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redheadreading's reviews
1954 reviews
The Marvellous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.0
Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Ben Miller, Huw Lemmey
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
Expected this to be a slam dunk for me but I have mixed feelings!
I wish there had been some kind of parameters established for what "bad" is classified as in this collection. It bothered me that there was such a range of morality all clumped together without delving into those distinctions more explicitly. One guy just wrote bawdy stuff in the Renaissance whereas others were legit Nazis! The level is not the same!! I also feel like the unifying thread got a bit lost for me? Based on the intro, it seemed like the focus was going to be on white gay men for a specific reason so I wasn't surprised that they dominated the collection, but with the inclusion of Maragret Mead and Yukio Mishima it clearly isn't the case, so why does the collection focus so heavily on this limited selection? (Also many of these are bisexual, which kind of gets acknowledged but also kind of doesn't?)
I could very much tell this is based on a podcast in the way it was written and it didn't always work for me as a result - it felt like sometimes we got bogged down in summarising biographical info and lost the argument, whereas at other times it was really engaging. Perhaps the podcast itself would work better for me than this book has?
I wish there had been some kind of parameters established for what "bad" is classified as in this collection. It bothered me that there was such a range of morality all clumped together without delving into those distinctions more explicitly. One guy just wrote bawdy stuff in the Renaissance whereas others were legit Nazis! The level is not the same!! I also feel like the unifying thread got a bit lost for me? Based on the intro, it seemed like the focus was going to be on white gay men for a specific reason so I wasn't surprised that they dominated the collection, but with the inclusion of Maragret Mead and Yukio Mishima it clearly isn't the case, so why does the collection focus so heavily on this limited selection? (Also many of these are bisexual, which kind of gets acknowledged but also kind of doesn't?)
I could very much tell this is based on a podcast in the way it was written and it didn't always work for me as a result - it felt like sometimes we got bogged down in summarising biographical info and lost the argument, whereas at other times it was really engaging. Perhaps the podcast itself would work better for me than this book has?
Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble
fast-paced
2.5
Stylistically not really my jam, I struggle with modern poetry that doesn't have much of a rhythm to it and a lot of the forms in this just felt like prose with line breaks or strokes between. Definitely appreciate the topics she's tackling and I think there is worth to this collection that a lot of people clearly connect with.
He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Absolutely cracking ending, but the rest was extremely dark and quite slow/repetitious (I get it, lads, you're all in PAIN), plus Ma was criminally underused!!
The Dark Queens: A gripping tale of power, ambition and murderous rivalry in early medieval France by Shelley Puhak
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
3.5
The Old Ways: A Journey On Foot by Robert Macfarlane
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
Reading the first few chapters I thought this was going to be a new favourite because I loved the meditations on walking, on how landscapes change us just as much as we change them, on linguistics and poetry and more.
Unfortunately, whilst some chapters were super strong others really weren't. I'm not overly interested in the poet he loves so the biographical elements there were a bit dull. Didn't care at all for the chapter focused on the guy who bought a human skeleton for art purposes (explicitly through deceit!) and kills and eats loads of birds (?). Some of the travelling abroad chapters veer a bit into viewing landscapes as quite barbaric in a way that carries some real implications.
I was really moved reading the chapter on Ramallah, thinking about how even those discussions of walking as a dangerous and lost act will have only gotten worse by now. There is a moment in that chapter that feels incredibly disrespectful, when an older Palestinian woman is telling him about writing to President Reagan, he says "I stopped listening" and then goes on a waffley thought anecdote about the etymology of a word. Rude!!
Unfortunately, whilst some chapters were super strong others really weren't. I'm not overly interested in the poet he loves so the biographical elements there were a bit dull. Didn't care at all for the chapter focused on the guy who bought a human skeleton for art purposes (explicitly through deceit!) and kills and eats loads of birds (?). Some of the travelling abroad chapters veer a bit into viewing landscapes as quite barbaric in a way that carries some real implications.
I was really moved reading the chapter on Ramallah, thinking about how even those discussions of walking as a dangerous and lost act will have only gotten worse by now. There is a moment in that chapter that feels incredibly disrespectful, when an older Palestinian woman is telling him about writing to President Reagan, he says "I stopped listening" and then goes on a waffley thought anecdote about the etymology of a word. Rude!!
Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
Did not finish book. Stopped at 38%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 38%.
Found her rude and snobby and the Man of Wrath deeply irritating. Alas, not as delightful as An Enchanted April!
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Adding to my list of excellent second-person narrated books!
The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5