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oosij's reviews
108 reviews
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
slow-paced
3.5
the first half drags to no end, and i say that as someone who loves a good slice-of-life story... the ending is so tragic and upsetting (iykyk) that it actually makes me want to continue reading about these people, despite how bored i was in the beginning.
don't get me started on the giant blocks of text either. i understand that it helps the story read like the intimate verbal storytelling passed down from generation to generation, but my god, my brain is too corrupted by the need for stimulation that i had to physically work myself to read some of the chapters.
all that being said, i didn't hate this book; in fact, i liked it. hopefully i can articulate my thoughts better by the time i post an actual review on my booksta...
don't get me started on the giant blocks of text either. i understand that it helps the story read like the intimate verbal storytelling passed down from generation to generation, but my god, my brain is too corrupted by the need for stimulation that i had to physically work myself to read some of the chapters.
all that being said, i didn't hate this book; in fact, i liked it. hopefully i can articulate my thoughts better by the time i post an actual review on my booksta...
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis
5.0
adding another to my growing piles of "i wish i read this as a high schooler" and "this should be required reading" in my repertoire. nevertheless very glad to have read it at this age - better late than never. it's all things i've already resonated with but in a tiny, little package that packs a punch. the system was, is, and, unfortunately for the time being, will continue to stay fucked - we should at least make it common knowledge just how fucked it is.
How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr
4.0
a us history book that should be required reading. deep dive into how the united states has been and still is an empire.
almost dnf'd though at the single line "[...] in 1948, when Palestine gained independence from Britain as the State of Israel" (326), but powered through the rest because i had like only a quarter left. like... wdym gained independence AS israel lol c'mon now.
almost dnf'd though at the single line "[...] in 1948, when Palestine gained independence from Britain as the State of Israel" (326), but powered through the rest because i had like only a quarter left. like... wdym gained independence AS israel lol c'mon now.
A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
4.5
absolutely heartbreaking and maddening and beautiful all at once. this played out exactly like a sageuk k-drama in my head as i read this (i know it's chinese, but my korean ass brain just automatically inserted sageuk material and kept jumping back and forth between korean and chinese visuals lol), and it was so incredibly to eat it up.
ann liang paints a rich world of a broken kingdom torn apart by war, and one of the lines (i'll paraphrase badly: they weren't killed by [one side], they were killed by the war- by two kings at play) will stick with me for a long time to come. this is my second liang read, and it's made me so excited to pick up her other books. she's so incredibly gifted in writing romance, in my opinion, and it's honestly refreshing to read a beautifully crafted non-spicy romance... though i will say romance isn't this book's main genre, so don't get into this if you're wishing for a feel-good HPE type of love story.
docked off half a star for the ending, as i'm not really into the wholebeyond-the-grave thing, but i will say liang wrote it so... prettily??? that a tiny part of me doesn't care at all lol.
ann liang paints a rich world of a broken kingdom torn apart by war, and one of the lines (i'll paraphrase badly: they weren't killed by [one side], they were killed by the war- by two kings at play) will stick with me for a long time to come. this is my second liang read, and it's made me so excited to pick up her other books. she's so incredibly gifted in writing romance, in my opinion, and it's honestly refreshing to read a beautifully crafted non-spicy romance... though i will say romance isn't this book's main genre, so don't get into this if you're wishing for a feel-good HPE type of love story.
docked off half a star for the ending, as i'm not really into the whole
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Grief, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder
Minor: Child death
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion
4.0
more of a 3.75, but i'm not gonna start quartering my ratings so a 4 is suffice! i can see why people love joan didion- prose is just a big chef kiss, and it has me hooked from introduction to the last page. as for the story, it's depressing as hell in a similar vein to the bell jar, but for reasons unknown to me in this moment, i just didn't like it as much as plath's.
City of Segregation: 100 Years of Struggle for Housing in Los Angeles by Andrea Gibbons
4.5
this should be required reading in schools (and for transplants lmao)
Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin
3.5
slice-of-life style book. unsure how much i liked it, so 3.5 seemed fair on my personal scale.