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brittanieshey's reviews
281 reviews
The Girls by Emma Cline
4.0
One of my favorite books of all time is Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, and this book reminds me a lot of that one. At a surface level, it's a book about coming-of-age sexual and emotional obsession, as everything that happens in this book happens in the name of love and acceptance and a yearning for connection. But at a deeper level, this is an extremely feminist book about what it means to move through the world as a woman, and especially as a girl.
Heart Dog: Surviving the Loss of Your Canine Soul Mate by Roxanne Hawn
3.0
A short and basic book with some good ideas for how to mourn the loss of your soul mate dog. Mainly I was interested in reading the experiences of other people who had lost heart dogs — I'd never heard the term before, but it seemed impossible to describe to people just how beloved my own heart dog was. I'm glad to know there is a term for this and that my experience was not unusual.
The Price of Salt, or Carol by Patricia Highsmith
3.0
A slow, subtle book. It seems like not much happens, and when it does, what's happening is obscure. More than anything, this seems to be a book about power imbalances in relationships. There is a melancholy there too, as you can feel Therese's doubt and insecurity throughout. I wish it would have ended differently, with Therese finding her power and moving on from the relationship older and wiser, but I guess she found a different kind of power — in being free to be who she was sexually and openly.
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
2.0
As usual, Larson allows himself to get bogged down in unnecessary details, tangential characters and long-winded passages that fail to move the story forward. Larson also depends way too much on forced foreshadowing with outcomes that don't live up to the hype hectares for them. But it seems appropriate to read this book now as much of the lead-up to the events of WWII feel oddly familiar.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
3.0
Hard to explain how I feel about this book. It was fascinating, for sure, and the structure makes it so that you are constantly wondering what will happen next. The language is beautiful but at times it feels repetitive. Clark, for example, constantly reminisces about dancing with Arthur when the two were teenagers, and then about the dinner party at Arthur's house as adults, and it's as though the two have no other memories together.
I've been on a post-apocalyptic kick lately and am especially excited to see a new crop of spec-fic novels with female protagonists. This book had a lot more weight plot-wise than Gold Fame Citrus (though both feature a plot about a cult), but it still felt somewhat unsatisfying. That said, the book is dripping with symbolism that I'll be thinking about and unpacking for a few days now. Mainly, it just made me sad thinking about losing all the people I've ever loved in my life, but that will happen whether or not there's a pandemic.
I've been on a post-apocalyptic kick lately and am especially excited to see a new crop of spec-fic novels with female protagonists. This book had a lot more weight plot-wise than Gold Fame Citrus (though both feature a plot about a cult), but it still felt somewhat unsatisfying. That said, the book is dripping with symbolism that I'll be thinking about and unpacking for a few days now. Mainly, it just made me sad thinking about losing all the people I've ever loved in my life, but that will happen whether or not there's a pandemic.
Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins
3.0
That I read this book in two days should tell you something — I am a slow and measured reader, but I found myself shirking other duties in order to finish what is an almost-perfect novel. Do yourself a favore before picking this on up — DO NOT read about Claire Vaye Watkins' family history. To say that she was born and raised in the deserts of the west should give you enough of an idea of how much of this book is based on autobiography, but anything more would be a spoiler.
I said the book is near-perfect because the first two thirds of it are. Heartbreaking, hot and full of anxiety. But around the third book things start to change. The dialogue gets cheaper. Our formerly tough (on the outside, at least) heroine begins to behave in ways that seem unnatural for her. And the action, which slows to a crawl in the middle of the book, must them outpace itself in order to catch up. This doesn;t entireley ruin the book — by the end the characters are back to feeling and acting like themselves — but it just doesn't feel right for the story. Still, it's a worthwhile read. Just make sure you have some water handy for the story's unquenchable thirst.
