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ladislara's reviews
91 reviews
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
- 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
4.75
Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brené Brown
challenging
emotional
reflective
4.75
Doramar ou a Odisseia by Itamar Vieira Junior
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
- 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
4.75
I’m not much of a short stories kind of person but this book captivated me from the first page. In the first story, The Forest of Farewell, we meet Luís and Rosa, who grew up together under the generous wings of several mothers and aunts and now, separated by a fence, desire each other from a distance.
In an award-winning short story called The Executioner’s Prayer, Vieira Jr. talks about a man whose job is to execute other men. The character finds himself at a loss when he has to kill a poet condemned by his verses.
There’s still another story, called Alma, about a woman who escapes slavery, travelling for weeks on foot through the jungle, in search of a place to rebuild herself, after stealing her mistress’ fine dress.
Read full review - https://larissaveloso.com/2024/10/16/...
In an award-winning short story called The Executioner’s Prayer, Vieira Jr. talks about a man whose job is to execute other men. The character finds himself at a loss when he has to kill a poet condemned by his verses.
There’s still another story, called Alma, about a woman who escapes slavery, travelling for weeks on foot through the jungle, in search of a place to rebuild herself, after stealing her mistress’ fine dress.
Read full review - https://larissaveloso.com/2024/10/16/...
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism and Slavery
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
adventurous
funny
inspiring
4.75
This is the memoir of Beryl Markham, the first woman to cross the Atlantic East-to-West in a non-stop solo flight, and the first pilot to ever do so departing from England. And she did it in 1936.
But she’s so much more than that. At 17 she was a horse trainer, building a business pretty much on her own and competing in races. At 13 she would escape her house to go hunting wild boar with the local tribesmen. At 6 or so, she survived a lion attack. On top of all that, she is a talented writer, being envied even by Ernest Hemingway, who confessed in a letter that he was “completely ashamed of myself as a writer” after reading her book.
Read the full review: https://larissaveloso.com/2024/10/09/...
But she’s so much more than that. At 17 she was a horse trainer, building a business pretty much on her own and competing in races. At 13 she would escape her house to go hunting wild boar with the local tribesmen. At 6 or so, she survived a lion attack. On top of all that, she is a talented writer, being envied even by Ernest Hemingway, who confessed in a letter that he was “completely ashamed of myself as a writer” after reading her book.
Read the full review: https://larissaveloso.com/2024/10/09/...
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
adventurous
informative
inspiring
sad
- 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
4.5
One of the most surprising things I’ve learned this year of reading more Asian books is the impact that Japan’s imperialism had in East Asia. Pachinko is the third book I read in which this is a central element.
In Min Jin Lee’s best-seller book, we follow 4 generations of Koreans in their search for belonging. It all starts in the 1910s in a small village near Busan, in what is now South Korea. Yangjin is a hard-working woman who makes a living managing a lodging house with her husband Hoonie and her daughter Sunja. During that time, Japan annexed Korea, and many of the area’s residents were caught in the economic downfall that followed.
Full Review: https://larissaveloso.com/2024/10/02/...
In Min Jin Lee’s best-seller book, we follow 4 generations of Koreans in their search for belonging. It all starts in the 1910s in a small village near Busan, in what is now South Korea. Yangjin is a hard-working woman who makes a living managing a lodging house with her husband Hoonie and her daughter Sunja. During that time, Japan annexed Korea, and many of the area’s residents were caught in the economic downfall that followed.
Full Review: https://larissaveloso.com/2024/10/02/...
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
adventurous
funny
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Stone Blind tells the well-known story of Medusa, the gorgon that could turn people into stone with just a look. But instead of depicting her as a terrible monster, she shows her humanity, as well as that of her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The fate of Medusa can be interpreted in many different ways, but I like the author’s choice to depict her as a girl who was loved by her family and fell victim to terrible crimes.
Perseus, contrary to the traditional myth that depicts him as a hero, is shown as a spoiled idiot boy who could not have pulled the feat without constant assistance from Hermes and Athena. The interactions between the three of them are hilarious and permeated with all the sarcasm that the British sense of humour requires. By the way, Haynes’ narration of the audiobook is awesome.
Full Review: https://larissaveloso.com/2024/09/25/...
Perseus, contrary to the traditional myth that depicts him as a hero, is shown as a spoiled idiot boy who could not have pulled the feat without constant assistance from Hermes and Athena. The interactions between the three of them are hilarious and permeated with all the sarcasm that the British sense of humour requires. By the way, Haynes’ narration of the audiobook is awesome.
Full Review: https://larissaveloso.com/2024/09/25/...
She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore
Gbessa is a cursed girl, living in the village of Lai in West Africa. June Dey is the surviving baby of two enslaved Africans on a plantation in Virginia, North America. Norman Aragon is the mixed child of a fugitive Maroon slave and a British colonizer in Jamaica. Each one of them possesses strange supernatural abilities, and destiny leads them to meet in the settlement of Monrovia, in what would become Liberia.
