Finally found and reread Jagua Nana's Daughter, after searching for it for over a year. It was good, but definitely not as epic as I'd remembered.
I've realised one thing from my journey to get back into books (which is probably already obvious to most people): books aren't perfect. They're just like moviesthey can be good but flawed.
I think I've been holding books to a higher standard (maybe because as a kid, I didn't notice the flaws). So I was getting disappointed when I'd reread books by "great" authors and see some instances of poor writing.
But I guess they're just like movies. A great author isn't a perfect author, just like a great director doesn't mean perfect movies.