dylanhenning's reviews
130 reviews

Tiana's Bayou Adventure (Disney Princess) by Josef Lemoine

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

This children’s book is telling the story of the water ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure that is currently at the US Disney Parks.

I think this does such a great job adapting the story of that ride into an actual narrative. It’s a fun and silly adventure that younger children will love. 

The artwork in this book is so gorgeous and captures specific scenes and moments from the ride. 

Black Friend: Essays by Ziwe

emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.5

This book was very refreshing. Right up front Ziwe Fumudoh admits she doesn’t have answers to problems like racism or misogyny so if you’re looking for a book with all the answers, this isn’t it. 

But what we do get here is an honest and funny collection of essays where Ziwe details her conversations and experiences navigating this world as a Black woman and as the “black friend”. While there are no answers or solutions here, this book does provide some opportunities for thoughts and reflection on these topics while injecting her personal style of humor and wit. 

Animal Farm by George Orwell

dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

At the time of this review (January 2025) Animal Farm is coming up on its 80th anniversary and unfortunately this book is still as relevant as ever.

This book is often a target for bans here in the United States and it’s easy to see why. Without getting into spoilers the people who want to ban this book and prevent people from reading it and digging into its themes and ideas are represented as the villains/ oppressors in this story.

Let’s talk about those themes. The story starts with the animals on this farm deciding to rise up against their human owner and run him off the farm. After this successful battle they decide to rename the farm to Animal Farm (hence the title of the book) and they decide to govern themselves according to a list of commandments. The commandments are simply summarized as stating that the animals won’t do any of the things their human oppressors did like sleep in beds, wear clothes,  or stand on two legs. 

Things start out well with this new self governing system with everyone sharing the hard work and the resources among themselves. However some animals like the Pigs are able to read and write where most of the other animals can’t. So they rely on the pigs to tell them what the commandments are and how the systems of government work.

Again not getting too deep into spoilers but eventually a pig named Napoleon is able to convince the rest of the animals that things would be better under his leadership but that in order to achieve success the other animals will have to work harder and make sacrifices but if they trust in Napoleon and his plans everyone will benefit. 

Napoleon uses the other animals lack of education and skills to his advantage to spread misinformation, propaganda, and uses fear and intimidation tactics to keep the animals in line but also to enrich himself and ultimately the other pigs. 

This book was a commentary on the Russian revolution of 1917 and the events that followed bit you could take this story and apply it to things happening in the United States and around the world still today. Oppressors use misinformation, propaganda, and fear to gain and hold power and to keep the public in line. They also use the levers of government to keep people poor and poorly educated to keep them from realizing what’s happening and revolting.

This story ends at a pivotal moment and leaves the reader in suspense. There is no clean and satisfying ending. There’s no happily ever after moment. There’s no finality to it. We don’t know what the animals will do next. Will things change and they overthrow the oppressors? Will they learn lessons from these events and make changes to address the inequalities that allowed this situation to happen? It all depends on what the animals do next. Similarly the ending to the story of humanity isn’t written either. It’s up to us as the human race to make changes and address the cracks in the system to prevent this cycle from continuing over and over again across the world.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

How to even begin taking about this book? It honestly hurts my brain to think about it too hard.

I think the easiest way to describe this book is that it’s actually ten different books all interrupted at a pivotal moment. These ten books are tied together by this overarching narrative.

That’s the simple version of what If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler is. The nature of this book is much deeper and profound. It’s a love letter to the act of reading and to books themselves. It’s at times a commentary on publishing, authoritarianism, and the role books can play in a persons life. It’s a conspiracy novel, a romance novel, a mystery novel, and at times an extremely horny novel. Somehow it manages to be all of that and none of that at the same time.

I had a lot of fun reading this book and going on this wild and weird journey that Italo Calvino took me on. This is one of those books that will stick with me for a very long time. Maybe even forever.

