mint_renegade's reviews
163 reviews

My Girl and the City by Sam Selvon

lighthearted

3.0

Harrow County Omnibus Volume 1 by Cullen Bunn

adventurous dark relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Don't misjudge books left long unread. On the eve of an anniversary or the simple dawning of a new day, you'll finally open that dormant book, you'll doubt the pages yet to come by the first, or the last as is your wont; then you'll turn that page and read, turn and read, turn then read.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

adventurous hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

"Round up the usual suspects". What is to become of Rostov's friends? Out of character, Rostov appears indifferent to the ensuing imprisonment/torture. What good is gold when their lives are at stake? What good it gold when all it will do is incriminate? "Round up the usual suspects"

A gentle unfolding of a story, too fantastical in its account of time and country. But it was a fiction, perhaps it'd be too much to ask for historical accuracy. Nonetheless, my mind, unbidden, will hop-skip-and-jump to a reality that is not so gentle in its unfolding for those left behind.

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini

adventurous reflective relaxing tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Not all favourites are littered with annotations, not all are poetic, not all are about delving into the dark recesses of the heart. Some, simply and well told, have you scampering at the early hours, fighting against the dawning darkness. This, this was such a story. 

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

adventurous dark reflective 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? It's complicated

3.0

A time capsule, slow to unravel.  Intimacy in outer space. Less about plot, more about the personal and political implications of, well, life. 

The author admitted to being haunted by the pronouns; it permeated one or two of my own  reveries. The he/him of it all, intended to neutralize, did more to dilute the verasity of the thought experiment.  

Credit where credit is due, a novel published in the 1960s disecting the gender binary can't be anything but a net positive. 

Compare the climate here with that In Dune? 

Jules et Jim by Henri-Pierre Roché

adventurous dark reflective slow-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

3.0

I'll forget having read this book; I'll never get the urge to revisit it; and yet I cherish the hours spent reading it. 

Thank you palette cleanser.

Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Did not finish book. Stopped at 1%.

Unforgiving prose 

The Tin Drum by Günter Grass
Did not finish book. Stopped at 1%.

Time is tissue

The Magus by John Fowles

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

0.25

I hated the protagonist for submitting to an obvious con despite all reason indicating that he should leave; I hated myself for continually turning the page. Look at us, 2 stupid sheep, one fictionally immortal, the other decaying with each passing moment.

Half baked dozen lies sold as a mystery with no pay-off. No interesting or endearing characters to cling to. 

when to dnf
- when you dread picking up the book
- when you skim whole chapters
- when you fling the book across the room , a la bradley cooper