 + read: 2023/01/25 + review: Emily Henry style rom com. It wasn’t bad! Fairly unrealistic story with + unrealistic character motivation, perfect to read on a lazy afternoon. Tbh I read + this because I expected it to be happy and straightforward, as a palette cleaner + after “The Idea of You” (which while not being an amazing book kind of destroyed + me emotionally) +- gr_id: 31450913 + title: The Idea of You + author: Robinne Lee + rating: 3 + read: 2023/01/23 + review: I wasn’t going to publicly list this book as “read” because it’s pretty + spicy and I don’t really review smutty rom coms (hurts the intellectual brand + I’m trying to cultivate!! +- gr_id: 6342483 + title: 'Avempartha (The Riyria Revelations, #2)' + author: Michael J. Sullivan + rating: 3 + read: 2023/01/22 + review: I liked the first book more than this second one — this had more made up + fantasy politics than thieving and adventuring, but it wasn’t bad. +- gr_id: 462033 + title: 'Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1)' + author: Jacqueline Winspear + rating: 3 + read: 2023/01/01 + review: Easy, cozy mystery. Half of the book was backstory and nothing to do with + the mystery itself, but I feel that might the buy-in cost for a new series. I’d + definitely read the next book. +- gr_id: 4345290 + title: 'The Crown Conspiracy (The Riyria Revelations, #1)' + author: Michael J. Sullivan + rating: 3 + read: 2022/12/25 + review: Good, light, fantasy read. There’s no dragons, there’s stealing, it’s fine + if you don’t remember everyone’s names, and the writing isn’t terrible. Great + for reading at Christmas when someone interrupts you every third paragraph. +- gr_id: 59444510 + title: Nora Goes Off Script + author: Annabel Monaghan + rating: 4 + read: 2022/12/21 + review: Good, cute rom com. Would’ve been a 5 star if bad communication wasn’t the + intrigue. Is this how other people really live their lives, without sending drunk + emails demanding explanations? Can’t relate. +- gr_id: 50202953 + title: Piranesi + author: Susanna Clarke + rating: 4 + read: 2022/12/20 + review: What a strange little book! I didn’t really know what it’s about for a long + time, but I still loved reading it. It had the same feeling for me as the Starless + Sea — a book that’s more poetry than story. +- gr_id: 46000520 + title: 'The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)' + author: Richard Osman + rating: 3 + read: 2022/12/18 + review: 'Like a rounded up 3 stars.

I feel like the grinch who stole Christmas + because everyone that I know loved this book and I didn’t. The first third of + the book was a bit of a slog — nothing really happened, the writing was slow, + a hundred characters were introduced and it didn’t really grip me. Then finally: + crimes (yay!). Solving them was anticlimactic; everything fell into place, all + at once, way too quickly and easily. I didn’t really buy it.

The other + reason this book irked me is that I have a pet peeve about murder mysteries that + don’t give the reader a chance at solving the mystery. In this book problems were + solved not by presenting a bunch of facts and you (and a character) being clever + little squirrels and figuring it out. Someone would 1) realize they knew the answer + but not tell you how, 2) confront whodunit, a character who hadn’t been developed + yet 3) they reveal everything and also give you their character exposition. You + stood no chance.' +- gr_id: 59808037 + title: How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water + author: Angie Cruz + rating: 2 + read: 2022/12/10 + review: 'This book really stressed me out. I didn’t like the writing style and in + the end I didn’t really like the main character either. The whole experience felt + like this: you’re trapped at a family dinner next to that aunt that won’t stop + telling you stories in which she’s the hero and it’s never her fault; she hasn’t + asked you a single question but has criticized you and everyone in the room at + least once. I have this aunt. We all have this aunt. This stressed me out.' +- gr_id: 51777605 + title: The Office of Historical Corrections + author: Danielle Evans + rating: 5 + read: 2022/12/09 + review: Reading this was bittersweet. The short stories are beautifully written, + but always end too soon and make your heart feel heavy. I had a hard time articulating + my feelings, so here’s some quotes from other reviews I relate to.

“Sublime + short stories of race and belonging” — the New Yorker

“The success + of the collection stems from balancing the gloom of racism with Evans wry commentary” + — Chicago review of books

“This collection is full of characters who + attempt to escape, confront, or try their best to wade through circumstances that + have quietly upended their lives, and Evans painstakingly outlines their aches. + There are truths and there are the truths we tell ourselves, and the space between + those two poles can be wide” — the nNation

+- gr_id: 55835966 + title: Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head + author: Warsan Shire + rating: 4 + read: 2022/11/24 + review: '' +- gr_id: 58446227 + title: Sea of Tranquility + author: Emily St. John Mandel + rating: 5 + read: 2022/11/09 + review: There’s authors that I will trust blindly with their writing because they’ve + never let me down. She is one of them. I know that when I start one of her books + it will feel odd and unfamiliar, but all I have to do is pay attention and enjoy + it; by the end, she will weave all the threads and tie them perfectly in a bow, + and I will once again feel like i was always in on a secret.

I’m now + starting to believe it’s more meta than that, and that by the end of her writing + career, Emily will have weaved all of her books juuuust so and I, a faithful reader, + would have been in on it all along. +- gr_id: 30364138 + title: 'Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order)' + author: Bridget Quinn + rating: 0 + read: 2022/11/07 + review: '' +- gr_id: 58784475 + title: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow + author: Gabrielle Zevin + rating: 3 + read: 2022/11/07 + review: I have very complicated feelings about this book. Parts of it are great. + Parts of it are really boring. The good news is that if you like video games and + reading about them, it’s 100 times less enraging than Ready Player One. The bad + news is that this is still prolly not the book you’re dreaming of reading.

The + writing is a bit of a rollercoaster — most of it reads like a YA novel, but parts + of it are really try hard; I left myself a note that is “Ersatz, ecru, echt, and + be plus ultra in the first chapter? Yikes”. There’s also a random chapter that + reads like a beat poetry stream of consciousness. I don’t mind authors experimenting + with writing styles, but I didn’t think it was well thought out in this book.

I’m + also starting to really dislike trauma porn as a means to advance a narrative + (possibly because I’ve been ruined by the trauma queen herself, A Little Life). + It didn’t feel it did anything to the story; yeah, it’s a conflict, but that could’ve + been done with far less world rewriting. +- gr_id: 61884412 + title: 'Modern Japanese Painting Techniques: A Step-by-Step Beginner''s Guide (over + 21 Lessons and 300 Illustrations)' + author: Shinichi Fukui + rating: 0 + read: 2022/11/02 + review: '' +- gr_id: 54906250 + title: Project Hail Mary + author: Andy Weir + rating: 4 + read: 2022/11/02 + review: 'Good read! Very similar in vibe and style to The Martian, but this time + around I noticed how much the author doubles down on sheer science optimism. “We + have a problem? Sweet, we can totally fix it!” — is the recurring theme, and while + it makes you feel good about how the story is progressing, the science cynic in + me knows that’s not how it works. Surely something can stump our former-phd-now-high-school-science-teacher + in outer space, no?

