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: 2 of 5 stars The Extremely Obvious Dangers of Unrestricted Social Media written without subtlety by Captain Obvious himself! Proud recipient of the Worst Protagonist of the 2010s! Strong contender for the Wort Protagonist of All Time! I remember hating this the first time I read it. But I couldn’t recall the plot details and decided to give it another shot before throwing my physical copy into the sell-or-give-away pile. Sure enough—still hate it. Other reviews have pointed out this book is derivative and brings nothing new to the dystopian genre, but that is not where I take issue. I enjoy repetition and am fine with predictability, so I don’t fault The Circle for its lack of originality. No, what makes this book unforgivable to me is its condescending, preachy tone and abominable protagonist . I find it repugnant and unconscionable when a male author—especially one whose books usually center on male characters—writes a female lead like Mae Holland. I think The Circle...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars BBC’s Big Read #14 ༻❁༺ “I wondered how many people there were in the world who suffered, and continued to suffer, because they could not break out from their own web of shyness and reserve, and in their blindness and folly built up a great distorted wall in front of them that hid the truth.” For some reason, Rebecca was an absolute slog for me to get through. Now that I have finished reading it after almost four months, I am still not sure what made it such a struggle because I liked the book. Objectively, I think it is brilliant. Subjectively, I suppose it must not be my thing, or I would not have taken so long to finish. I will say that I have never related so much to a narrator with whom I am ashamed to feel such a kinship. The new Mrs. de Winter’s shyness, awkwardness, and feelings of hopeless inferiority kept making me cringe with undesired relatability. At least I have never fallen in love with a complete jerk who is way too old for me. Ser...

My Favorite First-Time Read: Women Talking by Miriam Toews My Least Favorite First-Time Read: It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover ༻❁༺ What I (Re)Read and/or (Re)Listened to in 2023: Red River, Vol. 17 by Chie Shinohara Red River, Vol. 18 by Chie Shinohara A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Red River, Vol. 19 by Chie Shinohara The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman Red River, Vol. 20 by Chie Shinohara Red River, Vol. 21 by Chie Shinohara Red River, Vol. 22 by Chie Shinohara Red River, Vol. 23 by Chie Shinohara Red River, Vol. 24 by Chie Shinohara Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams Red River, Vol. 25 by Chie Shinohara Red River, Vol. 26 by Chie Shinohara Red River, Vol. 27 by Chie Shinohara Red River, Vol. 28 by Chie Shinohara Claymore, Vol. 1 by Norihiro Yagi Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson ( While Listening Along to the Audiobook Narrated by Michael Kramer) Claymore, Vol. 2 by Norihiro Yagi ...

My rating: 2 of 5 stars Reese Witherspoon (According to the Cover of This Book): “Prepare to be scared... really scared!” Me: “Seriously, Reese? This is how low your bar for ‘scary’ is? Are you also terrified of fluffy bunnies?” This was my second time reading. I took it with me on a bachelorette trip (felt appropriate) and decided to give it one more go before throwing my copy onto the “to sell” pile. It’s just as dumb as I remember it being the first time. I’ve never had much of a penchant for mysteries/thrillers because I don’t care whether or not books surprise me. I used to primarily consume books by reading the front, the back, and then the middle. I enjoy spoilers and knowing what will happen, so I don’t require mind-boggling twists and gotchas when reading. I mainly look for enjoyable—or at least believable—worlds, plots, and characters. In a Dark, Dark Wood is entertaining enough to make reading the whole book worth it, but everything else is ridiculous. The characters are ...

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: 4 of 5 stars “I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals and I loathe humanity for its failure to live up to these possibilities.” — Ayn Rand First and foremost, this is fiction, not reality. In reality, I don’t believe strict individualism is any better than strict socialism. I think the general egocentricity and lack of human empathy displayed by American culture exemplify individualism gone wrong. Individualism, socialism, and many other ideologies look pretty on paper without accounting for humanity’s habit of screwing everything up. Anthem might not present the problems with individualism (since it’s essentially individualist propaganda), but I think it’s a decent critique of socialism. I believe the far left and the far right are two sides of the same coin, and books like this show the tarnish on only one side. But Ayn Rand grew up witnessing the worst of a socialist regime coming to power, so it’s no surprise that is the side of the tarni...

