kurtwombat's reviews
880 reviews

20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 I peaked at some reviews before reading this book and quite a few referred to it as boring. I thought, how can a classic novel of undersea adventure be boring. Well, I found out. You do by choking your novel with information about the geography, animal and plant life of the aquatic world that modern folks are either already familiar with or thought they were until confronted with a myriad of Latin terms. I’m sure many of his 1800’s audiences were as mind blown by these descriptions as they were by the action—but that just doesn’t translate. I was inspired to condense the novel to one phrase: 
 
YOU CAN’T SEE THE STORY FOR THE SEAS! 
 
This would be a cracker jack novel if it were 150 pages shorter—or if the interesting segments that pass all too quickly were fleshed out. The potentially fascinating Captain Nemo is too often off the page, as is the entire crew of the Nautilus.  I appreciate not being told everything, but reading over 300 pages I deserve to be told something. Thinking of another equally vengeful sea captain, disappointed that Nemo didn’t get anywhere close the fleshing out of MOBY DICK’s Ahab. Of the other characters I most identified with the Canadian harpooner who almost from the start resents his captivity. Perhaps it’s the translation, but naming a character who longs to escape the sea Ned Land was a bit much. It’s his captivity I feel most keenly—after an interesting start the book really bogs down and I became captive myself. 
 
I did learn one thing. I was always puzzled by the title because 20,000 leagues equals over 60,000 miles. How can they be that far under the sea. But the title refers to the number of miles traveled by the Nautilus during the course of the novel. This mystery solved just became another disappointment. 
Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People by Amy Sedaris

Go to review page

funny lighthearted fast-paced

4.25

 A most enjoyable and snarky spoof of Crafting Self Help books (and when enjoying the audiobook it feels more like a mock TV show). Not unlike the author’s celebrated TV show At Home with Amy Sedaris, it is as funny but gradually grows darker as it progresses—how dark and in what directions I won’t spoil. Sly in spots, broad in others. Shameless in the best ways. 

Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto

Go to review page

challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

My Hero Academia, Vol. 1 by Kōhei Horikoshi

Go to review page

adventurous funny inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

 My first straight up Manga experience and I quite enjoyed it. Very nice set up for a long series (I was blessed recently with the first 20 installments). Inventive enough to keep this not young adult interested—relieved that there was deftly handled character development and I’m a huge fan of All Might. Looking forward to reading more—hoping the promise of this first chapter carries through. 
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Hidden like a book on a shelf, the life of Aaliya Sohbi is slowly revealed in AN UNNECESSARY WOMAN. She has retired from the world, supplanting her life with literature. Relating her uneasy life through the reassuring eyes of books promotes peace and understanding within her and gives the reader access to depths we might not have expected. From the first page I was at home in her shabby apartment. No matter the weather outside, it feels overcast inside. I can almost smell the mildew, feel the mustiness of a stagnant life clench at my nostrils.  Books are always a refuge. 
 
For a woman who has chosen isolation, her most interesting relationship is with the city she lives in. 
She at once sees Beirut how it is and how it used to be. She has turned it into another book—many chapters and many viewpoints, part history-part biography. 
 
"Beirut…is the Elizabeth Taylor of cities: insane, beautiful, tacky, falling apart, aging, and forever drama laden. She'll also marry any infatuated suitor who promises to make her life more comfortable, no matter how inappropriate he is." 
 
She broadens her reading experience by each year translating a book—the process is really a kind of deep reading since she has no plans to publish or even let anyone else see them. Each translation is  like a relationship that runs it’s course. 
 
The writing is direct and personal. Once in her apartment, drifting with her thoughts, I was content like her. Her life is a path not too distant from my own possibilities. And that is why, when there is an eruptive evolution at the end of the book I was especially delighted. Imagine I would have been happy anyway—as drawn into the narrative as I was. 
 
Quietly seductive and worth the visit. 
Educated by Tara Westover

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense fast-paced

5.0

 
Very detailed and lucid account of growing up isolated with and tightly woven into a right wing survivalist family. The main thread of this autobiography is just how tightly woven Tara Westover was into that often abusive family. The extrication happens in many small steps, each feeling like a miracle until you realize there are many more to take. This tension builds throughout—as the children of the family grow up, a darkness envelops their mountain home. Blind obedience fades and questions arise. They chafe under the demands of their dominating father in different ways. Some succumb to the life, some don’t. Tara ultimately finds her salvation in education, hence the title. Perhaps I’m too academically minded, but I would have like to know more about the nuts and bolts of that education. Some of the achievements and finances involved seemed abrupt and fortuitous. Assumed some shortcuts were taken by the editors to make it more readable. I will add that I knew a similarly isolated family, though thankfully not abusive or survivalist, and their kids were all remarkably bright and could have made similar academic jumps. There are a lot of moving familial parts to this drama and the narrative manages to keep them clear. There were times where I was yelling at the book—WHAT ARE YOU DOING!—hoping she’d leave but family is often a bond beyond steel. I will leave you with that frustration warning as well as some disturbing instances of physical abuse—but fascinating all the way through. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

 On an almost imperceptible scale, I can identify with the release of writing a well crafted sentence. DE PROFUNDIS was written mostly while Oscar Wilde was in prison—initially denied the ability to write, Wilde was suffocated by the words he couldn’t express. Ostensibly a letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas (look up a picture of Douglas online and you will want to start slapping him and never stop), De Profundis becomes an explosion of Oscar Wilde’s heart and soul and mind. He emerges as a man largely transformed by his experience (the spoiled rich like himself that were sentenced to hard labor rarely survived their imprisonment). He doesn’t dismiss his past “sins”, instead the libertine excesses were necessary to get him to prison which was necessary to get him to a more enlightened state. Imprisoned partly because of his own arrogance and partly because of being under the spell of Douglass (again, keep slapping), Wilde weaves a narrative of his relationship with God and the inseparable link between religion and art—art as an expression of nature which is an expression of God. While occasionally redundant or hyperbolic, Wilde expresses his self-discovery with jaw dropping beauty. Eloquent and graceful, like looking at a vast lake where the water is so smooth and glass like it reflects a glorious sky without a flaw. I consider myself spiritual without being religious, but I was genuinely moved by several passages decrying our failures as people to aspire to the beauty of art and God. I don’t want to scare anyone off by making this sound like a born again pamphlet you’ll find stuck on your front door when you get home. It is not that at all. Instead it is a last blast of creative glory from a wildly talented writer—like a fireball flaring out before it falls into oblivion. This is Wilde’s last published prose—he would die a couple years after his release from prison. 
My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand

Go to review page

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

 There is no way that I would ever attempt to read this book—my interest level is not quite strong enough to wade into a 1000 printed pages. However, delving into the audiobook—even a daunting 48+ hours (a good 20 hours longer than my previous high)—was a mostly a joy. Read by the author still sporting traces of her Brooklyn accent, Streisand keeps most of the book light and conversational—supplying momentum even when your interest might flag. At points amused or emotional—it might be acting but she’s good at it. For me some of the “I’m building a house” stuff wasn’t as interesting but the author’s enthusiasm comes across. Also, discussing her interest in politics was interesting but a little hard for me to take suffering as I currently am from a bit of  post-election malaise. I was all in on the nuts and bolts talk of Broadway, Hollywood and her musical career. I know Streisand fans who probably started crying before getting past the table of contents—I’m not that fan but this is quite a mammoth accomplishment (the life and this book). There is also something to be said about this as a gender equality text—you could edit this down to 300 pages of her pushing back at gender restraints in America. Sometimes she won, often she did not and paid the price. Of course, this is her presentation—who knows how close to the truth—but you can’t deny that much of her celebrity backlash comes down to her acting in ways acceptable for men but not for women. 
Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Anna Waterhouse

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

 Mildly disappointing. Read this in small part because I’m a Kareem fan and in large part because I am generally mesmerized by all things Holmes. I knew going in Sherlock would only be tangentially involved—the disappointment comes from the inconsistent quality of the writing and because Mycroft isn’t even quite Mycroft yet. His Sherlock like deductive skills are on display but often feel like flourishes or afterthoughts versus integral to the goings on. I did enjoy the broadening of the Holmes universe to include Mycroft’s best friend being a Trinidad native (well crafted)  but the fiancé angle – the book would be better if her whole existence were excised. That time and emotion would have been better devoted to Holmes and his friend Douglas. That is a solidly created relationship that nicely reflects the unique perspective of the author. Secondary characters get very little flesh though there is some nice historical detail. I thought the central mystery perhaps a little too heavy (globally) for an intro to this character and this series—though ultimately it was interesting and dramatic (but what exactly happened to the 2 million dollars? Unclear). In the books favor,  there was one haunting image that will long linger in my imagination—the believably set up and well executed use of a human being to trigger a bomb. Despite my feelings I plan to read at least the first part of the next book in the series. We’ll see if that one frees me from my mesmeric trance or deepens it. 
To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 There is Fantasy to escape and there is Fantasy to step outside to better look back upon ourselves. TO SHAPE A DRAGON’S BREATH takes a serious approach within the young adult fantasy genre to reflect the failures of our world. A thinly veiled but richly imagined alternative history of earth with enough sign posts to keep you on track—an indigenous culture clashes with a European white culture. Dragons happen to be the sticking point here but as with all such clashes, the dominant culture will always find something. I quickly became engrossed in the characters and indigenous cultures are my soft spot so the 500 pages immersed and swept me away.  This avoids the nonsensical romantic fawning prevalent in young adult lit—instead tenderly sketched relationships mesh together people who care about each other. The world will not end if hearts are broken—the stakes are indeed much higher than that. For which I am immensely grateful. Would love this tale of a non-white non-superhero young girl taking on the world so far with only her wit and guile to gain more traction. Appreciate that a series spotlighting dragons dared to have an entire first book with a dragon too young to fly. That is confidence in your story telling—when you don’t have to rely on something flashy to bail you out. You may be surprised how little happens over 500 pages but more surprised by how much you don’t mind. Waiting for the next. (I should also mention that it is LGBTQ friendly in fantastic and non-patronizing ways)