tlindhorst's reviews
558 reviews

The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke

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challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-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

4.5

This is a printed version of a short story Susanna Clarke wrote for BBC in 2022. It is the story of a woman who might be a saint that no one understood. She loved all animals including spiders that she let nest in her room. She goes into the woods at midwinter and is promised a child, but not a human one. 

The beautiful pen and ink drawings enhance the wistful, melancholy mood. 
Woodworm by Layla Martínez

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is a multigenerational horror story. Caught by abusive men, the women become their own form of monsters. Add in a house that is home to shadows, that hides things behind walls and in cupboards, and the tale is grimmer still. 

I do not know a lot about Spanish history, but I assume the subtext here is the repression during the Franco era. 
Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory

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funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-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

3.75

A solid romance of two independent people meeting and falling in love. Part felt a little too safe and I wished for more setting description. 
Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park

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

3.0

This book is about the friends and lovers of the MC. As a gay man in Korea, he has lots of casual sex, and relationships with two men who are 1) homophobic our 2) distant. It may be that books by US young gay men have similar themes - IDK because I don’t read them. But this book felt like it could have been written in the 1980’s - lots of conservative, self-hating takes on being gay with all the characters. I am ambivalent about this book. 
The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0

This book consists of 52 essays about aspects of the seasons in the author’s area of Tennessee. It is beautifully illustrated by her brother. Renkl weaves her own life experiences through the tapestry of the changing seasons. I read a chapter per week with the seasons. 
There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious 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

This is a book about coming to grips with work life. After suffering burnout in her career, the unnamed narrator is placed into 5 different jobs - watching surveillance footage, writing audio ads for a bus service, writing bon mots for the back of rice cracker packets, hanging up posters, and inhabiting a hut in the midst of a national forest. The heroine struggles with being detached from these jobs, but eventually is sucked into some emotional vortex hidden in the work. A playful thread of possible magical realism lurks under the surface. 
More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-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

3.75

I struggled through the first half of this book until a pivotal scene between 3 of the main characters. Then I read the book very quickly until the end. 

The bookstore as a place that stores past interactions and feelings - lovely metaphor. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

3.5

The story of a neurodivergent woman trying to cope with social and familial pressures to be “normal”.  An idiosyncratic character. 
Japan and the Shackles of the Past by R. Taggart Murphy

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challenging informative sad slow-paced

3.5

This is a dense book of political economy written by a left-of-center economist/political science professor.  Some of the chief claims of the introduction are lost by the end of the book, especially the idea of how Japan and the US are negatively converging. The first chapters are a quick walk through of Japanese social structures prior to the Meiji period (1800’s). The author is clearly immersed in Japan’s politics and economic history from the 1970’s onwards.  Lots of typos. 
Little Book of Seoul Style: The Fashion Story of the Iconic City by Dianne Pineda-Kim

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adventurous informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

An intriguing look inside Korean fashion with a special emphasis on the hanbok. Great pictures of Korean idols and stars are used to illustrate fashion concepts. Just wish it were longer!