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alexblackreads's reviews
846 reviews
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
3.0
This was the most middling book. Like it was super quick to get through and I didn't dislike it, but it was thoroughly unimpressive in every way. I read this for a book club and we were all pretty much in agreement that it was shallowly enjoyable, but not very good.
Main issues because I'm lazy:
1. Nothing was developed. It felt like issue after issue was being thrown at the reader. Random abuse at school- never developed. Depression- suddenly cured. Random unlikable man- he's gone, never to be mentioned again. Death- so sad, but totally fine don't worry no one really cares. Don't want to get into spoiler territory, but there were so many major events that randomly popped up just to be dropped. It didn't feel like they had any real effect on the story.
2. It felt like it was sad for the sad of being sad. I love a good tragedy, but all the things need to work together. This book felt like Williams was just dropping random sad event after random sad event because it's easier to have an emotional impact by making it sad than by writing a good story.
3. Some of the writing felt very awkward. It was like Williams had a full picture in her head of the scene but would forget to include necessary details. All small things- like a man who'd never been mentioned before in a room would suddenly speak and it was like it came out of nowhere. There were so many times I read back through the previous paragraphs because I was sure I had missed something.
4. The author spent a lot of time trying to discuss feminism and classism and social issues, but it all came across as incredibly shallow. Like made the barest attempt at discussion and then dropped it as a job well done.
I know it sounds like I hated this, but really it was fine. Kind of annoying and not one I'd recommend, but it was entertaining enough and really quick to get through.
Main issues because I'm lazy:
1. Nothing was developed. It felt like issue after issue was being thrown at the reader. Random abuse at school- never developed. Depression- suddenly cured. Random unlikable man- he's gone, never to be mentioned again. Death- so sad, but totally fine don't worry no one really cares. Don't want to get into spoiler territory, but there were so many major events that randomly popped up just to be dropped. It didn't feel like they had any real effect on the story.
2. It felt like it was sad for the sad of being sad. I love a good tragedy, but all the things need to work together. This book felt like Williams was just dropping random sad event after random sad event because it's easier to have an emotional impact by making it sad than by writing a good story.
3. Some of the writing felt very awkward. It was like Williams had a full picture in her head of the scene but would forget to include necessary details. All small things- like a man who'd never been mentioned before in a room would suddenly speak and it was like it came out of nowhere. There were so many times I read back through the previous paragraphs because I was sure I had missed something.
4. The author spent a lot of time trying to discuss feminism and classism and social issues, but it all came across as incredibly shallow. Like made the barest attempt at discussion and then dropped it as a job well done.
I know it sounds like I hated this, but really it was fine. Kind of annoying and not one I'd recommend, but it was entertaining enough and really quick to get through.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
4.0
I enjoyed this so much. Whitehead's writing style is fantastic and he does such a great job at capturing people during moments of their lives. This is such a horrifying story and he breaks your heart with all the details.
My biggest issue was how short this was. I wanted to fall in love and feel connect to the story, but everything in it was so brief that I felt like I was being kept at a distance. The twist at the ending would have been fantastic if I'd been deeply entrenched in the characters, but I wasn't. This book felt like it needed another hundred pages to fully tell this story.
I really look forward to reading Colson Whitehead again, perhaps with a slightly longer book. This has also made me really want to pick up Erin Kimmerle's nonfiction book about the real life school this was based on.
My biggest issue was how short this was. I wanted to fall in love and feel connect to the story, but everything in it was so brief that I felt like I was being kept at a distance. The twist at the ending would have been fantastic if I'd been deeply entrenched in the characters, but I wasn't. This book felt like it needed another hundred pages to fully tell this story.
I really look forward to reading Colson Whitehead again, perhaps with a slightly longer book. This has also made me really want to pick up Erin Kimmerle's nonfiction book about the real life school this was based on.
Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass
3.0
I love reading middle grade as a book, but some books aren't intended for adults as well. I probably would have liked that a lot better at age eleven. I've liked Wendy Mass before (A Mango Shaped Space is one of my regular rereads), but this one didn't hit right.
