smoladeryn's reviews
167 reviews

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love by Jonathan Van Ness

funny inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

dark sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

What will the creature made all of seadrift do in the dry sand of daylight; what will the mind do, each morning, waking?

p2

Slow at first, definitely a product of its time, the brilliance and reason for this to be deemed a “classic” shows itself for the last 1/3 of the book. 

Terrifying in the end, a heartbreaking look at a terrible abuse of power. 

Le Guin shows in less than 200 pages how “good intentioned” men do indeed become abusive, power hungry, and ultimately, lost, men. 

The quality of the will to power is, precisely, growth. Achievement is it’s cancellation. To be, the will to power must increase with each fulfillment, making the fulfillment only a step to a further one. The vaster the power gained, the vaster the appetite for more. 

p131

just believing you’re right and your motives are good isn’t enough. You have to… be in touch. He isn’t in touch. No one else, no thing even, has an existence of its own for him; he sees the world only as a means to his end. It doesn’t make any difference if his end is good; means are all we’ve got… He can’t accept, he can’t let be, he can’t let go. 

p156

and a machine is more blameless, more sinless even than any animal. It has no intentions whatsoever but our own. 

p174

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Here he is, doing things he didn't care a damn about, and enjoying it. Now he understood what made people (people he always pitied) happy when they took a job without feeling the compulsion of an internal "Es muss sein!" and forgot it the moment they left for home every evening. This was the first time he had felt that blissful indifference. 

p197

Noor by Nnedi Okorafor

dark emotional 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? No

5.0

FINALLY. A transhumanist story that centres the disabled experience. 

When I was fourteen and newly broken by the car accident, I realized that there are times when you either save yourself or you don’t. It’s only up to you…

p25

“The problem with you,” Force said, “is that you’re so used to pain and discomfort that your definition of feeling okay is not the greatest indicator of being okay”. 

p185

Phenomenal disability representation. I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything that resonated with my experience of disability quite so profoundly. 

So much so that I could look past one of the biggest flaws in the plot and call this a perfect story. The hole being that why would Ultimate Corp need to create deformed/disabled children when there’s already so many in the world born every year? 

But, I really don’t care. Gods I love those characters and everything they go through. Especially the very special cows, Carpe Diem and GPS. 

The imagery throughout such a short novel is mind bendingly brilliant too. 

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

3.0

A Matter of Oaths by Helen S. Wright

adventurous emotional tense 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

5.0

…they could at least have the decency not to try again to unload their responsibilities on the first saviour that came along. Yes, she was willing to take them by the hand and drag them in the right direction until she was sure they could carry on by themselves. No, she was not going to accept leadership of the Guild…

p280

You’re strong. You have strong ideas about the Guild. And you’re willing to put them into action. It’s inevitable they look to you for a lead. 

p282

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

adventurous emotional inspiring fast-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

5.0

Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price

informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

While the first half was nothing new per se, I don’t think the book really claims to be that. Instead I see the first half as catching people up so everyone is on the same page. 101 I guess!

The second half was a lot more of putting into words what many marginalized people already know and validating our experiences. I found it very validating and surprisingly even found some VERY practical new (to me) spins on things like maintaining boundaries. 

This essay was also one of the most inclusive I’ve read on the topic, centering, in many cases the most marginalized among us. 

—

When men don’t perform their fair share of the work, women tend to pick up the slack. It’s very difficult for most women who’ve been indoctrinated by the laziness lie and decades of living under sexism to consider that they deserve to let those responsibilities drop and to be as selfish as the men around them. 

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Amelia Nagoski, Emily Nagoski

challenging informative inspiring slow-paced

5.0

But, each one of these women worked to be of service in ways that violated their roles as Human Givers. And if you do that, say by leaving someone else’s needs unmet, or not being pretty and calm while you do it, or claiming power that rightfully belongs not to a Human Giver, but a Human Being, the world smacks you down. 

They say: what’s the matter with you? They say: get back in line.