my book reviews!
currently reading
Apeirogon - Colum McCann
recently read
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
da vinki?! sorry. my mom read this while pregnant and named me after sophie neveu! so i finally read it. incredibly gripping and rich with detail. the main themes are simultaneously incredibly niche yet also allow the common reader without art or history knowledge to follow along and appreciate it.i loved how it portrayed the potential of greed, pain, and power to cause deep and extreme violence or religious fervor while also (at least i think as best as it could) respecting faith, art, history, and science. i saw this best through remy and silas' trust in the teacher stemming from their traumas and how poorly they were treated by society. i also liked how it was shown in bishop aringarosa and his need for power and his self perceived moral/religious high ground. it was done well in that bank owners desperation to save face too. in general, the many flaws in the characters were highlighted exceptionally and forces the reader to self reflect on their own.spoilers begin here. im however deciding to ignore the last page where sophie ended up romantically with langdon. was it perhaps symbolic in uniting male and female like the themes of the book? yeah sure. did the slight flirting and ultimate ending also feel a bit tacky? yes. also i saw the two main plot twists (the teachers' identity and sophie's family secret) coming and wasn't particularly surprised. but other than this, it was a very interesting read with a thrilling urgency of a police manhunt keeping you super invested in what happens next. i really liked it!!
Take My Hand - Dolen Perkins-Valdez
this novel is unapologetic in its telling of the history of forced sterilization of young, poor, black women in the united states. from the perspective of a nurse working in a family clinic, Perkins-Valdez examines the depths and nuances of this injustice with precision.Civil's relationship with the girls and their family is especially well written. it's an inherently complex relationship as nurse and patient, and as Civil becomes increasingly invested in their lives, i think it was crucial how Perkins-Valdez emphasized that sometimes Civil did cross bounds. it's important to acknowledge how she could never fully be a part of their family as somebody from a wholly different upbringing and how she could never really understand their experience in poverty.the battle in the courtroom and the implications of making the girls' injustice a legal fight with the whole media circus involved was also done super well. you can really tell that the author did her research on the case it was based on. i felt connected to all the characters and was rooting for them through each stage of their lives.as emphasized by Civil's own emotional and physical turmoil during and after her abortion, a person's right to make decisions concerning their own body should be theirs and only theirs. one of the most significant themes was how the fight for justice never ends and how the problem of forced sterilization is still deeply prominent and impossible to ignore today. i'd urge everyone to give this book a read if you can. it simultaneously educated, enraged, and moved me to tears.
all time favorites
books that were genuinely impactful and striking to my very core. gems of perfect books in my opinion.because i don't have carrd premium i ran out of reviews i can add :( you can find my reviews on goodreads for most of these though! here are some other all time favorites i sadly couldn't keep here:
✮ The Poppy War - RF Kuang
✮ A Certain Hunger - Chelsea G Summers
✮ Pachinko - Min Jin Lee
✮ These Violent Delights - Chloe Gong
✮ Forbidden Workers - Peter Kwong
✮ Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
✮ The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
✮ Babel - RF Kuang
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong
through a series of letter essays written to his illiterate mother, Vuong captures his experience being a first-generation immigrant in America and the faults and beauty in his family, themes deeply personal to my own life. the stories range from tragic to flawed to humorous to beautiful. down to the scents of ointment and ginger in his home, his childhood nickname “little dog,” and his desire to be accepted as American, i witnessed a familiar reflection of my identity and our shared culture while also reading a story that was uniquely his. i also gained a greater understanding of experiences i couldn’t put into words myself as well as a beautifully written commentary on the opioid crisis and its impact on real individuals.Vuong writes with poignant precision, not only about his own life, but also the lives of the generations before him that shaped and created him. this recount of his family history made me reflect on my own family's sacrifices. his story meant so much to me because it was the first time i felt genuinely understood in writing. he endured the same hardships as me and emerged scarred but survived nonetheless, and with his writing, he created something so beautiful from nothing at all.the nuances of his experiences and trauma were conveyed flawlessly. the rawness, simplistic, and captivating way each story was told is magnificent and gripping. the organization of where each letter/story is is done perfectly too. the amazing storytelling from a child's perspective then transitioning to an adult wrenched my heart.spoilers begin here. Vuong didn't even have to say he was in love and it ended tragically for me to understand immediately. the passage of him remembering all the details about Trevor hit me like a train. just stunning. the tenderness, innocence, the weight of silence, and the bittersweet memories. it's the best of the best, my absolute favorite book. Vuong's mastery of language seeps through every page, sentence, and word.