I found the parents unbelievably self absorbed. Like they decided right when their kid is thirteen and about to start high school to pick up and move across the country to live on a campground for three years, with no cell service, no other kids, and no school. And they gave her a weeks notice. That is wildly inappropriate. And then another set of parents did the same thing! It was wild. And it really felt like through the narration we were supposed to think this kids were behaving ridiculously.
Most of the book centers on two girls who are essentially swapping lives, one moving into the campground and one moving out. But there was also a third character who didn't seem to have much of a reason to be in the story. He was just there on a visit to see the eclipse. While the girls had profound realizations about themselves, he just kinda seemed to keep existing. Got a little more confident and had a (kind of weirdly inserted) crush on a girl, but that was it. Don't get me wrong, I really liked his character. He just didn't seem to fit in the story.
Beyond that, the characters were all just stereotypes. The ending was cliche although kind of sweet. The writing was totally fine. The romance was awkwardly shoehorned in. And the parents were never at any point criticized in the narration. Not one I'd recommend, unless you're eleven and very into astronomy.
I found the parents unbelievably self absorbed. Like they decided right when their kid is thirteen and about to start high school to pick up and move across the country to live on a campground for three years, with no cell service, no other kids, and no school. And they gave her a weeks notice. That is wildly inappropriate. And then another set of parents did the same thing! It was wild. And it really felt like through the narration we were supposed to think this kids were behaving ridiculously.
Most of the book centers on two girls who are essentially swapping lives, one moving into the campground and one moving out. But there was also a third character who didn't seem to have much of a reason to be in the story. He was just there on a visit to see the eclipse. While the girls had profound realizations about themselves, he just kinda seemed to keep existing. Got a little more confident and had a (kind of weirdly inserted) crush on a girl, but that was it. Don't get me wrong, I really liked his character. He just didn't seem to fit in the story.
Beyond that, the characters were all just stereotypes. The ending was cliche although kind of sweet. The writing was totally fine. The romance was awkwardly shoehorned in. And the parents were never at any point criticized in the narration. Not one I'd recommend, unless you're eleven and very into astronomy.
Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb
3.0
My biggest problem with this was the length. I like the characters Robin Hobb creates and her writing style is really great, but this book felt like it was going on forever and it dragged. There were so many unnecessary side quests that never came back to matter in the end and so many lengthy descriptions of travel. At least when I felt this way in book two, the climax blew me away. The climax was totally fine here, but nothing special.
I'm glad I got to the end and I did overall really enjoy this trilogy, but it didn't need to be as long as it was. It felt very nostalgic of the Tamora Pierce I read in my childhood and that gave it a lovely, cozy vibe too. I'm still very much looking forward to reading more from her and I've heard the next trilogy in the realm of the Elderlings is better, so that will be a project for later this year.
I'm glad I got to the end and I did overall really enjoy this trilogy, but it didn't need to be as long as it was. It felt very nostalgic of the Tamora Pierce I read in my childhood and that gave it a lovely, cozy vibe too. I'm still very much looking forward to reading more from her and I've heard the next trilogy in the realm of the Elderlings is better, so that will be a project for later this year.
Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby
4.0
I love SA Cosby. Everyone loves SA Cosby. He's just so great. His writing is great, his emotions are great, the characters are great.
And because everyone else already waxes poetic about how amazing he is, I just want to add a note on his sense of place. I'm a local so I recognize a lot of his settings and he's just so amazing with capturing the feeling of the location. It's like I can see where his characters are at all times, and how the setting changes and influences them. I love it, and doubly so that it's set near me.
I don't know what these books are missing for me. For whatever reason, I stop about halfway through every time I read one. Like I get bored maybe? But I'm not really bored. But then when I do pick up the final half, I demolish it and love the whole thing. It's such a weird experience because I don't usually put books down like that.