That being said: Rocky is the cutest and I loved + him every second. You go little rock spider.' +- gr_id: 59609061 + title: Bookish People + author: Susan Coll + rating: 1 + read: 2022/10/23 + review: Bailed about a third of the way in. The writing style was really exhausting; + never-ending waves of neuroticism, fixated on random details that I couldn’t tell + would be relevant to the story or not. +- gr_id: 58065033 + title: Lessons in Chemistry + author: Bonnie Garmus + rating: 3 + read: 2022/10/19 + review: I saw a review that said this gave Marvelous Mrs Maisel vibes, and I can + definitely see it. It’s a quirky story about a woman, her daughter, and the things + and people spinning around in their universe. The characters are fairly unbelievable + and the story is not deep with meaning, but it was a nice and easy read on lazy + afternoons. +- gr_id: 105992 + title: 'Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders' + author: Vincent Bugliosi + rating: 0 + read: 2022/10/04 + review: 'I can’t give a star rating to a book that’s primarily about facts and written + by a lawyer. I will say this: it’s written in the 70s and you can definitely tell; + there’s a lot of racist language that I felt uncomfortable reading.' +- gr_id: 58989873 + title: Happy-Go-Lucky + author: David Sedaris + rating: 3 + read: 2022/09/27 + review: I usually like David Sedaris, and his neurotic, self deprecating humour, + but this book hit a bit differently. The usual pettiness he has towards other + people felt gross and like punching down - I’m sorry the blm protests made you + go two weeks without in person shopping, that people don’t want to staff your + favourite restaurant for like 4 cents an hour anymore, or that you *had* to buy + another apartment (along to your other 7+ houses) because your husband had the + audacity to want to play the piano. His sister did the same thing to get away + from her rabbit, isn’t that what everyone does?

I think his stories + used to me more relatable, but just reek of privilege; I don’t find humour in + the bit where he offered to fix a stranger’s teeth cause he thought they were + ugly, or the one about how his sister said she was abused by their dad and nobody + in the family believed her (even though they knew the dad was “a bit of a creep”), + or the one about how a long time ago he thought a black woman was somebody’s maid + and it turned out to be his wife, and as a result he should get brownie points + cause he doesn’t assume things about people anymore. These all feel like shitty + things he’s done in the past, that aren’t ok now, and because he doesn’t understand + why society now thinks they’re shitty, tries to spin it as humour. I didn’t feel + good reading this. +- gr_id: 59722215 + title: Love in the Time of Serial Killers + author: Alicia Thompson + rating: 1 + read: 2022/09/11 + review: 'I like serial killers more than anything and I only finished this book + out of spite (and by thumbing through a lot of the drivelling). I think I was + tricked by the cover art that it was going to be a charming book with a plot; + instead I got a harlequin romance at best?

The main character is really + obnoxious and seems to only be able to speak in terms of 10 pop culture references + per sentence (and dreadful inner monologues that never end), the love interest + is given sufficiently little dialogue to be barely present, and the whole book + could’ve been over in 20 pages with a phone call. Most disappointingly: nobody + was actually a serial killer. Rough.

Unrelated: I’m always going to dislike + a book if all the internal monologue happens mid sentence with another human (as + if time stops for the other person during the 10 pages you’re reminiscing about + the past to introduce context). Authors, surely you can do something else? Or + at least, mix it up with something else? That’s not how humans work.' +- gr_id: 58885776 + title: The Dead Romantics + author: Ashley Poston + rating: 4 + read: 2022/09/07 + review: This book holds the record for a) having a romcom plot I haven’t read before + (but I’ve seen it in movies; looking at you Casper!) and b) making me cry two + thirds in? The first couple of chapters weren’t my favourite (too much self professed + jilted lover quirky girl), but then it gets really cute and wholesome. And like, + who doesn’t like a good ghost story, right? +- gr_id: 57693171 + title: Olga Dies Dreaming + author: Xóchitl González + rating: 3 + read: 2022/09/07 + review: 'The good news: despite being ~technically~ a romcom, this book adds a bit + more depth by touching on race, identity, messed up families and the hope and + burden of revolutionaries on everyone around them. The bad news: it does so in + a bit of a faux woke, fake diverse kind of way, where Latinx immigrants have fairly + perfect lives, some crazy shit happens, and everything is wrapped up really neatly + with plot holes the size of craters.

I really wish the author didn’t + try to write a romcom and instead wrote a miserable and dark novel about living + with an absentee radical activist for a mother (this is not a spoiler)' +- gr_id: 57246958 + title: 'Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer' + author: Rax King + rating: 0 + read: 2022/08/30 + review: The problem here is that I thought this would be a different book. That’s + not the book’s fault, so I don’t want to give it a bad rating because it didn’t + meet my made up expectations. I didn’t read anything past the title, so I expected + it to be essays on tacky things, which technically it is, but they’re really just + an excuse for autobiographical anecdotes. And those weren’t baaaad, it’s just + that I don’t know the author, so I didn’t really care, and they weren’t l what + I wanted to read right now. +- gr_id: 53914938 + title: The Rose Code + author: Kate Quinn + rating: 5 + read: 2022/08/25 + review: I didn’t think I’d enjoy historical fiction, because I find most of them + a bit of a bore, but I’m an absolute sucker for “actually two thirds of the people + who worked at Bletchley Park were women and they were rather badass; here’s the + fun bits”. Even though all of the characters are based on real people, and pretty + much every plot point is a real one (I looked it up!), it’s a super fun read that + reads like a good book. +- gr_id: 54189398 + title: 'The Spanish Love Deception (Spanish Love Deception, #1)' + author: Elena Armas + rating: 2 + read: 2022/07/08 + review: Bit of a bingo of tropes. 1) Coworkers that hate each other, but one is + oblivious that the other one is flirting. 2) Grumpy stern man extremely in shape + and never smiles 3) discombobulated quirky woman really into desserts. 4) A deal + where one side has to be the other one’s date to a wedding, etc

If you + feel like you’re reading the “Hating Game” summary, you wouldn’t be wrong; this + is basically that same book but, I’m really sorry to say, longer and somehow worse. +- gr_id: 58437521 + title: The Candy House + author: Jennifer Egan + rating: 4 + read: 2022/07/07 + review: 'I don’t know what to write here. I’m not entirely sure whether this was + scifi, literary fiction or social realism. The first third of the book was the + closest thing to David Foster Wallace I’ve found, both in writing style and content; + I am obsessed with that part. There’s an entire chapter on authenticity and how + social media has destroyed it, and one man’s life-long quest for witnessing and + causing short, non-phony reactions from people. Another chapter is written from + the perspective of a statistician, who sees the world as counts and probabilities. + Another chapter is a list of field instructions a spy is writing to themselves. + I love DFW, and of course, I loved this.

