alisarae's Reviews (1.65k)

Perfection. Not saying this story isn't heavy, but the literary quality of it is top notch. It follows the story of two upper class sisters and their relationships with the men in their lives, servants, family, and friends, during the Nigerian Civil War in the 60s where part of the country became the nation of Biafra. I know nothing about Nigerian history but learned and appreciated learning about Biafra through this book.

I identified most with the character of Richard, a British man who is engaged to one of the sisters. He first moved to Nigeria to be a stuffy anthropologist, observing "their" culture. But then he learns the language, builds his life there, is invested in Nigeria on an emotional and psychological level. Adichie masterfully shows the delicate balance and subtle shifts of self-perception in living in a second culture. In the beginning, Richard has an offensive colonialist mindset about Nigerian culture. Then as he starts to learn the language, he becomes angry when people revert to speaking in English with him. Then after he becomes fluent, he gets angry at other tourists for being like he used to be. And he also feels disappointed when Nigerians stop being surprised that he can speak their language. IT ME.

Anyways, this story is masterful and there are SO MANY different themes and things to think about.

PS the audiobook is great. Narrator does a wonderful job.

I really liked this steampunk-tinged story! Solidly written, great pacing, and interesting relationship dynamics.

In this magical world there are three types of beings: the ruling overlords, Dragons, who are not giant lizards but are like humans with magic and dragon-like features; Fenthri, which are basically humans; and Chimera, which are Fenthri with transplanted magical dragon organs.

A dragon noble crosses to Fenthri land and makes a deal with a powerful Chimera woman to help him overthrow the current dragon king. They both have to overcome their pride and prejudices, and let go of past emotional baggage to learn to trust each other along the journey.

There are some weird world mechanics... For example, the dragon guy and the chimera woman sometimes have to drink each others blood in order to regain energy, and it's a very intimate act with sexual overtones. I understand the reason, like it's explained pretty well in the book, but if you describe it in plain tones it is really creepy. Another weird thing is there are two master/apprentice relationships that are on the edge of being romantic. It just made me think of how if one person is in a position of power over the other, then any romantic relationship is going to be threaded with abuse.

That said, I'm interested in reading the next one!

I liked this quote:
"A soul driven by vengeance was a selfish soul. A soul driven by vision was a generous one--one that bore itself before others and put the needs of the many before the needs of the few."

"But if they were mad, they were mad because they kept dreaming..."

This book is an explicit response to Love Wins by Rob Bell (I haven't read it), and it's quite good at meeting its objectives. At any rate, people don't go to hell for not believing in hell.

It would be much better if people would just say, "I know what the Bible teaches and I simply don't believe that part," than trying to stretch the words and ignore the context of passages to match up with their beliefs. At least Chan says (repeatedly...) that he wishes that there was no hell but he can't ignore what Jesus said. He also rightly says that "it is incredibly arrogant to pick and choose which incomprehensible truths we embrace."

I have always admired Chan and his contributions to contemporary Christianity. This is an accessible book that takes a systematic look at the theology of hell, and would be appropriate for both Christians and non-Christians who are honestly wondering what the Bible teaches about it.

The story of a turbulent relationship between a young man and woman. Most of the story is told as memories the guy has of specific moments in their relationship. The majority of the book quite explicitly describes their sex life, but I was impressed with how their relationship shifted from lust to true care and concern. It would be easy to write this off as a weird Dutch book from the 70s whose author is obsessed with sex, but some of the reoccurring themes made me think of it as something more, a la The Goldfinch or a Murakami novel.

This book was written before The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and I had just assumed that it was going to be very similar to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (haven't read it)-- girly, maybe a little dramatic, teenage girls getting into scrapes. Uhh it is for sure NOT that.

Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the family members, and is dated with a year. Each chapter works independently of the others, but it's best to read them in order. I say this because what started out with warm fuzzies and "oh haha, I bet my mom has memories of a childhood in the 60s exactly like this!" plods steadily downward to, "Things are not quite so idyllic as they first seemed," to things so heavy I dreaded what was coming next. It's hard to find a slow burning story that is so well-written.

I loved the setting (Louisiana), how the story unfolded, the audiobook narrator did a particularly fine job, and the writing is fantastic.

Heartwarming, interesting stories that come through the characters telling bits of their histories. MANY of the same themes are in Thousand Secret Senses and I enjoyed that book much more.

I really appreciated reading this account of life in concentration camps. It's amazing how much faith, the will to live, and human psychology are all intertwined. I really recommend reading Maus if you haven't already done that.

I watched the Kenneth Branagh movie because I have a very hard time reading plays. The story is fantastic, and the puns are amazing. Somehow I managed to go my whole life without hearing a spoiler of the ending, and I'm glad it was a surprise for me.

The quality of the stories is a real toss-up. Though I generally like David Sedaris (audiobooks read by him are the best way to enjoy his stories), his stories about life abroad are always the laugh-out-loud funniest.

Unfortunately a few of the stories in this collection are black humor or even darker, and some are outright offensive. So much so that I skipped to the next one. I wouldn't recommend this book because there were only two really good stories in the whole thing (Jesus Shaves, and Six to Eight Black Men -- not quite honest but funny nonetheless).

This book and its characters grew on me as it went along. The first part comes as a heavy-handed attempt of a grown-up giving undercover advice to teens through the voice of the MC recounting what he has learned. But that fades away (minus one monologue from MC's friend on what being a good friend really means — though I really liked that part and think even adults could find use for it), and a lot of messy, tough, good situations happen that are ripe for mulling over.

Full of 90s nostalgia, a lot of it seemed pretty foreign to me: people smoking inside buildings, the problems of cordless phones, teens getting ahold of alcohol with zero problems, strong clique culture...

Anyways, I really liked this book a lot, but if you're a parent, you should probably read this book at the same time as your kid so you can talk about it.