mmccombs's reviews
681 reviews

Dog Flowers: A Memoir by Danielle Geller

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Very solid and absolutely devastating. I think this would have been better to read physically to see the photos and “resources” throughout the book (at least, I’m assuming based on the audio experience!) but the narration was good and captured the emotion of this story. It was very heavy to read, so I had a hard time picking it back up after putting it down, but feel glad to have read it.
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The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

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mysterious fast-paced

3.0

I was looking for something bite sized and Christmas-y and this was bite sized and like vaguely Christmas-y, so I’ll call that mostly a win. I didn’t know that this was a spin off of an original book, so I probably would have liked this more had I read The Appeal first, but it was still decent. I liked the deduction from documents approach, it felt very fresh while retaining the classic whodunnit vibe. I can’t say this will stick with me, but it was a good way to spend an afternoon.
Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

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emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

5.0

That was a hell of a debut! Going into this, I just could not imagine how this would work, the concept just a bit too weird to result in anything worth taking seriously, but Habeck balanced the fantastical element of human-to-animal mutations with an extreme amount of heart, tenderness, and humor. I loved the character work, Wren and Lewis and Angela were deeply fleshed out and felt very real. I was a little unsure when Part 2 left Wren to go back in time to Angela’s story, but I ended up loving her part just as much as the rest of it.  I think my only complaint is that the prose felt a bit overwritten at some points, like on the whole it was absolutely beautiful but sometimes it was just a bit much. But this was ingeniously crafted, wholly unique, and a testament to loving fully even when it can be lost.
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Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec

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informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

Informative, introspective, and accessible, I think this is probably a must read for white people living in the Americas (and I guess any settler state) to begin deconstructing long held beliefs, values, and stories that we tell ourselves about our country and our history. I wouldn’t say this was exactly ground breaking if you have already begun to think about this, but I really enjoyed Krawec’s writing style and storytelling. Telling Christian origin stories alongside Anishinaabe origin stories was compelling and helped make sense of our shared history. She provided actionable steps for “unforgetting” our past, looking inward, and then working towards building sustainable relationships with others to create a greener, more generous future. I hope to force this (kindly) on my relatives and friends, I think it’s a great entry point to good discussion!
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All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

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dark mysterious slow-paced

4.0

That was an interesting take on the thriller/crime story, it was definitely more character driven than most in the genre. The writing was really well done, unexpectedly lush and beautiful, and I liked that we were lead through this sweeping tale linearly (I feel like most thrillers these days jump around in time so I’m glad this one avoided the impulse). I did think it was too long, the middle felt bloated and some of the twists and turns felt unnecessary and ultimately confusing. I also disliked how short the chapters were, it was a bit jarring to constantly have minute long chapters via audio. But the ending was satisfying and I do think these characters will stick with me for a while. A read worth the investment!
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Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

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dark tense medium-paced

4.0

A solid and quiet apocalyptic story, I loved the subtle twists on the genre and how thoroughly the author set the mood and atmosphere. I just read Station Eleven and I’d say this felt kind of similar in that it is less about an apocalypse and more about how humans handle change and conflict. I particularly loved the point this book made about how, for First Nations and Anishinaabe, this was just another apocalypse among constant apocalypses, genocide and dispossession and theft woven into the fabric of their history. It made for interesting perspective on survival, especially in conversation with that history. I do wish there was a bit more character development and this book felt a little short, but I feel excited to get to the next installment! 
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The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

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informative fast-paced

3.0

Unfortunately, this book could not make me feel bad for a white dude who can’t learn a lesson, no matter how hard the author tried. The story itself is pretty thrilling and almost feels like fiction, it was solid and entertaining. However, the journalism and research did not seem robust. It mostly read like the author became enthralled with Breitwieser and his vibe and was just recounting his exploits. This book almost cast his kleptomania as the quirky character trait of a dude who just really loved art rather than a crime that ended up destroying historical artifacts, which is kind of weird!

I’ve become spoiled by really good nonfiction (Challenger and The Wager come to mind) that covers a topic very holistically, dipping into greater themes and history at large. While I liked that this was quick and to the point, I would have liked a broader look at art and art thieves throughout history and a more balanced account of Brietwieser, his girlfriend, and his mom (what was her deal?!). I was interested when the author dipped a bit into museums and their role in stealing art from, especially oppressed, people and how that might connect with art thieves. Could have been interesting to explore (though definitely a bit off topic!) Maybe this would have worked better as a long article rather than a book? I still had a good time reading it, but found it lacked depth and rigorous journalism.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.25

That was so much fun! This was a page turner and full of heart, it made me feel hopeful about humanity’s ability to come together to innovate in the face of insurmountable odds (feels very fictional but hey, a girl can dream). It was a great balance of nerdy and action, though I feel like some of the science got too in the weeds and started to feel unrealistic (I’m not an astrophysicist but I’d still love to know how factual things were). This is like the perfect book for people learning about the scientific method, the whole plot was basically like making a hypothesis, testing and retesting, and then drawing conclusions from your observations. And somehow I felt like this book could have kept going! I’m curious to see how this will work as a movie, it does not seem like the easiest thing to adapt, but I hope it will capture the earnestness, the hope, and the love of science this book provided!

As a super side note, I do feel as though there had to be a simpler way to go about solving this problem. If they had so many scientists dedicated to building this giant space mission, could they not have just spent the time figuring out how to kill the Astrophage on a mass scale (because they already figured out how they die) without having to find the specific thing that was working on that specific planet light years away? Also, what if the astrophage predator ends up causing a different issue, idk! The story was very fun so this doesn't matter, but I was kind of like, damn, I really feel like they had the brain power to fix this on their own!
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From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley, Riley Keough

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emotional informative reflective fast-paced

3.5

This was well done if a bit too short (but I think its level of depth generally made sense for the story it was telling). I really knew nothing about Lisa Marie Presley going into this, and am really only a casual Elvis enjoyer, so I learned a lot from this. The narration was really well done, I loved that we got to hear from Lisa Marie herself, Julia Roberts was good as always, and Riley Keough brought a wonderful perspective on her mother to shed some lightness and grace to her story that she couldn’t see herself. I don’t leave this wowed necessarily, but I think it provided an insightful snapshot of her life, of growing up in the shadow of fame, and the impact of addiction and depression on generations of a family just trying their best. 
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Lucy Undying by Kiersten White

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dark funny slow-paced

3.5

This was two books! Which is disappointing because I really loved one book (a queer Dracula retelling) and mostly didn’t care for the other (romance and a cult). I loved Lucy’s story, it was sweeping and historical and tackled interesting themes about bodily autonomy, desire, and queerness. She was a fun character to follow, she definitely read as a person who had been 19 for probably too long, which is always hard to capture. And I do think the modern romance worked, love that for her! 

But the layering of the modern storyline on top made for an overly long, complicated, and significantly less fun story. Iris was fine,
a vampire cult in Utah is a funny idea (though I think it could have been executed better with more space)
, and I think the match between Iris and Lucy was sweet enough if kind of cheesy. But the constant POV shifts made it difficult to settle into either narrative fully, I was much more invested in Lucy and always felt mildly annoyed when we left. And then the Dracula storyline is also there, which I think would have made more sense to have explored more deeply to contrast against Lucy and the themes her story brings up, rather than making up a new conflict. Whatever happened, I do think I would have wanted Lucy to find herself and a great sapphic love, but I’m unsure if adding such a big storyline on top of another made sense. Despite it feeling pretty bloated, I still enjoyed reading this and thought the writing was engaging, the character work for Lucy well rounded, and the retelling worth the read.
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