emmalong's reviews
516 reviews

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

adventurous funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

having never read the book or watched the movie, i was excited to join the world by reading this one. so much meditation on religion and our place in the world. humanity and animals, our purpose on the planet, and so much more was explored along with the Pacific Ocean. don’t miss the better story along the way. 

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

informative inspiring slow-paced

3.0

obviously a household name of an author, and there were some helpful tips in here even as someone who does not consider themselves a writer. i loved hearing about his start as an author, specifically writing and selling Carrie. 

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

wow this book was stunning. Adichie's voice is clear, strong, and poignant throughout the whole book and i just loved this story. Ifemulu was a great main character to follow. from my narrow perspective, this book felt realistic and taught me a lot. there were a lot of nuanced discussions about race, politics, and class that were fascinating and incredibly well done. definitely a modern classic. my biggest qualm was the unbelievable range of characters, people still getting introduced within the last 5 pages and it just felt like weird timing and i was constantly trying to keep track of so many people. otherwise, this book was beautiful, heartbreaking, real, and hopeful. i liked it a lot.

The Postcard by Anne Berest

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

this book was unlike any other historical fiction book i have ever read. and maybe that is in part to it being "true fiction," based on the author's family, ancestors, and truth written in so many memoirs and all of the research she did to write this book. it's so obvious how much thought, care, attention, and research went into this story and it only makes it that much better. the writing is phenomenal, the characters are so real (because they are), and the story is harrowing and heartbreaking. i will remember this one for so many years to come and will highly recommend reading this. facing history is the only way to stop it from repeating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Racism, Violence, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Deportation

Moderate: Drug use, Hate crime, Rape, Torture, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Self harm, and Dementia

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

at first i really did not jive with this book. i thought Joe, our main character and a thirteen year old boy was just kind of gross and i did not like following from his perspective. but even if i don't agree with how the author portrayed him, it did starkly contrast how a normal 13 year old boy is and how quickly Joe is forced to grow up. he feels like the main protector and care-taker of his mother and father as they both befall horrific events and accidents (his mom more than anyone else in the story. her plot line is sickening to read). i did not love the way certain things were used as narrative devices, but at the end of the day this book was informative, well written, and shocking. it's a hard one to recommend, but it is one that i am glad to now have read. Cappy is a favorite character and Joe is a protagonist i will have a hard time forgetting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Animal cruelty

The Art of Drowning by Billy Collins

lighthearted

3.0

some of these were pretty good, my favorite being "On Turning Ten" with some other pretty solid poems. a majority were just okay and "Pinup" actively made me want to stop reading the collection. overall, solid enough 

Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.0

other than The Year of Magical Thinking, i have yet to read any Didion before this but i really wanted to read one of her novels. this was bleak and sad and terrifying. most times, i felt sick reading it. i felt so terribly for Maria our main character and her clear struggle with mental health while living in a culture and specifically a sub-culture that did not care about that. no one was reliable, helpful, kind, reassuring, life-affirming, or anything positive. it was really bleak and i was constantly scared to turn the pages. i appreciate what Didion was saying with this book and her writing, but it overall just made me feel depressed due to its lack of hopefulness. nihilism is simply not for me.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

challenging reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

a five star prediction for me, but it was overall pretty good. a white Baptist preacher brings his wife and four daughters to the Congo to teach people about the truth of Jesus, but Nathan Price will stop at nothing to convert people to a religion and way of living they are reasonably wary of. there were some aspects that i had a hard time with. it's a story about Africa, written only from the perspective of white people. there's good enough reason for that and Kingsolver herself is white, so i understand why that choice was made. despite living in the Republic of the Congo as a young child for a brief amount of time, i didn't feel fully convinced by much of this book. it didn't really feel like any of our characters made huge changes to their belief systems throughout. Leah (the most redeemable in my eyes) still only made slight changes in her line of thinking and essentially just wished that she wasn't a white woman. the story itself did not feel cohesive enough, i wasn't really rooting for anyone, and i didn't love the pacing or trajectory of the story. overall, i'm glad to have read this, but i will continue to read books by authors who align more closely with the story they are trying to tell. 

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

i really enjoyed Orbital and its fascinating glimpse into humanity from the perspective of space. there were a lot of lines that i highlighted and will reread for a long time. i enjoyed Harvey's outlook and what it means to be a person. following each character was fascinating, but we never went particularly deep with one person. it was more about the depth of humanity and peoplehood instead. overall, i understand why this won the Booker. 

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

not entirely sure how i scored a new favorite book of all time in the first month of 2025, but i’m taking it as a sign of a great reading year. i decided to focus on slowing down this year, but i COULDN’T with this book. i simply had to keep reading. it has everything i could ever want. a book about stories and their invisible tether to humans throughout history, beautiful relationships between intertwining characters, and the importance of being alive and not taking that for granted. there is climate awareness within a crisis and the belief in a better world led by better people. interwoven narratives of characters who feel so relatable. they don’t feel that they themselves are important in the grand scheme of the world, yet they impact enormous change. what it means to be human and to revel in the beauty of how unlikely that reality even is. we’re lucky despite the chaos, the uncertainty, the messed up aspects of being a human. we are still human. and that’s beautiful and perfect and worth it. 

i completely loved and adored this book and will recommend it and reread it and cherish it forever.