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pineconek's Reviews (816)
Nina LaCour novels make me want to uglycry along with her characters, who also frequently uglycry but in a way that feels so genuine and so real that I can't complain. I've loved everything of here I've read and could read twenty more books like this and be happy. Everything Leads to You is a love story, character study, and a love letter to film and the work that goes into making movies. I was enchanted by the writing, and especially the descriptions of all the locations - perfect when your main character is a set designer, and what a talented set designer she was.
Recommended if you want to read about young love between two women, enjoy the Taylor Jenkins Reid thing (think Malibu Rising) where fake celebrities play a part in the plot, and are ready to uglycry.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
Recommended if you want to read about young love between two women, enjoy the Taylor Jenkins Reid thing (think Malibu Rising) where fake celebrities play a part in the plot, and are ready to uglycry.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
I need to get my hands on everything Yoko Ogawa has written.
The mastery of this novel/short story collection is impeccable. If you, like me, love interconnected short stories, magical realism, and the macabre, don't sleep on this book. The imagery and characterization is memorable and unique and unsettling, and the lines between fiction and fiction-within-fiction are masterfully blurred. I don't even know how else to praise this novel; I'm just speechless.
Some images that remain in my head: hand carrots, strawberry shortcake, the refrigerator, the collar-brace, the heart bag, the blank manuscript, plucking strands of hair one by one, the museum of torture (yes, really).
Recommended for lovers of the macabre (reminded me most of Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted) who also enjoy musings on loneliness, sadness, loss, grief, and watching lives intersect in strange ways.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
The mastery of this novel/short story collection is impeccable. If you, like me, love interconnected short stories, magical realism, and the macabre, don't sleep on this book. The imagery and characterization is memorable and unique and unsettling, and the lines between fiction and fiction-within-fiction are masterfully blurred. I don't even know how else to praise this novel; I'm just speechless.
Some images that remain in my head: hand carrots, strawberry shortcake, the refrigerator, the collar-brace, the heart bag, the blank manuscript, plucking strands of hair one by one, the museum of torture (yes, really).
Recommended for lovers of the macabre (reminded me most of Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted) who also enjoy musings on loneliness, sadness, loss, grief, and watching lives intersect in strange ways.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
This book is such a slowburn, at least depending on your interests. I wasn't a big fan of the first 2/3rds aka "here is what dying of the black death is like" and didn't expect this book to hold my interest. I am however a sucker for books that explore grief so I devoured the last third in one sitting. This was overall a very complete and gorgeously written exploration of the people left behind one of the most famous men in the world.
Recommended if you like the idea of hearing about William Shakespeare's family (and how it kinda sucked having him as your dad, let's be real), are ok with reading extensively about the plague, and enjoy gorgeous writing.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
Recommended if you like the idea of hearing about William Shakespeare's family (and how it kinda sucked having him as your dad, let's be real), are ok with reading extensively about the plague, and enjoy gorgeous writing.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
I think I need to formally apologize to Stephen King - until a few months ago, I thought he was a sensationalist, overhyped, drug store cheap paperback kind of writer. And then I actually read a book of his, and they've all proven me wrong.
The stand is the 4th (5th) book of his I read and I'm in absolute awe of how well he crafts characters. The pacing is superb. The stakes are high. I cared about this book so much.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
The stand is the 4th (5th) book of his I read and I'm in absolute awe of how well he crafts characters. The pacing is superb. The stakes are high. I cared about this book so much.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
Wow. What a strange book to read in 2020. It's set in 2024-2027 and frighteningly plausible and familiar. I was delighted by the narration - her voice was both mature and realistic.
It was good to read about a group that, in difficult times, prioritized caring for others, planting gardens, nurturing a better future (survival is insufficient).
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
It was good to read about a group that, in difficult times, prioritized caring for others, planting gardens, nurturing a better future (survival is insufficient).
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
So good. So so so good. The first 50 or so pages were frustrating since it was a recap of Sower, which I'd finished last week, but after that... Absolute perfection.
Amazing pacing, gripping, tragic, philosophical. It's a perfect read for difficult times and for answering the question of "how can I go on when so much bad has happened?". The themes of navigating family (blood relations and chosen family), love, unjust law, meaning found me at a perfect time in my life.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
Amazing pacing, gripping, tragic, philosophical. It's a perfect read for difficult times and for answering the question of "how can I go on when so much bad has happened?". The themes of navigating family (blood relations and chosen family), love, unjust law, meaning found me at a perfect time in my life.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
I liked this a lot more than I expected to. This collection deserves the high praise it's been getting. To very loosely quote Ray Bradbury, good science fiction asks a simple "what if?" question but fundamentally remains a human story with human solutions. The stories in this collection achieved just that.
5 Stars- The highlights of the collection:
The Lifecycle of Software Objects - I didn't want this one end! The creatures in this were so endearing, and the exploration of AI ethics (and really, ethics in general of how we treat non-human "sentient" entities) including attachment to creatures was charming and provocative in all the right ways.
The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling - the parallel stories really carried this one for me. Both were highly memorable and had interesting turns. Excellent reflections on the natures of trust and memory.
Omphalos - I didn't like the style of this one all that much, mostly because I'm cautious of things that are overly religious. But by the end, I'd been won over, simply because this is not something I'd read before (or at least not in a memorable way).
