Laura
The Wreck of HMS Speedy lays down a detailed picture of life in Upper Canada in the early 1800s. There are a lot of well-sourced facts and stories of people connected to the HMS Speedy disaster, but there are also a lot of creative liberties that seem to be taken to create more of a story for the reader. I didn't mind that but some people might.
After the wreck we fast-forward to recent history, of the efforts to find and uncover the mystery behind the wreck of the Speedy. I was a bit disappointed to find that not much really has been solved or discovered. It all bakes down to “we'll never truly know, but we're fairly confident”.
An insightful read, more about the life and times of people in York than information regarding the Speedy or its disaster. I was left feeling a bit underwhelmed after so much detailed backstory leading up to the actual Speedy voyage. I guess that's sort of how history works though.
If there exists a love letter to India, this would be the opposite. A Burning follows 3 characters whose lives are intertwined, dealing with the grittiest and worst aspects of Indian society.
There are extremely gripping and harrowing events in this book that leave you pitying the characters instead of rooting for them. All three characters aim to work their way up in social class, only to be battered down again and again by the system if they don't get extremely lucky or cheat it somehow.
I acclimated to the writing style, and the use of different tenses helped separate the voices of the 3 narrators. However, the writing style didn't lend itself well to the story or help me envision the characters better. It just ends up being a bit annoying to read, and limits the nuance of each character.
Overall, it was an entertaining (albeit horrifying) read that paints the Indian government and society in a single dark stroke.
Insight into a cop's wet dream. Bang some babes at 7 o'clock, pursue a psycho murderer at 9.
The plot was enough to keep me interested, but the characters were all pretty underdeveloped to the point where I forgot which babe's house Lucas was at halfway through a chapter. The Maddog murderer started off strong but kind of felt too lucky and less cunning as the story went on. There was too much time spent on making Lucas look like a super cool, sexy, aloof badass, that the actual crime solving felt underwhelming.
The overall resolution felt too easy and unjustified for it to feel satisfying.
Going to give this one a big YIKES. I'm sure this book was really groundbreaking in 1880, with the rudimentary explanation of alternate dimensions being before its time. That's the only merit I can give this book; it hasn't aged well.
There's no real story, let alone the so-called “Romance of Many Dimensions.” The promised humour was nowhere to be found and the scientific and mathematic logic was lacking, even for a layman of the 21st century. When I wasn't scratching my head at inconsistencies and broken logic, I was rolling my eyes at the misogyny, classism and racism (shapism?)
The author took barely any time explaining the mathematical or scientific rules of the world and instead focused solely on the society of Flatland. He went out of his way to tell readers that he wasn't about to explain how the world works; how they can walk or communicate, what they eat or how their language works. However the author found it important to spend chapters (yes, chapters) explaining that the women in Flatland are mindless, yet somehow overly emotional, beings that could accidentally kill you by walking into you at the wrong angle, and who must use separate doors and hum while they walk.
Promised to be a fun, humourous science fiction classic, got a 2-dimensional dystopian with heavy incel vibes. If you're interested in learning about spatial dimensions, find a 10 minute Youtube video on it and skip this tragedy.
This book is praised as one of the best introductory readings for new ad people, and I understand why. The book is packed with tricks, tips, and life lessons from the ad world. That being said...
The book is packed with tangents and redundant quotes that remind me of a college student trying to reach a word count and show that they “read the material” in an essay. Sullivan fills a good quarter of the book with pretentious quotes from various friends or ad people that just reiterate what Sullivan said in the paragraph above it. It's a slog to read through when every other paragraph starts with “[Author] of [Book you'll never read] said [quote that adds little value to the reading]”. It makes the pacing odd and the reading feel repetitive.
The book could easily be half as long and convey the same amount of information. There are sections of this book that that go on for paragraphs to express the importance of being concise in your writing (ironic). Where one to two sentences suffice, Sullivan writes two to three paragraphs, peppering in obscure and dated references that younger readers likely wouldn't understand or relate to (I know some went over my head).
This book is good if you skim it. Most of the idea is communicated in the subtitle for each section.
The Memory Police is a haunting dystopian story where the citizens of an island suffer en mass from items in their lives “disappearing” both from the world around them and their own memories. I loved the world, the tone, and the characters in the novel.
There were some inconsistencies in the book that I can only imagine were mistakes (disappeared items pop up in the story again as if they haven't disappeared) and loose ends that really diminished the level of storytelling for me.
The first half of the book is super compelling, then it just sort of trails off and doesn't explain enough to be satisfying or thought-provoking.
This story was just wholly enjoyable from cover to cover, and I found myself smiling in every chapter. Towles makes the mundane delightful to read, giving colour to every minor character and bringing every nook and cranny of the hotel to life. Towles sets the story in some of Russia's darkest and formative years and tells us only what a Count stuck in a hotel would experience during those times. We see the state of his country, not only through his experiences under house arrest, but through the many friends he meets in the hotel. We see that as the world changes around the hotel, he and the building remain the same. Because of that, The Count works as a positive force to all who meet him, regardless of faction, age, or gender. A wonderful story where the journey is internal.
A great collection of anecdotes from Lynch, discussing his life, creativity, and TM. You're not really going to learn anything about how YOU can harness your creativity or how to meditate, you're just going to learn how Lynch does and his journey. It's a fun, light read if you love hearing Lynch talk (which I do).
I love Richard Ayoade and I grew up watching View from the Top, so I had pretty high expectations for this book. I should have known that I love Ayoade in short bursts, so reading his thoughts and being in his mind for more than a chapter was exhausting. I appreciate the concept of this book and would still recommend to his fans, but it was hard for me, personally, to get though.
This seems to be a controversial book, and I get why. Who do I recommend this to without seeming like a weirdo? There are very disturbing character monologues and scenes in this book, which is off-putting to a lot of people.
So why do I think it's a 5-star? This book hits differently. It shows the reader how mental illness, specifically in Asian cultures, is sometimes ignored, shamed, and misunderstood. The story follows Yeong-hye, not through her own perspective, but from the perspectives of her husband, brother-in-law, and sister. Each perspective tells a very different story about Yeong-hye, and everyone has their own interpretations of the level of her illness. We see her, not as a woman with her own thoughts, desires, or dreams; we see her as the “other”. We watch her decline on the inside from an outside view.
The story is haunting, confusing and grotesque because that's what developing and coming to terms with severe mental illness is.
I've already read this book twice over the past year, and I think it's going to be a resource I go back to year after year to feel inspired and rejuvenated. The writing is concise, witty, and just plain fun to read. It's a book directed towards new writers, but I think this can help all creative juniors and beyond.