readingrainbill's reviews
475 reviews

Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Reputation by Lex Croucher

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

2.0

I have real trouble with books where the main character is so unlikable. Georgiana is the worst. She's selfish, meek at the worst times, and a terrible friend to everyone. She makes bad decisions for the whole book but we're somehow supposed to care? Nah. I'll pass. If the book wasn't at least entertaining I would have DNFd.
Scenes from My Life: A Memoir by Jon Sternfeld, Michael K. Williams

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I loved this memoir. I've been disappointed with some because they didn't dive enough into their career but in this case his memoir is a perfect mix of his upbringing, his struggles with addiction, his career, and his advocacy work. This is an important book to read because it not only dives into the horrors of addiction but the need for prison reform that he was so passionate about. 
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Otherworld by Jason Segel, Kirsten Miller

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

3.0

Sorcerers & Secretaries, Vol. 1 by Amy Kim Kibuishi

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

2.0

First off I almost DNFd it as soon as Nicole stepped out the door with a piece of toast in her mouth like a cringy anime cliche.

Very mediocre. The art style is like if Cathy Guisewite (who writes the Cathy comic strip) tried to draw a more serious comic.

The story was bland. Josh felt like a horrid creep until his back story was explained and then he was just a moron. Nicole is just boring.

While the story does have promise it just doesn't seem like it's going to go anywhere good in the 2nd and final volume. I just don't care.
Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker

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

2.5

The positives of this graphic novel are the great representation, the overall cuteness of it, and the interesting story.

The negatives, unfortunately,  are the art is sloppy at times. Some panels were horribly ugly and felt like they should have been revisited and fixed. Also the story, though interesting and cute, made a few dumb decisions. 

This wasn't bad but it also wasn't very good. I wish I liked it more because the good LGBTQ+ rep and disability rep was pretty good. And it's a nice female forward story. But it's just not that interesting. 
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Drop City by T.C. Boyle

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

2.0

Some people really love this book and I struggle to see why. If Seinfeld was called the show about nothing then this is the literary equivalent. I would classify Drop City as “literature” which to me means it’s needlessly pompous and airy. Trucknuts Chainchomp Boyle used 444 pages to tell a story that really only needed 222. There was no character development and most of the issues are almost instantly resolved or just get left on the side of the road and forgotten. There was one part of the story that revolves around a terrible crime being committed by some newer members of Drop City but there are no real repercussions and it’s basically forgotten, brought up only one or two more times in the second half of the book.
                This book is about a group of hippies that move from California to Alaska thinking that Alaska will be their hippie haven when in actuality it’s cold and inhospitable. When they’re there they meet the locals and befriend their new neighbor who is newly married and has a feud with a hateful old man. That’s it. That’s the book. You can mark it off as “read” now, you’re welcome.
                I do admit that Tinkertoy ColonelMustard Boyle does have a way with words. This mind-numbing slog through mediocrity was at least well written as far as the craft of wordsmithing is concerned. As far as storytelling is concerned it felt like he had a page count to reach for his publisher, had a novella, and decided to add pointless stuff until he reached his goal.
                Even the final confrontation with the only clear villain the book had was lackluster. It just kind of ends. Traction Control Boyle tried to do something exciting with the climax but it was as disappointing as wet fireworks. The promise was there but no follow through.
                At the end of the day nothing happens and this whole book was meaningless. It can’t even be classes as a character study because none of the characters change whatsoever the whole time. Worst of all is this book has some pretty racist moments in it and almost every male character is pretty misogynistic. So much so that while this book technically passes the Bechdel test, it’s not enough to save it. 
 
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Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris

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dark emotional funny informative sad medium-paced

4.0

Typical Sedaris fare, which is perfect if you're a fan. Anyone who has read a book or two by him knows that some of his books are a bit darker than others and this was one of them. It was still funny but deals with death and the pandemic. Great book for Sedaris fans.
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All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

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dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

It was meh. It had the potential to be a truly wonderful book but terrible pacing ruined that. While I liked the dual narratives, it just didn't work. The jumping back in forth in time was haphazard and did nothing to make the book more interesting or pique my interest. 

Some decisions in the book made no sense like a certain content warning event that happened near the end served no purpose. While stuff like that really happened in the war, it did nothing for the story except maybe trigger some people.

I did like Werner and Marie-Laure as characters but the eventual climax of their stories was underwhelming. Also von Rumpel was a pointless character. If you removed him from the story it wouldn't have changed at all. 

This book had promise but was too messy and long winded to be any good. Did it deserve the Pulitzer? If you gague worthiness by artsy literature BS then yes, it did. Otherwise no, it's an overhyped book.
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