sahanac's reviews
204 reviews

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

 What a book. I truly don't know how well I'll be able to review this, because it was so engrossing. I am a huge fan of mythological retellings because I think that's part of the fun of the form, but I think reworkings of the western canon of classics (thinking of the seven billion versions of Pride&Prejudice, for example, can be touch and go. The orginal texts stand the test of time for a reason. But this book as a reworking of David Copperfield lived it's own vivid, beautiful life. I can't say I loved watching Demon grow up, but I loved getting to know him, and I did love him so much that every decision that felt wrong or bad made me desperately sad for him. He tried, so hard, to be good, and he was so often spat on by life in return. The opiate use (esp after having read another book, NF this time, about it, was all too real, and the end result, his sobering, was a relief. His relationship with Angus was also a breath of fresh air, and it became such a beautiful little love story by the end, the way that she was his ocean, and he chose her back. I loved their relationship. It drove me crazy how every adult in his life utterly failed him, but it made it all the more impressive that he found his own way out. We keep talking about Demon, and there's a really good reason why. He was a special kid, and I keep him with me. 

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

adventurous funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I did not expect to adore this book the way that I DID!! I was so pleasantly surprised by everything, the characters, the setting, the world-building, the mythology, the premise - I think it was all executed really well. I will say, as caveat, I listened to the first 95% of the book, and then read the last little bit. It was so wonderfully immersive, and I adored Emily right off the bat. She was a very stuck-in-her-ways, sweet, stubborn, smart, driven character and I really liked seeing the world through her eyes, and how easily she connected with the Fae, but how hard it was for her to connect to other people. I loved that Wendall was her guide to the human world, and she had something to teach him about the Fae realms too. Something I might have mentioned in passing that I really adored was the fact that it felt really anthropological, the way that dryadology and fieldwork were discussed. I'm listening to another book right now about the origins of anthropology, and this one really reminded me of the way it was all discussed in that other book, which definitely helped endear the world to me - it was so close to being recognizable with just a hint of fantasy, which I guess I really adore. It was a lovely book, and I had such a good time reading it. Watching Emily ingratiate herself with the people of the town (which I don't really know how to spell, since I mostly heard it and barely recognized it when I read it) was such a lovely development. I can't wait to read the next one. 

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

challenging emotional informative inspiring fast-paced

5.0

Christ but this was a book. I didn't know truly what to expect going into this, but I certainly did not expect to cry halfway through. I did though!

Thi Bui started this book as a history, but realized that it needed something to ground it. It felt too amorphous to stand alone. So she turned it into a memoir - a personal history where she saw the ways she was parented in comparison to the ways she was raising her own child. And she so beautifully wove the immigrant experience, taking her parents stories as established people in their own country, forced to leave, and her and her siblings stories, as children brought to assimilate to the American Dream, and the tension created in the family. She almost named the book "Refugee Reflex" and (while I like the current title far more), I think there's so much to examine in this book through that lens - what does it mean to flee from a country that is yours? What does it mean to grow up knowing your life would be different if you had not left - but to not remember what could have been your country? The art is stunning, the book is utterly heartbreaking and poignant, and in turn, so lovely. A history might be about the refugee reflex, but this is a family story instead. And it's about everyone doing the very best they could do. 

The Maid by Nita Prose

3.0

boring and kinda mundane

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative medium-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

4.25

 Magical realism, Sri Lankan civil war, afterlives and futures - this book has it all. And it evokes such feeling too, that it was a shock to the system, but still unputdownable. I'll admit that I grabbed it for the cover, but I stayed for Maali and his sick sense of humor. It's not a spoiler to say the main character is dead when we begin the book. A photojournalist who is looking to uncover the cruelties and intricacies of the Sri Lankan civil war, his spirit is now on it's way to uncover who killed him and hid his body, all while he tries to resist being taken by the light. Good and evil and queerness in during war in the '80s - it's not easy. But it's so fully explored, so developed, and the politics is explained in a detail that I, as a complete novice about Sri Lankan politics, appreciated, explanatory but not heavy handed. No surprise that this won the Booker, but I am surprised that it's not on more book lists. If you're looking for a non-Western author, or a book about a place we don't often see in the published world - Maali has something to say to you. 

The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

hm. fine over, great at creating suspense for a very weird payoff that ultimately didn't satisfy. i don't know if all of the threads of maya's background fit together that well for me — felt like it could have been excluded to the same effect which is never what you want for what i think is meant to be empathy-provoking material. however this was a quick entertaining listen so i can't even grouse that much. 

Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World by Mary Beard

adventurous relaxing medium-paced

5.0

i love roman history and mary beard breaks it down so comprehensively 

The Switch by Beth O'Leary

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

could use some tightening up and was confusing jumping from pov from pov but the overall story was interesting, even if i didnt love how it was told

The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser

funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

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

4.25

 Despite how little I respected the male protagonist (damn, what a way to start a review, huh), I did really like this book. I loved the premise of Thea having to start over in her 40s, and I love an idyllic little Scottish town to do that in, with fun side characters that each got their own brief moment in the sun so we could see that they were not merely 2D and meant to root for Thea. I know it's unrealistic, but the way everyone just kept saying how lovely Thea was all the time - it made me so happy for her after everything she went through with her husband, Chris. And the Chris situation really struck me - married for 20 years (or thereabouts), and have your husband cheat on you?? With your friend?? 

I listened to this one, so maybe the audiobook helped, but Thea's voice was so clear and present for me, that it made everything I didn't like about the book feel like she was just a friend of mine that I loved dearly and disagreed with in her taste and decision-making, but didn't make me love her less. I liked that she was an adult (even if some of her...peers in the novel did not behave as such). As to the things I didn't like: the set up for Edward, the love interest and resident curmudgeon and his drama with his brother Charles. I think it all had potential to be very well set up, but instead it became this childish thing that really was so silly and hard to respect for both characters. I won’t get into it really, but it was a bizarre choice for a character parallel. There were so many other options to do Edward's backstory, and the route chosen was not good. But I liked Thea so much that It Didn't Matter to me :)