But, I’m not sure I understood + the rest of the book correctly (and it’s why i couldn’t give it 5 stars). The + chapters that I loved would absolutely stand on their own as short DFW style essays. + The world itself is interesting: our social media is turned up to 11, and in this + future we upload our consciousnesses to the cloud to replay them, or others’; + some people are for it and some think it’s creepy. But that world isn’t explained + like it would be in a scifi novel, so to me the book can’t be about that. Which + means that (to me), this book is partly about people, partly a metaphor for our + real, too online, too performative world we find ourselves in.' +- gr_id: 45134200 + title: The Switch + author: Beth O'Leary + rating: 3 + read: 2022/07/04 + review: Light holiday read. I didn’t enjoy this as much as the Flatshare, but the + story is endearing and blissfully lacking the usual tropes. +- gr_id: 58690308 + title: Book Lovers + author: Emily Henry + rating: 5 + read: 2022/06/08 + review: Loooooook here’s the thing. I don’t want to be the person who 5 stars rom + com novels, but here we are anyway. Anything Emily Henry writes is cute and easy + to read and not vapid and I really like it, ok? If you can’t have me at my Book + Lovers, you can’t have me at my Infinite Jest. +- gr_id: 25810500 + title: What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours + author: Helen Oyeyemi + rating: 4 + read: 2022/06/05 + review: 'What a strange little book! At first it looks like a book of unconnected + short stories, so what I wrote down was: “why is it that as adults we stop telling + whimsical stories? When you’re a kid you get told short stories every evening, + and you tell tall tales in return, and at some point we just stop. Well, this + book tells you whimsical stories and it’s great”.

But then it turns out + the stories are maybe not as unconnected as you thought. Characters from one story + appear in a different story, and what you thought was just a whimsical story was + maybe actually a metaphor, and before you know it the book is over and it’s too + soon and you haven’t figured it out. I instantly wanted to reread it, so I could + obsess and map everything out, but maybe there’s a reason why the author doesn’t + warn you about this upfront. Maybe being dazzled is part of the experience.' +- gr_id: 55648820 + title: Seven Days in June + author: Tia Williams + rating: 4 + read: 2022/04/26 + review: 'There was a meta bit early in the book that I enjoyed: two Black authors + are talking, and one complains that she can’t just write a book anymore, it has + to be about the plight of being Black in America, or have some higher meaning, + which frustrates her, as it’s a standard that white authors aren’t held to.

I + think that woman is this author, and this book, I think, is the book that she + wanted to write. It’s a good rom com, where the characters just happen to be Black. + They also happen to be liberals, feminists, mentors, southern, some dating dumb + beautiful men, some writers of smut or writers of high literature, just like the + world is. But the book is really about 2 kids being in love, ya know?' +- gr_id: 55338982 + title: 'Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism' + author: Amanda Montell + rating: 4 + read: 2022/04/12 + review: I don’t think that I’m the target audience for this book; I’m already obsessed + with cults and I’ve consumed every existing documentary that I’ve found about + them, so there wasn’t anything new in here for me. I don’t want to ruin the book’s + rating though, because it wasn’t badly written. It did have a bunch of information + about some of the big boys in cultlandia, and some interesting analysis about + how the language they employed overlaps with, say, Amazon’s or fitness movements. +- gr_id: 35066358 + title: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August + author: Claire North + rating: 5 + read: 2022/03/28 + review: Loved the premise! I was hooked from the beginning to the end of the book, + and I honestly have no complains about the writing or the story. +- gr_id: 54814676 + title: Crying in H Mart + author: Michelle Zauner + rating: 5 + read: 2022/03/17 + review: 'I don’t know how to review this book. The author and I have a lot of things + in common: immigrants, hard relationships with our mothers, a neediness for our + country’s food as a means of preserving our identity. As a result, this was a + devastatingly sad read, and I irrationally felt like reading it was bad luck — + if I read about her mum getting sick, will mine? Is this person’s relationship + with their mother the same as mine? Is this how my mother feels about me, and + is this how I will feel when she’s gone? Even writing this review is making me + tear up; I feel like I’ve read someone’s diary, and have felt all of their feelings, + and now that it’s over, I don’t know where to put them. I think this means it’s + a good book, right?' +- gr_id: 38255337 + title: One Day in December + author: Josie Silver + rating: 4 + read: 2022/01/04 + review: I don't know how I feel about this book! Reading it I flip flopped a lot + between "actually insufferable” and "but maybe really cute". It has a bunch of + tropes I’m not keen on and that always make me worried for the romantic habits + of humanity, but it sort of falls into place in the end? +- gr_id: 56769614 + title: Poison for Breakfast + author: Lemony Snicket + rating: 4 + read: 2021/12/14 + review: I hope I never become too old, too boring, or too stuffy to love a Lemony + Snicket book. This one is seemingly about poison but secretly about light philosophy, + and if you like his whimsical and non linear writing style, I think you, like + me, will have a pretty good time. If nothing else, you’ll learn how to cook an + egg five ways. +- gr_id: 51188678 + title: A Girl Is a Body of Water + author: Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi + rating: 4 + read: 2021/11/23 + review: '' +- gr_id: 28502882 + title: The ABCs of Socialism + author: Bhaskar Sunkara + rating: 5 + read: 2021/11/08 + review: I really enjoyed this. I went in wanting to have better vocabulary (that + wasn't pretentious and from philosophers) about why I personally feel marxism + had "good intentions, bad executions", and I found myself highlighting so many + paragraphs. I liked the format of short essays that answer a specific question + (like "is socialism anti-feminist?", for example), because these were actual questions + I had. The language is very approachable and not at all boring, so this was 100% + exactly what I looked for. +- gr_id: 36478784 + title: The Flatshare + author: Beth O'Leary + rating: 4 + read: 2021/10/28 + review: This was actually really cute and wholesome! I loved the premise, and that + the chapters were written from each person’s perspective — it’s like 2 main characters + for the price of 1! They both felt like believable people, which, if we’re being + honest, is a rare occurrence in a chick lit/rom com/whatever you want to call + it. +- gr_id: 11250317 + title: The Song of Achilles + author: Madeline Miller + rating: 5 + read: 2021/10/25 + review: 'Hell yeah, if it isn’t the Greek mythology gay romantic tragedy I never + thought I needed until I did! I kept putting off reading it because I’ve been + traumatized by reading some Homer in the past and thought this too was going to + be serious and boring. Instead here I am: doing a soft cry at the end of the book + after getting really invested in a love story.' +- gr_id: 42201431 + title: 'The Unhoneymooners (Unhoneymooners, #1)' + author: Christina Lauren + rating: 3 + read: 2021/10/23 + review: Look. There’s nothing wrong with the “enemies to lovers” trope as long as + the characters are actually enemies and not just….. people who claim to bicker + for like 4 years but it’s actually just them flirting. Also like one of the character + is a huge douche bag and someone nobody has noticed. +- gr_id: 44767458 + title: 'Dune (Dune, #1)' + author: Frank Herbert + rating: 4 + read: 2021/10/18 + review: This wasn’t my first read through (a refresher for the movie!) so it’s impossible + for me to review this in any reasonable way. The first time I read this I was + a teenager and it blew my mind. I think I still think the world in it and the + story are fantastic, but the older I get the more words I want to have with this + book’s editor. +- gr_id: 45553600 + title: Second First Impressions + author: Sally Thorne + rating: 2 + read: 2021/09/28 + review: This is bad trope central. Religious nerdy virgin meets beautiful and experienced + tattooed man. Obviously, he is a softy at heart and she is perfection embodied, + and there’s some drama about their families. +- gr_id: 44284639 + title: Would Like to Meet + author: Rachel Winters + rating: 3 + read: 2021/09/26 + review: I read rom coms on planes now. They’re the perfect length to get them done + in one sitting. This one was fine, a meta meet-cute of meet-cutes, with a main + character that is a pretty insufferable and self absorbed person. But I think + that’s pretty common in movies too, so if you get over that the rest is pretty + cute. +- gr_id: 53746115 + title: Hana Khan Carries On + author: Uzma Jalaluddin + rating: 4 + read: 2021/09/26 + review: This is You've got Mail if Meg Ryan were a Canadian Muslim millennial and + the bookstores where restaurants. I really appreciated that a) being Muslim and + an immigrant in Canada was central to the story and not just an afterthought to + make things different and b) this was a proper rom com (as opposed to a thirst + fest), where it's all about the story, and the characters have something else + going for them other than being enemies who want to bang. +- gr_id: 53152636 + title: Mexican Gothic + author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia + rating: 3 + read: 2021/09/15 + review: I thought this was just fine, I just wished that the big reveal happened + quicker. Or the book was shorter. Or that there was more horror. Like not a lot + of weird shit goes on until the last 5% of the book and then everything happens + all at once and it’s kind of rushed. I had the same complaint reading Sarah Waters’ + “Little Stranger” — is this a genre thing? +- gr_id: 25883848 + title: The Hating Game + author: Sally Thorne + rating: 3 + read: 2021/09/10 + review: it's fine. this is a general criticism of the genre, but I wish male characters + were less brooding and angry, and women were less neurotic and against communication. + like half of these books would be over in the first 20 pages if any of the parties + was like "hey so real talk" instead of brooding for 600 e-pages +- gr_id: 56597885 + title: Beautiful World, Where Are You + author: Sally Rooney + rating: 5 + read: 2021/09/08 + review: 'Small note after a reread: just noticed that when the book is written in + the third person, there’s no “she felt”, “she thought”. Everything is written + as a script: you the reader are watching things happen, and drawing your own conclusions + about the feelings of the characters. With a few very deliberate and obvious exceptions, + Sally Rooney tells you absolutely nothing about what she thinks the characters + are feeling. I love this. It puts the onus on you, the reader, to have empathy + for the characters (or I guess, not have empathy and not enjoy the book). This + made me like the book even more than the first time I read it.

