marywahlmeierbracciano's reviews
832 reviews

The Mercy Makers by Tessa Gratton

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adventurous challenging 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? Yes

5.0

The Mercy Makers is deliciously sensual and dreamlike, generously steeped in queerness with a fascinating magic system and brilliant antihero.  The ruling faction of Moonshadow city demands balance through assimilation.  Iriset—daughter of the opposition’s leader—moonlights as Silk, a legendary architect of forces, specializing in human architecture, which manipulates the body and is treasonous.  When her father is captured and sentenced to death, Iriset must keep her architecture work secret as she infiltrates the palace, trying to save her father and make change for good.  Her plan would have worked much better had she not fallen in love.
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Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

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emotional lighthearted medium-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

4.0

A welcome step outside my comfort zone, Deep End gave me a new appreciation for both diving and kink!  Scarlet and Lukas are set up together when it’s discovered that they have complementary kinks.  Both pre-med student athletes at Stanford, Scarlett is a diver who hasn’t been able to get over a mental block despite healing physically from a big injury, and Lukas is a swimmer from Sweden with a long history of winning.  Although their initial agreement is purely sexual, Scarlett and Lukas help each other trust and let go of control in the deep end of both the bedroom and their lives.  The kink is mild, the sex is hot, the story is lovely, and the narration?  Exquisite.
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Foreign Fruit: A Personal History of the Orange by Katie Goh

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challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

In Foreign Fruit, Katie Goh reckons with her own queer, mixed-race identity amid anti-Asian hate and fetishization, finding kinship with the orange, itself a provocative hybrid. She tracks her own family’s migration from China to Malaysia to Ireland, where she grew up; simultaneously following the orange along a similar route as it appeared in art and life as a symbol of wealth and colonization. It is illuminating, infuriating, and important.
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Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder by Rachel McCarthy James

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challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.5

Part history, part true crime, Whack Job explores the axe as a tool from ancient history to present, during which time it was always used—among other things—for murder.  Learn about the axe (murders) of prehistoric Spain; ancient Egypt, China, and Greece; the Vikings; Henry VIII; and various timepoints in America.  I appreciated McCarthy James’s well-informed, culturally-sensitive, and empathetic perspective, which extended both to victims and to the accused.
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Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus by Elaine Pagels

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informative medium-paced

4.0

This exploration of Jesus and the mysteries surrounding him is at once incredibly in-depth and barely scratching the surface.  It provides much-needed context about the circumstances surrounding the writing and compilation of the New Testament, as well as the people who wrote (and re-wrote) it and in what order.  Some of my main takeaways were that the Bible was not meant to be taken literally (full stop!), translation has erased the female God, and Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute.  Pagels is respectful of a variety of Christian traditions while asking tough questions, answering them to the best of her ability as a seasoned historian.
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Still This Love Goes On by Buffy Sainte-Marie

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4.0

I had never heard Buffy Sainte-Marie’s song, Still This Love Goes On, until I came upon this book, with pictures by one of my favorite illustrators, Julie Flett. The song was written in the winter and is a beautiful meditation on the seasons and a celebration of Indigeneity.  I love listening to the song while reading this book–there’s even music in the back, in case you’d like to learn it. 
Halfway to Somewhere by Jose Pimienta

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hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

Halfway to Somewhere is a snapshot of seventh-grader Ave’s experience moving from Mexicali (just south of the man-made border) to Lawrence, KS as their family divides amid their parents’ divorce.  They’re frustrated about moving, about their parents’ ideas about gender, about their struggle to learn English and make new friends, and they start taking long walks (and runs) to get to know their new home, recalling their last family trip—a desert hike—in Mexico.  Ave must learn how to connect with others in a new place while retaining their own cultural identity in this lovely story, which represents our town in beautiful detail. 
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Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

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challenging emotional slow-paced
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

So many contradictions exist within this infamous novel—I’m not quite sure what to think of it. It would certainly be a racy choice for a book club. Murakami’s writing is beautiful, and the story is incredibly misogynist. I enjoyed the literary devices and evocative scenery, but the amount (and often, the context) of sex seemed gratuitous. I found myself wondering if I should ever again read a book written by a man, while also harboring curiosity about the rest of Murakami’s bibliography. Nevertheless, it is a melancholy coming-of-age story about figuring out how to live and love amid a world of loss.
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Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

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emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

Live vicariously through political advisor-turned-nature writer Chloe Dalton as she recounts her beautiful story of an extended close encounter with a European hare, also analysing their unique qualities and many unfair reputations. COVID lockdowns forced Dalton to retreat from London to her countryside home, where she took in a leveret which had been chased by a dog. Acknowledging her mistakes along the way, she took every precaution to allow it to retain its wildness. Reader, she succeeded, and her time with the hare, whom she did not name, raised important questions and transformed her way of living—towards stillness, simplicity, and coexistence with nature.  I found it inspiring.
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