remlezar's reviews
501 reviews

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green

adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

More ambitious than the first, which is cool in some ways, but also had the effect of having it all feel pretty scattered. Not sure how much I enjoyed the Snow Crash/Ready Player One type stuff, but overall still very enjoyable, and the audiobook was produced well. 

Curious what Hank will do next.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

Super enjoyable first contact story with a decent amount of Ready Player One mixed in, but what it's all REALLY about is the trials and tribulations of being internet famous. It's an obvious thing to wonder how much of that is autobiographical.

Easy reading, a good audiobook for a commute or the gym.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.5

After leaning into the slightly heavier side of SF with the Interdependency trilogy, Scalzi seems to have settled back into Saturday morning cartoon territory with the Kaiju Preservation Society and then Starter Villain. 

Starer Villain is, for my money, a little more memorable and interesting than KPS, despite how much I love the premise of KPS. Starter Villain is light, breezy, and cute. Amusing but not laugh out loud funny, although your results may vary there. 

I listened to the audiobook at the gym, and it was perfect for that. So now that I'm done with the book, I guess I don't have to go to the gym anymore. 

Backflash by Richard Stark

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Very solid middle upper tier Parker. Loved the setting, the caper, and the cast of characters. Not an all-timer, but if the modern run of Parker stays this good until the end, I'll have zero complaints. 

Not looking forward to running out of these books. 

In the Woods by Tana French

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

What starts as an intriguing double mystery -- what happened with the primary murder the detectives are working on AND what the hell happened with the main character as a child?? -- becomes something more like an autopsy of the main character. I personally loved this, but could also understand how someone might find this frustrating. Especially since there's much more abstraction and vagueness in some aspects of the story where the reader might be wishing for something more concrete. 

I loved it and found it tragic and heartbreaking, even beyond the obvious reasons. 

Spoilers below:

I love Cassie as a character and ultimately think where she ends up makes sense and is good for her, but am so sad for Rob/Adam. Much like the young murder victim of the case Rob and Cassie are working to solve, Adam had his childhood taken away from him through no fault of his own. He did not die, but instead ended up in a state of arrested development. Emotionally stunted and unable to understand others, even as an adult, he is never able to move past this enough for anything to change for him. 

He's an ass, so to reiterate I'm not saying I wish he ended up with Cassie at the end of the story, but the fact that he is unable to mentally get his shit together, even at the very end, is so gut wrenching and tragic to me. Learning that he's not a part of the next book in the series made this aspect of the book even sadder, because it means there is no possibility for the audience to get to see anything ever get better for him down the line. :(

Comeback by Richard Stark

adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Crazy how after such a long break Westlake can just pop Parker back out of retirement and make it seem like the series hadn't stopped for over 20 years.

Comeback is solid mid-tier Parker. Back to the formula of something short, punchy, and mean, with maybe a little more humor than some of the older ones.

The Searcher by Tana French

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

Exceptional. A slow burn that earns every page. Memorable characters and an engaging mystery plot that serves the characters perfectly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

4.0

This is a fantastic book by Harvard professor of psychology Daniel Gilbert that attempts to explain why it's so hard for people to figure out what makes them happy. The title of the book is somewhat misleading, making the book almost seem like self help mumbo-jumbo. It's actually far from it (thank god). The book is an easy to read, funny and fascinating explanation of how the brain works.

There is a small section near the beginning of the book that explains subjectivity and the limits of cognitive science in general to help shore up confidence in the studies cited throughout the book. To me this was the only lull in the entire thing, and even then it might have been necessary.

For anyone interested in what makes human beings tick, give this book a try.

Turns out he's also a pretty good speaker.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

4.0

300 by Frank Miller

3.0