dllh's reviews
679 reviews

Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor

adventurous fast-paced

3.5

This was a good read. I liked the premise of

intersecting worlds

and the varied cultures, even though some of the cultures felt sort of hand-wavy. I liked some of the trappings of Ginen (e.g. the idea behind the architecture) but also felt like these things didn't make much sense. That's ok to a point -- it's speculative, futurist literature -- but as world building, I felt it lacked depth and felt simply stated rather than established in a way that felt earned or real within the world of the story. Still, I enjoyed it and will read the follow-up. I've liked all of Okorafor's work so far.

A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson

3.0

Thank the ever-living Light I'm done with this series and this book in particular. I find war scenes to be pretty dull, and half or more of this long book was war. I know Jordan and Sanderson set up a bunch of dominoes that had to be toppled, but it was a lot. I read the series aloud to my family (so skimming quickly when things felt repetitive or dull wasn't a great option), and mostly I'm glad to be done. I liked the series overall and found Sanderson's writing to be less onerous to read overall than Jordan's. I think maybe eight or nine books would've been plenty.

The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi

3.0

I enjoyed this one but it felt underdeveloped, sometimes making annoying leaps in story or logic that felt like sloppiness. Probably these would have been less evident in a longer story that permitted more full development of the material. The concept was neat.

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

medium-paced

3.0

Didn't like this one as much as I've liked several other of her books. I didn't read super deeply or search for links to the Inferno, which I suspect might've made it a more satisfying book.

Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

Having read Smiley's Horse Heaven a few years ago, I wasn't sure what to expect in another horse book. This one offered some of the same appeal -- fairly fully realized characterizations of animals -- but was lighter (though not without sadness) and a quicker read. Horse Heaven is the better book, but I enjoyed this one quite a lot.

The Duino Elegies & The Sonnets to Orpheus: A Dual Language Edition by Rainer Maria Rilke

3.0

I dog-eared two of the elegies but in general didn't like the style of them. I liked a fair few more of the sonnets, and they were easier to get through overall. I had read some Rilke many years ago and not been super enthusiastic. I'm still not. I believe that people find things to gush over in Rilke's work, but I think his work just isn't for me. I'm glad to've ticked these collections off my list, though.

The GAA: A People's History by Mark Duncan, Paul Rouse, Mike Cronin

slow-paced

4.0

It took me a while to read this book both because I prioritize fiction and because it has so many sidebars and images with captions that for me it was slow-going. I'm not complaining about these -- they were good -- but it was oddly tiring to read and I generally read just a small handful of chapters at a time with sometimes long breaks between bouts of reading.

I thought it was a fantastic history of the GAA, and I learned a lot about the history of Ireland and of Gaelic sports. I've played hurling for a few years, so this was of particular interest to me. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the history and culture of the GAA and Gaelic Games in Ireland (and abroad).

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

adventurous funny fast-paced

3.5

I liked this one but it felt a little baggy at times. I felt like there were only so many times and ways in which I needed to see demonstrated that John Brown was super zealous about both his religion and his cause. Of course, it is a tall tale (with some basis in reality), and excess is a part of such tales. I won't read this one again, but I liked it and will keep reading McBride.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Murder, and War

McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh

dark fast-paced

2.5

The style just didn't really do it for me, and by the time I had begun to feel a little more interested and invested, it was over.

Private Life by Jane Smiley

sad

3.25

I'm not sure what to say about it. The pacing sometimes felt slow, but it also covered 60+ years in a short 300 pages. The tail end was biting and made me think oddly of Shirley Jackson. It held my interest all the way through, but I wouldn't call it a page-turner. Yet I read it fairly quickly. It almost felt incomplete, or at least not long enough. But that's not quite right, because it was clearly framed by its opening and closing sections and Smiley doled out precisely what she wanted the reader to see. There's a sense of limitation or private-ness in the title itself.