kassiereadsbooks's Reviews (786)

A lyrical look at the race crisis existing in America, today. Sit, reflect, and listen. Good on Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric is contemporary, crucially important, and incredibly well done.

"Any more fires in this house, I'm lighting them!"
"Hellfire don't need lighting and it's already burning in you..."
"Whatever's burning in me is mine!"

Sula is my first Morrison and I'm just now beginning to understand the power of a voice like that. Literary, political, and poetic, Sula is the story of a friendship between girls who complete each other and a town who needs a devil to do right. Many laud Sula as a formative piece in black feminist literature which is very clear in the text. Morrison also provides one of the best forewords I've ever read. Very quick, very literary, and very worth the read!

Life on Mars is beautifully balanced between the future and past, both an ode to the stars, and a memoir for her father. The pieces show range from abstraction to focused reality and that contrast makes a beautiful whole. Really, really lovely.

This was my first Murakami and I was met with more or less what I was expecting. I was invested throughout, quickly emotionally connected (and perhaps over-identified with certain aspects of the plot) and really fell in love with Murakami's writing. However, I was consistently disappointed with women who didn't seem to be fleshed out, and other plot points which seem to be misogynist by nature.

*cough* false rape accusations and weird objectifying sex dreams *cough*

However, these aspects seem to be a disservice to a plot and a character that I otherwise really cared about. All in all, I got more from this book and Murakami's revelations about life, love, and loss, than I lost in the previously mentioned plot points. I'm still thinking and processing the layers of this book and for this reason I can't give it less than four stars even though I'm still soured by its failures as well.

Amy Zhang's debut novel is just really really good YA. And when considering that Zhang is a HIGH SCHOOL student in Wisconsin, her debut novel is pretty freaking astounding YA. Falling into Place was told by one of the most interesting narrators I've experienced and its central character, Liz Emerson, is unexpectedly complex. I went in underestimating this book and found myself entranced by its lyrical prose and mystery style composition. Highly recommend for readers of YA!