roguecoyote's reviews
14 reviews

Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936-1949 by Siegfried Knappe

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

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

4.5

Black Edelweiss by Johann Voss

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challenging dark informative slow-paced

3.5

The Dying Days of the Third Reich: German Accounts from World War II by Christian Huber

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dark informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

The Woman at the Front by Lecia Cornwall

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sad tense 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

2.5

After the 500th time reading "you can't do x you're a woman" I was rolling my eyes in boredom - like okay we get it already, can we please move on. Not high art and struggles with repetitive sequences (see above) but otherwise a light, fun read for historical fiction fans.
Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky

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dark hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A very touching novel with such incredibly vivid writing and characterization, with a rare and poignant sense of insight from someone experiencing the times. It's hard to put into words how powerful it feels to read this work knowing the author, a Ukrainian Jew, was later interned and killed at a Nazi concentration camp... it's incomplete and was almost never published. I feel we owe her the respect of keeping her work alive and remembered.
Fatherland by Robert Harris

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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? Yes

2.75

The main character is definitely an authorial self insert and the characterization feels very dated to the era it was written, but... I have to admit it was a lot of fun to read and I was hooked by the suspense. A bit like potato chips for the brain.
Epidemics: The Impact of Germs and Their Power Over Humanity by Joshua Loomis

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challenging dark informative slow-paced

3.0

I read this for a university course about historical outbreaks and their effect on shaping science, healthcare, society and population fluctuations. I appreciate that the author uses a humanist approach to history while bringing in a scientific perspective. That being said, it's not completely accurate and he sometimes overly relies on anecdotal evidence to make a point that would be better served by acknowledging ambiguity. This is especially apparent when touching on colonialism in the Americas, which neglects to include Indigenous scholarship. 
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

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adventurous dark funny reflective fast-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

3.0