My favorite thing is the emotion. For all that it's an action thriller with a lot of bang bang murder, it's also a discussion of humanity. At its core, this book is a character study of Beauregard, both who he is and who he wants to be. I loved the ending. It was the perfect ending.
Anyway, this book is great. If you like thrillers, you probably already have SA Cosby on your list, but you should add him if you don't. Everything he writes is fantastic and I'm so looking forward to reading his next book soon.
And because everyone else already waxes poetic about how amazing he is, I just want to add a note on his sense of place. I'm a local so I recognize a lot of his settings and he's just so amazing with capturing the feeling of the location. It's like I can see where his characters are at all times, and how the setting changes and influences them. I love it, and doubly so that it's set near me.
I don't know what these books are missing for me. For whatever reason, I stop about halfway through every time I read one. Like I get bored maybe? But I'm not really bored. But then when I do pick up the final half, I demolish it and love the whole thing. It's such a weird experience because I don't usually put books down like that.
My favorite thing is the emotion. For all that it's an action thriller with a lot of bang bang murder, it's also a discussion of humanity. At its core, this book is a character study of Beauregard, both who he is and who he wants to be. I loved the ending. It was the perfect ending.
Anyway, this book is great. If you like thrillers, you probably already have SA Cosby on your list, but you should add him if you don't. Everything he writes is fantastic and I'm so looking forward to reading his next book soon.
The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs
2.0
I wanted to like this so badly. It's the story of the mothers of three of the primary figures in the civil rights movement and their influence. It sounds fantastic. But it was riddled with problems and I'd have a hard time recommending it.
First, Tubbs doesn't have much information on any of these women. I suppose that's why she combined them all into one very short book instead of writing biographies on all of them. But this kind of led into a myriad of other issues. It's very repetitive. There are a few moments she wrote about multiple times, like when James Baldwin first met his stepfather. She didn't do anything different, it was just a scene she included twice. There was also a lot of speculation and vague commentary on motherhood. Like she just didn't have the information to fill out the book so she started making general assumptions about motherhood, and how so and so's mother's taught him perseverance or the importance of family or whatever. It felt like filler.
It also felt like the focus was on the three men just as much as it was on their mother's. I don't know if she just ran out of information, but she had lengthy sections summarizing their lives as separate from their mother's, which wasn't really what I was into this book for. There was also so much general historical information that was unrelated to the three women. I wish I had an analysis of what percentage of the book was actually about the three mothers because it didn't feel like very much, and it's only 260 pages long to begin with.
I also had a bit of an unfortunate experience with the sections on Louise Little, Malcolm X's mother. I read The Dead Are Arising by Les Payne and Tamara Payne last year which is a fantastic biographic on Malcolm X that delves deep into his childhood and how that shaped him. So I knew literally everything Tubbs wrote in this book about Louise Little, and had a lot more context to boot. (I'm not being full of myself or exaggerating, the biography was a really fantastic work and I'm only two months removed. Les Payne did tons of research and interviews with Malcolm's immediate family.)
Because I already had so much outside knowledge about Louise Little, it wound up feeling like Tubbs was being a little misleading at times. Everything she said was totally factual and lined up exactly with what Les Payne wrote, I just think her interpretation was different than his. My struggle with that was that Payne included a lot more detail and information, while Tubbs only shared the basic facts, so by nature her interpretation came across feeling kind of misleading. For example, Malcolm's father died under slightly mysterious circumstances. Could've been an accident, could've been murder (he angered a lot of white supremacists). Payne has a very lengthy section of his book devoted to discussing this and eventually concludes it was probably an accident. Tubbs explains the basic premise and then concludes it was probably murder. Not saying she's incorrect, but because she left out so much of the discussion and evidence Les Payne included, it rubbed me the wrong way. She also left out a lot of the negative things Malcolm did as a child, which considering that primarily started when he was living with his mother (and included stealing her welfare money), it seemed important to the main premise of the book. Leaving it out entirely felt like an intentional choice.
I also found the writing and structure to be pretty rough. Several times she dropped the main subject and went on lengthy discussions about black motherhood in general, and those sections were my favorite. I kind of wish she'd just written a book specifically on that because that seemed where her passion was.
