laedyred's reviews
234 reviews

Meek Heritage by Frans Emil Sillanpää
Did not finish book. Stopped at 38%.

I wanted to read some older Finnish literature and this is one of the great authors. However, I just lost interest. It's been sitting in my "currently reading" for months and I never pick it back up. Maybe I'll try again in the future.

A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by David Attenborough

informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

David Attenborough is a legend in the environmental community. This book was not what I expected, although not in a necessarily negative way. This is Attenborough's call to action for conservation, climate effort, rewilding, and other pro-environment activities to mitigate and remedy the current greatest struggles of our era he sees and has experienced. Here's when my opinion splits. On one hand, Attenborough's voice that has captured viewers' hearts carries through, narrating and persuading. He uses both fact (including solid citations, major plus) and emotional pull to the reader into his world and create concern and hope. 

On the other hand, I'd argue that if you picked up this book you likely already care about these issues and want more information; this is where the book falls short. I wanted a greater analysis than startling studies, definitive actions we can take at a personal level rather than undeveloped ideas of politicians somehow deciding to change legislation. In that way I was disappointed at how idealistic the last two sections are, although maybe that is a personal thing considering how highly this book is rated by others. 

I am, I feel, not the intended audience for this book as someone who is involved already at a career level in environmental issues. But that doesn't mean it is bad by any means. I recommend this as an introduction for people curious about the climate crisis or diminishing biodiversity, with the intention of continuing into more advanced texts. 

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

dark funny medium-paced

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

4.0

This book has me torn. On one hand, I did enjoy it. Although the first half is quite slow, I felt compelled to finish the story and "complete the mystery", persay. The language is over the top verbose, both giving the storytelling a pretentious overtone and adding spice to an otherwise repetitive series of murders. Some of the writing creates cringe. I don't need to hear her assign herself a psychopath for the tenth time; show, don't tell. So much effort to pronounce Dorothy's sexuality and crassness through multitudes of sexual references. The last few chapters are where it fell apart for me. Summers attempts to make statements about love and growing old as a woman. Fine, but that was not the focus of the story up until that point. Like

the story of Alex

, I recognized several times the Summers' intent strayed, leaving sections disjointed. It's funny how the wordiness is both a positive and a negative, I both enioyed and saw many ideas I'd change in this book. I recommend it, but not with too high expectations. 

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I was recommended this book after I had only seen the movie, and I am astounded how different they are. The movie is sh*t compared to this novel. In the height of the zombie-story craze, media was engrossed in the gore and action of the zombies themselves; human interdynamics came second. Not the case in this book. It's refreshing to read a title where zombies are the background characters.

Writing this in 2024, Brooks essentially called out the societal problems that occurred during the COVID pandemic. The foresight he had speaks to a solid observation and prediction of (a lot of) cultural behaviors. It's weirdly comforting to see that what happened may not have been an anomoly. 

Some chapters dragged or felt semi-disconnected to the overarching flow of the book, but I forgive this considering the riveting ones. Brooks created an array of distinct characters complex enough to drive a novel where their development is not the focus. I highly recommend this book.

Badass Ways to End Anxiety & Stop Panic Attacks!: A counterintuitive approach to recover and regain control of your life by Geert Verschaeve

informative fast-paced

0.25

This book was a gift. The entire book is filler. He talks about his audio course, website, promotes himself at every opportunity. He asks you to leave a review on Amazon to help him "spread the word". Some of the (very basic) techniques are valid, but he sites them with links to pop science articles and has no qualifications to present these as his own. I could have done this "research" on my own. I cannot explain how much I dislike this. Total waste of time even to skim through it. 

The Odyssey by Homer

adventurous 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? Yes

3.0

Here I put aside the historical and literary value of the text and speak only of my enjoyment. The introduction is potentially the most intriguing part of this translation. Wilson spends what at first seems like too many pages on foundations of understanding the text and theories of Homer, but without her context I would have missed minute details stemming from the archaic Greek. Her translation is, as she describes, as literal as it can be considering not only the text itself but the emotions evoked by it. I appreciate her candidness when she says she believes in using contemporary language in translating so as to remind us how far the ancient text actually is from our era. Although the storytelling of the epic is maybe not for me, Wilson makes it palatable for non-scholars.

Sensitive: The Hidden Power of the Highly Sensitive Person in a Loud, Fast, Too-Much World by Jenn Granneman, Andre Sólo

informative fast-paced

3.0

For a self help book, this is pretty average. I appreciate the focus on such a misunderstood trait, but neither author has any credentials as an expert; they are both just self-identified sensitive people. If there were more citations and less "psychologists say...", I'd be more inclined to accept the advice. A lot of the book reads like a blog post. They promote their own website multiple times, there's "testimonials" from users, too much text is length-filler. It bothered me that they highlighted examples of historical figures' accomplishments to inspire sensitivity, yet they acknowledge that they cannot be sure the person actually was sensitive. Seeing such high reviews of this book, I expected a lot more. 

On the positive side, if you're looking for some inspiring words instead of actual research, maybe this would help. While the advice is superficial it could help someone see themselves differently if they experience the trait. 

The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

challenging medium-paced

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

3.0

I give half a star for the significance of the text, being a classic piece with feministic value focusing on mental health. It's older and shorter, obviously not a novel, so it's tough to rate against books. The last few pages of the book are impactful, you see her mind turn on itself, you see the collapse directly supported by ill treatment based on her womanhood. 

Normal People by Sally Rooney

emotional reflective sad medium-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

It's not often you find a novel that can truly capture such a complex relationship between two people. One where there is no clear cut line of what they should be doing or where they should be going. Normal People's themes of dominance, true connection, and intimacy present what on the surface seems to encapsulate a love story, but in fact could even be taken as a warning. This is not a satisfying story. No one saves another, maybe nothing works out in the events past the ending. But it resonated with me because it mirrors experiences and feelings that are hard to talk about, hard to describe to others. This text is perhaps one of the best vehicles to do this.

Connell is objectively not a nice person. He knowingly manipulates Marianne, subjecting her to his various fuck-ups, making her believe she is the problem, every time. Seen from Marianne's eyes, the reader wants them to be together, to make each other happy. We see Marianne's troubles with worthlessness and self respect and keep negotiating with Connell to treat her better, yet it never comes. Even then, the scenes in which she feels safe even for a second all happen under his watch. This title is ripe for discussion; it's one I will be thinking about for a while.

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

adventurous emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

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

5.0

I would love this as a series. A touching love story with beautiful imagery.