May Books
Books! I managed five in May, including one of over 600 pages, so not bad! Was all over the place in quality this month, ranging from a 1.5 to a full 5!
5) Vicki Grant - 36 Questions That Changed My Mind About You - (1,5/5)
(Read in translation.)
Reason: I'm up to 36 in my sequential numbers reading. Also, the blurb promised me "written in Q&A's, instant messaging and doodles", and I'm always up for a book with epistolary elements.
Favourite Quote:
Jeff waited until the door shut, then he wrote B.R.O. But he meant "bro" as in "dude" (as in "asshole"). Then he wrote:
BC (for "blue collar")
COS (for "chip on shoulder," by which he also meant "asshole")
36 Questions That Changed My Mind About You starts really strong, and then it just falls apart. It's no wonder that the part I'm quoting is from the first chapter - and from a POV that doesn't return after that first chapter. I am convinced Jeff, the guy behind the experiment, is the interesting part of this book. What brought him to this experiment? How much is he regretting it now he's pushing the most randoms of people together? Does he even *get* their data at the end of the book? How does he continue and will he find love? I want to know all!
Alas. After that first chapter, we settle firmly in Hildy's mind. It's too bad that Hildy is self-centred and annoying. The book tries so, so hard to make us believe that Paul is this arrogant, unlikeable asshole, but to me, it was Hildy who really needed to work on herself and who needed to change, and nowhere is that addressed even remotely.
The extra half a star is there because the epistolary elements were without a doubt where the book shined (in fact, I think the writing suffered greatly from the moment narration was introduced; though, to be fair, at least part of that was the subpar translation).
Recommend if: I'm honestly not sure if I'd recommend this to anyone.
Avoid if: You're looking for a cute enemies-to-lovers romance. This definitely falls short on characterization on both sides.
Content warnings: Car accident, divorce, dead mother
4) An Na - The Place Between Breaths - (3/5)
Reason: Books about mental illness almost always find their way to my TBR. I'm reading this now because Riveted offered it for free.
Favourite Quote:
The shadowy remnants of our conversation steal out of reach. The betrayal of my mind angers me, and a prickling along the skin of my scalp spreads to the edges of my earlobes. I reach up and pinch the flesh. Focus, I repeat silently. Focus. It doesn't matter. I can't let myself return to what I cannot know. I know how to take inventory. The work tames my mind.
I do not know what I think of this book. You know how that happens sometimes? On the one hand, I'm thoroughly confused. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I'm *meant* to be confused, the schizophrenia being woven through the writing as well as the story. And then, the story did grab me, the emotions real, I was taken in completely. But I'm not sure the ending worked as a way to mend it all together.
Recommend if: You're looking for a book that will stay with you, even if you're not sure why.
Avoid if: You want a story you can grasp and explain and, you know, just basically understand.
Content warnings: Schizophrenia, suicide
3) Jasmine Warga - My Heart and Other Black Holes - (4/5)
Reason: I'm always drawn to books about suicidality. Am reading this right now because I needed a book from 2015.
Favourite Quote:
Music, especially classical music, especially Mozart's Requiem Mass in D Minor, has kinetic energy. If you listen hard enough, you can hear the violin's bow trembling above the strings, ready to ignite the notes.
I spend a lot of time wondering what dying feels like. What dying sounds like. If I'll burst like those notes, let out my last cries of pain, and then go silent forever. Or maybe I'll turn into a shadowy static that's barely there, if you listen hard enough.
What an opening. That really got to me. Warga doesn't shy away from the black thoughts and feelings, but chooses to lay them open for all to see. If this book had ended at, say, 67%, this would have been a five-star review, without a doubt. Unfortunately, Aysel's change of hear it just a little too quick and especially a little too complete, and while Warga tries to make it clear that it's not Aysel's feelings for Roman but the way he taught her to look at herself in a different light that made all the difference (crucial for someone who mostly wants to die because she's terrified of who she might become), the story itself reeks a little too much of *love conquers all.*
Recommend if: You enjoy the hope of romance saving the day.
Avoid if: You're looking for realistic recovery.
Content warnings: Depression, suicide, child death
2) Nicola Yoon - The Sun Is Also a Star - (4,5/5)
(Read in translation)
Reason: I needed a book from the list Popsugar 2020 - A Book by a Woman of Color for a challenge, and this one was on my TBR. It's a "Romantic convinces the Cynic to take a chance on love" story, and I'm a sucker for those.
