booksny's reviews
325 reviews

The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Did not enjoy this as much as the first book. The two fun elements were Emerson's and Amelia's banter, as well as the brief appearance of Ramses. The elements which were more tedious to read to were the rigidity in Amelia's thinking and judgement in terms of race and sex - it makes sense in terms of the period that she lived in, but wasn't particularly relevant to the plot. 

For that matter, there was a lot of elements that wasn't relevant to the plot and dragged it out. For example, Amelia had a tendency to suspect everyone and mentally review the suspects repeatedly. The side characters were very colorful but didn't really do anything of use, so I didn't really care about what happened to them (it felt like Emerson and Amelia didn't care either - their reaction to one of the deaths was just to shrug and go "that might change my theory of who the murderer is"). An absolutely bizarre dance performance was set up by Emerson at one point for no good reason. The villain seemed to be everywhere doing everything at once. Lastly, Amelia and Emerson were unnecessarily careless, to he point that they could have killed each other and other people more than once.

Slow Down, Take a Nap: A Celebration of the Siesta by duopress labs

informative lighthearted fast-paced

5.0

A cute, relaxing little read with lovely illustrations 

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Enjoyable - found the storytelling good and the characters likable. The depiction of Victorian era Egypt could be seen as a tad dated, but overall did not detract from the quality of this read

The Nine Lives of Catseye Gomez by Simon Hawke

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

For a story that's meant to be set in the future, this feels very much like it was from a very boring, very irritating past. Somehow, the book managed to make a cat reek of toxic masculinity. The conversation was highly repetitive; you could make a drinking game out of every time someone said "your partner?" when they saw the cat, or when the cat gave people a "sparkle with the ol' Betsy". Cat did nothing of real action; just spent a lot of time mouthing off and giving long irrelevant info dumps about the world. 

No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg

informative medium-paced

3.0

As described, it's a collection of Thunberg's speeches between 2018 and 2020. Interesting to see how her speaking style has changed over time and with different audiences; interesting as well to see the bits which have stayed consistently the same from start to end.

Clockwork Wolf by Lynn Viehl

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

I liked the premise and some parts of the plot, but unfortunately a lot of the other elements rubbed me wrong. I was not invested in the main character, as it felt like she had a low level of emotional awareness and high levels of judgement. Her love interests often treated her with a mixture of overprotectiveness (which wasn't warranted) and distrust (which was warranted, given her tendency to accept very little help but need rescuing at every turn). She was constantly either getting injured or recovering from injury, as fighting was not one of her advantages but her impulse to resolve issues independently led her into many situations which would have benefited from someone with better fighting/subterfuge skills resolving them. Her main strengths were her natural ability to repel magic, and how she had friends who would provide her with deux ex machina support - their ability to anticipate when they should swoop in without anyone telling them to was very impressive. The depiction of native Americans was very tricky, and the police force seemed to pretty much be a one-man army whose main interest was to protect the heroine rather than doing any actual police work. 

Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil

informative medium-paced

5.0

A good read. Focused on American data and systems but reckon it's applicable worldwide 

A Perfect Fit by Kay Haugaard

funny fast-paced

3.0

The Tempering of Men by Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Decent read but it was a plot without payoff and characters with far less meaningful growth compared to the first book,  as it's setting up the scene for the third book

Drawn Together: Uplifting Comics on the Curious Journey Through Life and Love by Leah Pearlman

lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

A sweet collection of uplifting comics