Honestly, I think if you read in depth biographies of any of these men, you'll get all this information about their mothers'. That's gonna be my plan moving forward. And I highly recommend the Les Payne biography of Malcolm X. I liked what this was trying to do, but it unfortunately failed in the execution for me.
First, Tubbs doesn't have much information on any of these women. I suppose that's why she combined them all into one very short book instead of writing biographies on all of them. But this kind of led into a myriad of other issues. It's very repetitive. There are a few moments she wrote about multiple times, like when James Baldwin first met his stepfather. She didn't do anything different, it was just a scene she included twice. There was also a lot of speculation and vague commentary on motherhood. Like she just didn't have the information to fill out the book so she started making general assumptions about motherhood, and how so and so's mother's taught him perseverance or the importance of family or whatever. It felt like filler.
It also felt like the focus was on the three men just as much as it was on their mother's. I don't know if she just ran out of information, but she had lengthy sections summarizing their lives as separate from their mother's, which wasn't really what I was into this book for. There was also so much general historical information that was unrelated to the three women. I wish I had an analysis of what percentage of the book was actually about the three mothers because it didn't feel like very much, and it's only 260 pages long to begin with.
I also had a bit of an unfortunate experience with the sections on Louise Little, Malcolm X's mother. I read The Dead Are Arising by Les Payne and Tamara Payne last year which is a fantastic biographic on Malcolm X that delves deep into his childhood and how that shaped him. So I knew literally everything Tubbs wrote in this book about Louise Little, and had a lot more context to boot. (I'm not being full of myself or exaggerating, the biography was a really fantastic work and I'm only two months removed. Les Payne did tons of research and interviews with Malcolm's immediate family.)
Because I already had so much outside knowledge about Louise Little, it wound up feeling like Tubbs was being a little misleading at times. Everything she said was totally factual and lined up exactly with what Les Payne wrote, I just think her interpretation was different than his. My struggle with that was that Payne included a lot more detail and information, while Tubbs only shared the basic facts, so by nature her interpretation came across feeling kind of misleading. For example, Malcolm's father died under slightly mysterious circumstances. Could've been an accident, could've been murder (he angered a lot of white supremacists). Payne has a very lengthy section of his book devoted to discussing this and eventually concludes it was probably an accident. Tubbs explains the basic premise and then concludes it was probably murder. Not saying she's incorrect, but because she left out so much of the discussion and evidence Les Payne included, it rubbed me the wrong way. She also left out a lot of the negative things Malcolm did as a child, which considering that primarily started when he was living with his mother (and included stealing her welfare money), it seemed important to the main premise of the book. Leaving it out entirely felt like an intentional choice.
I also found the writing and structure to be pretty rough. Several times she dropped the main subject and went on lengthy discussions about black motherhood in general, and those sections were my favorite. I kind of wish she'd just written a book specifically on that because that seemed where her passion was.
Honestly, I think if you read in depth biographies of any of these men, you'll get all this information about their mothers'. That's gonna be my plan moving forward. And I highly recommend the Les Payne biography of Malcolm X. I liked what this was trying to do, but it unfortunately failed in the execution for me.
Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb
4.0
This is a good follow up to Assassin's Apprentice, but it didn't quite do everything I wanted. I cut the first book some slack because it was the first book. Its focus was introducing the world and concepts, and I figured this book would offer a lot more exploration and depth. It really didn't.
Mostly, it felt overlong. I enjoyed a lot of it, but it really could have been 200 pages shorter and tightened up the story a lot.
I also found myself frustrated with the way the primary villain of the series is treated. The villain announces themselves quite obviously in the first book, and then it felt like everyone kind of forgot by book two? Like they attempted to kill a bunch of royalty and steal the crown and then made a whole speech about it, and nobody was doing anything about it in this book. There was one conversation where the king was like "they apologized it's all good" and then another where Fitz was trying to decide if obvious villain was back to doing villainy things- but there's no proof so maybe it isn't them. The villain is given every chance to continue their plans and everyone acts shocked when they do. It just didn't make sense when that person very explicitly stated their intentions earlier.
