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tictactoney's reviews
237 reviews
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi
Taken as individual essays, you learn SO MUCH reading this book. Every essay invites you to do more research into that small topic, every essay whets your appetite, every essay makes you want to become a specialist so you can go dismantle that one thing. (I in particular wanted to run to the library after the maroons chapter & the Harlem Renaissance chapter!)
Taken in concert, the book shows how small moments in history all added up to where we are now. Like, here's a quote from Ijeoma Oluo's essay that I really liked:
hopeful
informative
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Love the format of this book!! Bite-sized essays, only a few pages each, each by a different author/specialist, covering in five-year increments the whole of Black history in America since the arrival of the White Lion, the "Adams and Eves of Black America". It's sweeping, yet succinct. It challenges the way Black history in America has been taught, remembered, and edited:
"When we are creating a shared history, what we remember is just a revelatory as what we forget."
Taken as individual essays, you learn SO MUCH reading this book. Every essay invites you to do more research into that small topic, every essay whets your appetite, every essay makes you want to become a specialist so you can go dismantle that one thing. (I in particular wanted to run to the library after the maroons chapter & the Harlem Renaissance chapter!)
Taken in concert, the book shows how small moments in history all added up to where we are now. Like, here's a quote from Ijeoma Oluo's essay that I really liked:
"My mother is white and I am Black because in 1630 a Virginia colonial court ordered the whipping of Hugh Davis..."
Nothing happens in a vacuum, no event is isolated; every little victory and every injustice brings us to 2024, to where we are now. A really great book to add to your anti-racist library.
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
emotional
informative
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
I did not get it. I cannot explain it. It's one of my favorite things I've ever read.
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.
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.
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%.
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.
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.