ktrain3900's reviews
276 reviews

Jersey Mercy by Laura McCullough

funny informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

A gritty, down-to-earth poetry collection about the Jersey Shore. But then again what else could an honest book about the Shore be? I didn't connect with the poems in the first section, to the point I considered a DNF, and think perhaps they'd have worked better as prose, but the collection bloomed from there, with the third section ("Underwater Horse" and "Empathy" were favorite poems) a fine achievement of magic and reality, and the fourth, our requisite encounter with Bruuuuuuuuuuuuce, as smooth a ride as you'll get on the backroads of Jersey. Additionally, the endnotes are as interesting as the poems and worth reading, despite some surprising errors  (Monmouth Park is in Oceanport, not Eatontown, and WHOI is Massachusetts not Maine). You want a trip to the dirty Jerz, you want this book, not your MTV, and if you go to WindMill, you get hot dogs not burgers. 

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious sad fast-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

3.75

This fast-paced jaunt through 1938 New York's creme de la creme features almost impossibly witty characters who speak with a tinge of noir, and who exist on the fringes of a Wharton novel, had she come along a generation later. I found it fun, escapist fiction, requiring the reader to apply a dash of good ol' suspension of disbelief. The exploits of our intrepid heroine, the preposterously named Katey Kontent, are exhausting - just how does one balance the heavy work schedule with the heavy social schedule? - but I was 25 once, with that sort of bounding boundless energy. While it's good for a first novel, it's still a first novel: did it need the preface and epilogue; do we believe a bold broad like Katey would be such a Dickens fan (and was it only because she was named a bit like a Dickens character); could it have done without some of the dated racisms and still felt genuine? I'm not sure, but overall, I wouldn't kick this book out of bed.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Car accident, Abortion, Alcohol, War

The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I think where this book is most fascinating is its premise: 24 hours in the life of a heart and those affected by it. I liked how it meandered among the lives and perspectives of its ordinary, extraordinary characters. I sometimes liked those characters, I sometimes found them tedious. I liked how it moved in time, past and the present twisting together in what often felt like infinite strings and knots, or layering like mortar and large bricks (like the long paragraphs) building to... what? I'm not entirely sure. Everyone you know has a full and complicated life of which you know little. I think that's a lot of it. There is an ethereal quality yet it was also very mundane (in the literal sense of being of the world). In a sense it's a slice of life novel... or slices of lives maybe? Certainly a book writers should read, I think. 

The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West

dark funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

3.75

Skimming some online user reviews, I found that many's biggest issue with this book is that it's preaching to the choir, and folks, I am part of this choir, and felt this reading this book, at least at first. As I kept reading, I realized that that's the point - it is meant to preach to the choir, to (yes I'm gonna do this about a book directed to our witch choir) light a fire under us. It's unapologetic, shouty at times, ribald at others, and occasionally there's the calm eye of a storm. Ultimately, I distilled the book to this line (from the essay "Anger Is a Weapon"): "Men suppress our anger for a reason. Let's prove them right."

Two Old Women by Velma Wallis

adventurous informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

An utterly charming tale told with the seemingly effortless grace of a born storyteller. Of course, we all know that what feels effortless often takes some of the most effort. The story weaves legend with solid characters, realistic details, and the hard repetition of survival. This book is suitable for so many ages and levels of readers, with always relevant lessons never too earnest nor to heavy-handed. I won't soon forget this book or those who inhabited it. 

North Woods by Daniel Mason

emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.75

I finished this book a few hours ago and I still feel lost in it. Part of me wanted to go back and read it from the start, even though I'm not much of a re-reader, to catch things I know I missed. The world of the woods is lush, filled with beautiful imagery of birdsong, trees, with love and lust, and peopled (although not solely by people) with a cast of fascinating and maddening characters. I found the format, of 12 essentially interlinked chapter-stories, interspersed with various intermissions (blurred images, music, lyrics, almanac pages, &etc.), a nice variation on more traditional novel composition, adding layers to an epic that is about more than the words on the page. I couldn't shake the feeling that it was more evocative than imaginative, which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but left a slight desire for a little more...of something. I'll likely be coming back to this one at some time in the future.

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, 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.