pecsenye's reviews
215 reviews

The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai

emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

4.5

A real treasure of a book. Especially lovely to look up the foods as you read about them. 

Island Summers: Memories of a Norwegian Childhood by Tilly Culme-Seymour

informative slow-paced

3.0

I really wanted to love this, but the whole thing just feels so oppressive and sad. Ostensibly it's about this hytte (Norwegian summer cabin) on a strange little island, but really it's about the grandmother, who was a horrible person who hurt her children immensely and threw herself into selfish hedonism at the expense of everyone around her. The author doesn't seem to get this, though, and idealizes her grandmother, and doesn't even seem curious about why her own mother is so unable to function in so many essential ways. All against a background of constant activity on this island, relentless busyness for the sake of activity, making up what seems to have been a tedious childhood of constant chores and performative Norwegianness. The writing is beautiful but bleak and disconnected from all the people and even the island itself. This book left me feeling sad about summer in Norway, which I don't think was the point. 

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What a Fool Believes: A Memoir by Michael McDonald

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

I'm not giving this 5 stars because the prose is beautiful, but because it really presents a total picture of Michael McDonald. It's thoughtful and reflective and honest. 

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

emotional funny hopeful informative 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? Yes

4.75

Another great book about men falling in love in 1960. Such a sweet, romantic story and the Midcentury time period is a delight. I don't even like baseball and all the baseball in this one was lovely. 

Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
Did not finish book. Stopped at 33%.

This is the same book I've read dozens of times. Little girl alienated and in distress thinks becoming respectable and marrying a white man will save her, then struggles to get away from the abusive white man. It's not Villareal's fault that this is the only story anyone wants to publish about women, but I can't read the torture anymore. 

Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing 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? Yes

4.75

What a robust, sweet, kind, intense book. Nick and Andy are such fully-realized characters. You can't just breeze through this book because this was what it was like, and the choices gay men had to make 65 years ago. 

Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make and Keep Friends as an Adult by Marisa G. Franco
Did not finish book. Stopped at 43%.

There is nothing new in the first 40% of this book and the stories she shares as examples are so bizarre that I'm having a hard time paying attention. I should have known when she quoted David Brooks that this wasn't going to be the book for me. Ick.

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Content Warnings

Quotes David Brooks

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I wish there were twenty more books just like this one.