sundaysunshine's reviews
128 reviews

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-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

4.0

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

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dark funny hopeful informative lighthearted slow-paced

3.5

Black Joy by Timi Sotire, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff

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funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted slow-paced

3.5

Kinda hard to get though some chapters but the act of giving all of these different types of young black people a voice to celebrate themselves, their lives and their joy is a beautiful thing I definitely recommend.
And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

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emotional funny hopeful reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

4.5

gorgeous writing, definitely a book i'm going to need to own.
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

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

3.5

The rating isn't a reflection of it being bad but rather just not being quite good enough of a story to breach the 4 star mark. That being said this book really resonated with me, such a beautiful portrayal of reconnecting (and sometimes failing to reconnect) with your culture as a young person who grew up away from your people.

All of the different relationships Darioush has, makes and discovers are written so beautifully and with such casual and easy tenderness it made me nearly tear up at points. Overall a sweet book and a nice read.
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

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

3.75

Absolutely loved reading a book with a Black male protagonist (a very rare thing indeed) and wasn't let down in the book's balancing of tackling the hardness of a life like Maverick's life and also giving love to his life, home and family and the care they put into carving out a life in a country built against them.

The writer seamlessly incorporates such a natural lightheartedness that makes sure you're not brought too down by the topic matters. However, the plot kinda lost steam in the last act despite the objectively thrilling events I feel like I finished the book both glad it was over and disappointed there wasn't more. 

Went here right away to add The Hate U Give to my TBR immediately though, Angie Thomas is a really good storyteller.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

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emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

As sweet as my coffee order (very). Nearly made me tear up though, hope the other books are just as good.
Conversations with People Who Hate Me by Dylan Marron

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challenging funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.75

Listened to this as an audiobook on Spotify and loved the narration by Dylan Marron (who I did not put together was 2010s pop culture royalty by way of voicing Carlos in Welcome to Night Vale). Easy to listen to/read chapter formatting, each one is based of a lesson he learnt through his social experiment.

I have to admit my Gen Z nature initially found the introduction a bit cheugy with its commentary on 2010s social media discourse. As someone who grew up with social media and the internet its easy to roll your eyes at people complaining about how the internet has ruined social communication or the dystopian disconnect it fosters in such doomsday tones.

But continuing on as Marron's points began to mature and develop with thoughtful anectdotes and statistics i began to understand where he was coming from.

This book is an ode to conversation and specifically the type of revolutionary discourse that has been  birthed, spread, commodified, and demeaned in today's internet central society. His social experiment calls to a return or rather an acceptance into our lives healthy understanding and communication of political and social ideas. Not in a passive or domineering way but with a firmness in both advocating for equality and respect for all.

Great listen absolutely would recommend.
Eragon by Christopher Paolini

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 47%.
Damn was this dense. Sorry to the fans wish I had the energy to commit to such a mental marathon but just don't think the characters story or world is worth it. Props to Christopher for his insane work ethic tho🔥