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Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share our bookish wish lists this week. I’m perfectly happy checking books out from the library so I went digging through past prompts for a different topic. I missed “one word reviews of the last ten books I read” (suggested by Susan at Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books) so I’ll attempt that instead. I’m wordy so wish me luck! A couple of these may get me in trouble with some of you. 😕 Just keep in mind these are my personal opinions and I know I’m in the minority in some of them.
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Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison–Confusing
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, read by a cast–Fantastic
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World (Aristotle & Dante #2) by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, read by Lin-Manuel Miranda–Philosophical
Virgil Wander by Leif Enger–Introspective
Thorn (Dauntless Path #1) by Intisar Khanani, read by Shiromi Arserio–Slow
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott–Moralistic
The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time #1) by Robert Jordan–Overwritten
The Last Child (Johnny Merrimon #1) by John Hart, read by Scott Sowers–Intense
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah–Sentimental
Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunus, read by Ray Porter–Inspiring
That’s my list! Have you read any of these? What word would you use to review them? Link up every Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl!
32 Comments
Love these one-word reviews! I agree with you on The Nightingale, but I was the only one in my book group who would! I wonder if the moralizing is why I never loved Little Women, although I wanted to be the Jo character, for sure. I haven’t read any of the others on your list except for The Last Child, and I would agree with intense, too.
I’m glad you agree with the ones you read! I can’t tell you how many times I tried to read Little Women and gave up. I finally finished it for the first time last month. It’s a pretty good story (except that I have always hated sad parts, starting in childhood) but the explicit moral lessons got old for me.
I have Salt to the Sea in my stacks and can’t wait to get to it later this year! I read The Nightingale and would say, “heartbreaking.” This is a challenging meme!
Especially for someone who loves written words as much as I do! I hope you like Salt to the Sea when you read it.
Sentimental is an interesting choice for a descriptor of a book, that could be either good or bad!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/06/21/top-ten-tuesday-373/
That’s exactly why I chose it 😉
🙂
All good word choices! I like the words for the novels I’ve read. Choosing just one word is not easy.
Ha! Moralistic is perfect for Little Women. Moralistic is precisely the reason I was disappointed in it too. Stupid Jo! Lol.
I really want to read Salt to the Sea and Thorn. I’m sad to hear that Thorn is slow. Hopefully, I’ll like it more. I’m sure I’ll love Salt to the Sea. I really love Ruta Sepetys.
I’ve started and stopped Little Women countless times but decided that I was going to finish it this year no matter what. I was surprised by all the moral lessons scattered throughout; I’d forgotten them. I would have liked it more without all of that.
I listened to Thorn so that may be why it felt slow to me. I liked the narrator but there’s no skipping ahead to the next good part in an audiobook. At least not for me.
If you already love Ruta Sepetys like I do, you’ll definitely love Salt to the Sea.
The only one of these I’ve read is Little Women, and it was so long ago that all I remember about it is that I didn’t like it. No idea why.
How is Lin Manuel Miranda as an audiobook narrator? I love him as an actor and songwriter, but I didn’t realize he narrated audiobooks too.
I did a Free Online Fiction post today for TTT
Lin-Manuel Miranda is a fabulous narrator!
I’ve tried to read Little Women countless times over the year. I decided this was the year to finish it. It was better than I recalled but the sermonizing got a little old.
Thanks for the tip on that! This book was on my TBR, but I’ll have to put a note to get the audio version.
Little Women is loved by so many people that I routinely think I should try re-reading it. However, I never find myself interested in picking it up… I think I’ll continue to avoid it.
Great Topic Jen. Here is my post-https://paigesofnovels.wordpress.com/2022/06/21/top-ten-tuesday-2022-releases-i-still-want-to-read-part-1/.
Thanks!
Great wishlist!
Here’s my TTT https://bookishnoomie.blogspot.com/2022/06/top-ten-tuesday-3.html
You’ve read a diverse selection of books recently.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/books-i-wish-i-could-read-now/
I choose my reading challenges to push me out of my comfort zone. I think this list largely reflects May and June challenge reading.
I thought Salt to the Sea was fantastic, too.
I hope to read Virgil Wander and Aristotle and Dante one of these days, and your one word reviews support my decision to do that.
…I really, really would like to send you something from your wishlist, Jen…sigh…
And I appreciate the thought! 🙂
I hope you like them when you read them.
Hi there Jen! Ooooh I loved this TTT!! I will attach a link to mine for you.
I agree with The Nightingale as ‘sentimental’ and Salt to the sea as ‘fantastic’!
Have a wonderful Tuesday!
One Meow Reviews
I’m glad you agree!
Great list, I remember having a lot of fun finding the right word for my top 10. And I enjoyed your one-word reviews although I haven’t read any of these books.
Here is my TTT: https://herseriallife.com/bookish-wishes-10-books-id-love-to-own/
Have great week 🌈
I’ve read two of these books and agree totally with your one word reviews for Little Women and The Nightingale. I loved Little Women when I read it as a child but it was only re-reading it a few years ago that I realised just how moralistic it is – I hadn’t noticed that as a child!
I’ve started and stopped Little Women so many times over the years but I did not remember that at all either. It jumped out at me this time though.
I had a hard time with choosing one word. I kept wanting to qualify my word or explain, or at least use a short phrase.
Great list and I love some of those single words! I did run out of patience with The Eye Of The World and most of Sepetys is fantastic and Salt To The Sea one of her best.
This is my list this week, and a link to the wishlist!
Oh my goodness, The Eye of the World just dragged on and on and on! We started watching the show on Amazon this week so I hope that’s better.
This is a fun topic for sure. I think one word reviews can be quite illuminating, actually, distilling a book down to just one word. I should do these more. 🙂
It was quite the interesting challenge.