scruffie's reviews
111 reviews

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Read it as an audiobook, but I think I will re-read it on paper so that I can keep notes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Eating disorder

Babel by R.F. Kuang

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

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

5.0

I think this is one my favorite books of all time. Also, I'm in love with Kuang's writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

5.0

Ο μικρός πρίγκιπας by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

5.0

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Violence

Moderate: Animal death

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I do think that Vonnegut has some nice ideas in general, but reading a whole "novel" that has no real plot and is just Vonnegut's ramblings on what he thinks of this and that was a bit much. Felt more like a memoir, to be honest, and I realized that I don't really enjoy reading about the world from Vonnegut's point of view.

A lot of misogynistic comments, all over the place, and a touch of transphobia and ableism in several places. All this, combined with a serious lack of self-awareness made this a rather uncomfortable read for me. 

This is the second Vonnegut book I've read (Breakfast of Champions being the first), and I don't think I'll be reading another.

A Gathering: A Personal Anthology of Scottish Poems by Alexander McCall Smith

emotional reflective medium-paced

Our tastes in poetry do not align much, but I still managed to find a few poems I liked in this collection.

Helpfully, the poems written in Gaelic come with translations, and the ones written in Scots come with small word/expression translation annotations. However, I could have used a couple more annotations in a few places.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Loved the writing style. A couple of bits towards the end felt less edited but I'm definitely gonna be reading more Kuang 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Did not finish book. Stopped at 5%.

I'll get back to this at a later time.