I was honestly leaning toward three stars, but I really loved the climax. It was a great climax, so full of tension, and I couldn't put the book down for the last hundred pages. I read it so quickly because I was so stressed about everything that happened. I loved it so much.
And there were a lot of other things I enjoyed about this book. The writing style is still fantastic and I loved the introduction of Fitz's wolf friend. I also loved the further development of his relationship with Burrich and the exploration of the character of Kettricken.
Overall, this was a great book with a few flaws and I'm very much looking forward to continuing the series.
Mostly, it felt overlong. I enjoyed a lot of it, but it really could have been 200 pages shorter and tightened up the story a lot.
I also found myself frustrated with the way the primary villain of the series is treated. The villain announces themselves quite obviously in the first book, and then it felt like everyone kind of forgot by book two? Like they attempted to kill a bunch of royalty and steal the crown and then made a whole speech about it, and nobody was doing anything about it in this book. There was one conversation where the king was like "they apologized it's all good" and then another where Fitz was trying to decide if obvious villain was back to doing villainy things- but there's no proof so maybe it isn't them. The villain is given every chance to continue their plans and everyone acts shocked when they do. It just didn't make sense when that person very explicitly stated their intentions earlier.
I was honestly leaning toward three stars, but I really loved the climax. It was a great climax, so full of tension, and I couldn't put the book down for the last hundred pages. I read it so quickly because I was so stressed about everything that happened. I loved it so much.
And there were a lot of other things I enjoyed about this book. The writing style is still fantastic and I loved the introduction of Fitz's wolf friend. I also loved the further development of his relationship with Burrich and the exploration of the character of Kettricken.
Overall, this was a great book with a few flaws and I'm very much looking forward to continuing the series.
Blood's Echo by Isabella Maldonado
2.0
I found Maldonaldo off a list that recommended one of her other books, but this was the only one my library had so I decided to give it a try. Upon reflection, I wish I'd looked a little harder for The Cipher, which was the one that was recommended. This book was Maldonado's debut and it was very rough around the edges.
Most of the writing was fine, but there were more than a few instances where it was clear she'd used a thesaurus to find a different word and a few more that just felt awkward and took me out of the story. At one point she was writing a fairly graphic sexual assault and used the phrase "his erection pressed against her bottom."
The villains of the book, basically the entire cartel family, were very cartoonishly written. They are all Evil with a capital E. They're not fleshed out characters with real lives and motivations, they just enjoy raping, murdering, and caressing their guns. It made the book feel almost silly.
This book also did the thing I hate where the author constantly rubs your nose in all the things you don't know. Like yes, it's a thriller. There should be plenty I don't know. But it doesn't need to be brought up every chapter- Veranda would never tell anyone why she was targeting the cartel, Veranda's true reason for her obsession remained a secret, Veranda needed to keep them from finding out the truth. It was annoying. Especially because Maldonado telegraphed every plot twist a mile away so I already knew all the whys.
The romance was really flat, the side characters weren't fully fleshed out, and I didn't realize Maldonado was a cop before starting this story and it is incredibly pro cop. We basically open the book with the main character being annoyed she needs to be interviewed after killing a man, after which she feels no sadness about literally ending a man's life. Right or wrong, if a person doesn't feel even a little conflicted about killing another, it's going to be very hard for me to empathize with a character who has such little regard for life.
This book unfortunately didn't work for me at all. The Cipher gets recommended a lot and it was published several years later, so I'm guessing Maldonado has improved a lot with more experience under her belt. A bit unfortunate I started with this one, but I'm not sure she'll be an author I give a second chance.
Most of the writing was fine, but there were more than a few instances where it was clear she'd used a thesaurus to find a different word and a few more that just felt awkward and took me out of the story. At one point she was writing a fairly graphic sexual assault and used the phrase "his erection pressed against her bottom."