——-

It + is no news that I, like half of the millennials who read,
am obsessed with + Sally Rooney''s books. What might be news is that I''m in the controversial segment + of the population that liked Conversations way more than Normal People (I promise + this is relevant). In Norma People I thought that even though the relationship + between the main characters was interesting, the people themselves weren''t: because + we only had 2 characters, they were a bit too black and white and didn''t benefit + from strong supporting characters to guide our understanding of them.

Beautiful + world returns to that original multiple character setup from Conversations, which + also means: I liked it a lot! Each character is flawed and has moments of lashing + out, but they are also, in my opinion, an archetype of a Good Person (and I don''t + mean that they''re saints, just that intrinsically they''re not bad people). I + love books in which the characters are good, because they make me want to cheer + for good things happening to them, which selfishly makes me feel good for caring. + I even think this exact meta point comes up somewhere in this book!

On + top of that, the letters between Eileen and Alice are these deep and smart discussions + about society, class, capitalism, and the cult of celebrity that I really loved + reading, and would love to revisit and think more about separate from the story + itself.' +- gr_id: 46190 + title: 'Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time' + author: Rob Sheffield + rating: 4 + read: 2021/09/06 + review: I can't listen to Oasis without getting a bit carsick, because I spent an + entire summer in high school blasting What's the Story Morning Glory while reading + books on the bus, which is never a good idea for me. I hold so much of people + and memories in songs, and I love hearing about other people's song memory stories. + And this is pretty much this book. It also helps that the music in the book Absolutely + Slaps (TM), a thing I know because a) it features a lot of guitar rock and shit + and b) I found a playlist on Spotify of all the mixtapes and now I have 21 hours + of bangers.
+- gr_id: 32620332 + title: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo + author: Taylor Jenkins Reid + rating: 4 + read: 2021/09/01 + review: I really liked this story. I keep thinking about how even though it’s a) + made up and b) from before internet times, it’s still a neat commentary of the + current world we live in, where we often think we have an intimate understanding + of others because of the social media personas we experience, which may or may + not have anything to do with the real person behind them. +- gr_id: 55145261 + title: 'The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet' + author: John Green + rating: 5 + read: 2021/08/17 + review: The problem with reviewing a book about reviews is that you become painfully + aware of what an honest, personal, witty review should read like, yet know that + you're not a good enough writer to write it. For that I give John Green 5 stars. +- gr_id: 51824384 + title: 'Act Your Age, Eve Brown (The Brown Sisters, #3)' + author: Talia Hibbert + rating: 3 + read: 2021/08/07 + review: Jesus, things really escalated with this one. +- gr_id: 49976087 + title: 'Take a Hint, Dani Brown (The Brown Sisters, #2)' + author: Talia Hibbert + rating: 3 + read: 2021/08/06 + review: these books are helllllla spicy but I am a completionist and they are doing + wonders for my yearly book count +- gr_id: 43884209 + title: 'Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters, #1)' + author: Talia Hibbert + rating: 3 + read: 2021/08/05 + review: I'm reading silly books because my last book was devastating and sad. This + is a very spicy romance, with emphasis on the spicy and not exactly on the characters, + which only have romance on the mind. Will I still be reading the other 2 books + in the series? Yes. +- gr_id: 27071490 + title: Homegoing + author: Yaa Gyasi + rating: 5 + read: 2021/08/05 + review: Ooof, another beautiful but devastating read. Each chapter is the story + of another generation from the same family, but it's really about slavery, colonialism, + the civil war and the fight for civil rights. Every page was full of heartbreak, + with the physical and emotional violence done to Black people that started with + colonialism and never really stopped. +- gr_id: 52038977 + title: Little Weirds + author: Jenny Slate + rating: 0 + read: 2021/07/07 + review: I didn’t finish this. I started reading it and wasn’t really into the writing + style, but then I discovered my copy was also badly bound (about 40 pages were + duplicated, and the same amount of pages missing) so I took this as a sign to + give up. +- gr_id: 50623864 + title: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue + author: Victoria Schwab + rating: 4 + read: 2021/07/05 + review: 'Really fun, easy read. You''re not going to find the meaning of life or + any deep life lessons in this book, but as far as stories go, I found this one + very enjoyable (as evidenced by the fact that I read it in a day and a half and + couldn''t put it down). The premise is pretty cute (this is not a spoiler): a + girl makes a badly worded deal with the devil and as a result gets to live forever, + but without anyone remembering her; Faust but like... readable.' +- gr_id: 52397 + title: 'Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)' + author: Octavia E. Butler + rating: 4 + read: 2021/07/04 + review: 'I put off reading this book for a while because the setup hits too close + to home these days: it''s 2025 and climate change has made California dry, often + on fire, poor and violent af. But it turns out it''s about hope and rebuilding + and only a little bit about starting a cult. It''s a nice cult so that''s ok.' +- gr_id: 54120408 + title: Klara and the Sun + author: Kazuo Ishiguro + rating: 4 + read: 2021/07/01 + review: I like sci-fi where we don’t focus on how we got the technology or how it + works, but rather on how society looks like around the technology. You know… books + about people, but also people in a different future. Anyway, this is a good book + about people, and faith and loyalty. +- gr_id: 38357895 + title: Convenience Store Woman + author: Sayaka Murata + rating: 3 + read: 2021/06/16 + review: This is a very strange little book. It reminded me a lot of Theatre of the + Absurd plays. +- gr_id: 52578297 + title: The Midnight Library + author: Matt Haig + rating: 2 + read: 2021/06/12 + review: I’ve been trying to figure out what bothered me about this book, since the + premise was alright, and I think it’s that i felt the author was gaslighting me + throughout. The main character is depressed, has mental health problems and is + suicidal, and somehow the book wraps them all neatly in a “well if you just try + to see the good bits and try a bit harder, everything will be ok!!!” bow which + is a pretty messed up message. I thought I was going to get something about magic, + got a really insensitive self-help soup instead. Sigh +- gr_id: 29588376 + title: 'The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1)' + author: Scott Lynch + rating: 3 + read: 2021/06/08 + review: Fun read! Sass, thievery and shenanigans. +- gr_id: 51791252 + title: The Vanishing Half + author: Brit Bennett + rating: 5 + read: 2021/05/26 + review: People thought that being one of a kind made you special. No, it just made + you lonely. What was special was belonging with someone else."