4 stars - Some other good ones:
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom - The best parts of this were explorations of how opportunists would exploit this technology for financial gain. The main character's emotional journey was a tad heavy-handed (is she actually a bad person?! let's find out!!) but overall this was quite enjoyable.
The Merchant at The Alchemist's Gate - I love good time travel stories with bootstrap paradoxes. This one was... softer? Nothing mindblowing, but left s gentle impression.
The Great Silence - I enjoyed the reminder of "why look for aliens when there are so many incredible creatures here on earth"?
3 Stars - good, but not memorable/didn't hit the right notes for me
Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny - this was... fine? I've been watching the Umbrella Academy which explored this concept a little bit as well, so this didn't stick out for me much (due to that bias).
Exhalation - it wasn't bad, per se, but a bit heavy-handed in terms of "this is a metaphor for climate change!!".
What's Expected of Us - I'm not big on explorations of free will, so this one didn't stick with me. I'm surprised it was published in Nature, of all places.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
5 Stars- The highlights of the collection:
The Lifecycle of Software Objects - I didn't want this one end! The creatures in this were so endearing, and the exploration of AI ethics (and really, ethics in general of how we treat non-human "sentient" entities) including attachment to creatures was charming and provocative in all the right ways.
The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling - the parallel stories really carried this one for me. Both were highly memorable and had interesting turns. Excellent reflections on the natures of trust and memory.
Omphalos - I didn't like the style of this one all that much, mostly because I'm cautious of things that are overly religious. But by the end, I'd been won over, simply because this is not something I'd read before (or at least not in a memorable way).
4 stars - Some other good ones:
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom - The best parts of this were explorations of how opportunists would exploit this technology for financial gain. The main character's emotional journey was a tad heavy-handed (is she actually a bad person?! let's find out!!) but overall this was quite enjoyable.
The Merchant at The Alchemist's Gate - I love good time travel stories with bootstrap paradoxes. This one was... softer? Nothing mindblowing, but left s gentle impression.
The Great Silence - I enjoyed the reminder of "why look for aliens when there are so many incredible creatures here on earth"?
3 Stars - good, but not memorable/didn't hit the right notes for me
Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny - this was... fine? I've been watching the Umbrella Academy which explored this concept a little bit as well, so this didn't stick out for me much (due to that bias).
Exhalation - it wasn't bad, per se, but a bit heavy-handed in terms of "this is a metaphor for climate change!!".
What's Expected of Us - I'm not big on explorations of free will, so this one didn't stick with me. I'm surprised it was published in Nature, of all places.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
The writing, characters, and themes were beautiful. I love well written family sagas and learning about history through the eyes of characters I'm invested in. What a great read.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
I couldn't put this down, and only did because it was 3 in the morning and I needed to sleep. I finished it right after waking up.
This is a book about womanhood and love. There's so much beautiful love in this book. I particularly appreciate the authors tendency to understate or only hint at all the developments the readers instinctively know.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
This is a book about womanhood and love. There's so much beautiful love in this book. I particularly appreciate the authors tendency to understate or only hint at all the developments the readers instinctively know.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
About halfway through reading this book, I realized I was reading it extra slowly - a 250-page book will take me 3h max, but I'd only made it about 120 pages in during that timeframe. This is a slow, deliberate, dense, detailed, and extremely rewarding read deceptively packed in a tiny little package.
I'll also confess that I read it in English and spent the first 60 pages continuously wondering what the original translation had been, and had a lot of "why... am I not reading this in Polish" moments throughout the book. It was a lot of fun to not struggle with any of the pronunciation, though. I want to reread this book, not only to reread it in my mother tongue (and the original language of the novel) but also because I know how rich and rewarding the next read will be.
Drive your Plow reminds me so so much of another amazing atmospheric book I love and have been meaning to reread - Gene Wolfe's [b:Peace|60213|Peace|Gene Wolfe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391052690l/60213._SY75_.jpg|58579]. In Peace, we stumble atmospherically through time, somewhat blindly, and are guided by ominous elements of nature and alchemy. In Drive your Plow, it's much the same only with a lot of astrology.
As I was reading this book, I knew that I would include these words in my review: this book is fucking weird. For a few different reasons, but it's just a damn weird book. And all the things that make it weird also make it rewarding, excellent, and deceptive. What a great read.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk
I'll also confess that I read it in English and spent the first 60 pages continuously wondering what the original translation had been, and had a lot of "why... am I not reading this in Polish" moments throughout the book. It was a lot of fun to not struggle with any of the pronunciation, though. I want to reread this book, not only to reread it in my mother tongue (and the original language of the novel) but also because I know how rich and rewarding the next read will be.
Drive your Plow reminds me so so much of another amazing atmospheric book I love and have been meaning to reread - Gene Wolfe's [b:Peace|60213|Peace|Gene Wolfe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391052690l/60213._SY75_.jpg|58579]. In Peace, we stumble atmospherically through time, somewhat blindly, and are guided by ominous elements of nature and alchemy. In Drive your Plow, it's much the same only with a lot of astrology.
As I was reading this book, I knew that I would include these words in my review: this book is fucking weird. For a few different reasons, but it's just a damn weird book. And all the things that make it weird also make it rewarding, excellent, and deceptive. What a great read.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/mWv_X7hblGk