Favourite Quote:
He thinks my hair smells like spring rain. I'm really trying to remain stoic and unaffected. I remind myself that I don't like poetic language. I don't like poetry. I don't even like people who like poetry.
But I'm not dead inside either.
I love this book. I love idealist romantic Daniel who has absolutely no reason to believe in love and still does. I love cynic Natasha who thinks dreams can only ever destroy lives, but still gets drawn in by Daniel. I love the way it was written, with fast changing POV's between those two, and every once in a while an outsider's view. I loved the synchronicity in some of these parts, and how they came full circle. I love how real the characters were, how fully developed their reasonings and worlds.
Recommend if: You believe in the Power of Love (but are still realistic about it)
Avoid if: You prefer to stay in one person's head.
Content warnings: racism, suicide
...and the winner is, without a doubt...
1) Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife - (5/5)
Reason: A lot of people I know and respect loved this book, and the premise sounded amazing. Reading it right now because I needed a book set in Chicago.
Favourite Quote:
There's a playground at the end of the block and I run to the swings and climb on, and Henry takes the one next to me, facing the opposite direction, and we swing higher and higher, passing each other, sometimes in synch and sometimes streaming past each other so fast it seems like we're going to collide, and we laugh, and laugh, and nothing can ever be sad, no one can be lost, or dead, or far away: right now we are here, and nothing can mar our perfection, or steal the joy of this perfect moment.
I loved this. I loved the writing. I loved the characters. I mostly loved the atmosphere, which is so difficult to capture in a review. It's a love story with equal amounts of pain and joy. It broke my heart and soothed it at the same time. It was wonderful and wondrous and will stay with me for a long, long while.
I'd been putting this one off for a while now, because it's so long, but it was so worth it.
Recommend if: You're looking for a story that will capture your heart and soul
Avoid if: You don't have time; it's quite a lot of book.
Content warnings: Miscarriages, death, amputation, alcohol abuse, sexual assault, suicide, car accident Oh, LJ and DW, I love you both. Thank you for keeping my social life, well, alive. Feel free to comment on either site.
5) Vicki Grant - 36 Questions That Changed My Mind About You - (1,5/5)
(Read in translation.)
Reason: I'm up to 36 in my sequential numbers reading. Also, the blurb promised me "written in Q&A's, instant messaging and doodles", and I'm always up for a book with epistolary elements.
Favourite Quote:
Jeff waited until the door shut, then he wrote B.R.O. But he meant "bro" as in "dude" (as in "asshole"). Then he wrote:
BC (for "blue collar")
COS (for "chip on shoulder," by which he also meant "asshole")
36 Questions That Changed My Mind About You starts really strong, and then it just falls apart. It's no wonder that the part I'm quoting is from the first chapter - and from a POV that doesn't return after that first chapter. I am convinced Jeff, the guy behind the experiment, is the interesting part of this book. What brought him to this experiment? How much is he regretting it now he's pushing the most randoms of people together? Does he even *get* their data at the end of the book? How does he continue and will he find love? I want to know all!
Alas. After that first chapter, we settle firmly in Hildy's mind. It's too bad that Hildy is self-centred and annoying. The book tries so, so hard to make us believe that Paul is this arrogant, unlikeable asshole, but to me, it was Hildy who really needed to work on herself and who needed to change, and nowhere is that addressed even remotely.
The extra half a star is there because the epistolary elements were without a doubt where the book shined (in fact, I think the writing suffered greatly from the moment narration was introduced; though, to be fair, at least part of that was the subpar translation).
Recommend if: I'm honestly not sure if I'd recommend this to anyone.
Avoid if: You're looking for a cute enemies-to-lovers romance. This definitely falls short on characterization on both sides.
Content warnings: Car accident, divorce, dead mother
4) An Na - The Place Between Breaths - (3/5)
Reason: Books about mental illness almost always find their way to my TBR. I'm reading this now because Riveted offered it for free.
Favourite Quote:
The shadowy remnants of our conversation steal out of reach. The betrayal of my mind angers me, and a prickling along the skin of my scalp spreads to the edges of my earlobes. I reach up and pinch the flesh. Focus, I repeat silently. Focus. It doesn't matter. I can't let myself return to what I cannot know. I know how to take inventory. The work tames my mind.
