lisabage's reviews
528 reviews

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

adventurous challenging fast-paced

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

5.0

While it helps to like video games, this is more a story of the complexities of friendship. Three friends build a game, and then a company. It’s a story of what happens when friends become too invested in one another’s lives, too dependent on one another for support, but don’t actually know each other as well as they assume. It explores the ramifications of all the bad assumptions we make around other peoples’ intentions. A solid pick for me. 

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

adventurous challenging dark 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

5.0

Fantastic and immersive trip through the opioid crisis, and what's it like to truly be poor in the country. Strong symbolism around the ocean/water provided a steady and bright canvas that allowed the characters to go dark and be confused as they found their way through their stories. So many great characters, including the mountain setting itself.    

Department of Mind-Blowing Theories by Tom Gauld

fast-paced

3.5

Cute little collection of science comics. 

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

adventurous mysterious 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? No

4.5

Beautifully written with a tense plot but somehow a relaxed pace, with a surprise ending. I enjoy historical fiction that doesn’t worry so much about historical accuracy that the character development is lost. Interesting journey of a girl too young to be married off for political gain. 

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

adventurous challenging emotional 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

4.5

Incredibly written, a troubled boy discovers his passed mother through her brain imprint, and his father struggles with how to work through it. Beautifully written and skillet plotted. 

I Was Told It Would Get Easier by Abbi Waxman

adventurous funny lighthearted

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

4.0

 Fun mother-daughter story about a college visit trip. There aren't many good stories about a professional single mother and a teenaged daughter. The mother in this is much more real. She struggles with her daughter but worries about her leaving. She doesn't fall in love with some random guy. She has her own friends and her own career, but worries that she handled parenting all wrong. The story was solid and funny. Recommended for parents of teens.

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful tense medium-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? No

5.0

This was extraordinary, heart wrenching, sometimes hard to read but always hard to put down. The personal story of a group of immigrants, with a mother and young son as the two central characters. Everyone is running from something but more importantly running toward a dream of a better, safer, more human existence in el norte. This is a story not to be forgotten as you watch and we struggle with immigration. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

adventurous funny relaxing medium-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? No

4.5

Thanksgiving has become the season of “when does Gamache get here”! Finished the audiobook in a few days. Great story, great narrator, and the hometown we all wish we had. Btw, the new tv series is okay too. But just okay. 

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced

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

5.0

This is such a long book and so rewarding. The characters were so well developed that I wanted to keep listening. I had the written version too so I could flip back and forth as my attention span demanded. I knew it was about the building of a church, but I didn’t know that there would be villains and heros, peasants and royalty. Well worth the investment of time. 

The Big Dark Sky by Dean Koontz

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Many authors put you on a roller coaster, rolling you through the ups and downs of a story until the biggest drop and then a long coast to recover. This book is more like a drop tower, a slow crank upwards and then the exhilarating single huge drop of a climax at the end. You don’t have much of a coast afterwards but all the storylines are sufficiently closed that you can imagine the rest. A solid suspense.