mmccombs's reviews
699 reviews

To come to any conclusion other than that capitalism needs to end immediately is just… kind of silly. But I still think the argument Desmond lays out so clearly is worth reading and stewing on. It put a lot of observations in writing that I have not been able to articulate, and I loved that I could see pretty much anyone reading this book and coming out of it having learned something, it was so approachable. I do think he makes some solid suggestions but like geeze, there is no “compassionate” capitalism, especially not in the US, that will end exploitation, racism, and scarcity mindsets, his conclusions just don’t seem to go far enough. I really enjoyed reading this and felt incredibly engaged, I’d recommend this to everyone!

A gayer take on The Holiday? Yeah of course I’m into it! While I don’t leave this wowed or with a new holiday romance favorite, it was solid, cute, and well plotted. I appreciated that there wasn’t forced conflict/breakups, they were just adults who needed a change and started falling in love with new people. There was not much depth, the book pretty much throws you into the main characters swapping houses without much background, and the romances were pretty surface level, though still cute. The writing was just okay, though maybe the narration was a bit lackluster and didn’t do it justice. I’d say this is a romance where Christmas happens in the background, so if you’re looking for something very holiday-y, this might not be exactly what you’re looking for. All in all I’m glad I read this one but don’t imagine it will stick with me.

Just a little liberal American patriotism as a treat! This is not normally my thing, but I gifted it to a relative and wanted to make sure I didn’t give her something totally terrible so I picked up the audiobook. And it was decent! I always enjoy a good fun fact, so in that way it was very enjoyable (very into the small and the mighty pigeon she covered at length in one chapter lol). On the whole though, I felt it was cheesy, I didn’t love the tone (often too casual), and wasn’t organized in a way that made a ton of sense to me (like I think it was chronological but honestly I’m not totally sure). I think the message of “anyone can do one small thing in their sphere of influence to make an impact” is always important, especially in the historical moment we are in right now, and she did often mention that many of these issues were larger/systemic, but still it often felt too simple. And her narration drove me nuts! So I think this is a good choice for a feel-good chronicle of nuggets of history, but I don’t come away from this with any kind of perspective change and don’t think much of it will stay with me.

Absolutely obsessed with this book! The writing was evocative, informative, and totally expansive. I come away from this book with so many new ideas and thoughts. I thought Schlanger did a phenomenal job of outlining ideas that seem kind of outlandish at first glance and making these ideas accessible and something to stew on. I especially appreciated how she showed how the foundations of science, if flawed or just a piece of the whole, can create a snowball effect of misunderstanding or “blindness” to other ways of knowing, which renders ideas of intelligent plant life beyond our grasp. I think reading this in tandem with Braiding Sweetgrass would also be super effective just to provide another layer of understanding and interesting questions about our assumptions about plants. Cannot recommend this one enough, I listened to a library copy but might need to buy a copy for myself!

Usually I try to power through once I get halfway through a book, but each page felt like a chore and despite my best efforts I had to stop. I was just not interested in how this novel would conclude, I didn’t like the writing style, and something about it just made me incredibly annoyed that I can’t really put a finger on. I don’t need to like a character to enjoy a book, but I do have to feel motivated to stay invested in a character’s story (especially when there’s not much of a plot), and that just wasn’t there for me. Maybe I’m totally missing out by bailing before the end, but I feel pretty confident it will just be more of the same.

I kind of didn’t gel with her arguments and felt like the tone was a bit pretentious (like be a minimalist or a maximalist, I don’t care and don’t think it’s that serious). I thought the ideas were interesting, but I didn’t feel very motivated to pick it up after reading the first essay.

The worst crime of this book is that awful cover! I almost didn’t pick this up because the cover art filled me with a deep and kind of surprising anger, but the reviews and it being Christmas made me go for it and I’m glad I did. Very light and fluffy, it was a good balance of a holiday mystery and a cozy romance. It often veered into cheesiness and unbelievable dialogue/plot points, but I had a lot of fun so I let it slide. I would love to see more novels with Maggie and Ethan solving whodunnit mysteries, their chemistry was well done and felt like a love letter to classic mystery novels. And the narration was great! I was very into it and would recommend this as a quick read to start on Christmas Eve!

The first half was riveting, thoughtful, and very compelling, but it kind of lost me by the end. The twists weren’t really all that groundbreaking but still kept the plot suspenseful. I enjoyed the book most when it leaned more lit fic than thriller, the character development was methodically paced and interesting to me until it went off the rails at the end. I generally enjoyed the writing and thought her musings on trauma were nuanced. I was thinking I’d end this book totally wowed by it, but I leave feeling like it was solid but didn’t stick the landing with a rushed, shallow, thriller ending.

I’m unsure what to think of this! There were so many elements happening all at once: magical realism; climate collapse; linked individual stories. I really enjoyed the initial concept of a terrace randomly appearing and thought it would be a much goofier story based on that concept, but it was really quite melancholy and strange. I don’t know if I love where it turned up, especially with the last chapter, but it was definitely an engaging and quick read! I personally did not like the narration of the audiobook, the person’s voice was like gratingly gravely, so I might have liked it more physically because the writing was very sharp and beautiful. I might come back to this review as I think about it more, but I think I liked it?

I usually try to push through short story collections because I like to give them all a chance, but the writing quality of the three stories after the first one was just… not very good and feel like it is likely a representation of what to expect throughout. “Soul Searching” specifically induced multiple eye rolls and finalized my decision to dnf. I like the idea of this anthology, a Palestinian lens on speculative fiction led to compelling themes surrounding memory and home and family, so there are probably other stories I would enjoy. Unfortunately I had too hard of a time with the writing and editing to get through it, maybe I’ll return and give it another shot?