Kallia

Jolly good fun, interesting enough to keep reading - not so interesting you can't put it down. The romance angle was unnecessary especially given that the author clearly understands that social bonds can be powerful and meaningful without a romantic tilt. That said it's not egregious and is more of a footnote in the story than a main theme, so it's manageable. Sort of cabin in the woods meets reality competition.

Very well written. This book does an excellent job of weaving together the history and movements of this family with the history and opinions of the the places they inhabited. I found moments a bit bogged down in history of politics in rural Alaska, but that's about the only complaint I could muster for it. Wildly interesting, very heartbreaking.

This is not really a book I would ordinarily pick up based on content. But after reading God of the Woods I was starving for more of Liz Moore's way of constructing prose and articulating stories. The characters are so believable, there's so much depth and reality to the people and stories she creates. This book did not disappoint.

I found this book incredibly frustrating. It took until about 3/4 of the way through for it to become a story. Before that it felt like a contextless jumble of experiences. If I hadn't been at work with nothing else to do I probably would have stopped listening. That said, coming to the end I am mildly intrigued by the world that's created here and the rules of it. But wading through this writing style leaves me unlikely to pick up anything else by this author. If you like narration and writing without a lot of detail or context, this is for you.

The sectioning and chapter breaks are a little confusing and seemingly arbitrary. Safina has a lot of good things to say, but the organization leaves a bit to be desired within the sections themselves. Overall still an enchanting look into the cultural lives of a few of nature's most beloved animals.

Moore writes in such a captivating and starkly human way, I think I'll slurp up any story she puts out regardless of genre. The weaving together of these interlocking stories is done so artfully, you feel like you're discovering them yourself. Shines a dark light on the realities of humanity, and the way every moment ties inexorably into every other moment - even when you think they don't matter.

The first piece of horror media in a long time that has made me physically uncomfortable. Outbreak meets lord of the flies, if both of those things were cranked up to a hundred. A harrowing story that manages to find the soft pieces of humanity in an impossible situation. While also being deeply upsetting, a page turner to be sure - but avoid if you're squeamish.

An absolutely beautiful layout of the way plant science is coalescing into something completely new and unexplored. The way we look at the world around us is starting to change - perhaps to change back to a way it already had been in the past - but to change nonetheless. This feels like a spiritual exploration of the fact that plants are people too. Not humans, but people.

Honestly it's a bit of a hodge podge. A fun read the way a bad movie can be fun, but that's about all the merit I can give it. The plot is all over the place and doesn't seem to have been incredibly well thought through. The actions of the characters often seem motivationless, even when the author is clearly trying to portray their motivations. The story manages to feel all over the place and predictable at the same time, just vaguely interesting enough to get through it. Also, the "romance" in this book is dismal, forced, and unnecessary in an egregious way. The most compelling bits are the small stories within the story.

I don't think this book knew what it was trying to say at any point in the story. I think Kiefer had a vague idea and just ran with it, it feels incredibly first draft. There isn't really a plot so much as a series of events I assume the author thought we'd find shocking. But it's just a jumble of happenings and the dialogue feels like walking on one of those acupressure mats with your brain. There is precisely one likeable character in this book.

This one gets a little lost in the weeds for me compared to the others. It can feel at times like the plot is just rolling over the characters and moving on without addressing the characters themselves and their thought processes throughout. That said, it's still wildly charming and fantastical, I can never find myself upset at L'engle honestly.

This book is so frustrating because it is very captivatingly written, giving you insight into all these characters. It sets up this incredibly thought provoking scenario and manages to toe the line between being an incredibly tough read, but not in a way that makes you want to put it down. You want to follow these characters, move through this world, figure these problems out. And then it just, stops. Not even a cliffhanger, not a mysterious ending, it feels like the author just forgot he was writing a book halfway through the last sentence and left it. Incredibly disappointing and makes it hard to want to recommend the book to anyone ever.

One of the few books I've read that left me misty eyed. If you care for the textile industry and the impact it has on our planet and culture this book is a must-read. The destruction of American textile production in favor of cheaper, easier, more dangerous alternatives is genuinely heartbreaking. The hope is in the people trying to rebuild what we lost, and build it back better.

A bit of a dry read honestly, the narrators keeps stating that everything is horrifying and terrible. But the actual content of the story contains two or three instances of anything happening that could be considered frightening. The rest of the story is a study of what seems like a largely interesting ancient civilization - interspersed of course with the narrators statements of how terrifying it is. Fine to kill a few hours.

A good look into the way language shapes our relationships to groups, mindsets, and each other. I would say this is an incredibly good primer, but not an all encompassing deep dive. It leaves you with a lot of directions to go in if you want to learn more, but a well rounded basic understanding if you don't.

Excellently told, amazing how the author was able to get together so many accounts and weave them into the best understanding of this event were likely to have. Secondarily, I think maybe we should stop thinking of Nantucket and America's whaling history as a heartwarming story of human triumph, and more like a dark stain on human history. These men should not be respected or hailed as heroes for the work they were doing when tragedy struck them.

In the beginning I found myself a bit bogged down by details of specific varieties of moss and it got a little tough to chew through. But Kimmerer has a knack for letting those sections go on just long enough to challenge, without letting them become overwhelming and dense like an academic text. The anecdotes and stories interspersed with her knowledge and love of these little oft-ignored plants creates an enthralling picture of the interconnectedness of life on earth, and the beauty we often take for granted in little details.

The pacing falters a little bit from the first book, some things happen without as much of a satisfying explanation for how and why. But, with how much is in it I suppose it makes sense. Develops the characters and the world very well, and manages to fall into the niche of recognizable fantasy tropes without feeling too familiar, repetitive, or formulaic. A comfortable world to fall into for a while.

An atypical haunted house story with an ending you've seen coming for so long, it works its way back around to being a blunt shock by the finish. No ceremony no fluff. I think where this book really shines is as a commentary on the violence of casual human social cruelty. A harsh story about an anxious woman who's never been made to feel welcome, killed by the ease with which people are content to leave one another out. And maybe, just maybe, a house that wants blood - and induces madness to get it. All I'm all a great quick read, and a book that leaves you turning over its implications in your head.

Honestly would've been a 5 star book until we got to the 7R chapter. Nothing bothers me more than that type of thinking "no one who doesn't have this could EVER understand why I do the things I do, people like me are just so DIFFERENT" Really put me off her as a person, not to mention the section where she talks about being willing to abandon a friend struggling with addiction due to the personal risk. But unwilling to abandon a friend panicking in a cave, guess personal risk isn't a huge problem after all 🙄 just the kind that she thinks is inconvenient and messy. I think the book would have been much better if the last two chapters were dropped off entirely. I quite liked it until then, and now it leaves a sour taste in my mouth.