tictactoney's reviews
233 reviews

Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver

reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Thanks to Barbara Kingsolver and Joan Didion I may just move to the desert. Such beautiful writing apparently happens there. The Homero chapters were exceptional and the desert scenes were lovely. 

I was really enjoying it until Codi and Loyd went on their Christmas trip and suddenly Codi got so WHINY. Or maybe I just started noticing it more. She mopes about all "Maybe if I wasn't so broken and incapable of being loved I wouldn't be this way" like girl we get it....you had to wear orthopedic shoes. The four plot threads -- checking in on Doc Homer, her year as a schoolteacher, the Stitch & Bitch club and the environmental disaster, and the love story -- all could've used more depth and emotion, but all the novel's emotion was used up by Codi's navel-gazing. 

Loyd also is a little bit "Noble Savage" archetype, which is, y'know, not great. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

Cities of Salt by Abdelrahman Munif

medium-paced

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

4.0

On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor
Did not finish book. Stopped at 43%.

A little pretentious in places. White guy goes into the woods, gets enlightened, writes a book about it and uses tons of big impressive words while doing so. Although what actually made me DNF is the narrator keeps doing these stupid accents and now my Libby loan is due and I don't care enough to renew.

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

This book needs two different reviews: Before Lavinia and After Lavinia. 

Before Lavinia, I would've given this book 4 stars at least. It galloped through the years and cycled through dozens of characters, but it did it really well! The old growth forests, New France, Boston, Duke & Sons Timber; all of these were characters in their own right. The book just danced and it was enjoyable and informative and still managed to give some great storytelling. My only big complaint was that I wanted a woman to have the narrative voice, just once. Which is ironic, because...

After Lavinia, the quality noticeably deteriorates. Lavinia's section itself was good, maybe it went a little long, but the sections after that are so rushed that I completely lost the thread of who was who, which was challenging enough Before Lavinia but once less effort was made to differentiate characters it got even harder. The Duke line wrapped up great, and at a moment that felt appropriate. The Sel line...just kinda faded, which was a bummer because that was the plotline I enjoyed much more. So yeah, the last 150 pages or so, 3 stars. Really disappointing. 

The Roxy Letters by Mary Pauline Lowry

funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

Pretty sure the author was paid by Amazon to do PR for Whole Foods. 

The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter

funny fast-paced

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

3.0

This book is....fine? It's fine. Some reeeeeally good insights on the culture & financial collapse in 2008. Heck, I would've thought it was written a few years after the collapse with some thought and retrospection but nah it came out 2009. There's some genuinely insightful stuff in here. And real hilarity. Sometimes both, like comparing an encounter with the cops to car salesmen. But also in so many ways it fell flat. Like many other reviews in here, I agree the last third of the book just didn't stick the landing. The poetry bits were...skippable. Way too many paragraphs spent with Matt ogling women (EYE ROLL). It's fine. The book is...fine.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

mysterious reflective fast-paced

4.5

Really wonderful. Ponders the importance of small voices when recording history, but what an unreliable narrator Rabbit is! 

One thing: this book drops you down into the world hard and fast and it takes a good while to get oriented. At about the halfway point I actually went back and reread chapter one and it made SO much more sense. 

The Women's Courtyard by Khadija Mastur

challenging reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

slow-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

4.0

Elizabeth Gaskell is a genius. Her characters are so perfectly real. Molly isn't JUST a timid little mouse. Cynthia isn't JUST a coquette. Instead they're deep and interesting and, yes, flawed, but REAL. I've met Mollys and Cynthias and Osbornes and Rogers Mr Gibsons and Squire Hamleys in the 21st century. It's an "every-day story" and it makes my heart feel full to know these characters.

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

lighthearted reflective 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

4.5