nadia's reviews
570 reviews

Exit Interview by Kristi Coulter

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Really enjoyed this BTS look of a career at Amazon! I now want to read her essay collection, Nothing Good Can Come from This.

Ted Hughes: Poems Selected by Simon Armitage by Ted Hughes

challenging reflective slow-paced

2.0

Wow, I found this book SO BORING. I didn't care for the subject matter at all and a lot of it also went over my head.

The Midas poem was my favourite because…you know…I could…understand it. Didn’t feel like a poem though. Felt more like a short story. 😅

Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier by Marisa Meltzer

informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

This book wins points for me as I'm a Glossier fan and I'm intrigued by Emily Weiss. However, I was hoping for something more interesting here. It was clear why the book existed. There wasn't really a groundbreaking revelation or any juicy BTS bits. The blurb says it's a "bombshell exposé" and...it just isn't. Still, I appreciated the little peek behind the curtain we did get.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

This is a reread eight years later and wow, what a fantastic book! Now that I'm older, wiser, and have lived through a pandemic, I could appreciate it even more than the first time I read it. The writing is wonderful and the shifting perspectives and timelines work so well together to create an immersive tale. Can't wait to finally read some other St. John Mandel books!

(My review eight years ago was a 4. Upped it to 4.5. Didn't quite get to that rare 5-star "je ne sais quoi"/magic for me.)

Ariel by Sylvia Plath

challenging reflective

2.5

I feel bad but I was very bored. A lot of these poems went over my head as well. 🙈

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

4.0

A poetry collection that didn't feel like poetry, maybe because it was very accessible and the narrative strand was so strong. I felt like I was reading vignettes in prose. It's incredible how much can be conveyed by so few words. A great book to read in one-sitting.

Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 3: The Masters of History by Daniel Casanave, Yuval Noah Harari, David Vandermeulen

adventurous informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.0

Still fun, but this volume felt a little bit silly/too contrived at times. And there didn't always seem to be consistency or clear reasoning in the characters' actions. But I enjoyed the illustrations and thinking about the progress of history through the different lenses.

What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

4.5

This is an excellent book — especially on audio as you get to hear the actual interviews (!) — that can inspire climate activism in anybody. The breadth is impressive, spanning everything from politics, Hollywood, the legal system, the ocean, and more. It is rather dense — and most of the facts when in one ear and other the other — but I think it's a book that you should listen on audio and then have a print copy to refer back to. Loved the titular/central question of the book. A very positive, hopeful framing, despite the darkness of the situation!

Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 2: The Pillars of Civilization by Daniel Casanave, Yuval Noah Harari, David Vandermeulen

adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

Not as strong as the first volume, and it felt more like a thesis/opinion/persuasion-piece than a history. I felt the "simplification" of everything more, and this one felt like the authors dwelled on a few points for a bit too long, but it does illustrate certain things – beginnings of slavery and the compounding impact today, the power of fictional ideas in shaping culture — creatively and effectively!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery

Minor: Sexism, War

Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 1: The Birth of Humankind by David Vanderneulen, David Casanave, Yuval Noah Harari

adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

A very creative adaptation of the first part of one of my all-time favourite books. I loved the illustrations, the setting, and the cast of characters. I don't know if I'd rate this so highly if this was my first interaction with the material and if Sapiens wasn't one of my few five-star reads, but this was a fantastic way to revisit some of that material and I've already started Volume 2!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence