loves_nurse's reviews
137 reviews

If You Can't Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury by Geraldine DeRuiter

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slow-paced

3.25

Her writing is enjoyable and her takes on the world around her are poignant and funny mostly. She acknowledges her privledge and gives Black and Brown people credit where it's due, and over it's am alright book. Her comments on The Whole 30 kinda pissed me off, for it shows that she doesn't understand the deeper meaning of what that program can achieve. But overall a nice essay read that is more lively and entertaining like her on Twitter was many moons ago.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker

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challenging emotional 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

5.0

Beautiful writing and the simple yet identifiable way in which the sisters communicate with the world. 
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

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challenging slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

So I can appreciate the voice in which this is told, albeit it feels pompous and extra as compared to current takes on tale-tellings. It's much shorter than I anticipated, yet parts did drag on with the characters worrying about. 
My next read will be Mary Reilly and I felt it important to have read this first.
Beren and Lúthien by J.R.R. Tolkien

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adventurous slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Another deep lore and histories of Middle earth. Parts of stories cobbled together by both father and son Tolkein.  Beautiful symbiosis.
The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen

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adventurous fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Entertaining story of a girl manipulated her whole life to become a spy, then onces she is the spy, she starts to realize the complicated truth and go against her ingrained beliefs to save her kingdoms. Ends on a sorta-clifhanger. Will have to start the next book to find out.
The Fall of Gondolin by J.R.R. Tolkien

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

For the deep dive reader. A heavy tome, not quite finished, yet the story of beginning of middle earth.  Told with voices from both father and son Tolkein. A masterful feat considering how deep into the Lore that they both lived.
Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

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adventurous challenging medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I had some good times reading when Lewis was letting us get to know the characters but it felt so narrow-focused, even from Ransom's view.  Not sure it is as epic as it takes itself to be.
Belonging: A Culture of Place by bell hooks

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challenging emotional inspiring slow-paced

4.75

This book held so many moments for me, growing up in a similar yet not the same situations in begining of community life.

She moves back and I am both at odds and agreement with that decision if I were to do the same. I love that bell hooks can bring me into the story that isn't mine and have me empathizing from all angles.

Walking by Henry David Thoreau

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slow-paced

2.0

Felt privledged and pompous and then I don't know what was going on in the last 25%. I should re-read this before giving it a proper judgement. 
Mary Poppins and the House Next Door by P.L. Travers

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lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

This Mary Poppins tale is a short one. There is some really dated scenarios. Mr. Banks old nanny Miss Andrew re-appears in the neighbirhood. She appears with a tiny child servant named Luti. He's described as brown and while everyone else is very white, there are overt tones to India and Britian and how the dynamic of the two counties is seen thru the lens of colonialism. But everyone makes friends with Luti and Mary Poppins helps him escape his servant life back to his own country.
It feels very dated and there is questionable language use as far as names of people's. Mary Poppins isn't the main star of this book like her other books.