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lizshayne's reviews
2217 reviews
Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
3.5
I wonder what it’s like to read de Bodard if you actually imagine things and picture them in your head. Her work always feels incredibly abstract to me, but I’m not sure how much is me and how much is her. But she’s also such a fascinating storyteller. I keep trying to figure out how her books link together because they are very much “set in the same universe” but I always feel like I both get them and experience them as dreams that slip away.
Good dreams, though. And, you know me, gotta love an autistic main character even if I don’t…adore the “everybody leaves me” story.
Good dreams, though. And, you know me, gotta love an autistic main character even if I don’t…adore the “everybody leaves me” story.
Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis by Emily Willingham
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Shoutout to whoever decided, in the description, to call this book penetrating. A+.
I read this because it felt like a useful part of teaching hilkhot niddah and it was, albeit not entirely as I expected. It was a book that left me occasionally incandescently angry at the relative paucity of research on female genitalia and that left me wildly enamored of just how weird animals are and how many ways there are to create new beings. The…non-obviousness of the way we do things and the degree to which phallic power is fundamentally culturally constructed - given how wide a range the biology entails - is super interesting.
Genuinely appreciated the sense of humor as well. Especially around the names. It was very well done and gives me also a sense of where the world is right now.
I read this because it felt like a useful part of teaching hilkhot niddah and it was, albeit not entirely as I expected. It was a book that left me occasionally incandescently angry at the relative paucity of research on female genitalia and that left me wildly enamored of just how weird animals are and how many ways there are to create new beings. The…non-obviousness of the way we do things and the degree to which phallic power is fundamentally culturally constructed - given how wide a range the biology entails - is super interesting.
Genuinely appreciated the sense of humor as well. Especially around the names. It was very well done and gives me also a sense of where the world is right now.
The Celebrants by Steven Rowley
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I really like Steven Rowley, it turns out, and this was surprisingly good Yom Kippur reading. (I might argue that anything is good Yom Kippur reading if you interpret it properly—perhaps instead of a dissertation, literature students should be asked to find 39 ways to make meaning.)
Which is, in the end, doing this book a disservice. The story of how people come to terms with their lives and losses is sweetly done and Rowley handles it with a lightness that I think can be mistaken for shallowness, but that I think is actually just his commitment to the characters and the fact that they are not angsty people. Just interesting ones.
Which is, in the end, doing this book a disservice. The story of how people come to terms with their lives and losses is sweetly done and Rowley handles it with a lightness that I think can be mistaken for shallowness, but that I think is actually just his commitment to the characters and the fact that they are not angsty people. Just interesting ones.
Normal Rules Don't Apply by Kate Atkinson
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This was a very weird book to read, especially on Yom Kippur.
But also a very helpful book to read on Yom Kippur as a series of stories about existence and possibility and…people, mostly. So weird and so Kate Atkinson asking questions about what makes reality the way it is.
But also a very helpful book to read on Yom Kippur as a series of stories about existence and possibility and…people, mostly. So weird and so Kate Atkinson asking questions about what makes reality the way it is.
The House of the Red Balconies by A.J. Demas
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I love AJ Demas so much! Her books are always incredibly gentle even when they have complicated themes (like disability and sort of sex work). Or especially because they do. They are the kind of books I want to read right away and to save for when I need them. (Given the publication date and the date read on this one, I’ll let you figure out which this was.)
The Library Thief: A Novel by Kuchenga Shenjé
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I’m enjoying the turn that the gothic novel has taken in what constitutes the horrible and horrifying (namely race to racism) because it’s a narrative medium that is so right for talking about what is horrible without necessarily being horror as such.
I found our viewpoint character’s voice to be interesting albeit…frustrating sometimes, in the way she spoke to herself but first person narration is always such a tricky one to pull off so I get it. Having said that, the pull-no-punches approach to describing stuff that goes on in women’s bodies was very much appreciated and felt like an exactly right use of first person.
