## ----- 5 Star Books ★★★★★ - [[I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings]] by Maya Angelou, 1969 - [[Milkman]] by Anna Burns, 2018 - [[The Grass Is Singing]] by Doris Lessing, 1950 - [[The Color Purple]] by Alice Walker, 1982 - [[Purple Hibiscus]] by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2003 - [[Dream Count]] by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2025 ## ---- 4 Star Books ★★★★☆ - [[My Antonia]] by Willa Cather, 1918 - [[Tar Baby]] by Toni Morrison, 1981 - [[White Teeth]] by Zadie Smith, 2000 - [[Flights]] by Olga Tokarczuk, 2007 - [[The Magic Toyshop]] by Angela Carter, 1967 ## --- 3 Star Books ★★★☆☆ - [[The Age Of Innocence]] by Edith Wharton, 1920 - [[The Driver's Seat]] by Muriel Spark, 1970 - [[The Handmaid's Tale]] by Margaret Atwood, 1985 - All Fours, by Miranda July, 2024 ## -- 2 Star Books ★★☆☆☆ - [[Ordinary People]] by Diana Evans, 2018 - [[My Brilliant Friend]] by Elena Ferrante, 2011 - [[The Death Of Vivek Oji]] by Emezi Akwaeke, 2020 - [[The Vegetarian]] by Han Kang, 2007 ## - 1 Star Books ★☆☆☆☆ - [[Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit]] by Jeanette Winterson, 1985 - [[Normal People]] by Sally Rooney, 2018 - [[His Only Wife]] by Peace Adzo Medie, 2020 - [[Oroonoko]] by Aphra Ben, 1688 --- These book notes, like everything else in here, are about me, _not_ about the books. They're not reviews, they're scribbles on page margins. They're a reflection of who _I_ am, not of what the book is. - I choose what fiction books to read based on the (very subjective) *mood* I get from two things combined: 1. reading random fragments from the book as I flip through it in the library or elsewhere and 2. reading deeply personal half-thoughts from other readers, if I find any. It's important that these other readers are people I know. Not personally, but people I'd heard of, or that I can reasonably place in some kind of context. To me [[all evaluation is interpretation]], so I want to have some sense of their personal aesthetics to run their notes through. Given I'd like to have access to these two things when I decide to what to read, that's also what my own book notes consist of. **Quotes** and **notes**. To which I also add 3. a star rating representing how much I liked the book overall, from 1 star being the worst to 5 stars being the best.