kcraig73's reviews
59 reviews

Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects by Bertrand Russell

informative medium-paced

3.0

The title essay was not very compelling but the other essays were well written and far more compelling. Some the works featured here are products of their time and don’t necessarily reflect the values of modern philosophy but it’s still an indispensable work overall. Russell’s thoughts on the “good life” are especially capturing. His philosophy being that the “good life” should be “inspired by love and guided by knowledge” is timeless.

Three Pearls of Number Theory by A. Y. Khinchin

challenging informative slow-paced

I’m sure this book is an excellent explanation on the topic but I do not have the fundamentals to fully understand it, so I will not be giving it a full review. 

The Return by Rachel Harrison

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book is middling for me. The supernatural elements were very good though some of them don’t make any sense. For example,

what is actually happening with the hotel? I assumed that the hotel was going to be some kind of trap created by Julie because Julie had been missing for two years and the hotel had been open for two years, there was also the moving wallpaper and the shifting architecture, the fact that there is only supposed to be 8 rooms but more than that are described, the terrible weather, etc. Is the hotel under her influence or is it just the character’s fear or a red herring or something else entirely? I also don’t fully understand why Julie was making everyone sick. Was she feeding off of them? Was it just their exposure to her rotting corpse body? What’s going on there?

The main character is also deeply unlikeable. The relationship between Elisa and Julie is deeply codependent and I can’t tell if that was supposed to be intentional or not. The book is also very overwritten with many pages of text that could have been completely eliminated from the story as they serve no purpose to the plot. The dialogue in the book was very immature and at some points pretty cringe worthy especially since these women are supposed to be in their 30s but mostly act like they’re in their teens. I did however enjoy the reading experience for this book and read it over one weekend so it’s middling for me. 

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

dark mysterious fast-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

4.0

Strange from the start, this book’s floating prose captures all the qualities promised in the title. While this book isn’t going to keep me up at night the “rescue distance” between mother and daughter wrenched my heart strings. Definitely an engaging read, I finished it in about two sittings. Leaving the fates of David and Carla unknown was an excellent decision as it leaves the audience to imagine the worst. It reminds us that sometimes the thing that will hurt us the most is the thing we can’t see or feel or taste or control. 

Love by Night: A Book of Poetry by S. K. Williams

reflective medium-paced

1.0

These “poems” are mostly just run-on sentences with awkward spacing. I can count on one hand the number of “poems” I actually liked out of this collection. The organization of the collection doesn’t make sense and is wildly inconsistent. Some poems have titles but most do not. Some poems are two pages but there is no indication for where one poem ends and next begins. The illustrations included are not good and are probably only included to distract from the middling at best poetry. The content of the poems themselves is giving “co-dependent” more than it’s giving “romantic”. I would not recommend this collection to anyone. 

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

adventurous mysterious 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

3.0

I love Grady Hendrix but this is not his best work. I thought the multiple kind of “false endings” dragged the book out more than necessary and unfortunately highlighted some inconsistencies in the plot. While I thought the relationship between Louise and her brother was well fleshed out, the other relationships in the book were lackluster. Additionally, there were huge inconsistencies in the plot especially regarding the source of the supernatural occurrences and how they are manifest. Enjoyable but forgettable, overall middling for me. 

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

reflective slow-paced

2.0

I would eventually like to revisit the Meditations in a different translation. This translation was terrible. Though the notes on Aurelius’ biography and philosophy were interesting, the translation of the actual work was clunky and often difficult to understand. 

Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

3.0

Mary Oliver is surely going to be one of the defining poets of the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. Her work is well recognized and critically acclaimed of course, but I love the way she captures the journey of the human spirit as it drifts back and forth from harmony to worry to mindfulness to death and all the way back again. Her reflections are beautiful. 
Personally, I am a bigger fan of some of her later works. I think she finds a more definitive style in her later works and takes on a more mindful lens. However, her reflections on death in her early works are quite moving and could have benefitted from being revisited again in her later writings. 
3/5 stars - some poems I liked and some I didn’t 🤷‍♀️

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did. I really didn’t like The Twisted Ones but I’m a fan of Poe and a fan of fungi so I had to give this one a try. I am so glad I did. Easton is absolutely delightful and charming in every way. All of the characters are well put together and very charming in their own rights. A little slow at the beginning but it picks up in the middle and Kingfisher takes us on a wild ride. I am very pleased with the amount of effort and research that Kingfisher put into this book. She really looked into the complexities of fungi, the medical field, and stayed historically accurate to the time period. It shows how much she cared about the work. Overall, very fun and genuinely creepy. 

The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

5.0

A delightful book. Clive Barker’s imagination and wit is on great display here. It’s easy to see why this book became a classic. Very interesting choice to make every character in the book intensely unlikeable but it works here. The Cenobites are enduring, almost charming, characters of their own (actually the most likable of all of them). The action is fast paced but Barker doesn’t sacrifice beautiful prose here. It’s as beautifully written as it is structured and imaginative.