melissa

In every book it's obvious how destructive artificial intelligence is and expansionist colonialism is and yet here we are.

Great book, love how simple the plot is, it could be summarized in one sentence and it all happens in one day, yet there's depth and it's a bit heavy, and i enjoyed taking my time reading it. And even tho the world of the book is a very different world than the one we exist in, we get introduced to it so efficiently, that we feel we're a part of it only a couple of pages in.

I love getting random books from flea markets based on their cover and them ending up being great finds. In this book Karinthy shows us the alienation of the metropole and modern society. The story is quite similar to the ones where a person finds themselves on a deserted island, but here we have this city's continuous traffic and rush that creates the isolation. And even though i expected the book to turn into a scifi or magical realism on how Budai found himself in this strange place, it was more a study of human resilience and creativity.

The drawing doesn't add much to the text and the writing is more similar to Rupi Kaur's scribbles than actual writing. I did not feel like it speaks to book readers cause there's nothing new added to the cliché which have all noticed and heard. I did enjoy the few pages of intricate illustration and no writing, but those were exactly 2 pages.

Another very important book i believe everyone should read, wether you believe in the importance of war or not, at least to understand the strategy of armies, empires and resistance. Good thing about the edition i have is that it also included The Sayings of Wutzu, however my edition's introduction makes it clear that this book is intended for CEOs and businesses which i find insanely sociopathic.

First time i listen to an audiobook completely, and this story was perfect for it. It's more of an Adventure Fable, like Candide but without the satire. Pinocchio's laziness and naïvety get him through a series of troubles until he learns to be responsible, pretty much on the nose morality.

It's a 3.5/5. It has been weird reading books for children and instead of them being quick reads i find myself getting bored by the over explanation. I would've liked it at 12 probably, but it's not as complex plot-wise as the other things i was reading at that age.

It does have a good message which is the reason for the higher rating, accentuating the importance of not giving in to mass thinking is crucial, it just doesn't feel like a complete book and not much was explained about the universe we were immersed in.
I much preferred the first chapters before the journey starts.

12 year old me would've really enjoyed this series, present day thought it's fine

There is something as too many run-on sentences and too much angst. It's a fast read but not much happens.

There's a special kind of eeriness in Shirley Jackson's books that makes me want to cozy up in them.

She should've at The Love Quotient. Like how many autistic characters can she force on that same family. Anyway, i'm gonna put this ridiculous excerpt here cause it would be a shame for it to go forgotten

“In China, I was sent to reeducation camps, where I worked and starved in the fields.
“Our family wasn't safe because Gung gung was a wealthy landowner. I wasn't safe. That's what I learned from them-it's not safe to be different.”

So much prejudice against rich feudal lords

Mediocre book filled with American propaganda and ignorance about Vietnam. Reading that book you'd think electricity hasn't reached Vietnam yet. Nothing more offensive than sons of immigrants speaking about a country they know nothing about based off their parents stories from 50 years ago.

PS. Someone tell the writer that college is basically free in Vietnam.

They got the autistic part right enough. Writing about a character with autism is difficult cause it isn't the most interesting thing. There isn't much to do with a character who needs to have a strict routine and gets easily overstimulated, not much room for growth, which is why authors tend to have the autism “fixed” midway through their work, which is just abhorrent, but it was done well enough. The book was a bit too smutty for a romcom (as the innocent book cover suggests) but they nailed the ending.

Important document on how the Holocaust was coopted by the zionists to fund and excuse israeli crimes.

I do love a fake boyfriend trope but instead of getting the usual miscommunication breakup we got it for some subplot. It was fine just not a satisfying ending.

I think this one is her best, more mature, sadder, more thought out. 3.5/5

Very cute, probably my favourite of Henry's, it was just simple and to the point and without any of the romcom meta books she wrote.

*as usual the cover art is horrible and has nothing to do with the book.

It's exactly what you'd want from a romcom. Just a sweet story with all the tropes, but again i have to wonder if any of the publishers read the book to end up with this book cover

I did not expect the book to be what it is, the covers chosen for it are quite the example on how women are not taken seriously. A whole book about the issue and you have the publishers treating the book the same way the character is treated, i dnt know how the writer agreed to it. From the cover i thought it' gonna be a cute romcom i can read in one day, turned out to be a quite interestingly woven unchronological narrative from a dozen POVs including one dog.

Anyway, it's a good book. It's not really about misogyny as much as misogyny being the main antagonist. It's what drives the hero's action. The book can get suffocating at times, but it doesn't turn too serious despite the tragedies unfolding. I wish the ending didn't unravel that quickly, gave me a deus ex machina feel, but all in all good book. 3.5/5

It's the first time i take my time reading a Tragédie Française play. Truly enjoyed the Alexandrains.

Loved the prose, nice representation of the natural antagonism between a worker and their employer, beautiful use of role play.

In his forward, Genet clarifies that the play is not about worker rights or politics but i don't much care about the apolitical.

The drawings were kind of cute but all in all kinda juvenile. I was mainly bothered by the flow of having a comic book with both speech bubbles and footnotes, it felt like reading 2 texts at once.

Lovely illustrations, great selection of Greek myths, i appreciated the choice of order they took, and how short and concise each were, perfect to be read more than once.

It's a good book, it took me by surprise. I expected some french book whitewashing colonization, but it truly caught the charade of “the civilized”. I understand why it's a book given in school to 10 year olds, it underlines the main contradictions of “land discovery”, a great introduction to questioning this narrative, however the low-ish rating is for the style. It feels very much like i'm reading a book written for ten year olds lol.

This collection of poetry is written in spoken Arabic (Lebanese aamiya) instead of fus'ha, and i'm not used to read those. Most of the poems are political but i did prefer the ones he wrote about love.

I would've loved hearing the poet deliver his poems live tho, or watching him in zajal.

It's a play in the vein of the greek plays, of a mythological figure facing the fatality of life and its gods, with a turn to the existential here where man gets to face god.
Like anything written by Kanafani, i have to analyze the work from the angle of Palestinian struggle, and in that way, even in death we are pushed to keep fighting the mightiest of powers, in this case the global imperialist machine.