bookwoods's reviews
708 reviews

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

4.0

 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was my first ever V.E. Schwab book. I’ve been intrigued by all her titles, but none have been hyped as much as this one, so I thought why not start with the most recent release? I loved the writing and the main character, who prayed to the wrong god and has lived for centuries without anyone being able to remember her. Who, in her own words, is ‘a three-hundred-and-twenty-three-year-old ghost whose only hobby is inspiring artists’. I also enjoyed how I had no idea what direction the story will take, but the ending was just slightly underwhelming. 

 

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

5.0

 I absolutely devoured one of my most anticipated 2021 releases, Psalm for the Wild-Built, and as I expected, it immediately became a favorite. It’s such a hopeful and beautiful story set on a moon where people realized their mistakes before it was too late and turned things around by creating a truly sustainable society. Becky Chambers has fitted so many joyous things into just 150 pages: robots that gained consciousness and decided to retreat to the wilderness and cut all ties with humans, vivid nature descriptions, ponderings on the meaning of life, characters that use they/them pronouns and a unique religion featuring tea ceremonies. We desperately need more positive science fiction like this - I don’t always want to read about futures full of doom and gloom. 

We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan

4.0

 We Are All Birds of Uganda ended up being an incredibly engaging book about immigration! It’s a multigenerational family drama revealing a piece of history previously unknown to me: how under colonialism people were transported from India to Uganda, where families grew roots but where they weren’t welcome once the country gained its independence, meaning they had to search refugee in Europe. The book follows a descendant of such chain of migrations, Sameer, as he starts to question his life as a promising layer in London. Hafsa Zayyan has taken inspiration from her own family’s story and the book does have a personal feel to it. It’s also just really fluently executed, even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending. 

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

4.0

 This book is exactly what I needed to hear, although most of what it has to say is something I think we all know deep down: media only shows us the highlights which makes us feel like anything negative in our lives means we’ve failed, we should aim for things we enjoy struggling for instead of things we just want to accomplish, setting our values to focus on processes instead of goals will bring more fulfillment to our lives, etc. 

Manson’s crude way of expressing himself really works in this context and for the most part, he chooses damn poignant examples. Honestly, I was surprised to find this as insightful as I did, I always had some prejudice towards it despite all the good things I’ve heard. Something about the title just rubbed me the wrong way. I guess I’ve learned the lesson to never judge a book based on the title alone. 

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

5.0

 One of my favorite moments in reading is when I’ve spent hours believing one thing about the story and suddenly, one sentence makes me view everything I’ve read so far in a completely new light. When I haven’t been able to see that twist coming. When it makes complete sense. When I want to reread the whole book that instant. And The Fifth Season gave me that moment, and so much more besides. 

Like the world building. I love how the book begins by slowly telling the basics. No info dump, nothing too complicated. Just gently introducing you to the setting. The more complex stuff becomes clear later. Not by one character explaining it through pages and pages of monologue, but through little snippets here and there that gradually amount to the required understanding. 

I won’t be able to do as great of a job describing the Stillness (the world of The Fifth Season), but here’s a brief intro: it’s a huge continent reflecting our world, with Arctics and Antarctics, deserts, tundra, coastal towns and a capital. But contrary to its name, it keeps changing. Events called the fifth seasons, started by massive tsunamis, earthquakes and the like, disturb life for years or decades. Communities are prepared for them. To a degree. 

But that’s not all, this is fantasy after all. There’s mystic creatures called eartheaters, giant obelisks floating the sky and people called orogenes, who can ‘manipulate energy to address seismic events’. It’s all quite cool once you begin to understand it. But at the end of the book you’ve only began to understand – orogeny, the history of the land and motivations of the characters. That’s why buying the later installments asap is of utmost importance. 

Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs

4.0

 Whales, the largest animals on this planet, have charismatic, near mystical qualities to them. Encountered by few but known to all, they are a fascinating focal point for examining our relationship to the natural world as a whole. And that’s exactly what Rebecca Giggs uses them for. Fathoms – The World in the Whale zooms into different aspects of whales from their ecological significance to the shapes they take in our imagination; whales as commodities and food, as sufferers of plastic pollution, as tourist attractions. 

Fathoms is written with a journalistic touch in prose filled with beautiful expressions, and I can only applaud Giggs for succeeding in her mission of effectively using these animals as a proxy for nature. She’s patient with her explanations and even as a biologist, I learned a lot! I was particularly interested in the ways whales can alter the climate and ocean chemistry, and how dramatically noise pollution limits whale communication. I also appreciated the look into whaling as it takes place today - Fathoms was published last year so the information is current. But some parts are just too long. With each chapter there seemed to come a point where everything that needed to be said was said, yet some filler-like text was included. Without it, I would consider Fathoms very near a perfect environmental nonfiction. Even as it is, it comes close. 

“To protect any wild animal now, the task is not to look for it, but to consider what it might depend on: the abundance of food, of shelter and paths of migration, the preservation of biophony, of oceanic chemistry and temperature within ranges tolerable to species other than our own; freedom from being crowded out by pollution. We must think about the sensory realities we wish to sustain for animals, and those we wish to protect them from. Both the suffocating love evoked by charisma, and the project of taxonomy – finding, naming, labeling – must give way before a duty to ecology. These are responsibilities to one another, as much as to wildlife, for what we lose when we lose animals is a way to imagine the world as larger than we experience it.” 

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald

3.0

 These essays were hit or miss for me. Helen Macdonald’s prose took my breath away in several instances, but the purpose of some pieces remained unclear, or in some cases, too obvious, meaning they didn’t really need to have an essay written about them. 

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

4.0

Like what seems like the majority of human population, I adored The Martian - both in book and in movie format. I was impressed by the way Andy Weir is able to convey humor in his writing while explaining some quite intense scientific stuff. His newest release is perhaps less successful in being funny, but the science side is even more intense.

The set up is this: humans notice that radiation from the sun is decreasing due to alien algae-like species and calculate that the Earth can remain habitable for merely decades. Unforeseen global cooperation follows, resulting in an ambitious space expedition. And because Weir seems to have a thing for people stuck in space alone, only one from the original crew of the mission survive and he needs to save humanity, befriend an alien species, and complete all the other basic scifi to-do tasks.

I found the science to be super cool and even though the alien species are not Becky Chambers level good (how could they), they are still good. I only wish the story was more concise to avoid some repetitiveness in the plot. I also think this could work well as a movie, as long as it’s as well executed as The Martian was. 

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

3.0

Frances Cha’s debut novel has been on the back of my mind since it came out, but after experiencing a brief yet serious k-drama obsession in the beginning of this year, it became a must read.

The book follows four South Korean women and through their perspectives, explores how society places irrational and unattainable expectations on them. I found all the themes super interesting, fandoms, motherhood, trauma and beauty standards, but would have preferred having just one viewpoint. As it is, the main insight I got from the novel is that plastic surgeries are common and that I already knew. It felt like Cha tried to accomplish too much in too little space and perhaps with too little skill in writing multiple perspectives. 

The Tea Dragon Society by K. O'Neill

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

 This might very well be the cutest book I have ever read! I mean, it features dragons that grow tea leaves in their horns and is illustrated beautifully, in a style that personally appeals to me. Although the story doesn’t have quite enough substance to my liking, it did make me happy. I’m definitely eager to read more from Kay O’Neill – all their books seem to have delightful premises, important themes and diverse characters.