luhos's reviews
216 reviews

Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.25

one of the things i love the most about reading translated literature is that it gives you insight into a world that is so removed from and unlike your own that you otherwise may not have access to, and heart lamp did exactly that. overall i did enjoy and appreciate reading these stories, which focused on the every day lives of women in Muslim communities in southern India. however, the stories all had a very similar tone and themes to the point that sometimes it felt very repetitious. 

On a Woman's Madness by Astrid H. Roemer

challenging sad slow-paced

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

3.0

I enjoyed the story and characters but found the way this was written to be quite inaccessible? it jumped around a lot, which usually I’m fine with, but I just felt that this didn’t work very well. 

A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre

reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

a leopard-skin hat is a character study following Fanny, through the eyes of her close friend known only as the Narrator. Fanny suffers profoundly from mental health issues and the book sort of switches between Fanny’s experiences as she struggles to understand and participate in the world around her, and the Narrator’s relationship and experiences with her. I found this to be quite compelling, interesting in form, and also relatable in many ways.

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa

dark fast-paced

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

3.0

this was so short. i appreciated the content but wish it was even just a bit longer to dive a bit deeper into it. the central character is so important to the story yet it felt as though there wasn’t enough time to get to know her. 

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

informative slow-paced

5.0

i loved this book. not only does it meticulously detail the story of cancer, which i found extremely fascinating, it also highlights the human nature that is part of science, which is one of my favourite things. science is a human endeavour and you can’t forget it when reading this book. it’s also very well written and is excellent story telling, even as a non fiction book. i can’t wait to read this again and highlight some passages; i’ve learned so much reading this and want to learn even more. 

The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

this really blew me away. it tells an important story and is very well crafted. i don’t really know what else to say besides: read this. 

On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle

mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

this was sooooo good. philosophical, existential. on the calculation of volume I takes a familiar trope - one character waking to the same day over and over, stuck in a loop - but places it under a unique lens. i loved the subtlety of this, how it looks at love, relationships, and existence. i can’t wait to read the others.

Eurotrash by Christian Kracht

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

kind of meandering at times but also funny, absurd. it felt like a wes anderson movie. and the ending… kinda took me out. 

Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami

adventurous reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

speculative fiction set in a future where humans are almost extinct. it exists somewhere between a novel and short stories, which was an interesting format to read. it’s also got this subtlety to it- it feels kind of cosy, at times? 

at first when i started reading this i was kind of like “what’s going on?” but you start to piece it together as more is revealed to you, bit by bit. 

many aspects of society are stripped away by the survivors, and it’s done intentionally to really sort of highlight some of the key features of humanity. it also weaves these ideas of evolution and genetic isolation in, which i thought was done quite well. 

overall i really enjoyed this and i think it would benefit from a second read some time. 

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

"And yet, for whatever reason, they never seemed to find what they were looking for."

Perfection is about Tom and Anna, who are from an unnamed European country, but have moved to Berlin as young, working adults, full of hope and idealism about their lives and their journey. However, as time goes on, Tom and Anna succumb to a very specific and particular brand of millennial ennui. They want for their lives to have meaning, but nothing around them is giving quite enough. They're torn between wanting to do good, to be good, and to have good things. As the nihilism creeps into them, so too does it to the city. 

I'm basically the same age as Tom and Anna, and while my life is very different, at the core of it, their experience is a somewhat universal one. This book is short and quick, but has left quite an impression on me; it gives hope, but simultaneously takes it away.

"Back in the day, looking at images like those and knowing how frustrated and unhappy they had been when they took them made them feel ashamed, deficient, as if the reality presented in the photos should somehow be capable of triumphing over how they really felt, and that their inability to enjoy such a desirable life revealed a flaw in their character. They had outgrown this insecurity. Now those images just seemed like a con."