wtb_michael's reviews
2165 reviews

Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang

emotional funny reflective fast-paced

4.0

Funny, sad, smart - probing away at questions of race, family, home, work and life. Wang is such a charming and interesting writer 

Oneiron by Laura Lindstedt

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

3.0

Strange novel about life and (especially) death. Got bogged down in a few sections and flattens out a few complex issues for affect, but hits hard in key moments 

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

emotional fast-paced

3.75

 Sweet, sad, deeply human - one of those simple ideas that feels inevitable. 

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder

dark informative sad medium-paced

4.5

Astonishingly rigorous, dizzyingly bleak and utterly crucial 

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

dark informative sad medium-paced

4.0

Heartbreaking, furious and powerful 

The Odyssey by Lara Williams

challenging dark funny fast-paced

4.0

Very reminiscent of Moshfegh, Butler et al., but still a good time: strange, bleak, funny and oddly moving 

The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard

emotional funny relaxing slow-paced

4.0

Charming and witty novel about a sprawling english family in the years leading up to WW2. The children characters in particular are wonderful

The Wrong Heaven by Amy Bonnaffons

adventurous funny fast-paced

4.25

Funny, strange and charming shorts - excellent for a long flight

The Sorrow Of War: A Novel of North Vietnam by Bảo Ninh

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

3.75

Unabashedly sentimental and heartbreakingly brutal, this complicated book delves deeply into the impact of the war on a generation of Vietnamese 

This Devastating Fever by Sophie Cunningham

adventurous emotional funny informative medium-paced

4.25

Could have been designed in a lab to not appeal to me (Bloomsbury set, main character a thinly fictionalised version of the author writing the book you're reading), but I had a great time with this somehow