leslielopezholder's reviews
363 reviews

Rental Person Who Does Nothing by Shoji Morimoto

reflective

2.75

Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck

challenging hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

4.5

Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai by Nina Mingya Powles

inspiring reflective relaxing

4.75

The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell

informative medium-paced

4.0

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Coming Home by Brittney Griner, Michelle Burford

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

If I could sum up this story, it would be: In madness, women find themselves. What an incredible read. It's short, but haunting. The author is masterful is crafting a powerful feminist read that doesn't need to be explicit in order to conjure up what feels like collective trauma for women across time.

Stay True by Hua Hsu

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.25

Clearly I’m in the wrong about this as it has won a Pulitzer Prize and maybe I’m too simplistic in wanting this memoir to be more focused and straightforward. Hsu is such a talented writer, crafting sentences that often feel like poetry. However, I felt this memoir meandered too much, where he could talk about two completely different subjects in sentences right next to each other. This, I felt, detracted from my ability to connect with the people mentioned in the book. I did, however, love reading about his parents and this was probably aided by the fact that those sections were a little more focused.

It was also difficult for me to connect with him as he often spoke about his pretentiousness on music, life, philosophy. It made me feel like he was constantly looking down on others. 

There are some beautifully tender reflections on grief and friendship but ultimately I felt it was undone by unstructured storytelling and not enough self-reflection on his attitudes toward people and society.

The Wild Robot Protects by Peter Brown

adventurous hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.25

I loved getting to get back into the world of Roz and Brightbill! However, I did not like this one as much as the first one as I felt the second half was rushed and because of that, we didn't get to see as much of those tender moments that made us fall in love with the characters.