meredith_w's reviews
635 reviews

Honor by Thrity Umrigar

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

3.0

An extremely engaging read. But it also felt 100% written for an all-white women book club.  While I was thoroughly entertained and suitably outraged while reading this book, it also felt kinda icky. This story felt exploitive - the main character herself even questioned if writing Meena's story would be classified as 'poverty porn'. Almost all the characters lacked any nuance. The 'bad' characters were extremely bad, and only bad. The 'good' characters were almost perfect, totally kind and the opposite of self-serving. Smita, thankfully, was nuanced - relatable, frustrating, and human.

The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World by Ben Macintyre

informative reflective tense slow-paced

3.5

3.5 Stars.  I’m conflicted about how much I liked this book – it was both fascinating and frustrating. The amount of detail in this book is undeniably impressive – but also perhaps what brought down my enjoyment.  There were SO many details, almost to the point that I often lost momentum while reading.  There were many details I really appreciated, such as the mundane day-to-day experiences of the hostages mostly sitting around and waiting during the siege. I appreciated the details regarding the layout and furnishing of the embassy, the hygiene habits of the hostages, and the types of protestors and onlookers that attended the scene. But other details, such as the specific type of rope used for abseiling, and background stories of the players participating in a snooker championship (that happened to be occurring during the siege), made me question what value they added to the storyline. 

 

I’m mostly disappointed about how the women were written – they received a very cliche edit. The women were often singularly described as ‘weeping’.  Perhaps it’s how it all went down (I certainly wasn’t there, nor did I do the research). It was an incredibly stressful situation, and weeping would be a completely understandable reaction. However, I was very aware that whenever something particularly stressful occurred, the individual reactions of the men were described, whereas all the women were lumped into the same reaction: almost always weeping. There was more descriptive writing about the random snooker players, and about Lock’s self-imposed constipation, than what the women experienced. Except a random comment about the elevated stress causing the female hostages to ‘menstruate heavily’, as if implying that all the women experienced this reaction. This seems unlikely. As the siege was only six days, all the women would have had to have already been (or close to) menstruating for this to occur. Maybe all their cycles were synched up, I don’t know. I’m guessing one woman experienced this reaction, and therefore all the women experienced the same reaction, because, obviously. (Women <eye roll>, amiright??) Reading how the women were portrayed reminded me that I (a woman) wasn’t the target audience.  This book was written by a man, and (generally) for men, and therefore most readers likely wouldn’t be too critical about how the women were portrayed (i.e. all heavily menstruating and all constantly weeping). Also noted: ‘Hysterical’ was (of course) used as a descriptor of the women’s behaviour, and Prime Minister Thatcher was frequently referred to as ‘Mrs.’ Thatcher. 

 

Look, I know the women weren't the main characters in this story.  Men were the perpetrators and the instigators.  Men managed the situation; men made the decisions (with the exception of 'Mrs.' Thatcher), and men were the heroes. They were even the snooker players. I get it, these were the realities of gender roles in 1980. But I was frustrated with the portrayal the female hostages received. The women lacked nuance, and were reduced to stereotypes and tired, sexist cliches. 

 

Anyway, I can (mostly) look past this – it was an impressive piece of investigative journalism about an event I knew nothing about. It was an excellent mix of extremely thorough research, narrative storytelling, and touches of humour that provided relatable levity. I appreciated learning about this wild piece of history – and also about Cliff Thorburn winning a snooker championship in 1980. 

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

dark tense fast-paced

4.0

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

dark tense medium-paced

3.5

And So I Roar by Abi Daré

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

2.5

This was a miss for me.  Dare's first novel 'The Louding Voice' was really charming and I was hopeful for the follow-up.  While I enjoyed (the main character) Adunni's voice in the first book, I found her voice and 'little wisdoms' way too precious in 'And So I Roar'.  I was frustrated with the premise that Adunni felt a responsibility to go back to her village to clear her name.  Wanting to clear your name is understandable, but maybe wait until you have more experience and education and overall agency??

Overall, I just wish Adunni's story ended with the first book.  I won't read anymore books featuring Adunni, but I won't give up on Abi Dare.  I love her Nigerian settings in her books, and she writes a great story - I acknowledge the ending of 'And So I Roar' came together very nicely.

The Birth House by Ami McKay

fast-paced

4.0

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

mysterious fast-paced

4.0

An excellent and very engaging literary mystery with a strong sense of place.  The timeline bounced around a lot, but it was done very effectively, really contributing to and building the storyline.  10/10 book cover.

You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto

dark tense fast-paced

4.0

Super engaging and twisty.  'Influencers behaving badly' is a favourite micro-genre/trope for me.  The characters were cliche and one-dimensional but I didn't care at all.  I wanted something fun and engrossing and this thriller was exactly as advertised.  

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

medium-paced

3.5

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Wow, I loved this. Meditative, philosophical, and informative. This short little novel is a day-in-the-life of six astronauts living aboard an ISS-style space station. With the astronauts we orbit the earth 16 times, learning about their many mundane everyday tasks, while acknowledging that what they are experiencing is nothing short of astounding.

Through the astronauts lives, and detailed descriptions of what they're seeing through the windows of the space station, the reader is invited/challenged to reflect on (among other things) the impact of humans on the earth, and the connectedness of humankind in general.

The details of the space station and the experiences of the astronauts feel very well researched. I followed the orbital paths on Google Earth, and I got sidetracked (as I always do) looking at maps. I loved it. One of the best books I've read all year.