The Dry Heart - Natalia Ginzburg
gorgeous. gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. the writing is so deeply piercing and engaging. each character is written so genuinely and wonderfully - especially their (numerous and really infuriating) flaws.and wow. the analysis of difficulties that she goes through, or rather endures, instead of leaving along with her emotions on why are captivating, scarily realistic, and moved me immensely. meeting him, falling in love with him, their marriage, motherhood, loss, anger, everything along with her thoughts through it all and how the story explains the events which eventually build up and pushes her to murder him make perfect sense. the story was executed flawlessly.
When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
this book was given to me as a gift from a beloved teacher which makes it extra meaningful to me. the writing moved me tremendously, especially because i want to work in healthcare in the future. the forward by Verghese isn't that great, but Paul and Lucy's writing truly triumphs.Paul expresses his emotions incredibly with peircing precision. he writes with vulnerability and strength about his experiences as a doctor with responsibility, grief, and pressure, as well as his feelings after being diagnosed with cancer on mortality, god, helplessness, and love. all the stories he shared gave me new perspectives and glimpses of his life.the epilogue by Lucy hit me the hardest. her writing about grieving and honoring Paul's life is beautiful. this book made me think, sob, think, and sob. magnificent.
Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin
the BEST of Baldwin's prose in my opinion. his descriptions of emotion, specifically shame, are so precise and perfect. David's such a cruel and irredeemably flawed character but masterfully written. spoilers begin here. while Giovanni's reaction to David's inevitable betrayal is not really defendable (to say the least), his speech saying David has never loved anybody is entirely accurate. the story being from David's unreliable perspective was done spectacularly. i'm glad that the people who love him left. Hella was the only character i rooted for (like pls don't throw away your books for THIS guy omg) but all of the characters and their flaws were built so so well.
all time hated
books you would need to pay me a substantial amount of money to read again because they caused me genuine physical pains due to the sheer frustration and anger they incited in me. notice how these reviews are double the length of the previous ones.
november 9th - colleen hoover
many spoilers here. actually repulsive. i cannot believe how many people love this book - it makes me both enraged and saddened. i genuinely cannot understand the appeal and i can talk about why it's problematic for ages. it's absolutely horrible in the content as well as the writing style.colleen (her name is not capitalized out of disrespect) creates the classic victim girl being saved by a man she's known for literally what, 5 days, who gives her self-confidence. the problem? the love interest!! i hate the romanticization of literal abuse and dependency. from the moment we see his pov, he's wondering about her boobs, her underwear, etc. he pressures her with intimacy and doesn't stop when she's clearly hesitating. it is sexual assault. it is coercion, it is not romantic, it should not be portrayed as such, it is inexcusable and his actions are disgusting.he tries to force her into having better self-esteem unhealthily in a way that pressures her while also blaming her for how others treat her. we later find out that he's the one who inflicted arson on her, causing trauma, destroying her self-confidence, and permanently scarring her and it's this plot twist out of nowhere built on a such loose foundation.yet in the end, SHE ends up apologizing to HIM for not listening to his whole story and leaving him when learning he literally set her house on fire, an obviously huge and traumatizing realization??? they make up and get back together in a single short paragraph. it's unbelievably toxic and he's borderline obsessed with her after what he's done. i'm so scared for the people who read this and think it's romantic because what behavior will you deem acceptable? what will you endure?