A really + well written (and not entirely untimely) exploration of identity, from gender + and race to queerness and economic class. I loved how the story is being told + as a generational saga, where each generation of women struggles with a different + gap between their identity and how society sees them, as if identity is a kind + of family curse we all inherit. +- gr_id: 54985743 + title: People We Meet on Vacation + author: Emily Henry + rating: 4 + read: 2021/05/21 + review: I like cute romances where the characters have actual lives and personalities + outside of just trying to date one another. They make for a lovely and happy read. +- gr_id: 52544164 + title: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous + author: Ocean Vuong + rating: 3 + read: 2021/05/15 + review: An intimate letter about being raised by an immigrant, about coming out, + about belonging and death. I really wanted to love this because it's got everything + I like in a book, but I just couldn't get into the writing. Even though I like + poetry and lyrical writing (I'm looking at you "starless sea"), I felt like this + was trying too hard to read like poetry and (for me) ended up sounding a bit disingenuous. +- gr_id: 110384 + title: 'Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Bridgertons, #4)' + author: Julia Quinn + rating: 3 + read: 2021/05/08 + review: In which even a spinster gets married to a Bridgerton. +- gr_id: 861326 + title: 'The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgertons, #2)' + author: Julia Quinn + rating: 3 + read: 2021/05/08 + review: 'No surprises here. You know exactly what you’re getting into and that is: + straight forward 1800s romance with weak spirited men.' +- gr_id: 38882396 + title: Zuleiha deschide ochii + author: Guzel Yakhina + rating: 5 + read: 2021/05/05 + review: 'Because the back cover described this book as a rebirth of Russian literature, + I was worried about reading it: I expected beautiful but unrelenting writing, + sad and depressing, like every other Russian lit book I’ve read. Instead, between + the tragedy and hardship you get a story of love, endurance, survival, tenderness. + My heart is maybe not fully uplifted, but is definitely warm after it.' +- gr_id: 49960031 + title: 'Wow, No Thank You.: Essays' + author: Samantha Irby + rating: 4 + read: 2021/03/30 + review: I listened to the audiobook because it’s narrated by the author and a) her + voice is great and b) after 365+ days in the pandemic hearing a voice that isn’t + my husband’s was a blessed opportunity. Anyway, this book is very funny if you + enjoy self deprecating humour about life and anxieties and inabilities to adult + and gross health problems which you know i absolutely do. +- gr_id: 54502643 + title: 'Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann + and WeWork' + author: Reeves Wiedeman + rating: 3 + read: 2021/03/15 + review: 'I listened to the audiobook because I was interested in the wework trash + fire and can confirm: it was an entertaining trash fire.' +- gr_id: 187044 + title: Bear + author: Marian Engel + rating: 1 + read: 2021/03/10 + review: 'This book won the Governor General Literary Award in 1976. It’s a book + about a lady who goes up north and gets biblical with a bear. Was it a dry spell + for books that year? No, Margaret Atwood AND Michael Ondaatje had releases. Was + the jury made of just bears? Maybe, but Alice Munro AND Mordecai Richler, humans, + were on it. Yet, this book won. I obviously have to read it.

Update: + oh man this is not a good book. I was hoping there was a metaphor, or some deep + arc about humanity and loneliness, or romance satire. It isn’t either of those + things, though the really awful Winnie the Pooh erotic fan fiction is occasionally + hilarious (i can’t even make this up: there’s a scene where she literally slathers + honey on herself to attract the bear). Imagine being Margaret Atwood and losing + to this badly written bear porn that wouldn’t even pass muster in harlequin romance + land. JUST IMAGINE.' +- gr_id: 17402288 + title: Dept. of Speculation + author: Jenny Offill + rating: 5 + read: 2021/02/24 + review: I really liked this, though I think it’s again one of those books I like + that not everybody likes (I’m looking at you Starless Sea). I think it’s the kind + of book that I would want to write, breaking all the rules, writing intimate, + tweet sized discombobulated thoughts rather than paragraphs. +- gr_id: 51168993 + title: What You Wish For + author: Katherine Center + rating: 3 + read: 2021/02/16 + review: Big cheese. I don’t love the rom com trope that women know better and need + to (nay must) fix their love interest, which this had in spades. +- gr_id: 40961230 + title: The Travelling Cat Chronicles + author: Hiro Arikawa + rating: 3 + read: 2021/02/15 + review: I didn’t dislike this book, but I also didn’t love it. It’s a sweet and + soft story about life and friendship, with both humans and cats, but it felt a + bit simple in how it was written. +- gr_id: 16200 + title: 'Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters' + author: Mark Dunn + rating: 4 + read: 2021/01/18 + review: This is a very clever story of letters about letters. It’s also a story + about what happens when society follows rules blindly, but I wouldn’t take that + one too seriously. +- gr_id: 9408584 + title: 'An Offer From a Gentleman (Bridgertons, #3)' + author: Julia Quinn + rating: 3 + read: 2021/01/17 + review: 'It was exactly what I thought it was gonna be: run of the mill romance, + good for an afternoon read.' +- gr_id: 44792512 + title: Love Lettering + author: Kate Clayborn + rating: 2 + read: 2021/01/12 + review: Ooof, I don’t know about this one. The writing was kind of painful and the + story was a bit bonkers. +- gr_id: 52867387 + title: Beach Read + author: Emily Henry + rating: 4 + read: 2021/01/10 + review: Ok look. I came in wanting to read a light book because I’m bummed about + the world, give it a solid 3 stars, and then go back to my Serious Literature + Novels™️ deserving of more stars. Turns out that’s a load of shit; this book is + great and I loved every bit about it, especially the fact that all the characters + are like, nice, dorky people. They have a nice little romance, and they’re never + really dicks to each other and it was a joy to read. Also there’s casual mentions + of cults which is EXTREMELY my shit. +- gr_id: 110391 + title: 'The Duke and I (Bridgertons, #1)' + author: Julia Quinn + rating: 2 + read: 2021/01/01 + review: I’ve read too many serious books so now I need to read some trash, and I + wanted to compare the Netflix series to the og book. This would’ve been a 3 star-er + if not for the “domestic rape is ok if the rapist is pretty” glorifying of rape + bit, which is pretty gross. +- gr_id: 39328584 + title: Greenwood + author: Michael Christie + rating: 4 + read: 2020/12/31 + review: This is a really lovely book about families and trees. +- gr_id: 54911607 + title: The Guest List + author: Lucy Foley + rating: 3 + read: 2020/12/26 + review: A quick vacation read. Since you don’t find out who dies until the end it + also means you have no chance to figure out who did it, so maybe it’s less of + a murder mystery and more of trashy thriller. +- gr_id: 26082916 + title: 'Ready Player Two (Ready Player One, #2)' + author: Ernest Cline + rating: 3 + read: 2020/12/24 + review: It is what it is. The writing certainly hasn’t improved from the first book + (I think the rate of pop culture references per meter squared has actually increased?? + Maybe as a big fuck-you to the haters? Like “y’all thought the first book was + bad, check this out”) but the story was entertaining I guess. +- gr_id: 49127718 + title: Anxious People + author: Fredrik Backman + rating: 4 + read: 2020/12/19 + review: Halfway through this book I didn’t think I’d like it. It was a silly story + that didn’t seem to go anywhere, but by the end I really liked all the nice people + that lived in this silly story. +- gr_id: 49397893 + title: More Than a Woman + author: Caitlin Moran + rating: 5 + read: 2020/12/07 + review: The older I get, the more I need to hear that my problems aren’t special + problems. I need to know other middle aged women have joint pains, self doubt, + tired faces, are unmotivated and confused and exhausted by a a long to-do list + of personal improvement items that will never get done. I need to know they exist, + so that I can stop worrying about what’s “normal” and not “too much” for someone + my age, or what things I should be doing as a “correct” feminist in the apocalypse. + I just need other women that I can relate to, and this is what this book did for + me. +- gr_id: 51032860 + title: '15-Minute Watercolor Masterpieces: Create Frame-Worthy Art in Just a Few + Simple Steps' + author: Anna Koliadych + rating: 0 + read: 2020/11/12 + review: '' +- gr_id: 39683632 + title: 'The Joy of Watercolor: 40 Happy Lessons for Painting the World Around You' + author: Emma Block + rating: 0 + read: 2020/11/12 + review: '' +- gr_id: 44279110 + title: My Year of Rest and Relaxation + author: Ottessa Moshfegh + rating: 3 + read: 2020/11/02 + review: I’ve genuinely and truly wondered before what would happen if I just spent + the rest of my life sleeping, and I guess now I know. +- gr_id: 49003616 + title: 'A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (The Carls, #2)' + author: Hank Green + rating: 4 + read: 2020/10/17 + review: I liked this book less than I liked the first one, because the first is + all story and no explanation, and this one tries to explain things and make you + a better citizen of the world. Stopping to think about what you’re doing to help + the world is harder than reading a scifi about aliens. It’s tough work being an + author, so I appreciate this one going straight up for the hard work.

