livelyghost's reviews
121 reviews

Tasting History: Explore the Past through 4,000 Years of Recipes by Max Miller

funny informative

4.0

A broadly-spanning look at historical foods. Brief introductions to each recipe lend context to the dishes, which wholly seem appealing (or at least intriguing) to modern palates. I love food history and would be interested to know even more about how older foods were grown and processed to give even more depth to these recipes.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Go to review page

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

I was excited to start this book based on the glowing endorsement of beloved reviewers (aka the general population of Instagram) but I never had that shining moment that made me feel like the story would stay with me or the growing warmth of a book that you chew on for a while. I appreciated the way human pattern recognition played out in AF Klara, who creates her own hierarchical structure of religion and purpose seemingly independently and truly wonder what would have happened if Josie’s life moved differently, but unfortunately the book fails to explore much of that scenario and leaves the reader to imagine that outcome with only vague social context to surround it in. Similarly, we miss out on what happens when the goal of an AF is achieved - when a person is no longer isolated and thrives what does the AF do? How does their person think of them? I feel like this book had some major missed opportunities for considering humanity vs a humans creating life in their own image.

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

Go to review page

dark fast-paced