I Am Not I by Jacob Needleman

informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

1.0

On its surface this is a book about philosophy and spirituality framed as a conversation between the author and his younger self. If it had been just that this would’ve been a more interesting book.

Instead this reads like a script for a play and it comes off more so focused on the spirituality aspect than the philosophical aspect of the conversation. 

I don’t know who this book was for (other than for the author himself). I don’t see how anyone can get anything of value from reading this. Thankfully it was short so I didn’t have to suffer through it very long.

Knights of the Old Republic by Janine Johnston, Tom Veitch, Christian Gossett

adventurous mysterious tense fast-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

This continues a string of Dark Horse era Star Wars comics I’ve read that were simply “fine”. 

This isn’t a terrible story and I do kind of love the continued trend of a hero losing their arm and replacing it with robotics (in this case an old droid arm). I also appreciate the idea that these people on Onderon have been under the influence of the Dark Side for so long and that has influenced the events among the different groups of people. 

Unfortunately none of this is satisfying enough to elevate its rating higher for me. It’s a decent enough story but not reaching some of the highs I’ve experienced with other Star Wars stories in both canon and “Legends”.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This book stands as a shining example of what an epic political fantasy story can be. The world and the lore feel organic and unique from other major fantasy worlds. The cast of characters is large and they each bring with them their own unique goals and motivations that move the story forward in new directions. 

George R.R. Martin creates a rich and diverse landscape that feels like the real world. You can almost feel the cold, smell the flowers, and hear the waters as you read. Martin is a master at setting the scene he wants you to envision.

The book does move at a slower pace than some people may like but in my opinion it’s better for it. There are plenty of brutal fight scenes where Martin is not shy to kill off characters at any time, but the real meat and potatoes is the slower moments. Private conversations we get to eavesdrop on or council meetings discussing battle plans or political moves. These moments make it all the more exciting when those battles do come and you wonder what the fallout will be for all sides.

My one criticism of the book is a small one that does not take away from my overall enjoyment of the book. Some of the character developments were foreshadowed so hard and so often that by the time we get to the end of the book you’re not surprised by where the characters are or what’s happening with them. 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Public statement: J.K. Rowling is a mean spirited person using her fame and influence to dehumanize and dismantle the rights of Transgender people throughout the world. Her actions and words are not only incorrect but harmful and buying new copies of her books puts more money in her pockets to give her more freedom and resources to continue her hateful and misguided crusade. The copies of the Harry Potter books I own were purchased well before her anti-trans tirade began and I encourage all of you that if you are going to read her books to do it as ethically as possible by either buying her books secondhand or borrowing them from your local library so no additional money goes into her pockets.

This is part of a re-read project of the Harry Potter series I’m doing now as an adult. I’m reading these books for the first time in well over a decade and trying to think of them critically and judge each book on its own merits. So far Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has aged the worst on re-read.

I never loved GOF as much as I have some of the other books but I always appreciated it for having far less Quidditch, a decent amount of Sirius, and the Tri-Wizard Tournament. As an adult these aspects of the book absolutely still hold up and I did find other elements to appreciate as well like Dumbledore’s speech at the end about Cedric and how he died. I am glad Dumbledore didn’t try to soften the details of what happened or pretend it didn’t happen. It would’ve been disrespectful to Cedric and also to the students.. they deserve to know what’s happening and what is likely about to happen within the Wizarding world.

To that point this book does a lot of foreshadowing and set up for things that will be paid off in the final three books. You don’t really think much of it as a kid (or at least I didn’t), but it’s really fascinating to see Rowling acknowledge that this is the midpoint of her series. A lot of questions are answered and the groundwork is laid for the final few chapters of the Harry Potter saga.

Unfortunately that’s where my praise of this book ends. I did find it to be overly long. Don’t get me wrong I love a big thick book but there were large sections of this book that felt like they didn’t really matter and we’re just there to pad out the book and kill time until the next major development. Like did we really need so many moments with Rita Skeeter and her articles? After the first couple we could kind of understand what was going on with her. 

