nadia's Reviews (587)

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

I was definitely intrigued to start but at some point I got a little bored and distracted and lost my way a little bit — I was also reading this a lot while tired, but you could also argue that the book didn't capture my attention — so then by the end I wasn't sure I'd understood everything I was supposed to! I think it'll all make more sense as I work my way through the rest of the series, which I am definitely keen to do!

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective

Probably the best collection I've ever read in terms of concepts/scenarios but I wanted more from the execution. It felt like there was too much "tell" and not enough "show", too much hand-holding for my liking!

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dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I went into this (audio)book (from Libro.fm's ALC Program) with very low expectations and I guess that helped because I ended up really enjoying it.

I know there are some plot holes, some incredibly unappetising realities to it, some things that were predictable, etc., but I stayed intrigued and guessing (at least some parts) the whole way so that wins a lot of points in my book!

Also, I'm a sucker for a campus setting, especially one incredibly closely related to my own university experience!

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adventurous dark mysterious

A solid collection of spooky, eerie stories. I had a lot of fun with this collection. Looking back at the contents page I remember each of the stories from the title, which is a great sign!

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emotional reflective medium-paced
Strong character development: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

I really really liked this collection of stories. I just really connected with the writing and found some of the scenarios relatable or...is there a word for "you've not necessarily experienced the thing but you grok it hard"...? That.

I loved how accessible, and yet lovely,  the writing was, I enjoyed the theme of love and relationships, especially cross-cultural romantic ones and those centred around motherhood, and I didn't often feel like: "I need more of this story!!" which is a common short story con for me.

My favourites were Too Much and Summer.

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tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I spent a lot of this book bored and not caring about the main character at all...I still didn't really care about him come the end but I was more intrigued and curious to see how it all unfolded!

Also, obviously not a fan of the racial slurs used at all!

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challenging emotional slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A really solid read! I didn't know anything about Tar Baby going in, avoiding the blurb on the TSG page and the back of my book, and found myself quickly immersed, with the characters coming to life. As always when I get back to Morrison I'm like: "okkkkkurrr, now this is writing. Wow."

I didn't fully get the significance of everything, especially some of the more magical realism elements (I think that's what you'd call them), including the ending, but I was able to mostly follow everything and appreciated all of the main themes of the book.

I think my current Toni Morrison ranking is:

1. Song of Solomon
2. Sula
3. Tar Baby
4. The Bluest Eye

My Beloved reread — the only Morrison I'd read before starting this chronological read — is next!

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reflective relaxing medium-paced

I really liked this memoir, which I listened to on audio! I didn't recognise the name Carolyn Pfeiffer at all — I just saw this book in the Libro.fm Advanced Lending Copy library and thought it sounded up my street. Goes to show how far I've come from a few years back where I thought to enjoy a memoir I had to be very familiar with the author's work.

Well, it was fun to hear all of the famous names Carolyn has come across/worked with during her career. I had no clue the story would be so star-studded. It was also super interesting learning about the development of the film industry in the 60s.

Not sure if this was my fault or the fault of the book, but I started to get distracted at points, couldn't remember who was who in some cases, and ultimately didn't fully connect emotionally with the story. 

But it was all still very interesting. I wasn't really ever bored at all!

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emotional reflective

A super solid collection of stories. I liked every single one...well...at least most of every single one. A fair few left me thinking: "What — it's over already? That's it? Really?" with respect to the ending...but on the whole, these characters and settings were great and I loved the writing. Looking forward to getting to one of Lahiri's novels.
mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A decent listen! Some things were a bit awkward/contrived, but that can sometimes be hard to avoid with a thriller of this sort.

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