Anyway, + this was good; I enjoyed the story, I even surprised myself by enjoying the pop + philosophy bits about humanity (“how ardently [we] believe in [our] individuality + while simultaneously operating almost entirely as a collective”), reality (“not + what is true, but what we pay attention to”), and power (“ability and desire without + restriction”).

“The solution is, everywhere and always, the decentralization + and redistribution of all forms of power”, and maybe if we communicated this to + teenagers more through stories rather than stuffy philosophy books written in + the antiquity, maybe more of us would believe it. +- gr_id: 43575115 + title: The Starless Sea + author: Erin Morgenstern + rating: 5 + read: 2020/09/04 + review: I really, really, really love Erin Morgenstern’s writing style. It’s dreamlike + and lyrical and probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is mine. This is a + lovely story about stories within stories, bees, honey, and people who love books. + And I love all those things. +- gr_id: 24233708 + title: 'An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1)' + author: Hank Green + rating: 4 + read: 2020/08/23 + review: About half way through I got this feeling that i got the first time I read + Ender’s game when I was little. Because they’re sort of similar books in some + aspects. Aliens pick a random human; shenanigans happen. Ender’s game was a bit + sexist, stuck in the 80s, and only Ender was smart enough to solve puzzles; this + book has a bi protagonist, a bunch of smart women, and everyone dreaming and solving + puzzles as a team. It’s a very millennial book, with tweets and brands, and maybe + you won’t like that, but if you’re a millennial like I am, who found out about + this book on twitter and is reviewing it on goodreads, you might enjoy someone + speaking your language. I for one, really really did. +- gr_id: 45754981 + title: The Glass Hotel + author: Emily St. John Mandel + rating: 5 + read: 2020/07/18 + review: A while back I decided I would read all of Emily St John’s books. She’s + from Comox, a place an ex boyfriend used to spend his summers in. In a past life, + maybe they ran into each other on the way to the beach. In a future life, maybe + her and I will run into each other in a cafe and discover this fact as I apologize + for accidentally taking her coat that looks just like mine. We’ll comment on how + small the world really is, and I’ll say hey, it’s just like your books eh? In + all of her books, characters weave in and out of each others’ lives, without anyone + other than you, the reader, really putting it together. It’s a little secret Emily + lets you in on. In some of her books (like this one) it works, in some (The Lola + quartet) it doesn’t. Still, I’ll keep reading them all because I like being in + on secrets, or because maybe i’m a character in someone else’s book. +- gr_id: 8935689 + title: 'Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)' + author: Iain M. Banks + rating: 2 + read: 2020/07/08 + review: Ehhhh this wasn’t my favourite. It’s a very long book that could have benefitted + from better editing. I know that sci-fi authors have this problem where they want + to build a solid and detailed world, and they want to tell you everything about + it in painful details, so that 5 books from now something very obscure makes sense + for a very obscure reason, but the problem is that you end up with a very long + book with a lot of explanations I didn’t care about and was just bored. Also, + it’s a bad sign when after 1700 (larger font) pages on my e-reader I really didn’t + care what happened to the main character. +- gr_id: 43923951 + title: Such a Fun Age + author: Kiley Reid + rating: 4 + read: 2020/07/01 + review: '' +- gr_id: 42379022 + title: The Bookish Life of Nina Hill + author: Abbi Waxman + rating: 4 + read: 2020/06/24 + review: This book was very cute! It’s good to read a cute book every once in a while. +- gr_id: 40265832 + title: How to Be an Antiracist + author: Ibram X. Kendi + rating: 5 + read: 2020/06/21 + review: This is the only book I’ve e-read and highlighted anything in, and I highlighted + something in every chapter. This should be a required reading in my opinion for + everyone in 2020. I saw times in my life when I was a well meaning racist; I saw + times in my life when I wasn’t a racist, but I also wasn’t an anti-racist. I hope + that when I reread this again I’ll see times in my life when I was deliberately + an anti-racist, and be proud about that. +- gr_id: 45186565 + title: Uncanny Valley + author: Anna Wiener + rating: 2 + read: 2020/05/31 + review: 'I am HERE for spilling the tea on the tech industry but this was a 500+ + page badly written medium post that was a slog to get through. It wasn’t the trashing + I was promised, which is probably why this review is so long and the rating so + low.

Pretty much everything you read you’ve heard before — maybe this + book would’ve been novel 3-4 years ago, but who hasn’t read about the trash fire + of sexism and sheer ridiculousness of tech by now? But even if I could get over + the lukewarm takes and meh anecdotes, I can’t get over how bad the writing was. + No exaggeration, on one page, this was the first word of every sentence: their, + they, the, every, the, they, they. On top of that, almost every sentence has at + least one (adjective)(adjective)(noun) flourish which just....isn’t great.

