sophronisba's reviews
2467 reviews

Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Nothing happens but everything happens. I am a huge fan of Alan Hollinghurst's work and I thought this was a quite beautiful novel. Yes, it's long, and yes, I suppose it's slow if you're waiting for a big twisty plot development but it was exactly my cuppa at this point in time.
The Great Man: Sir Robert Walpole: Scoundrel, Genius and Britain's First Prime Minister by Edward Pearce

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challenging informative slow-paced

3.25

Weirdly, given the subtitle, I didn't get as much of a sense of Walpole the person as I would have liked. Very career-focused. Convinced me that Walpole was, in fact, a huge pain in the ass to deal with (deliberately, I am sure). But not an easy read to get through and assumed I had more background knowledge about the machinations of eighteenth-century Parliament than I actually possessed.
The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew O'Shaughnessy

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Thoughtful account of the British leaders who lost the American Revolution. I came away convinced that they were much less incompetent than they've been made out to be and also that -- contrary to O'Shaughnessy -- this was a war that Britain was never going to win. It's hard  not to sympathize with these men, who were not all that different in personality and character than the Americans on the other side.
Shakespeare's Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance by Ramie Targoff

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informative medium-paced

3.5

Good material here, but it isn't presented in an engaging or insightful way. I was left a bit disappointed.
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I think this is Sally Rooney's best book yet -- the portrayal of the brothers' relationship is stellar, and all of the characters feel vital and specific. I'm docking it a quarter star because the ending felt too neat. But it's still easily one of my top fiction reads this year.
Courting Mr. Lincoln by Louis Bayard

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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

4.0

This is a weird little book, in which honestly not a ton happens, but I enjoyed it anyway. We don't know enough about Joshua Speed to know if he is anything like the way he was portrayed in the book, but it's an interesting thought exercise.
How to Leave the House by Nathan Newman

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funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Eh. Lighthearted and quirky, if a bit more explicit than ideal. But utterly forgettable.
Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church by Eliza Griswold

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

There's a lot to like in this story of a liberal church grappling with tacial tensions.  You understand where everyone is coming from, and their pain as they try to  hold their church together feels real and understandable. Still, the book annoyed me a bit, perhaps because I'm permanently allergic to the goal of persuading everyone on earth that they have to believe the way that you do -- and that's what this church's project boils down to in the end.
Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation by Brenda Wineapple

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hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Brenda Wineapple serves up another of her approachable nineteenth-century histories. This isn't my favorite of her books -- that would be her Emily Dickinson book, White Heat -- but it remains a readable account of a pivotal moment in history, filled with fascinating characters. And, like the best histories, it will also provoke some thoughts about the time we live in now.
Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China by Yuan Yang

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informative inspiring medium-paced

4.25

Compelling account of the lives of four ordinary young women in China.