dejnozkova's reviews
134 reviews

Antelope Woman by Louise Erdrich

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.25

Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance by Kaveh Akbar, Paige Lewis

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

Designing Brand Identity: A Comprehensive Guide to the World of Brands and Branding by Alina Wheeler, Rob Meyerson

informative medium-paced

4.25

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

Wizard and Glass by Stephen King

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

“I did what I did before I learned to know you as friends. Before I learned to love you as I loved Alain and Cuthbert. And before I was forced to revisit certain scenes. 

There was a part of me that hasn’t moved or spoken in a good many years. I thought it was dead. It isn’t. I have learned to love again. And I’m aware this is probably my last chance to love. I’m slow and Cort knew that. So did my father. But I’m not stupid.”

“Then don’t act that way. And treat us as if we were.”

Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.25

Mary Oliver is just so very soft to read. A lot of poets draw inspiration from the natural world yes, but Oliver lives in it and belongs to it. Her environment is where she learns life lessons like radical acceptance, that death gives meaning to life, the importance of letting yourself exist as you are without shame, that love can be found literally everywhere you look. I like that she has an actual relationship with our non-human neighbors instead of treating them like distant muses. She views them as teachers and lovers and friends. I read “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer last year, and I feel like Oliver understands the relationship between herself and nature in the same way that Kimmerer does. With a more holistic worldview that includes humanity within this concept of “nature”; that human beings are members of the same family as the trees and the animals. 

Just a tender and calming read. Almost therapeutic. 

The Waste Lands by Stephen King

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This is probably my favorite book in the series so far. It offers the most in character development (especially in regard to Eddie and Roland) this far in the series. The pacing is on-point, so I ripped through this one. I get excited seeing echoes and doubling and recurring details and watching them fall into place into the narrative. Stephen King is really good at introducing motifs and revealing their purpose at the right time. There’s enough mystery for me to want to keep listening, but not too much that it feels like a tease that will never pay off. It just feels like everything in this story is done with intention, even the filler moments with the characters. This book offered so much in terms of plot and character development and I can’t wait to listen to the next one. 

Also, a HUGE shout out to Frank Muller, he is an INCREDIBLE narrator. His neutral narrative voice is pleasant to listen to and holds my interest, and his character voices are spectacular. A lot of the funny points in this book I owe to his timing and his voice acting. He makes the characters believable, lovable, and engaging. So the audiobooks he’s done for this series are just a pleasure to listen to. 

Sula by Toni Morrison

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

This wasn’t exactly my favorite book. I didn’t quite like the writing, and the dialogue didn’t feel very genuine to me; the voice of the book felt almost childish in its simplicity. But I’ve felt this about a couple other Japanese slice-of-life books so I wonder if it’s more just the genre/style I don’t click with. There were moments I didn’t like Nana at all because it felt like the author was trying too hard to make him cold and sassy in a way that didn’t feel authentic. But there were other moments that were very relatable to me as a cat owner. 

This book finally clicked in for me near the end with the “reveal” of the purpose of the trip. The relationships that felt shallow or bored me earlier in the book finally gained meaning to me, and I did end up crying by the end, so it wasn’t all bad. The novel ends with a very strong but tender tone, and rounds out to be quite wholesome. I just wish it didn’t take me the entire book to finally feel emotionally invested.