I do not know what I think of this book. You know how that happens sometimes? On the one hand, I'm thoroughly confused. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I'm *meant* to be confused, the schizophrenia being woven through the writing as well as the story. And then, the story did grab me, the emotions real, I was taken in completely. But I'm not sure the ending worked as a way to mend it all together.
Recommend if: You're looking for a book that will stay with you, even if you're not sure why.
Avoid if: You want a story you can grasp and explain and, you know, just basically understand.
Content warnings: Schizophrenia, suicide
3) Jasmine Warga - My Heart and Other Black Holes - (4/5)
Reason: I'm always drawn to books about suicidality. Am reading this right now because I needed a book from 2015.
Favourite Quote:
Music, especially classical music, especially Mozart's Requiem Mass in D Minor, has kinetic energy. If you listen hard enough, you can hear the violin's bow trembling above the strings, ready to ignite the notes.
I spend a lot of time wondering what dying feels like. What dying sounds like. If I'll burst like those notes, let out my last cries of pain, and then go silent forever. Or maybe I'll turn into a shadowy static that's barely there, if you listen hard enough.
What an opening. That really got to me. Warga doesn't shy away from the black thoughts and feelings, but chooses to lay them open for all to see. If this book had ended at, say, 67%, this would have been a five-star review, without a doubt. Unfortunately, Aysel's change of hear it just a little too quick and especially a little too complete, and while Warga tries to make it clear that it's not Aysel's feelings for Roman but the way he taught her to look at herself in a different light that made all the difference (crucial for someone who mostly wants to die because she's terrified of who she might become), the story itself reeks a little too much of *love conquers all.*
Recommend if: You enjoy the hope of romance saving the day.
Avoid if: You're looking for realistic recovery.
Content warnings: Depression, suicide, child death
2) Nicola Yoon - The Sun Is Also a Star - (4,5/5)
(Read in translation)
Reason: I needed a book from the list Popsugar 2020 - A Book by a Woman of Color for a challenge, and this one was on my TBR. It's a "Romantic convinces the Cynic to take a chance on love" story, and I'm a sucker for those.
Favourite Quote:
He thinks my hair smells like spring rain. I'm really trying to remain stoic and unaffected. I remind myself that I don't like poetic language. I don't like poetry. I don't even like people who like poetry.
But I'm not dead inside either.
I love this book. I love idealist romantic Daniel who has absolutely no reason to believe in love and still does. I love cynic Natasha who thinks dreams can only ever destroy lives, but still gets drawn in by Daniel. I love the way it was written, with fast changing POV's between those two, and every once in a while an outsider's view. I loved the synchronicity in some of these parts, and how they came full circle. I love how real the characters were, how fully developed their reasonings and worlds.
Recommend if: You believe in the Power of Love (but are still realistic about it)
Avoid if: You prefer to stay in one person's head.
Content warnings: racism, suicide
...and the winner is, without a doubt...
1) Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife - (5/5)
Reason: A lot of people I know and respect loved this book, and the premise sounded amazing. Reading it right now because I needed a book set in Chicago.
Favourite Quote:
There's a playground at the end of the block and I run to the swings and climb on, and Henry takes the one next to me, facing the opposite direction, and we swing higher and higher, passing each other, sometimes in synch and sometimes streaming past each other so fast it seems like we're going to collide, and we laugh, and laugh, and nothing can ever be sad, no one can be lost, or dead, or far away: right now we are here, and nothing can mar our perfection, or steal the joy of this perfect moment.
I loved this. I loved the writing. I loved the characters. I mostly loved the atmosphere, which is so difficult to capture in a review. It's a love story with equal amounts of pain and joy. It broke my heart and soothed it at the same time. It was wonderful and wondrous and will stay with me for a long, long while.
I'd been putting this one off for a while now, because it's so long, but it was so worth it.
Recommend if: You're looking for a story that will capture your heart and soul
Avoid if: You don't have time; it's quite a lot of book.
Content warnings: Miscarriages, death, amputation, alcohol abuse, sexual assault, suicide, car accident Oh, LJ and DW, I love you both. Thank you for keeping my social life, well, alive. Feel free to comment on either site.