My rating: 5 of 5 stars #1 on the NYT’s 2024 List of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century (So Far) ༻❁༺ The brilliance of My Brilliant Friend is harped on excessively and exhaustively, and I have no original accolades to contribute. I’ve discovered that people are super annoying about how good this book is because it’s genuinely great. Going into it, I was rolling my eyes that this was so highly esteemed as a standalone novel despite being the inaugural entry of a four-part series. But after understanding the setup, I couldn’t even be mad about it anymore (though I still wouldn’t be opposed to the publication of all four together as one ginormous book). I agree with the masses that this is one of the most moving portrayals of female friendship I’ve ever read. Ferrante covered several controversial issues (classicism, socioeconomics, gender politics, etc.) without it ever feeling too in-your-face or disrupting the narrative flow. Reading this gave me the same vibes as listening...

My rating: 5 of 5 stars I first heard about Solzhenitsyn and this speech from my favorite podcast, The Christian History Almanac . Dan van Voorhis’s description intrigued me: “Expecting a condemnation of the USSR and embrace of the West, the crowd heard nothing of it. Instead, [Solzhenitsyn] critiqued his old empire but the Western one as well... A comfortable form of Christianity that embraced the same materialism and what he called “legalism” or the idea that if the law says it’s good, it must be—the same kind of lie that led to the tragedies of the USSR.” As someone with a distrust of all economic systems and political philosophies (“... the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable.” — William Golding), I greatly appreciated Solzhenitsyn’s approach and his unwillingness to cater to his audience’s expectations. How easy it is for us to notice the specks in our brothers’ eyes...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars I highly recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by the author. I loved this book’s approach to critiquing Christianity’s impact on Black Americans. I appreciate authors offering valid criticisms of religion without discrediting faith and religious experiences altogether. Especially when it comes to Harriet Tubman, I feel it’s far too common for writers and historians to retrospectively question and disparage her devout faith despite it being so integral to her personhood and decisions. (I will say that atheism and/or the complete dismissal of mystical experiences seems strange in a universe where historical figures are literally coming back from the dead , but I digress.) This book has so much to say about pride in heritage and pride in self and how both are prerequisites for true freedom. 2025 has been a dumpster fire so far, but we should all count our blessings that we were given Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners in the sam...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars “And what is love, in the end? Except the irrational desire to put evolutionary competitiveness aside in order to ease someone else’s journey through life?” I’ve seen this book recommended all over the place. It was a pick for multiple book clubs I follow and ranked as one of the 100 best books of the 21st century (so far) by the New York Times . I don’t feel it lives up to that level of acclaim, but it is a good novel. The writing was unnecessarily pretentious at some points, and one of my favorite aspects of the book went down the drain about halfway through (see spoiler below). However, the storytelling was beautiful, and I cried at several points. I do recommend reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow ; I don’t recommend going into it assuming it will be as brilliant as some claim it to be. I was so happy to see such a close, platonic male/female relationship and a seemingly asexual male character. But then said male character was revealed—in my o...

My rating: 5 of 5 stars “This is a story about cats and war and people. But most of all, it is a story about love… Remember: both people and animals suffer pain, and all of them deserve compassion. Together we can make the world a better place!” — Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel This felt like the perfect book to wrap up 2024, considering collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime earlier this month (though the Syrian conflict is ongoing). This story deals with an extremely serious and continuous topic, and several reviews are critical of the lack of particulars and historical context. But this is a children’s picture book, and I don’t think the format leaves much room for nuance. The point of the story is that beauty and hope can be found in the ugliest and most hopeless situations, and in my opinion, The Cat Man of Aleppo illustrates that point charmingly. I have four main reasons to love this book: The aforementioned celebration of hope and beauty in otherwise terrible circumstances. It’s a ...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars Stop hoping for the best and work at it. It’s wild that a satire written over 260 years ago can still be so readable and funny. It veered a bit too far into gnostic waters for my taste, but that was understandable considering what it’s satirizing (Leibnizian optimism). I can see why Voltaire was/is so lauded and loathed. ༻❁༺ One of my favorite parts was a scene in Chapter 22 that poked fun at critics. I decided to give it a rewrite for this review: Lindsey happened to be seated near some fashionable readers. This did not prevent her laughter at the well-written scenes. One of these Goodreads critics at her side said to her between chapters: “Your laughter is misplaced; that is a terrible book; the writer who wrote it is yet worse; and those who praise his writing are still worse than him. The author never once went to El Dorado, yet there was a scene set in El Dorado. Moreover, he is a man who does not believe in innate ideas; and I will private message you tw...

