Emma Goto
DNF at 30%. This book has won awards and the author sadly recently passed away so I thought I'd finally give it a crack. It's historical fiction about Thomas Cromwell (dude that was around the time of the infamous Henry the Eighth). Unfortunately with the writing style and the lack of background it was really hard to follow. Maybe if you are more familiar with the time period it will be easier..
DNF at 50%. Basically this girl is leading on / getting involved with 3 different men (well, as much as you can get “involved” when you are in the 19th century lol). It's kind of annoying since she doesn't come across as a very good person, and wasn't too fun to read either so I had to give up on it!
Giving this a one star since I gave up 150 pages in.
The author introduces a lot of characters' POVs very quickly and it felt a bit all over the place. The multiple sex scenes were just cringy to read too. The sci-fi concepts itself were cool but once the author started a sex scene with the woman “flipping back into a handstand” I was done.
A very thoroughly-researched fiction book about the haenyeo women on Korea's Jeju island. I only really knew of Jeju as a popular vacation spot for Koreans (and foreign tourists too), but there's a lot of history there to unpack. From Japan's colonisation, the US taking over after WW2, to the horrific massacres that decimated the population - there's some heartwarming bits but it's not a fun book.
Also just learning about the haenyeo in general, who dived up to 20m to harvest abalone, octopus etc. and uniquely it was the women who brought home the money and the men that stayed home with the kids. (Although somehow it still seemed like the men had some of the power. Funny how that happens).
Originally posted at www.emgoto.com.
About a bunch of cowboys who live on the border between Texas and Mexico, and then decide to leave their small town to make an epic journey up towards Yellowstone. For a book you'd assume to be totally about men, I was surprised (in a good way) with how well the women were written - both strong and weak characters alike. However I felt a bit let down with how the author builds up these female characters, and then tears them down by making them prostitutes and have to endure rape, etc. Maybe realistic, but not really a fan of how that's used as a plot device.
Originally posted at www.emgoto.com.
I thought this was going to be a lot longer than it actually was based on my Kindles reading percentage, but more than half the pages in the Kindle version are endnotes.
The book is a little bit depressing cos it's talking about the obvious of how America has such a big divide between rich and poor, mostly due to politics and the optics of people determining welfare as unfair - even though really the middle and upper classes get tax cuts which isn't seen as welfare but is sort of the same thing.
A heartwarming book about a grumpy old man who gets into fights with his neighbours. I think the only problem I had with this book is that although Ove's heart may be in the right place, he is also an absolute dickhead. But since the book is written from his perspective and with a humorous tone, it's biased towards him coming across as more of a a likeable character than he actually probably is.
About a group of scientists that hop between planets on multiyear research missions, looking for signs of life, before finally returning back home to earth at their end of their expedition. It's a novella so it kind of felt like the climax/plot twist came near the end and then was just sort of resolved but not quite as satisfyingly as you would get from a proper novel.
I felt pretty let down by this one - I find some of Emily Henry's books to be pretty decent for romance novels but this plot felt a bit too boring? Not sure that boring is the right word considering that it involves the girl dating her ex fiancés new girlfriend's ex-boyfriend (basically a couple swap) but I was expecting a bit more of a twist to the plot but the whole thing just kind of plodded along. Also the main characters had some emotional issues which were maybe realistic but also annoying.
... in saying that, I went back and looked through my other Emily Henry reviews and it looks like I only really liked one of her books and the rest were kind of mid, and so maybe this is just par for the course.
Originally posted at www.emgoto.com.
Fantasy book with a fairly strong romance side-plot. I think the fantasy bit is pretty solid, and the romance starts off good (with a whole lot of yearning and pining) but I feel like it starts to get pretty sappy and a little old. Less goo-goo eyes over each other and more time focusing on the politics and story, please!
I wanted to go into this book hating on the author, because she starts off like a complete dumbass by setting off on a a multi-month hike in the wilderness with literally 0 hiking experience and no physical fitness.
However, the fact that she continues to hike for 3 months straight and by the end is doing 20 mile days, as much as any experienced hiker would do, makes me feel respect for her - at least she didn't give up!
So the setup immediately had my YA alarm bells ringing (17 year old lead who is really smart, strong and is fighting against an unjust and wrong society) but this was honestly really good! The plot and characters are complicated enough that it's not clearly split into good guys and bad guys, so I'm keen to see where this goes next.
I really struggled to get started on this one (it took me nearly 3 weeks to get around to finishing it!)
The book throws a lot of different characters at you, and I found it really hard to keep the story straight in my mind. Once I did wrap my head around it all, it's not a bad story but maybe could have benefited from being longer? Or more coherent?
Felt like I was reading a fanfiction, but not in a good way, because I've read some top-tier ones.
The plot is basically centred around a forced marriage / forbidden love between a vampire and a werewolf. Maybe could have enjoyed it more if there was more lore building or story behind it (like more high fantasy vibes) but it felt a bit too romance-heavy for me.
A multigenerational story set in 20th century India. The book touches on India's independence movement, but mostly focuses on the story of a 12 year old girl who marries a 40 year old window, and the family and community she helps to create in her small town.
Honestly the age gap marriage is a yikes, but with the way the widowed man is portrayed from the POV of the girl you never really get that icky feeling. (Should you? I don't know). Nonetheless she goes on to become the matriarch of the family so in that sense it is empowering (relatively speaking).
Definitely not a super uplifting novel (there's a looot of tragedy) but although this book has 700+ pages (which I didn't realise since I read on a Kindle), I really felt like a flew through this one.
Originally posted at www.emgoto.com.
Took an interest in this one after I saw the movie version was nominated for an Oscar!
A really interesting read into the Osage - a tribe of Native Americans that became rich off oil that was under their land, but with this money came white Americans who did their best to take their money off of them (either by really racist laws or worse, poisoning and murder).
3.5 stars. A romance novel about a codependent couple, one with bipolar disorder, who decides to go off her medication with some success. The author partially based the character off her own experiences with bipolar disorder, which is is cool that it's realistic, but at the same time the character is very flawed, selfish and pretty unlikeable so it's not a very flattering portrayal of it.