ktrain3900's reviews
270 reviews

Women Talking by Miriam Toews

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This is one of those books that you finish it and you go "ok, that was pretty good" but you're not quite sure why or what else to say. Nonetheless, I'll try: The characters were largely nuanced and interesting, despite that you can only know them in a very superficial way. Was the narrator reliable? Maybe? Probably? He seemed to know about as much about taking minutes as some of my coworkers, although at least he has the excuse of being a Mennonite ex-con. It's based on a heartbreaking true story, and one whose victims needed a voice. I'm not a religious person, but the theme of faith never bothered me (after all, what else would these women know?). Overall I think the author does well with the conversational format, even if it lends itself to losing track of time because you just don't get many pauses.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Suicide, and Gaslighting

While the backstory of the novel is drugging and serial rape, the author does a good job of featuring the characters as people not victims.

Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo

adventurous dark informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

An alternately riveting, enlightening, and fascinating account of two largely forgotten figures of the American 19th century. This is the sort of new or newish nonfiction that I really enjoy, where the author relies on both traditional and previously un- or under-utilized sources to draw attention to a slice of history that has fallen through the cracks. I found the author's writing style effectively wove adventure story, character background, and the larger context together, and disagree with assessments of it as dry and academic. (If this was dry or academic to you, I envy you the texts you got to read in your education.) While fairly dense and crammed with information, this, in my opinion, is among the most interesting and engrossing nonfiction you can find. 

Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist by Jennifer Wright

dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Petty. Stubborn. Opinionated. Outspoken. Madame Restell (Ann Trow Summers Lohman) was all of these things. But she was also courageous, smart, skilled, and stood firmly in her conviction that women have an absolute right to control their own bodies and the size of their families. Here's a woman who would have absolutely bought herself flowers. And this book is not just about her, but about a time and place, about shifting beliefs and social mores, and about abortion. 19th century New York City (and the USA) weren't as different from today as we'd like to believe, and the author tells this tale with humor, candidness, and no small amount of urgency. 

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.25

Art! Death! Life! Family! Martyr!. There's a staccato here, and humor. There are weavings and unweavings and reweavings, traveling back and forth in time and in narrator. I love the sheer creative breadth - poems and excerpts from the main character's book-in-progress, dream narratives, descriptions of visual art and installations. It's not unapparent that it's a first novel--it's a little disjointed and deus ex machina in places--but it still manages to handle philsophy and faith with some grace, and to nicely balance the morbid with joy. 

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I admittedly have a hard time with super hyped books, or super hyped anything really. The more popular it is, the more I tend to hate it. I didn't hate this book. In fact, I liked it. The writing was beautifully layered. The story was engrossing. The games that the characters created were a delight. And unlike some readers, I like when authors throw in an occasional word I don't know and have to look up. The characters? Well, I'm reminded of a line from the comic Strange Planet: "The being is fictional. My anger is real." Between self-pitying Sam, manic pixie dream girl Sadie, and milquetoast Marx, ugh. The grandparents were the only ones I could tolerate.  All in all, I liked this more than I've liked most super hyped things. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cancer, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Car accident, and Abortion

The Boston Massacre: A Family History by Serena Zabin

adventurous informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

A highly enjoyable account of the lead up through the aftermath of the Boston Massacre centered on the families affected instead of the usual suspects (ahem, white dudes of generally high status). I'm a fan of learning about history through underappreciated and/or largely ignored voices and this book largely delivered. Nothing is ever as black & white as it first seems, and Boston of the 1760s and 1770s is no exception. The intermingling of military and citizens was unavoidable once troops were placed in the city, and the connections both created new families and tore existing families apart, as would continue to be the case throughout the American Revolution. Interesting, with fine details, and the sort of conversational telling of which I'll never tire. 

Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Strange. Succinct. Brutal. Raw. There are six characters to whom we're introduced. None would you want for a friend, nor would they want you, except perhaps in the most superficial way. There is a balance of internal morass and dialectic against external duties and social mores that drives both tale and characters to the climax. It feels inevitable (in fact in a few places characters note the sureness they will soon die) but nothing here is a given or a surety. The writing is stunningly controlled, although occasionally reliant on a dated racism of both time and place that may make the concise novel a slog or an impossibility for some readers.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Racial slurs, and Stalking

The Past by Tessa Hadley

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

A quiet book, centered around a not-so-quiet family, which is at its best in subtle details linking different characters and moments together over time and page. The plot was a whispered thread, the characters were not particularly likable, yet there was an elegance and nuanced handling to the writing that draws the reader through even the most excruciating parts. There are hints of the work of finer British authors such as A.S. Byatt and Ali Smith, but this book doesn't quite reach that elevation. Overall a fine novel by an author I'd be willing to read again. 3 to 3.25 stars. 

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.5

An utterly charming, genuine, and unsentimental account of the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter, as well their relationship with the isolated natural world of the island they inhabit with the girl's father/grandmother's son. The writing captures the spirit of both the old and the young with humor and honesty. A joy to not just read but experience. 

Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson

adventurous hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

This sounded interesting from when I first came across it and it was so nice to find that my instincts were correct. The writing is intelligent but not show-offy; the tone is winsome and not without wit. We travel with the author chronologically from the first interactions between Europeans and Polynesians, across centuries of exploration, sociology, science, and navigation to unravel a story that the author notes is not one that belongs to white Europeans such as herself, despite the entangled history. Recommended even to those who don't normally read nonfiction.