gwendle_vs_literature's reviews
117 reviews

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

medium-paced

3.0

This book was fairly mid-tier. I didn’t have to force myself to read it, but I didn’t feel compelled to read it either (which probably isn’t great for a mystery). 

This was somewhat amusing, but the characters felt a bit cliched, and I doubt I’ll read more in the series. 

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

3.75

This was a selection for one of my book clubs, and it was enjoyable enough, but not something that I would likely have picked up on my own. 

The writing was fairly good, and the story was interesting, but I found myself unable to relate to any of the main characters, which tends to disengage me from a text.  That said, it would have truly irked me if the author had imposed modern values or ideals on a time and place where they wouldn’t make sense. 

What I found most interesting was reading the acknowledgments and learning about the intense level of research that went into the story, and that many of the events of the novel had a basis in history. 

I think I would have preferred a historical text about Lady Tan and about the time period to the historical fiction. 

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley

fast-paced

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

3.75

The Flavia de Luce mysteries are enjoyable and fairly light reads that I like to use as mental palate cleansers after reading a few heavier, denser, longer, or more challenging books. 

This one felt a bit sillier than the preceding ones in terms of premise, but it served its purpose.  

For Today I Am a Boy by Kim Fu

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I highly recommend this novel — it is a profound and beautiful story with heartache and tragedy, and with a hopeful and touching ending. 

Watership Down by Richard Adams

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-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

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read this book, but it’s at least 30. I originally read it in grade seven, and then because I had a copy at home that was at least third-hand and was in poor condition, and because I have always been obsessive about keeping my books pristine, Watership Down became the book I brought with me to camp (and I was in Guides Pathfinders and Rangers, so I was camping a lot).  I read the whole thing an average of once per year, but usually spread out over all my camping trips. 

Later, in my late twenties and early thirties, when for various mental and physical health reasons I found it difficult to read anything because I couldn’t stay focused, and found that I would have to read the same page or paragraph or sentence over and over again before I could retain enough to understand it (which caused me huge anxiety) this book became my lifeline; I had read it enough times that no matter where I was in the story I knew what was happening, so I could read and not have to notice that I’d lost focus. At one point I read it back to back to back, and I’ve never tired of it. 

When I was younger I disliked the stories of El-ahrairah, but in university I developed an intense interest in fables, fairytales, and folktales, and now I appreciate the way that rabbits’ stories build and enrich their culture, and the world that Adams created.
 
Somehow my most recent reading was the first time that I noticed the connection between the first and final sentences of the book — and every time I read it I feel like it gives me something new. 

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

5.0

I absolutely loved this book. It is extremely well written, with prose that sometimes border on poetic (not surprising from the author of Piranesi). Clarke succeeds at recreating the language, syntax, and spellings of a book actually written during the 1800s, which makes it easier for the reader to chuse to suspend disbelief and immerse oneself full in the world the author has created. The use of endnotes to cite the fictional books, places, authors, etc that are referenced throughout the text is ingenious, and lends a further air of realism to this fantastical tale. 

The actions and motivations of the characters are all believable, and the end of the narrative is satisfying. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. 

The Memory Collectors by Kim Neville

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

This story was darker than I’d anticipated, although my reading wasn’t as sinister as one of the other members of my book club. 

There were threads of the story that felt somewhat incomplete at the end (which I personally don’t mind as I’m more put off by attempts to tie absolutely everything up too neatly) and there were some plot points and character shifts that felt somewhat under-explained or too sudden, but overall it’s a solid narrative with a magical realism element based in actual human experience:

it’s common for an object to become imbued with meaning for its owner or someone else familiar with it, and for finding, seeing, or holding that object to evoke strong emotions in the person for whom it has meaning, so the idea that the emotional imprint could also affect others is an extension of a real phenomenon, and not something wholly unbelievable.

This is a book that I can definitely recommend, and I’d gladly read other books by this author. 

Solito by Javier Zamora

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

This book is an emotionally gripping account of the author’s journey from El Salvador to join his parents in the USA, and he does an excellent job of telling the story from the perspective of his ten-year-old self and not imposing the reflections and understandings of his adult self on the experience. 

If you’d like to learn about the experience of immigrants entering the US illegally across its southern border I highly recommend this book. 

In the Slender Margin: The Intimate Strangeness of Death and Dying by Eve Joseph

3.0

I finished this because I bought it, but it didn’t captivate me the way I had hoped. I picked it up because I thought it would be interesting to learn about the experiences of someone working in palliative care (especially after reading Caitlin Doughty’s books about the American funeral industry and disparate post-death practices around the world) but the author’s spiritual beliefs, which I do not share, were presented in a way which I found off-putting — stated as fact rather than belief, which caused me to mistrust other things stated as fact. 

Overall the book is more about the author than it was about her clients, and I hadn’t been looking for a biography. 

As I biography it was alright, just not my cup of tea. 

A Walk with the Rainy Sisters: In Praise of British Columbia's Places by Stephen Hume

3.0

The essays in this collection are good, and I learned quite a bit from some of them (particularly about the glass sponges, which is a topic I was completely ignorant about). Some of the imagery and ideas repeated themselves, but that’s the peril of collecting essays that were originally published separately into a collection — some of the author’s themes will appear throughout and feel repetitive in a way that they wouldn’t of read more spaced out, in the way they were originally published. 

Worth a read if you’re interested in the landscapes and ecosystems of Canada’s west coast.