happentobeshort's reviews
1216 reviews

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

Man. What a lovely poetic book! The essence of Solarpunk imo!! Philosophical without veering into excessive purple prose, and incredibly hopeful. I would have loved it to be a bit longer but now I see there's a sequel so I'm ok with that. 

BONUS: I read this as an audiobook and I really loved the narrator! They did different voices that weren't too weird and I super appreciated that. 

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

funny mysterious 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? N/A

4.0

I saw a tumblr post recently that was like, <i>i think that every scifi space story should have at least one spaceship AI. and that it should be at least a little unhinged and rude on purpose</i>, and it made me think of Murderbot. 

Wasn't that into the locked room mystery even if it was resolved well. But that's just my personal bias!! TLDR: As always, Murderbot stories is fun stories.

Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America by Mayukh Sen

informative inspiring medium-paced

3.0

I really appreciated Mayukh's dedication to giving these women agency by only using direct quotes or sources when talking about the lives of these women. That being said it would have been nice to have a bit more context on their lives and the space that they were working in by using indirect sources. The essays constantly felt like something was missing as a result of this. Overall it felt like I was just reading a bunch of summaries on these women rather than like, compelling essays on the state of the world etc etc. I'm not going to call it a fancy Buzzfeed article but it kinda felt like it at times... 

Squire by Sara Alfageeh, Nadia Shammas

adventurous lighthearted 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

4.0

Girls with swords! Found families! Approachable world building! This was very fun and cute and I think I would have loved it 10x more as a kid. The ending felt a bit abrupt to me and I think it could have been fleshed out a bit more, ESPECIALLY if there's meant to be a sequel! TLDR: Come for the art, stay for the swords.

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette

informative fast-paced

5.0

Absolutely WILD. I had no idea the beanie babies cult was THIS insane!!! Not to mention the creator behind the toys.. I cant help but feel a LITTLE bit sad for Ty Warner, he just wanted to make a great toy who got pulled into the crazy vortex of collectibles. Also the similarities to the beanie baby craze and NFTs of today is eerie to say the least. 

Totally recommend this to anyone who loved beanie babies as a kid OR finds the whole NFT thing bonkers. Or likes collectibles. Just read it. It's entertaining from start to finish.

This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan

informative reflective fast-paced

3.0

After reading Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, I had SUCH high hopes for this book. I thought it would be so exciting and engaging just like Merlin's. ALAS. IT WAS NOT THE CASE!! 

It was still entertaining and interesting, just not as illuminating as I wanted it to be. It's quite obvious after like, half an hour or so (or I assume like 15 pages or so) that Pollan is coming at this topic from a botanical/gardener's lens and not a scientist, so the facts you get are not as in depth. 

TLDR it was really interesting learning more about Opium, Caffeine and Mescaline, but it felt like I was reading several long form essays for different publications that were meshed together for each substance. Not bad! Just not what I expected.

Network Effect by Martha Wells

adventurous funny tense 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? Yes

4.0

 I LOVE MURDERBOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So satisfying to have a nice long chunky story about everyone's favourite antisocial security bot. Way more action packed than the previous novellas and a lot more techno babble - which often confused me especially since I was listening to it on audiobook while cross stitching. Also at times the plot confused me, only cause there was so much more going on than usual so I had a bit of a hard time keeping track. The other downside for me was that I felt like the resolution with the Targets finished up too neatly? Like it felt like something was missing, or that there wasn't enough explained about how it was wrapped up?? IDK maybe that's just me.

Regardless I super enjoyed this and I really hope there will be another long Murderbot novel in the future. 

Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency by Bea Koch

funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

3.0

If you're like me and you listen to a lot of history podcasts, you'll likely be disappointed by this book. The podcasts I listen to often don't go into much detail on these very cool and diverse women since you know, they're podcasts, and usually not meant to be such long form entertainment, so I was expecting more detail on each woman in this book. That was not the case. It really felt like I was just listening to a Buzzfeed listicle that kinda went over the important dates and a summary of why each woman was in the book. Also! I was expecting slightly more obscure or forgotten~ women, but something like 70% of the women mentioned I already knew about from other media. 

TLDR it's a fun book but reads like a listicle rather than like, a creative non-fiction book on historical women, and the entries on each woman are really brief.

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Absolutely one of the best books I read this year. It's both fascinating and depressing as it makes you see just HOW pervasive this kind of language really is, damaging or otherwise. It's like we all have been in a cult of some form or another at one point in our lives. And IDK how to feel about that. Soon after reading this though the Lularoe documentary came out and was basically like a visual case study of what I read in the book. I SUPER SUPER SUPER recommend reading this. 

The Book Collectors: A Band of Syrian Rebels and the Stories That Carried Them Through a War by Delphine Minoui

emotional informative inspiring fast-paced

4.0

This was such a moving story of not so much a library, but about the men (and women!) who curate and guard it. Since it's written through the perspective of Delphine Minoui, it feels a bit distant at times because she's clearly editing the story to fit a certain narrative, which is fine! It's a book, even non-fiction books sometimes follow a narrative. I would have liked a bit more from the perspective of the men she was talking to, but I also understand that must have been extremely difficult since she was only able to communicate with them via WhatsApp using spotty internet connections. 

I do appreciate that Minoui was able to avoid the typical trappings of a Western journalist writing about "eastern" perspectives by making it like, grief porn-y or "look how these people suffer yet they still find things to be happy about!!!!1!!1!". It's quite factual at times and she doesn't dress it up or dress it down either. 

Anyway, I found it really interesting to listen to on audiobook, and definitely think it's worth a read. Left me thinking a lot about censorship via the destruction of knowledge and culture, and the censorship that goes on in my own country, even though it's nowhere near the scale that it is in Syria.