Those are the characters that the author, Wayétu Moore, decided to create to illustrate the incredible story of the foundation of Liberia, the only Black state in Africa never subjected to colonial rule.
I had heard about Haiti, the first Black Republic, but never knew about Liberia’s history until now. The country was founded by former American slaves who bought land in West Africa with the goal of establishing a new country. This was mainly done through an organization called the American Colonization Society (ACS), composed mainly of White Americans who believed that the men and women recently freed from slavery in the United States could not be integrated into American society and should be sent back to Africa.
It’s not clear if the ACS had completely good intentions or if their acts were based on even more racist theories, but the book doesn’t shy away from this controversy.
* Click here for the full review.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
- 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
4.5
The period is the early 1800s.
Gbessa is a cursed girl, living in the village of Lai in West Africa. June Dey is the surviving baby of two enslaved Africans on a plantation in Virginia, North America. Norman Aragon is the mixed child of a fugitive Maroon slave and a British colonizer in Jamaica. Each one of them possesses strange supernatural abilities, and destiny leads them to meet in the settlement of Monrovia, in what would become Liberia.
Those are the characters that the author, Wayétu Moore, decided to create to illustrate the incredible story of the foundation of Liberia, the only Black state in Africa never subjected to colonial rule.
I had heard about Haiti, the first Black Republic, but never knew about Liberia’s history until now. The country was founded by former American slaves who bought land in West Africa with the goal of establishing a new country. This was mainly done through an organization called the American Colonization Society (ACS), composed mainly of White Americans who believed that the men and women recently freed from slavery in the United States could not be integrated into American society and should be sent back to Africa.
It’s not clear if the ACS had completely good intentions or if their acts were based on even more racist theories, but the book doesn’t shy away from this controversy.
* Click here for the full review.
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
4.75
“Knife” is the book telling Rushdie journey of physical recovery after the attack and coming to terms with what happened. And that’s where the book shines. Because you see, Rushdie could have written a long rant on how religious intolerance is destroying the world and the injustice of living with a death sentence hanging over your head for something you wrote. But instead, he wrote a love story.
The main character of the book, other than himself, is not the attacker (who he refuses to name) or the people who wanted him dead, but his wife, the also writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths. He describes how she, her family and Rushdie’s sons stayed by his side during the most critical moments, when not even the doctors thought he was going to make it. As she wrote it herself for The Guardian, “Ours was a love story, not an attempted murder story”.
He retells the story of how they met, the life they had built together and how happy they make each other. As he describes her strength, character and unconditional love towards him, you can’t help but fall in love with her a little bit. So Rushdie ended up performing this surprising magic trick in which a book about a terrible and violent attack born out of hate and intolerance leaves the reader in the end with a little bit more love towards the world. And it’s hard to demonize a man who just wants to live in peace with his loved one.
* Click here for the full review.
The main character of the book, other than himself, is not the attacker (who he refuses to name) or the people who wanted him dead, but his wife, the also writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths. He describes how she, her family and Rushdie’s sons stayed by his side during the most critical moments, when not even the doctors thought he was going to make it. As she wrote it herself for The Guardian, “Ours was a love story, not an attempted murder story”.
He retells the story of how they met, the life they had built together and how happy they make each other. As he describes her strength, character and unconditional love towards him, you can’t help but fall in love with her a little bit. So Rushdie ended up performing this surprising magic trick in which a book about a terrible and violent attack born out of hate and intolerance leaves the reader in the end with a little bit more love towards the world. And it’s hard to demonize a man who just wants to live in peace with his loved one.
* Click here for the full review.
The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer
The Collected Regrets of Clover is the first fiction book of Australian writer and journalist Mikki Brammer. We follow the story of Clover, a woman in her late 30s living in New York and working as a death doula.
And what kind of profession is that, you might ask. According to the Cleveland Clinic website, “Birth doulas and death doulas function like two sides of the same coin”. While the traditional type of doula assists people and families at the moment when new life is coming to the world, a death doula helps people and families when someone is leaving this world.
*Click here for the full review.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Do you have a difficult relationship with death? If you do, this book is for you.
The Collected Regrets of Clover is the first fiction book of Australian writer and journalist Mikki Brammer. We follow the story of Clover, a woman in her late 30s living in New York and working as a death doula.
And what kind of profession is that, you might ask. According to the Cleveland Clinic website, “Birth doulas and death doulas function like two sides of the same coin”. While the traditional type of doula assists people and families at the moment when new life is coming to the world, a death doula helps people and families when someone is leaving this world.
*Click here for the full review.
The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus by Margaret Atwood
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0