Jessica
Delectable. Very stick to the ribs!
The food descriptions made me so. so hungry. Very very American Psycho meets IDEK what is the best foodie book there is.
Minor quibble, she did not do her research on the human / medical part of things. THE ESOPHOGUS DOES NOT HAVE RINGS. THAT IS THE TRACHEA!
Not as good as Fleishman, but still a good read. No sympathetic characters. One small but very good twit. One annoying deus ex machina. Definitely of a very specific time and place. Highly recommend reading her NYT piece that came out right around publication day (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/07/magazine/kidnapping-long-island.html). That is not to be missed.
Excellent sequel to The Dispatcher. Zach Quinto is a great narrator. Would make a great tv series. Will polish off third installment shortly, I am sure.
Took me quite a while to finish this. Very contemplative. I thought I would be put off by the religiosity that is inescapable as a preacher writes a letter for his future son knowing that he is dying, but it was literally never preachy. And the reflections really transcended any particular religion and asked only that you appreciate the beauty and gift of life. Really lovely. Not sure I will rush to read the follow-ups, but definitely parts of this book will stick with me as I strive to have more gratitude and peacefulness in my own life.
So hard to remember that most of these stories are EIGHTY years old. (Until they are horrified about trashing $30K on a robot – like that is some astronomical sum!) Lots of food for thought here, though. (Revised rating to 3 because I want to give myself more space on the upper end.)
If you loved The Martian, Project Hail Mary will not disappoint. Devoured it in just over a day. Same ebb and flow of life-threatening problems being scienced the shit out of.
I did have a few annoyances: 1) I had to suppress my frustration with the abundance of unexamined misogyny in the author. (Does the woman who has CERN bending to her will really need you to explain cosmic rays to her???) 2) I could have done without soooo much mental math being explained to me. 3) all the engineering was just deux ex machina-ed by one particular compound, but the engineer is such a delight that this is minor quibbling. No question at all who the real hero is. ;) 4) Last grumble – I thought the gravity on Erid was 29g....
All that said, it is an awesome, happy, hopeful read.
Not for me. Too exactly for me...? Idk.
Maybe because I am/have been so terminally online; most of it literally just felt like scrolling through Twitter (X / the portal / Facebook). Or maybe scrolling through my own posts and likes from 2016. Hard to understand who the intended audience is. Me? I know at least 90% of those references. I remember experiencing them in real time; they are mostly just bleak to me now. The non-terminally online? Would they even understand any of it?? Maybe it is just because I am actively trying to wean myself from the phrenetic, disjointed stream of information that it just was exactly not what I needed.
However, the style worked much better in the last third when it gets more personal and poetic. As gently as I can, this was also not for me – for a host of completely different reasons. Not the least of which is that it all hits different after June 2022 than it probably did in 2021. But I suspect that, for many, it is a pretty exquisite expression of a very particular experience of love and grief. Here, the quick vignettes may be the only way to hold the multitudes.
And perhaps that is only born out the the experience of living in the Portal.
4.5 Not entirely sure how I got through this book in one piece. So many triggers and fears in one psychological thriller. Multi-generational trauma. Issues with reality-testing. Abandonment issues. Profound maternal failure. And while the basic premise feels far fetched, the emotional resonance is so so real.
Probably a 4.5. Fluffy, but satisfying.
Life (and love):
“The ending doesn't matter. What matters is how we get there. To face what's ahead with as much dignity as we can muster and make the most of the time we have left.”
Every mother ever:
“My heart is so much more than it once was, even if it now beats outside my chest.”
These little essays stared into my soul. Now adding to my to-read list: everything ever written by [a:Zadie Smith 2522 Zadie Smith https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1478188567p2/2522.jpg] and [b:Meditations 1168191 Meditations Marcus Aurelius https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1383681793l/1168191.SY75.jpg 31010].
Really, really good. Going to read [b: The Candy House 58437521 The Candy House Jennifer Egan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1642351487l/58437521.SY75.jpg 86707532] soon for sure. Winesburg, Ohio-like collection of stories/vignettes/snapshots. Each one definitely stands on its own, but is tempered by what has come before.
My terminal online-ness for the last decade made it so there were very few of the modern anecdotes with which I was not already familiar. There were some historical stories that were new. The story about Onesimus blew me away. I will try to forever remember his name in place of Edward Jenner's. So many POC and women (Rosalind Franklin, Vivien Thomas, Katherine Johnson are the ones I know simply because their stories have been popularized) whose contributions have been suppressed because of caste. I wonder if we will ever escape it?
Which is the question that is never quite answered. Can we escape it? Or is the in-group/out-group drive (which (I think) underpins the creation of caste) ultimately inescapable? I hope not.
5 full stars. Loved all the points of view. Other times I might find it distracting or become impatient for the plot to move forward, but like [b:Night Wherever We Go 61054121 Night Wherever We Go Tracey Rose Peyton https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1658243344l/61054121.SY75.jpg 96220119], the multiple viewpoints insists that you see everyone as central to their own story. The righteous hatred of the toubab is never trivialized, but just lives and breathes right next to a desire to live. Recommend.
So. Good. Just so good. Such incredible storytelling. Beautiful symmetry and mirroring. Foils on foils. Rich Louisiana culture. Truthful, subtle time-setting in the 60's - 80's. Explorations of racism, classism, sexism, white privilege. Absolutely none of it heavy-handed. Basically couldn't put it down.
Probably just not my genre, but did not engage me. Characters poorly developed. Had it been any longer, would have been a DNF.
Of all the books I read this month, this was my favorite. Each story stood well on its own but was so informed by what came through the generations. Each story adding to my understanding of the history and the breadth and depth of the repercussions of the African slave trade. 10/10 recommend.
Very, very YA. But for a teenager in the 90's somehow. Quick, quick read, could make a cute series. Probably won't read the sequel.
Really 4.5, but I feel like I give too many 5s, and it starts to lose its meaning. That said...
Book is so good. The writing is so good. Premise definitely strains credulity, but within the construct, it is just excellent. The details are just great. Perfect and not presumptuous. Never feel pretentious or contrived or stuffed in there because the author is so self-satisfied with their mastery of ‘the craft”. Did not at all suffer from that so common first person, I am going to be guiltily responsible for shit that is not my fault at all. In part because the main character just does not do a lot of self-reflection (and DAMN does she need to), but also because what she does think feels really really real.
Protagonist needs therapy. Badly. Husband is a self-absorbed alcoholic douche bag. Wife is on the spectrum (there is an entire nother book written from her point of view). And Akila is the most whole, sane person in the story.
Two most unrealistic details: 1) where is this mythical Urgent Care where you can waltz in and get a D&C??? 2) What faceless unknown new roommate in the Gen Z age bracket has a record player lying around?
