![luce [is reading]](https://wishfullyreading.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/9429655-1.jpeg){kind=small}
-
Lakewood by Megan Giddings
“America is only routinely good to women, especially Black women, when it wants something from them.” Having recently read Megan Giddings’ intriguing sophomore novel, The Women Could Fly, I decided to revisit Lakewood, a book that I have picked up and put back down on and off since August 2020. Each reading attempt saw me…
3 STARS, 3rd pov, abuse, Adult, America, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, creepy setting, doctors, female authors, feverish, graphic content, HORROR, illness, Lakewood, Megan Giddings, Michigan, morality, MYSTERY, near future/alternate reality, Poverty, psychological, published in 2020, RACE, read in 2022, reading, social issues, SPECULATIVE FICTION, subject over characters/story, surreal, SUSPENSE, violence -
The Red Palace by June Hur
“I wanted to love and be loved. I wanted to be known. I wanted to be understood and accepted.” The Red Palace makes for a fairly suspenseful read, one that will definitely appeal to fans of YA mysteries where the lead girl goes all Nancy Drew trying to figure out who the culprit is. And…
18th century, 1st pov, 3 STARS, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, canadian korean author, class, court intrigue, doctors, female authors, HISTORICAL FICTION, June Hur, Korea, MURDER, murder investigation, murder mystery, My reviews, MYSTERY, palace, PRIVILEGE, published in 2022, read in 2022, reading, The Red Palace, YOUNG ADULT -
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Lacklustre and monotonous, not only did How High We Go in the Dark fail to grip my attention but it also failed to elicit an emotional response on my part. It was a bland and repetitive affair, which is a pity given the hype around it. It didn’t help that a few weeks ago I…
2 STARS, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, apocalyptic, asian american, DEATH, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), doctors, dystopia, environmental, existentialism, family, GRIEF, illness, interconnected stories, japan, male authors, pandemic, parenting, post-apocalyptic, published in 2022, read in 2022, SCI-FI, SPACE, spaceships, SPECULATIVE FICTION, weak prose, weak worldbuilding -
Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang
Studying so much had its consequences. It caused me to wonder, for instance, if I might be a genius. Bursting with wry humor and insight Joan Is Okay makes for a quick and quirky read about a woman who doesn’t want to change to fit in with society’s standards. In spite of what the people…
1st pov, 3.25 stars, Adult, America, American, American dream, asian american, China, chinese american author, Contemporary, cultural dissonance, doctors, family, female authors, GRIEF, HOSPITAL, HUMOR, intergenerational, introspective, Joan Is Okay, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, medical, mental health, migration/immigration, Neurodiversity, NEW YORK, pandemic, published in 2022, quirky reads, read in 2022, sardonic humor, siblings, SLICE OF LIFE, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, weike wang, work culture -
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
“‘How do you feel?’ ‘All right.’ But I didn’t. I felt terrible.” I feel incredibly conflicted over Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. On the one hand, I found it to be an ingenious and striking read, one that immortalizes in exacting detail a young woman’s slow descent into psychosis and offers a piercing commentary on…
1950s, 1st pov, 20th century, 3 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, american classics, ASYLUM, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, books about writers, BOSTON, CLASSICS, DEPRESSION, doctors, ennui, female authors, feminism, feverish, HISTORICAL FICTION, HOSPITAL, introspective, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Massachusetts, MEMORY, mental health, modern classics, NEW YORK, paranoia, problematic, PSYCHIATRISTS & THERAPISTS, psychological, published in 1963, read in 2021, reading, self-destructive, self-harming, sexual assault/abuse/rape, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, suicide, sylvia plath, terrific prose, The Bell Jar, unreliable narrators -
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
“There was no one clear point of loss. It happened over and over again in a thousand small ways and the only truth there was to learn was that there was no getting used to.” Boasting her signature writing style State of Wonder is a captivating and thought-provoking read. Ann Patchett’s quiet yet graceful prose…
3rd pov, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, Adult, age gap, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, ANN PATCHETT, beautiful prose, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, brazil, doctors, Dreams, favourite authors, female authors, GRIEF, identity, latin america, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, MAGICAL REALISM, minnesota, morality, motherhood, My reviews, nature, published in 2011, re-reads, read in 2016, read in 2021, reading, restrained prose, science, scientists & co, State of Wonder, summer reads, travel -
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
For a work that was first published in 1998 Daughter of Fortune strikes me as something more suited to the 1970s. Don’t get me wrong, I love Isabel Allende’s work and she is one of my favourite authors, however, at the risk of coming across as an oversensitive zillennial, her mystification of China struck me…
1830s, 1840s, 1850s, 3 STARS, 3rd pov, ADOPTION, Adult, adventure, America, California, chile, Chilean American author, China, class, daughter of fortune, doctors, drama, FAMILY SAGA, favourite authors, female authors, GRIEF, heavy on telling, HISTORICAL FICTION, ISABEL ALLENDE, latin america, latin american, latinx author, MAGICAL REALISM, MARRIAGE, MELODRAMA, miscarriage, orphans, pregnancy, problematic, prostitution, published in 1998, road trip, ship, slow pacing, survival, TRANSLATED FICTION, travel, unrequited love, voyage -
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
“I saw my mother raise a man from the dead. It still didn’t help him much, my love, she told me. But I saw her do it all the same. That’s how I knew she was magic.” I was hooked by Libertie’s opening paragraph. Set during and after the American Civil War Kaitlyn…
1860s, 1870s, 19TH CENTURY, 1st pov, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Black & Black heritage authors, CHILDHOOD, colonialism, colorism, coming of age, cultural dissonance, doctors, drama, f/f side, female authors, feminism, friendships, GRIEF, growing up, HAITI, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, illness, Kaitlyn Greenidge, lgbtq+ side, Libertie, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, MARRIAGE, mothers & daughters, music, published in 2021, queer side characters, RACE, read in 2021, slavery, social issues, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE -
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“But in the places where it isn’t faded and where the sun is just so—I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design.” First published in 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper is a disquieting short story that has become a seminal piece of…
1880s, 1890s, 19TH CENTURY, 4 STARS, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, CLASSICS, doctors, epistolary, female authors, feverish, GOTHIC, hallucinations, HISTORICAL FICTION, illness, madness, mental health, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, published in 1892, read in 2020, short stories, The Yellow Wallpaper, VICTORIAN, victorian madness -
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Emma Bovary has become the epitome of desperate housewife, the archetypal unfaithful wife, the ultimate daydreamer whose fantasies lead to a premature self-destruction. “She wished she could stop living, or sleep all the time.” Madame Bovary follows the ‘provincial ways’ of the petite bourgeoisie. Charles Bovary is a so-so doctor, married to an older woman,…
1850s, 19TH CENTURY, 3rd pov, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, affairs, ALIENATION, bad love, beautiful prose, Charles Bovary, class, CLASSICS, daydreams, doctors, drama, Emma Bovary, FRANCE, FRENCH, French author, Gustave Flaubert, illness, Madame Bovary, male authors, MARRIAGE, published in 1857, re-reads, ROMANCE, satire, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, suicide, toxic relationships, TRANSLATED FICTION
luce [is reading] 