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars Disjointed thoughts from my first time watching Muriel’s Wedding : Why have I never heard of this masterpiece before now?!!! I mean, it’s one of Ridley Scott’s favorite movies , for crying out loud! Honestly, I only decided to watch this because I saw “ABBA” in the description. I have the same taste in music as Muriel—that is to say, great taste in music. I did NOT expect to be a sobbing mess by the end of this weird Aussie fever dream!!!!! I think the scenes of Muriel’s mum at the wedding and standing in the kitchen are going to haunt me until the day I die!!!!!!! 💔 ༻❁༺ 𝓟.𝓢. This review was crossposted from Letterboxd because it contains actual thoughts rather than a typically facetious single-sentence remark. View all my film ratings and pointless takes on Letterboxd .

My rating: 4 of 5 stars “I think the power of books is that they teach us to care about others. Empathy—that’s the power of books.” Being a lover of both cats and books, how could I not fall for this story? Although, the title is somewhat of a misnomer since the cat (view spoiler) [isn’t the one who “saves” the books (hide spoiler) ] . I think some tonal elements got inevitably lost in translation, but overall this was such a sweet book. The premise is straightforward and simply told—not much worth writing home about. What I loved was all the beautiful wisdom nuggets about books and reading, such as: “It’s not true that the more you read, the more you see of the world. No matter how much knowledge you cram into your head, unless you think with your own mind, walk with your own feet, the knowledge you acquire will never be anything more than empty and borrowed.” And: “Reading isn’t only for pleasure or entertainment. Sometimes you need to examine the same lines deeply, read the same s...

My rating: 5 of 5 stars “Where is evil? In the world outside or the world inside?” Women Talking was so heavy but beautiful. As someone who identifies as both a Christian and a feminist, or as someone who at least strives for the heart of those unfortunately loaded words (Love! Equality!), I found this profoundly moving. “I believe that my soul, my essence, my intangible energy, is the presence of God within me, and that by bringing peace to my soul I am honouring God. If I can understand how these crimes may have occurred I am able to forgive these men. And I am almost able, certainly from a distance, to pity these men, and to love them. Love is good, and better than retaliation.” How do we square our faith with the all-too-common abuses of those who claim to share our faith and carry out horrific abuses in the name of it? It is a perplexing confrontation that I believe every Christian (regardless of the variety of Christianity they identify with) must face head-on at some point i...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars “I talked once with a cabdriver who had spent years in prison. He said he had no idea that the world was something he could be interested in. And then he read a book. In the history of the West, for all its achievements, there is also a persisting impatience with the energy and originality of the mind. It can make us very poor servants of purposes that are not our own.” While reading these essays, I felt myself relating to the cabdriver from one of this book’s earlier essays and thinking about how I have been guilty of being a “poor servant to purposes that are not my own.” What Are We Doing Here? was edifying, enlightening, and terrifying. I love Marilynne Robinson for her unnerving ability to eloquently articulate thoughts that I can only vaguely construct within the confines of my woefully limited mind. ( “We can feel a deficiency in what we know or do, we can hear inadequacy in our most painfully considered phrases. And gracious and chimerical beauty will...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars BBC’s Big Read #70 ༻❁༺ “The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable.” – William Golding This quote and this book represent my misanthropic views on governmental systems and sociopolitical issues in general. It’s a struggle to get through because the parable aligns so acutely with my pessimistic outlook on authority. I love and hate this book in equal measure. ༻❁༺ 𝓟.𝓢. This review was crossposted from Goodreads because it contains actual thoughts rather than a typically facetious single-sentence remark. View all my book ratings and pointless takes on Goodreads or The StoryGraph .

My rating: 5 of 5 stars “In a fit of enthusiastic madness I created a rational creature, and was bound towards him, to assure, as far as was in my power, his happiness and well-being.” What is a creator to do when his creation is monstrous and repugnant? When the act of creation is a regrettable mistake that will forever haunt him? And what about the intelligent creation abandoned and abhorred by its creator? What hope is there for a social being doomed to perpetual solitude and—worse yet—the rational awareness of its isolated and forsaken existence? I love the philosophizing and everything else about Frankenstein . I love that a teenage girl wrote this as part of a scary story challenge. I love that she makes me equally pity the protagonist and antagonist (and question who’s who). I love that scientific advancement and the acquisition of knowledge are simultaneously celebrated and cautioned. I wish I could dole out hugs to Victor Frankenstein, his creature, and Mary Shelley because ...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars Imagine if you will the epitome of an angsty teenage girl. She lived in an uneventful rural town. She held the age-old adolescent belief that she was tragically misunderstood and utterly unique. In actuality, she was an average, goody-two-shoes daydreamer desperate to escape from reality. Her extreme idea of Teen Rebellion™ was painting her nails black, being constantly morose, and giving obnoxious, unsolicited hot takes about the most inane things. She thought she was different and special . If she had had any self-awareness, she would have realized she was just another privileged, boring, white girl whose greatest life trauma was the onset of puberty. Her two biggest problems were gym class and the world moving around her much faster than her desire to grow up. But for a middle school girl, every small problem tends to become a major calamity, and likewise, every minor interest tends to become an outright fanatical obsession. It was this girl who walked in...