Eyes of Prey - John Sandford
many spoilers here. not a big mystery fan, but i think this book organized everything well and did a great job at creating the murderers' characters, psychology, and reactions.the murderer's treatment of women was well written because i think their feelings/dehumanization towards women was built well and supposed to be seen as bad, which they are, ie; the eenie meenie miney mo along w the, yk, whole murder situation. but the book's attitude from the hero's pov regarding women made me want to regurgitate. there is so much casual misogyny that's supposed to come off funny but is actually just as unnecessary as it's plain stupid. for example, there's a bit about a woman reporter standing up on a chair in a skirt and men sitting down to see her ass. someone comments that at a certain angle you can see her butt crack, another officer jokes that that's borderline sexual harassment, and everybody laughs.and i love Cassie's character but she's written as a male fantasy. she's hot, has great tits, is straightforward, funny, and most importantly, wants to sleep with you. then she dies. she's got depth, but only to help Lucas sort through his struggles. also, why would Lucas reveal so much information to her, which she later reveals? that's just irresponsible along with how unethical he is in breaking into places out of sheer intuition. plus Del, another officer, uses Cheryl, manipulating her into diverging information about her trauma concerning Bekker. Lucas literally advises Del, "'If you come on to [Cheryl] about Bekker, she'll know. She'll know we're trying to manipulate her'" (246), then explains what he should do to get the information out of her while pretending to romantically pursue her. in this, i hate the way the female characters are written and treated with such casual cruelty.i appreciated the parts which focused on Lucas' struggles, since those were done well, but sometimes Lucas feels like a middle-aged man's projection for his hero complex. he's smart, he's chivalrous, women want to flash their tits at him! he does totally unethical things, but it's for the sake of law, so it's fine and even admirable isn't it!i thought the murder plot of this book was great. it was suspenseful, it was gripping, and the story kept me invested. but the aforementioned criticisms made me frustrated and disappointed. like there was absolutely no need for that in the plot. it ruined the book's good parts for me.
"Love in the Time of Cholera" - Gabriel García Márquez
the writing is beautiful, no doubt. but take that away and then you're left with how gross the events are. each time i think Florentino cannot possibly become more delusional / obsessive i'm proven wrong. imagine Gatsby multiplied by 10^30 and with astounding audacity.spoilers begin here. at first, i thought that the message of the book was that Florentino's romanticism and obsession surrounding Fermina resulted in pain for himself and everyone around him. but when they get together in the end, right after he receives news that his FOURTEEN year old niece he slept with has ended her life, i felt sick.there is just so much rape culture in the foundation this book -- how Florentino pursues her for much of their whole lives after Fermina consistently denies him, the way he's raped and falls in love with the person who does it, and the one passage about his best friend also being in love with her rapist. it's all portrayed as being romantic. yes, our standards change with the times, but we cannot just ignore this now. even with historical context applied, how is this in any way acceptable? so so wrong and casual in justifying such horrible things.
outstandingly mediocre
i think this should be a more common category for books. i refuse to give these a lengthy review. the worst thing a book can be is boring and predictable. at least a horribly written one evokes emotion by being laughable or enraging. remember this is totally subjective!! no judgment if you enjoyed any.
one sentence summaries of my thoughts on each book (respectively, left to right in order):> this is the epitome of average and too cliché.
> prose of expired milk ruins a semi cool but lowkey unoriginal concept.
> no plot no thoughts, weird obsession with ears, and unexplained sheep guy.
> no depth whatsoever and a very black-and-white victim / savior story
> guy learns commonly understood body language and is extremely pretentious about it; same energy as those youtube videos captioned "10 signs a girl likes you".
> someone threw together all aspects of y/n and the chosen one trope creating a boiling mess trying to appeal to those who want to feel special.
> overhyped for being written so averagely and too many badly written sex scenes back to back to back
my favorite book quotes
✮ A Certain Hunger - Chelsea G. Summers
“We talk about love like it's an involuntary act. We fall into love, like a hole, a puddle, an elevator shaft. We never step mindfully into love. Love we seem to think, requires a loss of control; love necessitates that vertiginous giving over to gravity; love wants you to have no choice.”✮ The Color Purple - Alice Walker
“Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to get attention we do, except walk?”✮ Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin
“He held my face between his hands and I suppose such tenderness has scarcely ever produced such terror as I then felt."✮ The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid
“And just as she was about to leave the microphone, she said 'And to anyone tempted to kiss the TV tonight, please don't chip your tooth.”