msbarnesela's reviews
397 reviews

Heartburn by Nora Ephron

funny reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

The narrator makes me think of the tv show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Short, easy read. The narrator is lovable, but most of the other characters are not. 
It includes some words and opinions that would be offensive now but that were not out of the norm during the time the book was written. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy and Infidelity

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Throughout, I found myself judging the MC for some truly shady choices. But I also appreciated her commitment to finding the truth (even if she had to lie to get there). By the end, I was both disgusted with her and sympathetic. 

The format of this book is interesting. It’s constructed of emails, text conversations, excerpts of novels and screenplays, and transcriptions of interviews. As such, there’s very little exposition, and none of the action is happening in the present tense of the book. It’s basically all dialogue. 

I alternated between reading and listening, but found that I enjoyed the audiobook more. The audiobook used a small cast of voice actors, so it was easier for me to lean into the format and just focus on the story. I did occasionally have to pause and reread parts in the book to clarify things. For example, because there are LOTS of people but you only see them through emails and dialogue, I sometimes had trouble remembering who was who. The ebook was super helpful for this, since I could search by name. 

The Excitements by C.J. Wray

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I rarely enjoy WW2-related fiction (because it’s just over-saturated as a genre and usually excessively sentimental). However, this is less a WW2 book and more a quirky-old-person book with spy and heist elements. I like books about old people. This one was excellently done. 
I did predict the twist ending (

Josephine’s Scottish trauma is that she was told that her baby with August, born out of wedlock, had died, but really he had been registered as the son of her BFF, Connie, and adopted to a Canadian couple, and they are reconnected at the end

) pretty early on. But I liked the characters enough that by the end, I didn’t mind that it was predictable. I wanted good things for all of them. 

The New Girl by Jesse Q. Sutanto

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I’m probably the wrong audience for this, but I like the author’s other books, so I gave it a shot. It’s a fast-paced, tense story, perfect for YA readers who like thrillers. I found nearly every character to be unlikable; I started out rooting for the MC but hated her by the end. I also found myself internally screaming, “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP TRYING TO ESPIONAGE YOUR WAY OUT OF THIS AND TELL A $@*%#@% GROWN UP.”  Not that the adults were much better, although the MC could’ve called her mom. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Toxic friendship, Racism, and Bullying

Moderate: Eating disorder, Drug use, and Addiction

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

Almost as good as the first, but the ending was abrupt. I would’ve loved one more chapter! But hopefully there will be another in the series. 

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

hopeful reflective 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? No

5.0

This was cozy and delightful—much needed after a string of dark and heavy reads. This sci-fi novel is set in a utopian world—where people saw the error of their ways before climate change got too out of hand and then radically changed everything to make the world more sustainable. Everything is ecofriendly. Everyone is community-oriented. Every person is accepted exactly as themselves. People do whatever work they find meaningful, and everyone is taken care of. And I love that in the midst of all this—even though they have everything they need—the MC still feels discontent and existential angst. They have a meaningful job that they love, and they still end up experiencing burnout and wanting something different. And accomplishing their goal in the book doesn’t automatically change that. Because sometimes your life is great and you’re still not totally at peace with it. That’s human. 

Add to that a very wise but also naive robot, and it’s delightful. 

River Woman, River Demon by Jennifer Givhan

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This probably would’ve been better on paper than as an audiobook, but the library didn’t have a print or ebook. 

It reminded me a little of 1Q84 (which I didn’t like), but more enjoyable. I did find it somewhat compelling (in that I listened to the whole thing and didn’t find myself rolling my eyes and wanting to fast-forward like I did with 1Q84), but I’m not actually sure that I liked it. If you liked 1Q84, you might like this.

The story was just a little too sprawling—a lot of extraneous detail and mundane events that didn’t actually contribute to the narrative or the character development. The details about Argentinian politics and history, for example…they were useful early on to establish the setting, but became overwrought and repetitive later, when they no longer contributed to the main narrative. There were so many minor characters introduced, a lot of tension built up around them, and then they just vanished from the narrative (not literally vanished, which might’ve been interesting). They felt irrelevant in the overall narrative arc.But then the ending was rushed and without much detail, so it didn’t have much emotional payoff.  There were too many ends left loose, and so much left unexplained, which I don’t mind in a shorter book, but if a book is going to be this long, I want more resolution. 

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I found several of the characters to be incredibly unlikeable,

and Florence in particular, but just as in the Lager Queen book, the worst-behaved characters are just forgiven without ever making amends or taking responsibility for what they’ve done.  Florence never really takes responsibility for outing Floyd and Archie (she presents herself as the victim throughout her adulthood and never explains why Floyd doesn’t like her), she never owns up to throwing away Mariel’s college applications to force her to stay close to home, she never admits how her attention-seeking behavior led to the deaths of her grandson (though she wasn’t the only adult at fault in that situation), and she never apologizes for making a scene at the church and allowing the narrative to spread that Mariel is heartless (in that she never reveals to her admirers that she demanded a ride through a proxy after 10 years of silence rather than reaching out personally, and that her daughter has good reason to not come for her). And we’re supposed to believe that she’s redeemed because she sees one photo with Floyd and Archie together later in life and has happy tears over it? She kept them apart for the majority of their adulthood and endangered their lives in the process. I sympathized with Florence for the first few chapters, but she got worse and worse as time went on. Her mother Betty was also terrible.

The unlikeable characters were a good foil to the ones I did like:

Floyd, Mariel, the majority of the staff at the Lakeside. They definitely made me root for Mariel, which made her death much more sad—just as she got everything she wanted, she just died.

I loved this book up until the last part that focused on Julia. Because she was introduced as a character so late, she didn’t bring the same emotional resonance. It felt like a too-long, weak epilogue rather than a conclusion to the book. I think she either should have been introduced earlier (without too much detail that would spoil the arc), or given much less space in the end of the book, or been blended more with the other characters.

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
Did not finish book. Stopped at 14%.

Loaned my copy to a student for an project and never got it back.