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critterbox

I spend too much time reading academic papers while my creative side shrinks. This is an effort to wake her back up :^)

72 points

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Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
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Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years
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Post from the Famesick forum

1d
  • Famesick
    The Privilege of an Artist's Child
    spoilers

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  • critterbox wrote a review...

    1d
  • Famesick
    critterbox
    Aug 05, 2026
    Famesick
    4.5
    Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 4.0Characters: Plot: 4.5Audiobook: 5.0

    I went into this book a Lena Dunham skeptic, and I'm proud to say that I (she) changed my mind. I had a blast listening to Dunham read her work aloud. Even if I had not listened to Famesick as an audiobook, I would have heard Lena Dunham's voice in my head, not because I'm very familiar with her, but because she has an incredible knack for prose and painting a scene to be exactly how she saw it.

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  • critterbox finished a book

    1d
    Famesick

    Famesick

    Lena Dunham

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    critterbox DNF'd a book

    2w
    Atmosphere

    Atmosphere

    Taylor Jenkins Reid

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    critterbox started reading...

    2w
    Famesick

    Famesick

    Lena Dunham

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    critterbox is interested in reading...

    3w
    The Calamity Club

    The Calamity Club

    Kathryn Stockett

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    critterbox commented on ribbits's review of The Martian

    3w
  • The Martian
    ribbits
    May 24, 2026
    The Martian
    3.0
    Enjoyment: 3.0Quality: 2.5Characters: 2.5Plot: 2.5
    👨‍🚀
    🥔
    🚀

    📱

    I was mostly annoyed at this book to be honest. Once again a male genius main character that sometimes does stupid things or to whom something happens, so that everything doesn't go too smoothly. The writing is easily digestible and there are funny moments. I also started enjoying this book more once there were other POVs than the main characters log entries (even if it was just an omniscient third person POV describing what happens to Watney on Mars). I think what annoyed me the most was the portrayal of how a German astronaut speaks English. Instead of using the English "yes" he always said the German "ja" when giving an affirmative. A German astronaut would probably not speak English like this. A little faulty grammar is fine, but that was annoying, it's like the author didn't trust the reader to pick up on the fact that this character was German the first time it was mentioned. This lack of trust towards the reader to pick up the gravity of a situation or anything else that was relevant for the story was quite present throughout the whole book, and annoyed me a lot. Despite my annoyance I enjoyed this somewhat.

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    3w
  • The Martian
    critterbox
    Jul 10, 2026
    The Martian
    3.0
    Enjoyment: 3.5Quality: 3.0Characters: 2.5Plot: 4.5

    The concept behind The Martian grabbed me immediately. The loneliest man in the universe. More isolated than anyone before him. The title itself leads the reader to believe this is a tale of a man made other. I expected him to struggle to come to terms with life alone. I expected a hard fought journey and a rewarding emotional payoff.

    Suffice it to say, I was deeply disappointed by the reality. Andy Weir had this incredible idea about a man alone in space and seemed to totally forget about the man. The plot is compelling and keeps you on the line to see how the main character will survive all of these little issues, but it does little more with the main character besides emphasizing how he’s just some dork figuring out space. Weir was so lost in mastering believable science sci-fi that he seemed to forget to develop any semblance of backstory for Mark. This is not a human story set in space, but a science story featuring a human.

    This isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy the book. I finished it in a week because I wanted to see what would happen next to Mark. I just think this was extremely overhyped.

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  • critterbox is interested in reading...

    7w
    Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women

    Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women

    Susan Faludi

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    critterbox made progress on...

    10w
    Atmosphere

    Atmosphere

    Taylor Jenkins Reid

    20%
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    critterbox started reading...

    10w
    Atmosphere

    Atmosphere

    Taylor Jenkins Reid

    0
    0
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    critterbox finished reading and wrote a review...

    57w
  • Sunrise on the Reaping
    critterbox
    Jul 03, 2025
    Sunrise on the Reaping
    3.5
    Enjoyment: 4.5Quality: 3.5Characters: 3.5Plot: 3.0

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