Also Ron being annoyed with Harry after he became a champion didn’t really make sense to me. He should know his best friend wouldn’t try to enter into an extremely dangerous competition and especially wouldn’t keep his efforts secret from his friends. Then the resolution of the feud was lackluster as well. What was all that for other than needing some sort of tension for Harry?

But none of that compares to how poorly the storyline with Hermione and the House Elves has aged. All Hermione wanted to do was help them get rights and freedoms and every single character (with the exception of Harry) made her out to be insane for this and trying to gaslight her into thinking the House Elves loved being enslaved. (The elves did later balk at the idea of rights and freedoms and this was presented as justification for why Hermione was wrong, but if all the house elves had known was that way of life then of course they’re not all going to jump at the chance to make things better. They don’t know that things could be better. That’s all they’ve ever known).

In the end this is still a good book but some of the issues with the plots and the pacing keep it from being a fantastic book.

Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien, Baillie Tolkien

adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.5

This book is comprised of letters that J.R.R Tolkien wrote to his children over a number of years as Father Christmas (Santa Claus). These letters were obviously never meant to be seen by or shared with the public. So it feels a little intrusive to read these. But at the same time I’m very glad these letters and the illustrations Tolkien included have been preserved. They serve as a wonderful display of his brilliance in his ability to craft a wonderfully fantastical tale full of magic, hope, and whimsical characters that assist Father Christmas in the preparation and delivery of presents to children.

The letters start out very simple in the early years but as the children get older the letters get more detailed and Tolkien brings in a supporting cast of characters that have their own writing style, distinctive personalities, and sometimes their own languages that Tolkien invents. You can almost see where some of the ideas and themes that would be used in his Middle-Earth books started from.

As these books span a number of years from the 1920’s to the 1940’s Tolkien weaves in real world events from the Great Depression to World War II. It’s letters written to his children so he never gets too dark but you can sense in Tolkien’s writing the sadness at the events unfolding in the world and trying to explain it to his children. He even possibly slips in an allegory to the Nazi’s with a story about Father Christmas and his friends having to defend against a Goblin attack.

Lastly I’ll say that these letters show the deep and profound love Tolkien had for his children. The lengths he went to, and the detail he provided in the illustrations, the writing styles, even down to the little nuances on the envelope, shows how much he wanted his kids to be enraptured by the magic of Christmas. 

This is a perfect book to read around the holidays. It will give you the warm and cozy feelings of a holiday classic and just might make you believe in Father Christmas (Santa) again for just a little bit.

The Official Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Book by Taylor Swift

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

This is essentially a coffee table art/picture book but there are insights and behind the scenes information in here from Taylor Swift that I do think merits it being reviewed and critiqued.

No matter what you think of Taylor Swift I think everyone can admit that The Eras Tour (2023-2024) has been a massive, unprecedented, and truly unique artistic event. This tour broke the mold and defied every piece of conventional wisdom around how musicians make, promote, and tour their work/music. In the almost two full years since this tour started I have seen other artists attempt (to varying degrees of success) to do a similar tour highlighting all of their past musical eras. 

This book is a fantastic reference and visual history to this groundbreaking achievement in music and art. Written and published by Taylor Swift herself she provides numerous photos from the tour, concept art, and behind the scenes photographs of moments most of the public would never see. She also provides her own thoughts and insights on each “Era” of the show from what she intended to convey through costuming, set decorations, or the set list. She references organic moments started by her fans (known collectively as Swifties) and how she responded to them, such as everyone holding up their phones flashlight during “Marjorie” a song Taylor wrote about her deceased grandmother.

If you are a Swiftie you will love and adore this visual time capsule and if you’re not a fan by the end of this book you will come away with an appreciation for her artistry, stamina, and dedication to music and performing.