ladybugwrites's reviews
277 reviews

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

3.75

Butter by Asako Yuzuki

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense slow-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

4.5

If anyone sells this book to you as a crime novel, you'll be thoroughly disappointed. (It's clear now that this is a marketing failure to me - though I did not go into it thinking crime novel nor was that the reason I bought the book either). This is a literary work of fiction insipired by a true story that, whilst has a crime a the center of it's plot, is not actually about that crime.

This is a book about misogny, beauty standards, obsession, and, most of all, food. This is a book about food in modern (Japanese) society; our relationship with it, beauty standards and their ties to food, and the pleasures of eating good food. It's about what healthy means, and it's about how we live our lives - like we want to or how we're expected to.

And the greatest thing about it, is that it shows that there is no right answer. It doesn't show what is the right way to live, doesn't give the impression our MC, Rika, has figured it out. Rather it shows that what is "right" is about what is right for you, and that the right things is do live life the way you want to.

A great fucking book.

(The drawbacks are that it had some part I thought unnecessary, and maybe it was longer than it needed to be, but those are minor details that get lost in how great of a book it is.)

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective slow-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

A book about change. In ourselves and our surroundings. It's a book about sexuality, about gender and gender-roles, and it's a book about life and expectations but set upon us by others and ourselves and expectations we have as for what's to come. It's a tad boring at some place because of it's structure and the fact that it's a fictional biography, but it is very much a book that makes you reflect and think and wonder, and it definitely has that Woolf style to the writing where it flows so well that it's as if the pages just glide by.

One thing I found funny is the very fact that I found the book relatively boring during the start, when Orlando is a man, and the moment she became a woman, I became a lot more attentive and found the book more interesting. 

I am definitely reading more of Virginia Woolf in the future.

The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada

mysterious reflective

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

4.5

A somewhat confusing book. Intentionaly so. Intervowen in both its characters, its(there if you squint) plot, and the way its written. This works to really show what the book tries to figure out; the monotony of the work-life.

Hundreåringen som klatret ut gjennom vinduet og forsvant by Jonas Jonasson

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

A weird, absurd book that I enjoyed, but not entirely sure how much I liked. I don't yet know if the absurdness was good or bad, though it was definitely neither all good nor all bad, and I did enjoy myself.

The Underground Village by Kang Kyeong-ae

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I like some stories, I dislike some, but all of them still felt rather important somehow. Even, maybe especially, the ones I found a little boring. I think it's an important read, but also that I lack the information I need prior on Korean history to really understand every story. My favorite is The Man on the Mountain.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

dark funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

A funnily absurd book. Highly entertaining, though a tad too long. I really should've read this sooner. 

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

4.0

If someone had told me 10 years ago, that I'd be reading Shakespeare out of my own volition and enjoyed it, I would not have believed them. And yet, here I sit, having thouroughly enjoyed Macbeth. It was funny and intriguing and I had a good time. Shakespeare will never be my favorite, but I do plan on one day having read all his plays (hopefully).

Den Ensomme Vandrers Drømmerier by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Birger Huse, Henning Hagerup

3.5

Whilst interesting and to a degree thoughtprovoking, the only one of these "promenades" that is worth reading is the fifth, unless you're exteremly interestes in Roussau.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

An emotional book about intelligence; the importance of it, the need for it, it's consquences both positive and negative. But mostly, it's a book about people and what we value and an exploration of those values - an exploration of the specific value of 'smartness' defined by IQ and whether it's better to be smart or dumb.