helenecats's reviews
218 reviews

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

4.75

I picked up The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui on the 31st of December, thinking it could be my last read of 2023. Well. It was much heavier than I anticipated, and I had to read it over several days instead.

It is an excellent book though, which I highly recommend if you want to know more about the Vietnam war through a personal angle of a family and their experience as refugees. 

I loved the illustrations and I shed a tear at the end. I think it will particularly appeal to fans of Pachinko and historical fiction (even though this is non-fiction)

Please be aware that it contains a great deal of upsetting content; spanning 3 generations.

Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

I bought this months ago. Then 3 weeks ago, my dad died quite suddenly. I was rearranging my bookshelf and decided to read this.

I'm so glad I did. It was relatable, sad, of course, but also funny and cute and just exactly what I needed.

Highly recommended, whether you have experienced the loss of a parent or not.

The Sad Ghost Club by Lize Meddings

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I read this in one sitting on the train. It was very sweet and moving. The pace was quite slow, but I liked the drawings and dialogues. Will pick up the second volume when it's on sale.

La Petite Dernière by Fatima Daas

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I whizzed through La Petite Dernière. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. The very repetitive chapters (all starting with a variation of "My name is Fatima Daas" and various other basic things about the narrator's life) became annoying. Most of the characters read like caricatures.

I don't want to be too harsh, because this an autobiographical novel, and there are important themes tackled, such as homophobia, religion, family… But honestly, I expected so much more from it. 

I'm currently reading Un Homme, Ça Ne Pleure Pas by Faïza Guène, which has similar topics, but written much more cleverly. So if you're looking for a short read for #womenintranslationmonth I would pick up the latter.

Babel by R.F. Kuang

adventurous challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Took me months to finish. It was very dense (so.many.footnotes), most characters were caricatures, and the plot became messier and messier. I should have been the perfect target audience as a linguist and antiracist, but really, I got tired of the heavy-handedness. 

I truly don't get the hype...?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

How to Have a Baby: Mother-Gathered Guidance on Birth and New Babies by Natalie Meddings

challenging emotional informative inspiring relaxing slow-paced

4.75

Very informative. I am so happy a friend gave me this; I started reading it quite early on in my pregnancy and then put it down for several months. The rest I read in my third semester. The advice is excellent. I am definitely less anxious about giving birth than I was before I read this.

My only wish is that the recipes would include vegan options!

Un Homme, Ca Ne Pleure Pas by Faïza Guène

funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Really enjoyed this one. It made me chuckle in so many places, but it also had depth. I wasn't a fan of the narrator, but apart from that, I was really drawn into the various characters and themes covered. I will be recommending it to my French colleagues and students!

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Epic book! I don't usually read fantasy, but as I enjoyed the Stormlight Archive during the pandemic, and I saw rave reviews of The Priory all over Bookstagram, I thought I'd give it go. 

It was really good escapism, and refreshing to read about so many strong women (including some who love each other). I also appreciated the world-building, and was glad I read it on my Kindle, as there were a lot of words I did not know. I only realised when I finished the book that there was a glossary at the end, as well as a very, very long list of all the characters mentioned.

It wasn't exactly a 5-star read for me due to a bit too many characters, and the pace was a bit off - some sections I absolutely devoured, and others took me days to get through as I kept putting the book down. In total, it took me 2 and a half months to finish those 832 pages.

There could have been a bit more humour in it too (compared to Brandon Sanderson's dialogues which often made me chuckle)

Overall, I would definitely recommend to fantasy fans, and to people looking for more bi/sapphic representation. I will probably read the prequel at some point, but I need to go read shorter books for now. Would love to see this adapted as a TV series, but I can't imagine how expensive it would be to portray all the draconic creatures, the costumes etc.!

The Educated Underclass: Students and the Promise of Social Mobility by Gary Roth

informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

A plethora of interesting, shocking statistics. Not many concrete solutions. Fully focused on the US system.