mmccombs's reviews
703 reviews

Fully atmospheric and absolutely the perfect read as an arctic blast creeps into my city. The world building was lush and engaging, from the first chapter I was immediately transfixed and knew I would love it. The audio narration was also excellent (though I've got to admit that I often got lost about who was who because recognizing spoken Russian names is not exactly my strong suit). It was the perfect balance of historical fiction and magical realism and folklore, the interplay between "old" Russia and its pagan spirits vs the new wave of Christianity was especially interesting. I didn't know this was a trilogy so now I'm excited to have more of this world to read!

Okay, I get the Brandon Sanderson hype! I initially tried to enter the Sanderson universe with The Way of Kings a few years ago but wasn’t in the right mood, so I’m very glad that a bookclub forced me to start with this one instead. Truly captivating fantasy, I was pretty much hooked from the beginning and didn’t find myself bogged down with confusing lore. The magic structure was unique and so thoroughly imagined, I appreciated that the magic informed the world building and vice versa. Each element felt like it fit together, which made the characters and plot shine. I wouldn’t say this was a heist as the description of this book suggests, but the crew element of the story still scratched that itch. And I do think that some of the writing was a bit juvenile, a few sections of explaining allomancy felt a bit out of place (though they were helpful!). I’m pretty surprised by how much I liked this and am very excited to get to the rest of the series!

The writing was absolutely beautiful and evoked such a strong sense of place, but I ended it wanting a bit more. I enjoyed the themes and ideas it tackled, like trying to reconstruct/find your mother when she has been unknowable and how Mexican and Indian history echo each other. But it was one of those where when it ended I was just kind of like, well okay?? It was very solid and incredibly quick to read, so I’d recommend it even if I wish it was maybe a bit longer.

I really enjoyed the first chapter and the epilogue and that was pretty much it, unfortunately. This book was cozy and I did appreciate the sense of community it established by the end. But I didn’t really care for any of these characters and felt kind of confused about some of the plot points this took. It kind of reminded me of a Fredrik Backman book, where multiple characters with their own issues touch and intersect, which as a general vibe I enjoyed but can’t say the details worked for me. And the narration really didn’t help, the voices he used were over the top (and one character voice actively grossed me out), so I never felt like the writing itself was very good either, though it could just boil down to the audio experience. Unsure if I’d recommend this, but can appreciate the sense of place and character this had.

To come to any conclusion other than that capitalism needs to end immediately is just… kind of silly. But I still think the argument Desmond lays out so clearly is worth reading and stewing on. It put a lot of observations in writing that I have not been able to articulate, and I loved that I could see pretty much anyone reading this book and coming out of it having learned something, it was so approachable. I do think he makes some solid suggestions but like geeze, there is no “compassionate” capitalism, especially not in the US, that will end exploitation, racism, and scarcity mindsets, his conclusions just don’t seem to go far enough. I really enjoyed reading this and felt incredibly engaged, I’d recommend this to everyone!

A gayer take on The Holiday? Yeah of course I’m into it! While I don’t leave this wowed or with a new holiday romance favorite, it was solid, cute, and well plotted. I appreciated that there wasn’t forced conflict/breakups, they were just adults who needed a change and started falling in love with new people. There was not much depth, the book pretty much throws you into the main characters swapping houses without much background, and the romances were pretty surface level, though still cute. The writing was just okay, though maybe the narration was a bit lackluster and didn’t do it justice. I’d say this is a romance where Christmas happens in the background, so if you’re looking for something very holiday-y, this might not be exactly what you’re looking for. All in all I’m glad I read this one but don’t imagine it will stick with me.

Just a little liberal American patriotism as a treat! This is not normally my thing, but I gifted it to a relative and wanted to make sure I didn’t give her something totally terrible so I picked up the audiobook. And it was decent! I always enjoy a good fun fact, so in that way it was very enjoyable (very into the small and the mighty pigeon she covered at length in one chapter lol). On the whole though, I felt it was cheesy, I didn’t love the tone (often too casual), and wasn’t organized in a way that made a ton of sense to me (like I think it was chronological but honestly I’m not totally sure). I think the message of “anyone can do one small thing in their sphere of influence to make an impact” is always important, especially in the historical moment we are in right now, and she did often mention that many of these issues were larger/systemic, but still it often felt too simple. And her narration drove me nuts! So I think this is a good choice for a feel-good chronicle of nuggets of history, but I don’t come away from this with any kind of perspective change and don’t think much of it will stay with me.

Absolutely obsessed with this book! The writing was evocative, informative, and totally expansive. I come away from this book with so many new ideas and thoughts. I thought Schlanger did a phenomenal job of outlining ideas that seem kind of outlandish at first glance and making these ideas accessible and something to stew on. I especially appreciated how she showed how the foundations of science, if flawed or just a piece of the whole, can create a snowball effect of misunderstanding or “blindness” to other ways of knowing, which renders ideas of intelligent plant life beyond our grasp. I think reading this in tandem with Braiding Sweetgrass would also be super effective just to provide another layer of understanding and interesting questions about our assumptions about plants. Cannot recommend this one enough, I listened to a library copy but might need to buy a copy for myself!

Okay so I initially dnf’ed this about halfway through a month ago, but I saw this make so many people’s best-of-2024 lists and I had to retry (mostly because I’m nosey and stubborn). And around page 165 I finally figured it out and can say I enjoyed the ending. The writing was ultimately really well crafted, and it was interesting to see our main character develop (and by develop mostly devolve into thought-loop chaos). I truly had the hardest time getting into it, but do feel the last 20-30 pages made the plotless journey worth it.

I kind of didn’t gel with her arguments and felt like the tone was a bit pretentious (like be a minimalist or a maximalist, I don’t care and don’t think it’s that serious). I thought the ideas were interesting, but I didn’t feel very motivated to pick it up after reading the first essay.