Books I've read and my reviews

• Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
  *****
  This book made me laugh, cry, and sweat a little. I listened to it on Spotify, and it was narrated by the author, which I think added to the whole book. The part where she described dropping her eldest daughter off at college you can hear her choke up, and it's a very emotional scene, much like the rest of the book. She's able to convey her sadness and grief at the loss of culture and the planet, but at the same time sweeten it with a little hope. It's made me reflect on my own attitude toward action and sustainability. I've personally given up on activism before I even start because I feel powerless. But what am I getting a biology degree for, if I will not use it to better the world, not just by being a public servant? How can I use my education to reconnect to the earth, and engage in reciprocity with the planet that raised me? It has made me more cognisant and grateful for the time I do get outside, and those that spend time with me. I already love nature, but now I view the plants and animals as my kin, not just something to marvel at. The writing style in this book also uses amazing analogy, whimsical description that still makes sense, and draws wisdom from different stories from indigenous cultures. Overall, I think this will be a book I read/listen to often throughout my life, especially as we start to see the effects of climate change and I understand science and my own spirituality more.
• Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
  **** I finished this book about a month ago. I liked it, but it left a sour taste in my mouth by the end. The gritty, choppy writing style was hard to get used to but flowed well after a while! I loved the plot and the incorporation of philosophy and mythology into a very high tech postmodern society. I think it also aged very well, unlike lots of cyberpunk media. Stephenson's vision of the future is certainly plausible even now, with the advancement of AI and VR and all that jazz. However, I think his sexualization of women, while in some cases relevant to the story as the plot kind of parallels to the more ancient, mythological tales interwoven in the book, was a little overdone and in poor taste. However, I think his intentions were good, and there were lots of great points about how people treat each other in the text. The major theme I picked up on was a world that no longer contained much empathy, which is becoming more and more relatable today. Overall, this book was great, if you can make it through the first few chapters and get used to the grit and writing style.
• The Body Keeps the Score - Bessel van der Kolk
  *****
  This book completely changed my perspective on how my brain and body work together. As someone who has diagnosed PTSD and C-PTSD, this book explained things that happened within me that I had never noticed before or thought was caused by these mental issues. This book would've been extremely hard to read before I went through EMDR and wizarded away the PTSD, but it made me realize that C-PTSD is not so easily overcome. I read most of this book in an airport and three strangers on separate occasions were extremely excited that I was reading it. It does read like a scientific paper while discussing an incredibly heavy topic, so reader beware. I would recommend reading this book a little bit at a time, and really taking in the information with a self-curious mindset.
• The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
  ***
  This book is a tough read. Not because the writing is difficult or bad, but because of the subject matter. Specifically it was a tough read for me because I was experiencing a similar mental spiral to the main character, Esther, while I was reading it and had to stop reading it for a while. Once I was doing better, I finished it, and found the bittersweet ending to have a more joyful tone to it than I expected. Plath captures the female descent into madness so well. All the interactions with Buddy or Bobby or whoever that guy was made me laugh in spite of myself, because she hated him so much for being not a virgin and also annoying and it was so REAL!! Sometimes I don't connect with authors, especially those trying to write through the female perspective. However, this was a certified Girl Book, and therefore captured the female experience in a way I've only encountered a few times. This book was an interesting story with interesting, digestible writing.
• Steeped to Death - Gretchen Rue
  ****
  This book is part of the Witches' Brew series, the first book. I read this a while ago but found it to be a cozy, calm book. While objectively, the writing is somewhat poorly paced and the author tends to go into excruciating detail about random things mid-character-conversation, I really enjoyed it. Especially after such heavy reading, it's a nice brain break. This is the book that got me into drinking tea, which is now an important habit of mine. It's perhaps the most un-thrilling murder mystery I've ever read. Interesting concept, unsurprising book, which made it relaxing for me to read during a hard period of my life
• Clytemnestra - Costanza Casati
  ***
  This book was one I couldn't put down, but I have MUCH to say about it. Because we're in the age of Madeline Miller, I have extremely high standards for my classic Greek Myth retellings. This retelling didn't hit the mark for me, though the story was well paced though written simply (derogatory). The difference between this book and other retellings I've read is that the retellings expand upon the myth, add depth to characters that wasn't there before, humanize the people of legend. This book doesn't achieve this, because Clytemnestra's character in myth is already very human, very deep, and her story is able to be told in, like, a few lines in the Iliad and Odyssey, instead of a novel that spends hundreds of pages reminding us she's angry and describing how hot everyone is. I really didn't care much for it. It shied away from loving sex scenes but depictions of rape and assault were in excruciating detail. This book, while if a standalone would've been better, is just a disappointing, modern (derogatory) take on a myth that I just didn't find more believable than the original.
• Death by a Thousand Sips - Gretchen Rue
  ***
  This is the sequel to Steeped to death, and my review is much of the same, except the run on paragraphs between character dialogue was much more noticeable this time around. The mystery itself I found myself not really interested in, because it felt a little too spoon fed to me. I do like how the book doesn't shy away from being too relatable or modern, though, because it added to the characters and made me chuckle. Also the part where Norman adopts Frodo the kitty made me weep. I love the love put into this series, but I couldn't read all these books in a row, since they're so weirdly paced.
• Spark Joy - Marie Kondo
  ****
  This book is like the "advanced" version of Marie Kondo's original, where it goes into the deeper philosophy behind her method. Overall, I thought it was a great work that explained clearly, concisely, and most of all kindly, how tidying would improve your life. She explained with diagrams, too, and I found them to be very helpful. This book also inspired me to go through my own things, and remember how much I love them and how much joy they bring me. This book was a nice read during a time where I was surrounded with discompassion. Wonderful!
• You Only Call when You're in Trouble - Stephen McCauley
  ***
  I'm not used to reading novels that are just plain fiction, as you can probably tell from my other reviews. I thought this book was an intresting toe-dip into the genre, with the "real-life" grit it has and the low-high ish stakes it presents. While reading others' reviews for this book after I was done, I saw that a lot of people disliked the character Tom, while liking the other female leads. However, I hold the controversial opinion that literally all of the characters besides Charlotte were unlikeable. Dorothy with her irresponsibility and incompetence, Tom with his bitterness and whining, and Cecily with her inherited incompetence from her mother. Don't get me wrong, I do think that the character writing was great. I've met people like everyone in the novel, but I think the point was to have unlikeable characters that you begrudgingly root for in the end. The plot I thought could have been stronger, and I found some of the tangents to be unecessary, but overall thought this was a nice book that took me a long amount of time to read, perfect for a getaway while staying with family for the holidays.