Also, + the not-naming of companies is just exhausting and boring. Referring to Uber as + “the ride sharing startup” and to Lyft as “the main competitor with cuter branding” + isn’t keeping any secrets; everyone knows who that’s talking about. This air of + insider knowledge (when in fact everything is very much public knowledge) is SO + ironic because Anna Wiener is writing this book from the outside perspective of + a sociology major who feels like they never quite fit in the tech industry, and + hates everything about it, but in fact she writes exactly like one of those elitist + tech bros who’s trying to feel better than you and make their startup sound more + interesting than it is.' +- gr_id: 12856198 + title: The Lola Quartet + author: Emily St. John Mandel + rating: 3 + read: 2020/05/22 + review: I’ve read and loved Station Eleven and Last Night on Montreal, and I read + and just average liked this book. All of her books have the same style I enjoy + (a mystery that needs solving, a non linear timeline, a thing that you know but + the characters don’t), but unlike in the other books, I found myself not caring + about any of the characters. None are really nice people, and the ones I think + you’re supposed to care about aren’t really detailed in a way to make you care. +- gr_id: 35959740 + title: Circe + author: Madeline Miller + rating: 4 + read: 2020/05/16 + review: This is the Greek myth I wish I had read as a little girl. The stories I + read were written by men, about men — most women characters were weak baby makers, + gossipers, pretty things to look at, who only react to things the men do, but + almost never _act_. The men were the warriors, the heroes, the ones who the story + was really about.

This book is the feminist answer to that — Circe is + a witch nymph who gives no fucks and takes no names. She doesn’t allow herself + to be controlled by men, society, or her fate, and that independence makes her + powerful, the same kind of power that all our favourite male gods in the old stories + took for granted. And if now I were a 6 year old really into Greek myths, I really + hope someone would give me this book. +- gr_id: 9361589 + title: The Night Circus + author: Erin Morgenstern + rating: 4 + read: 2020/05/03 + review: Sometimes there’s really good stories written poorly, and sometimes there’s + okay stories written really well, where I sort of absorb in real life the whimsy + of the writing and this book is like that.