What can I say, I like a creepy house and threatening dude and a mystery. (Am mildly confused by the description “strikingly original” on the cover of a gothic novel about race, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
I found our viewpoint character’s voice to be interesting albeit…frustrating sometimes, in the way she spoke to herself but first person narration is always such a tricky one to pull off so I get it. Having said that, the pull-no-punches approach to describing stuff that goes on in women’s bodies was very much appreciated and felt like an exactly right use of first person.
What can I say, I like a creepy house and threatening dude and a mystery. (Am mildly confused by the description “strikingly original” on the cover of a gothic novel about race, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book felt like the author was working backwards from “how can I create a believable revolution against an evil empire?” and then filled in the details of the plot accordingly.
It’s not so much that it was bad; more that it felt contrived. Or like things were happening because that author wrote them (yes I know!) rather than because the world of the book spins on its axis and so of course that’s what has to happen next.
The food and tea sounded amazing, though, 5 stars to those descriptions.
It’s not so much that it was bad; more that it felt contrived. Or like things were happening because that author wrote them (yes I know!) rather than because the world of the book spins on its axis and so of course that’s what has to happen next.
The food and tea sounded amazing, though, 5 stars to those descriptions.
Confounding Oaths by Alexis Hall
adventurous
funny
medium-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
4.0
It’s very hard to have any expectations of Alexis Hall because every time you do, he subverts them.
This is a romance without a romance plot. I have no idea how he managed to separate the aesthetics of the regency romance and apply it to…fantasy horror?
The man never ceases to impress me. But also it’s hard to recommend a book with “don’t go in with expectations”.
This is a romance without a romance plot. I have no idea how he managed to separate the aesthetics of the regency romance and apply it to…fantasy horror?
The man never ceases to impress me. But also it’s hard to recommend a book with “don’t go in with expectations”.
Thinking about History by Sarah Maza
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
This book was exactly the level of intro that I wanted into thinking about history and the ways that historians approach the process and also felt like it gave me a lot of languages and frameworks for articulating what I felt like I knew from my own backgroun , but didn’t KNOW.
And the examples themselves were fascinating.
And the examples themselves were fascinating.
Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle by Daniel L. Everett
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
I definitely appreciated the interlude about 3/4 of the way in that could have been titled "A Short Course in Linguistics and Why Noam Chomsky is Wrong".
Not sure why I hadn't been expecting it.
This is one of those books that has much food for thought in it. The way Everett talks about the Pirahã and their lives fascinates me; especially as the ways in which cultural expectations and priorities are such an integral part of the conversation. That is a point that is made explicitly long after it is noticeable in everything Everett says.
I don't know what to make of it, beyond the ways in which I find the questions it raises about the intersection between biology, language, and culture to be deeply interesting in the way that, for example, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis just isn't.
I also find the theological aspects, which are very much NOT the point of the book, to be deeply fascinating because of course I do. But, again, not that I know what to do with it. (I can't wait until my book chavruta finishes this one and we can discuss it.)
I am also torn because the audiobook is...fine, but there's no way I could have actually heard Pirahã as a spoken language without it so I don't know which to recommend.
Not sure why I hadn't been expecting it.
This is one of those books that has much food for thought in it. The way Everett talks about the Pirahã and their lives fascinates me; especially as the ways in which cultural expectations and priorities are such an integral part of the conversation. That is a point that is made explicitly long after it is noticeable in everything Everett says.
I don't know what to make of it, beyond the ways in which I find the questions it raises about the intersection between biology, language, and culture to be deeply interesting in the way that, for example, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis just isn't.
I also find the theological aspects, which are very much NOT the point of the book, to be deeply fascinating because of course I do. But, again, not that I know what to do with it. (I can't wait until my book chavruta finishes this one and we can discuss it.)
I am also torn because the audiobook is...fine, but there's no way I could have actually heard Pirahã as a spoken language without it so I don't know which to recommend.