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The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
“I was Tookie, always too much Tookie. For better or worse, that’s a fact.” I feel quite conflicted over The Sentence. Although I loved the first half of this novel I found the latter to be boring and somewhat disjointed. While I’m sure many will be able to love everything about this book I wish…
3.5 STARS, Adult, America, American, bi side characters, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, books about books, bookshops, Contemporary, DEATH, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), family, female authors, ghosts/spirits, hauntings, history, illness, indigenous, indigenous author, lgbtq+ side, libraries/bookshops, LITERARY FICTION, Louise Erdrich, MAGICAL REALISM, minnesota, My reviews, native american & first nation, Native American & First Nation authors, netgalley, Ojibwe/Chippewa, Ojibwe/Chippewa author, pandemic, PARANORMAL, prison, published in 2021, read in 2021, reading, social issues, The Sentence -
What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
“A library at night is full of sounds: The unread books can’t stand it any longer and announce their contents, some boasting, some shy, some devious.” Confusion galore! What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is a relentlessly inventive and delightfully playful collection of interlocked short stories. These intentionally bewildering fabulist stories are inhabited by…
3 STARS, Adult, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, collection of short stories, confusing for the sake of being confusing, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), england, f/f side, FANTASY, female authors, Helen Oyeyemi, interconnected stories, Kafkaesque, lgbtq+, libraries/bookshops, m/m side, MAGIC, MAGICAL REALISM, My reviews, nigerian british author, published in 2016, queer, read in 2021, reading, short stories, story within a story, surreal, weird -
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
“You have as many lives as you have possibilities. There are lives where you make different choices. And those choices lead to different outcomes. If you had done just one thing differently, you would have a different life story. And they all exist in the Midnight Library. They are all as real as this…
3.5 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, afterlife, books about books, British author, Contemporary, DEATH, DEPRESSION, england, family, FANTASY, GRIEF, identity, illness, librarians, libraries/bookshops, MAGICAL REALISM, male authors, Matt Haig, mental health, music, musicians, parallel universes, published in 2020, read in 2020, siblings, social issues, SPECULATIVE FICTION, suicide, The Midnight Library, uplifting reads, what ifs -
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern — book review
secret libraries + magical doors + stories within stories within stories = my kind of book “A boy at the beginning of a story has no way of knowing that the story has begun.” This is the type of book that readers will either love or hater. Its playful style and recursive storytelling are definitely…
3.75 stars, academia, Adult, adventure, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, big books, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, books about books, Erin Morgenstern, FAIRY TALES, FANTASY, female authors, Hyped new releases, lgbtq+, librarians, libraries/bookshops, m/m, MAGIC, MAGICAL DOORS, MAGICAL REALISM, metafiction, New England, NEW YORK, portal fantasy, published in 2019, queer, READ IN 2019, story within a story, The Starless Sea, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE -
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova — book review
What could have been the perfect historical mystery for bibliophiles ended up being an unnecessarily long-winded and frequently dull novel. “Looking up from my work, I suddenly realized that someone had left a book whose spine I had never seen before among my own textbooks, which sat on a shelf above my desk. The spine…
15th century, 1950s, 1970s, 20th century, 3 STARS, Adult, adventure, AMERICAN AUTHOR, big books, BOOK REVIEW, Booklr, books about books, bram stoker, bulgaria, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), dracula, drama, Elizabeth Kostova, epistolary, female authors, FOLKLORE, FRANCE, GOTHIC, historians, HISTORICAL FICTION, history, istanbul, librarians, libraries/bookshops, LITERARY FICTION, modern gothic, MYSTERY, Netherlands, philosophical, psychological, published in 2005, READ IN 2019, Religion, Romania, slow pacing, story within a story, SUPERNATURAL, SUSPENSE, the historian, travel, Turkey, unnamed narrator, VAMPIRES -
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes – book review
“She wasn’t really one for big groups, but she quite liked this, the jokes and the merriment, and the way that you could see actual friendships springing up around the room, like green shoots.” The Giver of Stars is a sweeping romantic western that tells a fictionalised account of the Kentucky Pack Horse Librarians. It…
1930S, 1940s, 2.5 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, America, American, books about books, British author, cheesy, drama, female authors, female friendships, feminism, friendships, Great Depression, HISTORICAL FICTION, hyped releases, Jojo Moyes, Kentucky, librarians, libraries/bookshops, light reads, MARRIAGE, MELODRAMA, published in 2019, READ IN 2019, road trip, ROMANCE, rural setting, Southern America, The Giver of Stars, trying and failing @ feminism, why the hype