musingsbymichelle's reviews
849 reviews

That's Not My Name by Megan Lally

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.5

This is one of those books where because of the title and synopsis you know that "Mary" is not her name, but you don't know what her name is and you don't exactly know what's going on especially when the viewpoint of Drew is part of the narrative. The author creates dread to the point where you can't put the book down because you want to figure it out. I enjoyed the characters. Drew and "Mary" are strong-willed, "Mary's Father" is so creepy, and I felt that Drew's friends added the appropriate amount of comedic relief. I do think that some of this premise required me to suspend my belief. I feel like a lot of this book would have fallen through if it were a movie or show because visually it'd be easy to figure out.
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Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

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emotional inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

A novel that explores so much of what it means to live and love including all the pain and joy it can bring. Told across multiple timelines and points of view between Cyrus Sham, his mother, and father-- this book includes themes of sobriety/addiction, grief, death/dying, and martyrdom. You can tell this is written by a poet, especially in the end when the scene delves into an almost dreamscape of colors. It's a truly beautiful and complex novel that I will thinking about for years to come.
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The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story by Pagan Kennedy

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informative medium-paced

4.0

Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán

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dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

4.5

 
A book that once you start you won't want to put down. This is a fast-paced, bleak story told from the point-of-view of Estela, a housemaid and nanny to a wealthy family in Chile as she recounts her life leading up to the death of the young girl of the family she cares for. For the setting, Estela is telling this story from an interrogation room. 
 
Last year, I read Alia Trabucco Zerán non-fiction book "Women Who Kill" which was also translated by Sophie Hughes. The last story in this book is about a maid who murdered the children she looked after and their grandmother so I was curious to see if the author would draw inspiration from it. Without giving away any spoilers, I would say she does, but this novel is a departure from that true story. 
 
Through Estela's narrative you get an example of unequal class and power dynamics that I found beautifully written. I was left thinking about so much— how material things can't compensate for love and affection, how service people can go unacknowledged or treated as less than, and what equates to our sense of freedom and equality. I loved this book and highly recommend it especially if you’re looking for a translated work to read this year! 
 
CW: for the death of the child previously mentioned and there is a death of a pet. 
Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H

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challenging emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

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Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson

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emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

As the title suggests, the author drops you into a snapshot of small worlds, vignettes of a young man struggling to find himself. The main character, Stephen, is certainly lost. He seems to have an unclear relationship with most things in his life: his faith, his father, and his love interest (Del). Despite this book being short (~250 pages), it took me a long time to read. The writing is very flowery and the author loves a comma! There were so many long sentences that just kept going, making it hard for me to stay focused. The last 50 pages or so made it worth it. We switch to the father's pov and suddenly, we see everything the son had a periphery view of at the beginning of the novel in more detail. I thought that was so beautifully done. I'll admit that I connected with the main character in the end.
I'm a similar age, my mother died, and it fundamentally changed my relationships with my dad and siblings. Heck, even my brother's name is Steven.
Needless to say, I was in my feels with this book and despite it taking me a long time to get into, I enjoyed it. 
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer

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informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

I listened to this on audio and it was like a long meditation because Robin Wall Kimmerer's voice is so soothing. I liked the messaging on reciprocity-- taking only what is needed or in exchange, giving away or sharing surplus, and consuming with gratitude. It's not lost on me that I read some of this as I walked to my local farmer's market. This book gave me nuggets to chew on when it comes to the consumption of goods especially the part about how things have value outside of their monetary value. For example with books-- buying a book that you want is one thing, but receiving a book from someone you care about has that attached to it-- their love for the book, the thought they put into getting it for you, and how it will always be tied to them now. This is a super short yet powerful read. I read it in one morning.
Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan

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fast-paced

4.5

The rage this made me feel while reading Ask Not was at boiling levels. This book reveals decades of rich and powerful men getting away with unthinkable acts. Every time I read something that disrupts what I learned growing up (and this is so true for how the Kennedys were portrayed), I feel bamboozled by the education I received and the media.

In this book, Maureen Callahan uplifts the voices that were silenced or forgotten. She doesn’t shy away from the details in order to really show the ordeal that these women and girls went through because of these men. I did this one on audio and did get jumbled at times with the non-chronological order and the fact that so many Kennedy men name their kids after themselves.
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The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

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mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

An intriguing mystery that takes place in the 1960s and 1970s with multiple POV's and many characters. Maybe too many. I'm glad I did this one in print because I do think I would have gotten really confused with the constant timeline changes. I feel like this is what made the mystery harder to figure out rather than it being a huge twist -- but I'll admit this makes it realistic for how a crime could go unsolved for decades.  I got way too upset when I'd start to get into the next character and their timeline only for it to end on a cliffhanger and switch to another POV! It made me read this faster though haha. I couldn't put it down. I loved the author's writing style-- so descriptive and even though there were a lot of characters, I felt like each one had a robust enough background to feel like fully fleshed-out people. 
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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reflective medium-paced

4.5

TNC's prose is so rich and beautiful. He has a way of describing his own life and expertly ties it to or uses it to inform larger world issues. I was trying to see the connection between all the essays because the second one on book-banning felt a little different from the other two which involved traveling to other countries. I think what I landed on is that all three showcase the power of journalism and that journalists' personal backgrounds and experiences impact their investigations including the places they go and the people they interview. In particular, how actually being on the grounds of a place and meeting the people that are living within that space have their truths to tell, one that doesn't always match what we learned growing up or see in popular media. This gave me a lot to think about especially the Palestine essay.