My rating: 2 of 5 stars This entire book felt like mindless drivel, and I do not throw around that accusation lightly. I unashamedly enjoy a lot of frivolous nonsense. But even the most outlandish, melodramatic, eye-roll-inducing bodice rippers have more eventful plots than this boring, redundant rubbish. Hoover wrote in a note at the end that she never intended to make a sequel to It Ends with Us . It Starts with Us was ultimately written as a gift to her fans, and it shows. It reads like a subpar fanfiction of its predecessor rather than a standalone, story-driven, published novel. I think you would have to be obsessed with the first book and its characters to power through the mind-numbing inanity of a paragraph like this: “I can barely work social media, much less keep up with slang. I swear, I’m the most out-of-touch millennial I know. It’s as if I skipped right over Gen X and into Boomer territory. I’m a Boomer millennial. A boolennnial . Hell, my mother is a Boomer...

My rating: 3 of 5 stars **EDIT** I downed my rating for the book from four to three stars after watching the 2024 film adaptation . When I received a visual representation, I couldn’t help thinking, “It isn’t that the actors are doing a bad job; it’s just that they’re not working with great original material.” Also, my utter disdain for this book’s sequel left a bad taste in my mouth regarding the characters and the entire storyline. Anyway, the original review for the four-star rating is below. ༻❁༺ Well, here I am, finally arriving however many years late to this Colleen Hoover party everyone seems to be talking about... I had mixed feelings about this and struggled to decide between three or four stars because there are a lot of things I dislike about this book. I ultimately settled on four stars because it successfully made me tear up and invoked the empathetic feelings Hoover wanted to get out of me. I appreciate when fiction addresses difficult topics, but I do not think someth...

My rating: 4 of 5 stars I read this in preparation for watching the movie with my mom. I’m bummed I never read this (or any Judy Blume book—what was wrong with me???) as a child. I probably would have loved it. Reading it as an adult over 50 years after its publication, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. still feels like a decently accurate portrayal of the mindset of a white, middle-class American, preteen girl. I remember how eager my own classmates were in the late 90s and early 2000s to grow up and start “menstroo-ating.” I recall how frustrating and stressful it was when everyone suddenly seemed to be defined by the development of their bodies. And growing up in a small-town Baptist haven, I definitely remember what it’s like to feel religiously isolated from your peers. I think books like this are more helpful to preteen girls than things like the What Every Girl Should Know film Margaret had to watch. After all, the average public school girl is exposed to What She Should...

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...

Overall Series Rating: ✭ Art: 3.5 Stars ✭ Story: 3 Stars Series Review: Red River’s art is gorgeous and impressively consistent throughout all 28 volumes, but it has a distinctive 1980s/90s style. It is not my personal aesthetic preference, so I didn’t vibe with it, but I can objectively appreciate how well done it is. As far as the story is concerned, it is middling at best. I was almost desperate for it to be over by the time I reached the final volume. The plot is redundant and unnecessarily drawn out into cyclic, mawkish events. Even when the pasts and motivations of the main antagonists come to light, their actions throughout the series still seem nonsensical. What I do love about Red River is its setting, historical details, and characters. Each of these elements is much stronger than the plot as a whole. I believe this is the only historical fiction I have read set so far back into the past. I love the historical facts sprinkled throughout the series, and I think going so fa...

My Favorite First-Time Read: The Book of Thel by William Blake My Least Favorite First-Time Read: Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw ༻❁༺ What I (Re)Read and/or (Re)Listened to in 2022: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 2 by Bisco Hatori Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 3 by Bisco Hatori The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 4 by Bisco Hatori Love Story by Erich Segal Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Edited by John E. Hankins Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 5 by Bisco Hatori The Best Love Poems Ever- Edited by David Rohlfing Under the Oak Tree: Season 1 -1- by Suji Kim Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 6 by Bisco Hatori Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, Narrated by Jenny Sterlin Under the Oak Tree: Season 1 -2- by Suji Kim Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones, Narrated by Jenny Sterlin House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones, Narrate...

My rating: 2 of 5 stars I did not like this. Thankfully, it is a mercifully short novella, but I disliked it so much that it took me forever and a day to finish. The one pro was the Japanese folklore (always guaranteed to please Certified Weeb Trash like myself). Everything else was lousy. Nothing but Blackened Teeth is filled with purple prose—more interested in showing off the author’s extensive vocabulary than telling a decent story (the first and last paragraphs of this review say it best). Worse yet, all the characters are detestable. They’re supposedly friends despite seemingly loathing each other and expressing nothing but outward contempt. In my opinion, readers receive no plausible explanation for why these people would choose to spend time together. It seemed like they were only there to see who could best play the role of human garbage. I was unable to spare an ounce of sympathy for a single one of them, including the annoyingly judgmental narrator. In all fairness, I be...