The story is good, and the + characters are fine, and it’s definitely a fun read I didn’t want to put down + (a solid 3 star), but i gave it an extra star because of the writing— it’s sort + of airy and magical and nice. I also realized about half way through it was written + in the present tense, which I’m a sucker for — it makes me feel like a real time + observer, rather than someone listening to something that already happened and + you know what? It’s good to know what you like. +- gr_id: 44776548 + title: Year of the Monkey + author: Patti Smith + rating: 4 + read: 2020/04/28 + review: To me, this book feels like a really well written novel by Patti Smith, + the author, as opposed to Just Kids, a super interesting memoir by Patti Smith + the rock star. Year of the Monkey is a surrealist story where some people are + real and some are not, and it’s not always clear which world you’re in at a given + time. It was hard for me to get into it at first because I kept trying to figure + out if a particular story _actually_ happened to Patti Smith or not, and it wasn’t + until I let that go and accepted this book as “not actually a traditional memoir” + that I started enjoying it so much more. +- gr_id: 42397849 + title: 'Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle' + author: Emily Nagoski + rating: 4 + read: 2020/04/17 + review: 'I liked this book, even though not all of it applies to me. It’s a book + by millennials, for millennials, full of science and relatable anecdotes. If you + are a person who doesn’t empathize with other women/people of colour/minorities, + have ever said “but what about the men”, or struggle with the concept of privilege + and with blaming things on the patriarchy: this book is not for you, and you will + be annoyed reading it. Because the thing I got the most out of this book is that + for a lot of us the game IS rigged, both biologically and socially, the patriarchy + IS to blame, and pretending that isn’t the case is like pretending the ocean is + made up because you haven’t it, even though people from the Caribbean tell you + they grew up with one.' +- gr_id: 23582639 + title: 'Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, + and Successful Artist' + author: Carol Marine + rating: 0 + read: 2020/04/06 + review: '' +- gr_id: 40597810 + title: Daisy Jones & The Six + author: Taylor Jenkins Reid + rating: 3 + read: 2020/04/04 + review: Look, it was fine. It’s a good story. Do I wish I would’ve watched the movie + instead? Probably. Because it’s written like an interview, this book is 100% dialog + and at that point I might as well look at people on the screen reading it. +- gr_id: 33381433 + title: We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. + author: Samantha Irby + rating: 4 + read: 2020/03/28 + review: 'Turns out it’s very hard to write a witty, funny, self deprecating review + about a witty, funny, self deprecating book without looking like an asshole so + have this: I would like to be internet friends with this book but I don’t think + I’m cool enough for it.' +- gr_id: 23751692 + title: A Little Life + author: Hanya Yanagihara + rating: 4 + read: 2020/03/07 + review: 'Before I started reading this, someone described it as “devastating”, and + I couldn’t understand that. But it’s true, that’s exactly what it is: devastating. + It’s one of the bleakest books I’ve ever read, not because of the moments of grief + and actual sadness, but because of the happy ones in between. And that’s why it’s + devastating: because every time something good happens, you know it won’t last. + It’s also one of the best books I’ve ever read — I don’t regret reading it, but + I don’t think I can take the heartbreak of ever reading it again.' +- gr_id: 40004610 + title: The Alice Network + author: Kate Quinn + rating: 5 + read: 2020/03/01 + review: 'I wanted to write snotty intellectual comments about how Eve’s story was + brilliant and the Charlie plot line was weak etc. but the fact of the matter is + I couldn’t put this book down, I stayed up till 2am so that I could finish it, + and if I’m too generous with the rating: tough cookies. They’re made up points + anyway.' +- gr_id: 11324166 + title: 'Timeless (Parasol Protectorate, #5)' + author: Gail Carriger + rating: 3 + read: 2020/02/23 + review: 'I don’t normally read a series this long, or this silly. I read these mostly + on my phone: jetlagged in the middle of the night, in airports, at the dinner + table, waiting for something or other to happen, or to stop happening. I read + this particular book around toddlers who would interrupt me every 3 sentences, + so I needed a book where the story would survive skipped sentences. If you’re + ever in those situations, maybe these books will be there for you too.' +- gr_id: 25229592 + title: I Can't Believe It's Not Better + author: Monica Heisey + rating: 2 + read: 2020/02/11 + review: '' +- gr_id: 36337550 + title: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle + author: Stuart Turton + rating: 5 + read: 2020/02/03 + review: 'This book is kind of brilliant! The premise is super smart (this isn’t + a spoiler, it’s literally on the book cover): someone has to solve a murder by + inhabiting 8 different witnesses and reliving the same day. It’s a bit slow in + the middle while you’re figuring some things out, but the reveal is great, and + makes the premise even neater. Very happy I read this.' +- gr_id: 30201327 + title: The Lonely Hearts Hotel + author: Heather O'Neill + rating: 4 + read: 2020/01/19 + review: 'I love all of Heather O’Neill’s stories, even as they break my heart in + little pieces. That’s how a Heather O’Neill do. I loved this story too, but for + some reason I didn’t love the writing style; I kept noticing the (definitely deliberate) + short and choppy sentences which didn’t work out for me this time as they normally + do. Still: happy I read this, sad when I was done reading it.' +- gr_id: 35133922 + title: Educated + author: Tara Westover + rating: 5 + read: 2019/12/25 + review: '' +- gr_id: 35137915 + title: 'I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death' + author: Maggie O'Farrell + rating: 4 + read: 2019/12/23 + review: '' +- gr_id: 13376363 + title: Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth + author: Warsan Shire + rating: 5 + read: 2019/12/19 + review: I love love love Warsan Shire. Love. +- gr_id: 51781822 + title: High School + author: Sara Quin + rating: 4 + read: 2019/12/15 + review: '' +- gr_id: 26877039 + title: Milk and Honey + author: Rupi Kaur + rating: 3 + read: 2019/12/10 + review: I read this because I so badly wanted it to be a Warsan Shire. It wasn’t, + and that’s not really its fault, but that’s why I won’t like it more. +- gr_id: 8356487 + title: 'Heartless (Parasol Protectorate, #4)' + author: Gail Carriger + rating: 3 + read: 2019/12/10 + review: '' +- gr_id: 38819868 + title: My Sister, the Serial Killer + author: Oyinkan Braithwaite + rating: 4 + read: 2019/12/06 + review: '' +- gr_id: 9011948 + title: 'Blameless (Parasol Protectorate, #3)' + author: Gail Carriger + rating: 3 + read: 2019/11/29 + review: '' +- gr_id: 7996689 + title: 'Changeless (Parasol Protectorate, #2)' + author: Gail Carriger + rating: 3 + read: 2019/11/29 + review: '' +- gr_id: 8135928 + title: 'Soulless (Parasol Protectorate, #1)' + author: Gail Carriger + rating: 3 + read: 2019/11/28 + review: 'If you’re into occasionally reading trashy books to pass the time: this + is primo trash and you’ll enjoy it.' +- gr_id: 23398612 + title: The Vacationers + author: Emma Straub + rating: 2 + read: 2019/11/26 + review: Fine for reading on a beach. It’s a story about rich, white, privileged + people, having rich, white, privileged family problems that they have to deal + with on their casual trip to Mallorca. Honestly, if you have a vampire book series + to read on the beach, maybe do that instead. +- gr_id: 42203363 + title: The Lager Queen of Minnesota + author: J. Ryan Stradal + rating: 4 + read: 2019/11/24 + review: This is a lovely book about 2 generations of women being strong and badass + and charming in their own ways. The plot is really well thought out, and the three + seemingly separate story lines weave in and out in a way that doesn’t seem forced. + A great feel-good read. +- gr_id: 35863510 + title: The Changeling + author: Victor LaValle + rating: 3 + read: 2019/11/22 + review: '' +- gr_id: 38348476 + title: Calypso + author: David Sedaris + rating: 4 + read: 2019/11/21 + review: 'I listened to this as an audiobook, and it felt a lot like what I imagine + hanging out with David Sedaris over a bottle of wine is: hilarious and full of + absurd stories.' +- gr_id: 40830484 + title: The Woman Who Turned Into A Vending Machine + author: Natalie Wang + rating: 5 + read: 2019/11/17 + review: Whimsy whimsy whimsy! +- gr_id: 16054217 + title: 'The Book of Life (All Souls, #3)' + author: Deborah Harkness + rating: 2 + read: 2019/11/12 + review: The happiest I’ve been is when I finished this book knowing that it was + over and I didn’t have to read any more of this just to “see what happens at the + end”. All these books made me so angry. Weak af female protagonist that’s supposed + to be a brilliant academic but is like really basic and defers to a man, and that + man is a boring, rapy, rude one. A yikes from me. +- gr_id: 34273236 + title: Little Fires Everywhere + author: Celeste Ng + rating: 4 + read: 2019/11/12 + review: '' +- gr_id: 11559200 + title: 'Shadow of Night (All Souls, #2)' + author: Deborah Harkness + rating: 2 + read: 2019/11/11 + review: It’s still not good, but I just need to know how it ends now. +- gr_id: 8667848 + title: 'A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1)' + author: Deborah Harkness + rating: 2 + read: 2019/11/08 + review: Look. It’s definitely not well written. And the plot is basically Twilight + for adults but instead of vampires sparkling they’re like really grumpy and surly + and into virginity and for some reason say “dieu!” a lot even though they’ve lived + outside of France for decades and are scholars at the fanciest house in Oxford. + But I read it in one night while jet lagged and I now need to know what happens + in the next book so I feel I need to give it some stars because of this. +- gr_id: 17333245 + title: 'Both Flesh and Not: Essays' + author: David Foster Wallace + rating: 4 + read: 2019/10/28 + review: You can’t really go wrong with any DFW, if you like DFW (which i absolutely + do) but I found this book had a couple essays I wasn’t all that interested in, + like reviews of books I hadn’t (and wouldn’t) read. +- gr_id: 18085520 + title: Two Serious Ladies + author: Jane Bowles + rating: 2 + read: 2019/10/27 + review: I really didn’t enjoy reading this book. I thought the premise was interesting + and promising (women trying to find independence through going on an adventure), + but the writing felt so alien I couldn’t enjoy it. It was like someone was trying + to hard to be avant garde, and it just read really forced. Argh. +- gr_id: 38746485 + title: Becoming + author: Michelle Obama + rating: 4 + read: 2019/10/27 + review: '' +- gr_id: 41057294 + title: Normal People + author: Sally Rooney + rating: 4 + read: 2019/10/12 + review: I am obsessed with Sally Rooney (like everyone else in the world), but I + liked this slightly less than “Conversations with friends”. With Conversations, + I felt sad while reading it, but happy and hopeful at the end; with this one I + felt hopeful while reading it and rather sad at the end, and that’s 100% why I + feel I liked it less. +- gr_id: 37703550 + title: Where the Crawdads Sing + author: Delia Owens + rating: 4 + read: 2019/10/11 + review: I feel the author needed an ending and didn’t have an ending planned so + a whole bunch of things that didn’t make sense happened with no credible explanation + just so that the story would finish. +- gr_id: 37506350 + title: Conversations with Friends + author: Sally Rooney + rating: 5 + read: 2019/10/02 + review: I can't believe I didn't leave a review for this book. I think this is my + favourite book that I've read in a long time. I thought so the first time I read + it, and after re-reading it again today, it's still true. I think I see myself + possibly too much in Frances, in a weird and emotionally unhealthy way, but empathize + with and cheer for everyone in the book. It's all so beautiful and human and I + love it. diff --git a/reads.markdown b/reads.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddbfba3 --- /dev/null +++ b/reads.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,145 @@ +--- +layout: layout +title: "Books" +splashtitle: "Book reviews" +--- + +I've been trying to write reviews for every book I've read. +You can follow these here, on [goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/27136484-monica), or as an +[RSS feed](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/27136484?shelf=read). + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + {% for book in site.data.books %} + + + + + + + + {% if book.review != "" %} + + + + {% endif %} + {% endfor %} + +
TitleAuthorReadRatingReview
+ {{ book.title }} + {{ book.author }}{{ book.read }}{{ book.rating }} / 5 + + + {% if book.review != "" %} + + {% else %} + n/a + {% endif %} +
{{ book.review }}
+
+ + +
\ No newline at end of file