I said the book is near-perfect because the first two thirds of it are. Heartbreaking, hot and full of anxiety. But around the third book things start to change. The dialogue gets cheaper. Our formerly tough (on the outside, at least) heroine begins to behave in ways that seem unnatural for her. And the action, which slows to a crawl in the middle of the book, must them outpace itself in order to catch up. This doesn;t entireley ruin the book — by the end the characters are back to feeling and acting like themselves — but it just doesn't feel right for the story. Still, it's a worthwhile read. Just make sure you have some water handy for the story's unquenchable thirst.
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
5.0
I loved this book so much.
I am not a fan of books about writing or creativity, but this had been on my shelf for many years. When another writer mentioned Goldberg's Six Rules for Writing Practice, I decided to finally bite the bullet and pick it up. I am so glad I did. Had I known Goldberg was a Zen Buddhist, and that her meditation practice informs her life as a writer, I wouldn't have waited to long to read this. Goldberg operates from the point of view that we all have something important to say, and that creativity is a well that we can all tap into with discipline, much like enlightenment. That sharing our experiences is a way of connecting with our higher selves and the vast energy that unites humanity. And that writing, much like meditation, is a way to find your own true self, the part of you that is most real (even the parts we don't want to face).
Maybe I should have read this book sooner, but the truth is that this book came to me at exactly the time I needed to read it. It's rare that I give any book five stars, but I see myself keeping this one to refer back to when I ever feel lost about my place in this world.
I am not a fan of books about writing or creativity, but this had been on my shelf for many years. When another writer mentioned Goldberg's Six Rules for Writing Practice, I decided to finally bite the bullet and pick it up. I am so glad I did. Had I known Goldberg was a Zen Buddhist, and that her meditation practice informs her life as a writer, I wouldn't have waited to long to read this. Goldberg operates from the point of view that we all have something important to say, and that creativity is a well that we can all tap into with discipline, much like enlightenment. That sharing our experiences is a way of connecting with our higher selves and the vast energy that unites humanity. And that writing, much like meditation, is a way to find your own true self, the part of you that is most real (even the parts we don't want to face).
Maybe I should have read this book sooner, but the truth is that this book came to me at exactly the time I needed to read it. It's rare that I give any book five stars, but I see myself keeping this one to refer back to when I ever feel lost about my place in this world.
Amsterdam: A History of the World's Most Liberal City by Russell Shorto
This history of the city (and country) that basically created Western Civilization is told through the stories of individual people. At times Shorto's writing can be overly dense, overly broad, and sometimes it feels like he struggles to tie the smaller story into his great thesis of liberalism. But in all, this was an engaging book, and I was happy to see the inclusion of some women and other minorities into the narrative. Defintely worth a read for anyone who wants to understand multiculturalism, capitalism and liberalism in all their glories and flaws.
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
2.0
I read Eat Pray Love several years ago and was annoyed by Gilbert's breathless golly-gee wonder at the way the world works. Since then, however, she's styled herself into a kind of creativity guru. I've watched her TED talks and enjoyed them, so I decided to give this book a try.
The book is really nothing more than a collection of anecdotes, many of then recycled from her talks. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was expecting a little more than stories I'd already heard either her, or more famous writers, tell. I did like parts of the books where she calls upon her yoga training to help alleviate the paralysis people feel around creativity — nothing REALLY matters in this life — but other than that I was mostly bored by this book.
The book is really nothing more than a collection of anecdotes, many of then recycled from her talks. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was expecting a little more than stories I'd already heard either her, or more famous writers, tell. I did like parts of the books where she calls upon her yoga training to help alleviate the paralysis people feel around creativity — nothing REALLY matters in this life — but other than that I was mostly bored by this book.
The Martian by Andy Weir
3.0
Quick, mindless read. It tends to get bogged down in sciencey stuff, and the main characters are super annoying, but it excels at points where there is a lot of tension. Unfortunately, there aren't too many of those, and some of them seem added for the sole purpose of waking the reader up. Not terrible though. I'd see the movie if it were showing on an airplane.