The villains of the book, basically the entire cartel family, were very cartoonishly written. They are all Evil with a capital E. They're not fleshed out characters with real lives and motivations, they just enjoy raping, murdering, and caressing their guns. It made the book feel almost silly.
This book also did the thing I hate where the author constantly rubs your nose in all the things you don't know. Like yes, it's a thriller. There should be plenty I don't know. But it doesn't need to be brought up every chapter- Veranda would never tell anyone why she was targeting the cartel, Veranda's true reason for her obsession remained a secret, Veranda needed to keep them from finding out the truth. It was annoying. Especially because Maldonado telegraphed every plot twist a mile away so I already knew all the whys.
The romance was really flat, the side characters weren't fully fleshed out, and I didn't realize Maldonado was a cop before starting this story and it is incredibly pro cop. We basically open the book with the main character being annoyed she needs to be interviewed after killing a man, after which she feels no sadness about literally ending a man's life. Right or wrong, if a person doesn't feel even a little conflicted about killing another, it's going to be very hard for me to empathize with a character who has such little regard for life.
This book unfortunately didn't work for me at all. The Cipher gets recommended a lot and it was published several years later, so I'm guessing Maldonado has improved a lot with more experience under her belt. A bit unfortunate I started with this one, but I'm not sure she'll be an author I give a second chance.
Sink: A Memoir by Joseph Earl Thomas
4.0
This was my first memoir written in third person and I loved it. Thomas's writing style is certainly a choice and it is a lot, but I adored it so much. It's so beautiful and harsh and grounded in reality.
This was a very difficult book to get through. There is so much abuse and so much pain in these pages, but it's also an incredibly worthwhile read. Despite how much this made me cringe in sympathy, I loved reading his writing. For me, this is a book that completely relies upon his writing.
This is definitely a book I'd recommend reading a page or two before you commit just to see if you get along with the writing, but I loved it. I had not heard of him before being gifted this book, but I'm definitely interested to see what else Thomas writes in the future.
This was a very difficult book to get through. There is so much abuse and so much pain in these pages, but it's also an incredibly worthwhile read. Despite how much this made me cringe in sympathy, I loved reading his writing. For me, this is a book that completely relies upon his writing.
This is definitely a book I'd recommend reading a page or two before you commit just to see if you get along with the writing, but I loved it. I had not heard of him before being gifted this book, but I'm definitely interested to see what else Thomas writes in the future.
Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui
3.0
This book combined the history of swimming, the science of swimming, and memoir of the author's personal experience with swimming into a lovely book that is basically a love letter to swimming.
I found so many of the topics interesting. Tsui interviewed Olympic swimmers, open water swimmers, paleontologists, shipwreck survivors, scientists, and religious leaders. This book contains basically the breadth of swimming in the human existence. I especially loved the interviews with swimmers. The different people she met, who all swam for different reasons, were really fascinating. I found myself wishing there was a bit more of that.
Sometimes I think Tsui was trying a little too hard to be overly meaningful. The information itself was great, and I really enjoyed hearing about her personal history, but it felt kind of pretentious at points. I kind of wanted this to be more journalism focused than it was.
If you like swimming, and I mean really care about swimming, I would recommend this book to you. I'm not really a swimmer so I struggled a bit, but I do think it was well done.
I found so many of the topics interesting. Tsui interviewed Olympic swimmers, open water swimmers, paleontologists, shipwreck survivors, scientists, and religious leaders. This book contains basically the breadth of swimming in the human existence. I especially loved the interviews with swimmers. The different people she met, who all swam for different reasons, were really fascinating. I found myself wishing there was a bit more of that.
Sometimes I think Tsui was trying a little too hard to be overly meaningful. The information itself was great, and I really enjoyed hearing about her personal history, but it felt kind of pretentious at points. I kind of wanted this to be more journalism focused than it was.
If you like swimming, and I mean really care about swimming, I would recommend this book to you. I'm not really a swimmer so I struggled a bit, but I do think it was well done.