I’m trying to avoid characterizing my reaction to the novel as just “meh.” But it was genuinely almost completely meh. Except I’m starting to understand that it isn’t Murakami without at least one totally bizarre sex scene.  Norwegian Wood was so much more tolerable than 1Q84 by the same author, but I still wasn’t wowed, […]

I’ve seen Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo gracing a lot of readers’ favorites lists, so I was really excited to read this 1,243-page novel. Everyone says that the length shouldn’t be daunting because the book is so entertaining that the pages just fly by. Unfortunately, I won’t be adding this to my Favorites shelf, […]

I guess I can maybe see why this novel is so hyped. The short four-stories-within-a-story structure isn’t entirely mainstream, and each story was designed to tug at the heart strings. And it satisfies a very common self-indulgent fantasy that we all have experienced about going back in time to change something or heal something inside […]

I was on the verge of DNF’ing Babel by R. F. Kuang so many times. I don’t know what compelled me to finish; I seem incapable of DNF’ing a book any longer. I have no idea how this book is so hyped and awarded. It’s the worst book I’ve read so far this year.  I […]

“…my lies, those lies born of pity, had made her happy; and to make a person happy could never be a crime…a lie that made others happy was more important than truth itself.” Or was it? In Beware of Pity, Stefan Zweig explores this question and comes squarely on the side that unless it’s entirely […]

Emily Henry’s Book Lovers is good for a romance novel. I understand why she’s popular. The genre of feel-good rom-coms is just not my favorite for books. I prefer it in films. I’ve yet to read a feel-good, non-literary fiction romance novel that I couldn’t find faults with and didn’t get annoyed by. I wish […]

After reading, I felt like I had to write things down in order to process it, so this post will be split in half: an in-depth summary and the review.  Summary Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling was largely written as a response to a prevalent philosophical theory at the time expounded by Hegel, who believed that […]

This short novel is broken up into two sections, titled Franny and Zooey respectively. Shocking given the title of the book, I know. I think they were originally published separately as a short story and novella. I really liked Franny’s section. If the entire book was like it, my impression of the book might be […]

I read The Handmaid’s Tale and then almost immediately forgot about it. It was an enjoyable read to a degree, but I didn’t find the book profound or the world particularly well-conceptualized. For me, it was more of a fever dream world than a poignant or prophetic dystopian world. It’s not nearly as timeless or […]

Adored it. Loved it. Murdered by it. I was so taken in by these characters. I think the women in the Epanchin family and Nastasya Fillippovna are the best female characters in classic Russian literature that I’ve read.* Lizaveta P in particular has my heart with her direct manner and a heart that’s quick to […]