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bashsbooks's reviews
207 reviews
Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, a Life in Balance by Simone Biles
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.25
This books is very straightforward, exactly what you would expect it to be. It tracks Biles' life and gymnastics career throught the 2016 Olympics. No surprises, no drama, lots of info on how elite and professional gymnastics work.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Body shaming
Minor: Racism and Medical content
Enchanted: Erotic Bedtime Stories For Women by Nancy Madore
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
This book is silly. It is trying too hard to make the blandest, preachiest hetero smut "feminist" and failing miserable. The blandness comes from none of the sex being particularly subversive - the women are always submissive, always being penetrated, always ultimately for the (handsome) men's gratification despite the author's desperate attempts to convince the reader otherwise. This wouldn't bother me so much if the book did not start with an introduction about how radical the text is - not without even so much as a domme or a pegging scene, you're not. And don't even get me started about the evil lesbian & gay for a man's pleasure story. In its failures to be feminist, it only ends up as condescending - lecturing women about their role in their own oppression, especially if they're sex works, and claiming superiority by avoiding 'profanity and vulgarity,' except of course when it's sexy to call a woman a whore - which, again, wouldn't bother me if there wasn't such a hardline, high-horse stance at the beginning. Avoiding curse words also leaves the sex descriptions weird, vague, and occasionally gross. Pro-tip: it is always better to say cock than to describe a penis as a 'distended member'.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Body shaming
Minor: Death of parent
The graphic stuff is all presented in a sexy way, and it has the same dubious consent that is usually present with power dynamic heavy fantasies.
The Queens' English: The LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases by Chloe O. Davis
Did not finish book. Stopped at 53%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 53%.
I wanted to like this book soooo bad. I went in with the knowledge that no dictionary of queer language is ever going to be perfect, and I appreciated the author's attempts to acknowledge this in the introduction. But as a bi and trans person, reading over and over that words bi and trans people helped create (as we have always been part of the gay and lesbian communities) are being appropriated by the 'wider' LGBTQ+ community from gay men and lesbians... it's simply not true. It's a lack of acknowledgment of our history in those spaces. It is not appropriation in the way white gays stealing from black culture is. Unfortunately, the defintions and explanations in this dictionary are heavily biased - for me, unreadably so.
Solitaire by Alice Oseman
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
fast-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
4.25
That was emotionally ravaging. I don't know what I was expecting... I guess maybe something more smoothed-over like Heartstopper? But I'm glad it isn't. I needed this book when I was a teenager. I'm happy kids have it now.
I've read some of her later work and I can see how she has improved as a writer. But this is a damn good start.
I've read some of her later work and I can see how she has improved as a writer. But this is a damn good start.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Cursing, and Toxic friendship
Bright Dead Things: Poems by Ada Limón
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Limón's poetry is sometimes brain-sparking and illuminating and sometimes a boring slog. I can't quite put my finger on why - I think at times she doesn't accurately balance how much description the reader needs to see where she's going. A lack of images gets fuzzy and vagueness is hard for the mind focus on. That said, I felt that the poems became clearer and her work altogether more understandable the further I read, so perhaps it was intentional.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Alcoholism, Misogyny, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Machado has such a poetic way of writing prose, which is one of my favorite things about reading her work. This memoir is written like no other I've encountered, and it's easy to understand why: in telling sharing her own experience of domestic abuse, Machado is pushing against cultural notions that women cannot hurt each other, that abuse only comes from men, and if queer women admit their queer women partners have hurt them, then they're damaging the community's reputation. In the Dream House does an excellent job grappling with All Of That and more. I've read many stories that feature abuse (both nonfiction and fiction) and none have so radically changed my perception of it as this book has.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Grief
Moderate: Biphobia, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol
Minor: Death, Physical abuse, and Dementia
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-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
5.0
This book is soooo long and the space & energy for writing a review is so short, yet I shall forge on. A Day of Fallen Night is just as incredible as The Priory of the Orange Tree - if not moreso. Although I read Priory over a year ago now, slipping into this prequel was much easier than getting into the first book. The worldbuilding and the lore came back to me quickly, prodded along by the fact that this is meant to be readable as a standalone. Sometimes that quality can be repetative when you read multiple books in the same universe, but here it was just a boon.
A short list of things I liked about this book:
A short list of things I liked about this book:
- Always amuses me that Shannon not only made Fantasy Catholicism but also made it canonically false.
- Addition of nonbinary rep - including nonbinary titles! I love the terms Mastress and Lade.
- Addition of other trans rep - there are at least two trans men & just like the gay relationships, no one bats an eye at them.
- Thrit, I am emotionally invested in this secondary character, he is the best.
- Gay-on-gay-on-gay violence at one of the climaxes
where all the narrators run into each other.
No complaints, 100% recommend, I can't wait for the next book in this universe.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cursing, Infidelity, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, and Colonisation
Minor: Mental illness, Suicide, and Cannibalism
William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope by Ian Doescher
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This is enjoyable for Star Wars fans and Shakespeare fans. I particularly liked the artwork (and would love the Jabba in Shakespearean attire as a print for my wall). The dialogue was cleverly adapted (for the most part) and it was entertaining to the story of A New Hope in a different format. I wish I could watch a staged version of it, to be honest.
That said, I did find R2-D2 speaking in asides to be somewhat grating (it would be fine if he just beeped and whistled), and some of the Shakespeare references felt jarring, forced, and out of place. The worst reference offender was the "Poor Yorick" scene from Hamlet adapted into Luke and a stormtrooper helmet for no apparent reason other than to reference an actual Shakespeare play - this would be fine if it didn't totally take me out of the play, but it did.
That said, I did find R2-D2 speaking in asides to be somewhat grating (it would be fine if he just beeped and whistled), and some of the Shakespeare references felt jarring, forced, and out of place. The worst reference offender was the "Poor Yorick" scene from Hamlet adapted into Luke and a stormtrooper helmet for no apparent reason other than to reference an actual Shakespeare play - this would be fine if it didn't totally take me out of the play, but it did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Grief, and War
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, and Death of parent
Minor: Incest, Misogyny, and Sexism
It has all the same things that the movie A New Hope has in it.
Have I Told You This Already?: Stories I Don't Want to Forget to Remember by Lauren Graham
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.75
Lauren Graham is funny and entertaining, but I wouldn't call her writing revolutionary or unique - she has a very typical Quirky Person approach and not-so-deep takes on some basic women's... I wouldn't even say issues as much as typically feminine topics. I liked Graham as an actress before I picked up the book, which helped with my interest in it, but I don't know if it would be enjoyable if one did not already know of her..
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Cancer, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Death of parent
The body shaming, eating disorder, and fatphobia tags are not the most accurate to what I'm trying to warn against, but they're the closest - she references the body standards for women in Hollywood several times, talks about fad diets and juice cleanses, and there is an essay about "health retreats" that limit food in-take and encourage a lot of exercising. Most discussion is jokey and light.
Becoming by Michelle Obama
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
This is an exquisitely written and narrated memoir. I do think it's funny that she doesn't think of herself as a politician when she's the most politically active First Lady I've seen in my lifetime, and I find her brand of respectability politics not relatable, but I understand where both of these things are coming from. Also, I deeply respect that she didn't want her husband to become a politician for personal reasons, I would also not be pleased if my partner wanted to do that. Overall, I found her very down-to-Earth and her story extremely interesting. Would recommend.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, and Medical content
Minor: Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and War