devinsf's reviews
131 reviews

To Tame A Cowboy by Katherine Arthur

emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

Low-spice 1990 romance novel set on a large ranch in Montana. She's a city girl, he's a country millionaire. Weirdly, this book includes Britishisms (colour, "cross" instead of "mad"), which added some unusual flavor to the Country-fied prose.

The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed by John McPhee

adventurous hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-paced

4.75

This book is outlandish and incredible. McPhee embeds with a gaggle of aeronautical misfits as — after a decade of R&D, wild-eyed speculation, and good money thrown after bad — they begin the final round of testing on a new type of aircraft. Every person in this book is insane, and written just perfectly. 

Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World by Amy Stanley

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

The environmental descriptions are a real strength of this book — as much time is spent describing Edo and it's goings-on as is spent with the main character. I typically dislike this balance (eg. I have a hard time getting into fiction with a lot of world-building), but the style and quality of the prose descriptions just really did it for me on this one. A fascinating window into a very specific time and place.

Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I'd tried to read this twice before, but didn't make it past the snoozy opening pages. But after those, it picks up quickly and jogs right along through the end. Our protagonist, Mr. Wormold, is a lovably milquetoast English expat running a failing vacuum shop in Havana, raising his 17-year-old daughter alone after his wife left him years ago.

The plot kicks off when Wormold is approached by a foreign agent handler from MI6, and he realizes that his financial troubles will be over, as long as he keeps reporting secrets back to England. The only problem is that there are no secrets to report — so, he starts inventing them. This setup could easily wobble into absurdist slapstick (and at times it does), but the way the narration sticks so close to Wormold and his good-intentions-gone-awry instead makes it kind of a charming, heartwarming read.

I didn't expect the book to be so funny, but Greene also does an excellent job of interweaving some real tension toward the end of the book, as

Wormold — naturally — stumbles his way into IRL spycraft and its attendant mortal dangers.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Racial slurs

There's a few scenes inside brothels involving sex workers. The writing isn't particularly graphic, but just a heads-up that it may be unfamiliar terrain for younger readers.

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

4.25

From NYUP. It's academic in structure: The intro synopses the work, each chapter can be read standalone, and repeats some previous information for context.

Being unfamiliar with the development and specifics of race science, this book was fascinating and (expectedly) upsetting. The central thesis is that race/eugenics is the missing piece identified in previous critical works on the history of the "slender aesthetic" in western culture. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is engaged or concerned with physicality; I listened to the audiobook during my morning exercises, and found the combination very engaging!

In the Distance by Hernán Díaz

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.25

Amazing prose. The most countrified story about trauma-induced major depressive episodes you'll ever read.

Hiroshima by John Hersey

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.25

A lovely SF novella.

A Novel to Read on the Train by Dumitru Țepeneag

adventurous challenging fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This is a new translation of an experimental work by a Romanian novelist living in exile in Paris (This was his first novel written in French). Per the intro, it's a work in the "onierist" style; mimicing the strange looping and watercolor logic of dream narratives. I thoroughly enjoyed this, but would recommend it only for people who enjoy experimental lit or poetry -- steer clear if you're looking for linear plot development or narrative causality.

The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone by Edward Dolnick

adventurous informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

A fascinating dive into the decoding of the Rosetta Stone. The book centers on the two temperamentally-opposite academics at the front of the race, Young and Champillion. This book is full of fun observations about language, cryptography, and other matters, but at the same time, it feels a little padded when it comes to the main narrative. It's kind of like a great meandering essay about Heiroglyphic writing mashed up with a traditional slow-paced history book; The combination doesn't always work.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation