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lunabean's reviews
222 reviews
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
funny
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
So many rave reviews and on bestselling bookshelves everywhere I thought it was going to be spectacular and literary, spewing wisdom, but really it felt like a child’s read.
The great part about it is the characters and the way Garmus tells the story. The characters are very loveable, at times funny. I especially loved Six-Thirty (the dog)‘s internal monologues. The writing has no metaphors, no subtlety, just straightforward, direct prose that allows you to devour the book in a couple sittings. I usually have to reread sentences when I read, but hardly did it at all for this one. Most of the prose was back and forth conversation so it feels like reading a movie script. It’s like reading at an easy level, there’s nothing in it really that requires critical thinking, so this one’s for you if you want to relax your brain.
The plot though… cliche after cliche. It’s the 1950s and the protagonist, Elizabeth Zott, is a chemist who struggles to be taken seriously by anyone because people believed women belonged at home. Most of what Zott stands for (writer’s moral voice) is awesome - feminism, the importance of choice and the role of the housewife, education and learning etc, but Garmus conveyed these in a way that came off so so SO cheesy. I get that it’s the 1950s but the good guys and the bad guys were so black and white that it felt like I was reading a children’s book.
And THEN there’s the trauma dumping… topics of rape, sexual harassment, suicide, abuse, littered in between the cliches🥴🥴
I wanted to love this book. I do like the story, it’s fun and cute, but the writing just didn’t hit the mark for me… I can see older women enjoying this one though. Maybe I’m just not the target audience🤷🏻♀️
The great part about it is the characters and the way Garmus tells the story. The characters are very loveable, at times funny. I especially loved Six-Thirty (the dog)‘s internal monologues. The writing has no metaphors, no subtlety, just straightforward, direct prose that allows you to devour the book in a couple sittings. I usually have to reread sentences when I read, but hardly did it at all for this one. Most of the prose was back and forth conversation so it feels like reading a movie script. It’s like reading at an easy level, there’s nothing in it really that requires critical thinking, so this one’s for you if you want to relax your brain.
The plot though… cliche after cliche. It’s the 1950s and the protagonist, Elizabeth Zott, is a chemist who struggles to be taken seriously by anyone because people believed women belonged at home. Most of what Zott stands for (writer’s moral voice) is awesome - feminism, the importance of choice and the role of the housewife, education and learning etc, but Garmus conveyed these in a way that came off so so SO cheesy. I get that it’s the 1950s but the good guys and the bad guys were so black and white that it felt like I was reading a children’s book.
And THEN there’s the trauma dumping… topics of rape, sexual harassment, suicide, abuse, littered in between the cliches🥴🥴
I wanted to love this book. I do like the story, it’s fun and cute, but the writing just didn’t hit the mark for me… I can see older women enjoying this one though. Maybe I’m just not the target audience🤷🏻♀️
True Biz by Sara Nović
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
3.75
My first read of the year was a non-fiction one, who is she🫣 A memoir about domestic abuse in a queer relationship, examining the cultural representations of non-physical abuse and its reality. In addition to the topic of abuse, Machado explores the intersectionality between the queer community and its history of abuse, the lack of accurate archives and accounts (“archival silence”) due to homophobia and the ability to record history lying in the hands of the powerful/oppressor. Even though it may be harmful to “record/archive” the negative parts of humanity that exist also in queer relationships, Machado claims it is essential, to show that there is a shared humanity. One page really stood out to me “First, forget I am a lesbian. And second, never forget I am a lesbian.” It is to say that our relationships are not unlike your heterosexual relationships, with its ugliness and sorrows… but ours are also different because we have struggles you never have to face.
Machado also unpacks stereotypes on queer/lesbian relationships and their impact - for example how people view them as utopian, harmless, and thus unlikely to be abusive; how others impose gender roles “who is the man in the relationship?” and assume the more masculine person to fit the mold of “abuser” and more feminine person the “victim”.
Each chapter is short and terse, though not lacking in intensity, with every page leaving the reader with things to mull over and reflect upon. A very powerful read, challenged me from start to finish. I really recommend this to all!!
Machado also unpacks stereotypes on queer/lesbian relationships and their impact - for example how people view them as utopian, harmless, and thus unlikely to be abusive; how others impose gender roles “who is the man in the relationship?” and assume the more masculine person to fit the mold of “abuser” and more feminine person the “victim”.
Each chapter is short and terse, though not lacking in intensity, with every page leaving the reader with things to mull over and reflect upon. A very powerful read, challenged me from start to finish. I really recommend this to all!!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Emotional abuse
Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Watching Women & Girls by Danielle Pender
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Was so excited to read this one, AND BOY DID IT NOT DISAPPOINT😭 Shy of 5 stars I think because of the way short stories usually are - fleeting and brief. Even so, even though the stories seemed mundane on the surface describing the ordinary lives of the average woman, each one (every single one!!) was so SUBLIME, so subtly powerful, I was always left having to pause after each story to sigh!!! 😮💨😮💨
From the title I’d expected stories of women and girls being watched from the eyes of men: being ogled at, not taken seriously, discriminated against. But what was intriguing was that these stories are also about how women look at each other, and at ourselves. There is a story of a mother at playgroup who feels out of place with the other white mothers; a story of a woman with OCD who navigates her daily routines whilst working at a cinema; a story of 3 sisters; of a woman who lost her best friend when she was a teenager; of a woman who has affairs. This collection explores female relationships, friendships, desire, grief, together with the intersectionality of race and class, using unadorned and lucid prose that is easy to understand. It is truly an ode to girlhood, womanhood, the many intricacies of being a girl and a woman in this world! 🥹
From the title I’d expected stories of women and girls being watched from the eyes of men: being ogled at, not taken seriously, discriminated against. But what was intriguing was that these stories are also about how women look at each other, and at ourselves. There is a story of a mother at playgroup who feels out of place with the other white mothers; a story of a woman with OCD who navigates her daily routines whilst working at a cinema; a story of 3 sisters; of a woman who lost her best friend when she was a teenager; of a woman who has affairs. This collection explores female relationships, friendships, desire, grief, together with the intersectionality of race and class, using unadorned and lucid prose that is easy to understand. It is truly an ode to girlhood, womanhood, the many intricacies of being a girl and a woman in this world! 🥹
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I really wanted to love this one. A book about motherhood, selfhood, and female animalistic rage. The narrator is a woman who used to be an artist (although why the past tense? does the title only apply if one is *constantly* creating art? or creating art for profit?) but after having a child became a full-time stay at home mum. Gradually she finds herself growing hair in places (base of her neck, tailbone), and having animalistic dog-like urges - to hunt on all fours, chase, dig, eat raw meat. She calls this alter-ego Nightbitch.
I thought the play on words was very clever, a word used to both describe a dog and a “difficult” woman as the narrator struggles to bridge these dualities in her: artist vs mum, creating art vs creating her son, dog vs human. She goes back and forth between a) trying her best to be creative and artistic and *normal* by bringing her son to the library and b) acquiescing to her urges to run wild at the dog park, eat rabidly, and hunt squirrels with her son. I think the concept of this book is brilliant, using this alter-ego to describe what a lot of us women (and I presume mothers) feel: anger, rage, power, fierce loyalty sometimes to the point of being feral. Emotions that are deemed unbecoming of women/mothers. Eventually, the narrator reconciles these seemingly opposing dichotomies and fully embodies *Nightbitch*.
I started out really loving it, speeding through it, and I really do love the concept! But then I felt like the prose got more and more manic, crazed, line between real and imagined blurred, a lot of swimming in the metaphorical, until I could not understand the prose any longer and just wanted to finish it asap. Some paragraphs really hit the mark (see slide 3) but a lot of it I felt like was rambling. Still a very interesting book though!
I thought the play on words was very clever, a word used to both describe a dog and a “difficult” woman as the narrator struggles to bridge these dualities in her: artist vs mum, creating art vs creating her son, dog vs human. She goes back and forth between a) trying her best to be creative and artistic and *normal* by bringing her son to the library and b) acquiescing to her urges to run wild at the dog park, eat rabidly, and hunt squirrels with her son. I think the concept of this book is brilliant, using this alter-ego to describe what a lot of us women (and I presume mothers) feel: anger, rage, power, fierce loyalty sometimes to the point of being feral. Emotions that are deemed unbecoming of women/mothers. Eventually, the narrator reconciles these seemingly opposing dichotomies and fully embodies *Nightbitch*.
I started out really loving it, speeding through it, and I really do love the concept! But then I felt like the prose got more and more manic, crazed, line between real and imagined blurred, a lot of swimming in the metaphorical, until I could not understand the prose any longer and just wanted to finish it asap. Some paragraphs really hit the mark (see slide 3) but a lot of it I felt like was rambling. Still a very interesting book though!
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Honestly disappointed with this one. There are a lot of books on mental illness out there, this one was saying a lot but saying so little. I think the main point is that even with mental illness you’re not entitled to act like a jerk, or to blame shitty behaviour on it, because it doesn’t just affect you - it makes ripples and currents in families and other people’s lives.
Something went off in Martha’s brain when she was 17, and since then, she’s had periods of despair and panic where she’ll lay in the corner of her bathroom unable to move, or hide under her desk for days, or find herself incomprehensibly enraged and violent. She flings things at her husband, puts the iron through the wall, not being able to decide how she reacts to minor things until she finds herself in the throes of already reacting. All her life she’s been prescribed concoctions of medications and been told by doctors to not get pregnant on them. Years later, after finding her diagnosis, she realises she’s always wanted to be a mother all along.
I felt like the story was going on and on and on and it was hard to empathise with the protagonist because honestly she treated everyone like crap and was so unlikeable, acting like everyone’s lives revolved around her and her mental health. All I did whilst reading was pity Patrick and everyone else that had to deal with Martha, and to refrain myself from yelling at Martha to god just shut up. Even with the “redemption arc” from the letter Martha’s mum wrote her acting as the writer’s voice of reason and morality, I felt like it still wasn’t enough to give me back the hours I spent reading about Martha’s narcissism. It wasn’t super awful, I just think it was so LONG.
Something went off in Martha’s brain when she was 17, and since then, she’s had periods of despair and panic where she’ll lay in the corner of her bathroom unable to move, or hide under her desk for days, or find herself incomprehensibly enraged and violent. She flings things at her husband, puts the iron through the wall, not being able to decide how she reacts to minor things until she finds herself in the throes of already reacting. All her life she’s been prescribed concoctions of medications and been told by doctors to not get pregnant on them. Years later, after finding her diagnosis, she realises she’s always wanted to be a mother all along.
I felt like the story was going on and on and on and it was hard to empathise with the protagonist because honestly she treated everyone like crap and was so unlikeable, acting like everyone’s lives revolved around her and her mental health. All I did whilst reading was pity Patrick and everyone else that had to deal with Martha, and to refrain myself from yelling at Martha to god just shut up. Even with the “redemption arc” from the letter Martha’s mum wrote her acting as the writer’s voice of reason and morality, I felt like it still wasn’t enough to give me back the hours I spent reading about Martha’s narcissism. It wasn’t super awful, I just think it was so LONG.