sneha
I keep forgetting that it takes me ~ 70 pages to get into a Jon Ronson book. Unlike his podcasts, the books take a lot more activation energy to get invested. But once I am in it, it's a fun rollercoaster. The Psychopath Test raises some interesting questions about sanity and insanity (which one do we judge people on). It highlights some obvious issues about the field of psychology and the failure of mental health institutions for the larger public. There were sections I wish he elaborated more on, as there was a lot more to discuss but overall the book was crisp and fun. Even if the starting felt very ... weird. That was the biggest reason that I didn't finish this book earlier.
to: my reddit secret santa, you are the best because this book is <3
Do you know what I really love? Heung-Min Son, yes but also well written contemporary Indian authors. As someone who reads a lot of non-Indian nonfiction, I often feel guilty for not consuming more domestic pieces of literature. This is a reminder that my common excuse of “most mainstream Indian literature feels trash” is BS.
Em and the big Hoom somehow made it to my TBR list but I didn't seriously pursue it. Not until a softcover copy of the book mysteriously turned up at my doorstep, quite literally. On a whim, I once picked it up during my lunch break and the next thing I know I am 40 pages in and don't want to stop.
There isn't much of a “twisty” story-telling in this book. It feels more like a diary entry jig-saw puzzle spread over a few decades. Its appeal is being able to be humorous and witty while being heartbreaking sad and bleak. The book's pacing is very persuasive - much like real-life, all the highs come with annoying pit-in-you-stomach anticipation of the lows. The madness and sorrow in this book is written with such grace. Endearing and eccentric characters make you want to read more. Also, the main hero - city of Bombay - just shinesss in this book. I don't know much about the city but I felt what Maahim would be like. The revisit to Goan culture in flashbacks was also brilliant.
Much like the edges of the book, the writing is vivid and colourful - a bizarre adventure into two strangers and their love and life. All the while not knowing anyone's name. Stranger, crazy book finished it in two sittings.
What an emotional rollercoaster, I can't even write a review for this property. Just read it, you won't regret it.
Jerry Pinto, I wonder how much you suffered to create this masterpiece. Wow.
Shoutout to my Reddit secret Santa for sending me this wonderful book, I am ded - thanks.
bro, thes stories are definitely not for kids. death & destruction everywhere, like whut?!
love Pullman's intro.
** an absolute classic, Levitt and Dubner, can I have your coffee order next? **
I found out their podcast before I knew about the book (weird, I know). The podcast served as a gateway to exciting on-going research in the field of social sciences and economics - inspiring an enthusiastic freshman.
Five years later, I re-visit this book and it's a different experience. I know more about the field, I have done lateral reading of related publications and I am better able to appreciate the arguments, especially the simplicity with which they are presented.
It is no surprise that this is one of the best get-to-know-econ for dummies book that teases you with random but intriguing titles and makes you sit through the difference between correlation and causation, teaching what a regression can and cannot tell you, what the data means and how stories are decoded from it.
I think Levitt and Dubner are visionaries in attempting to write this book - for a more noob audience and keeping them engaged through and through. There is an odd comfort in revisiting books of Christmas past and also giving a sense of development and growth - in a time when freedom, struggle and purpose feel lost.
Quarantine read no. 2, you were kind to me :)
** it breaks my heart. okay? okay. **
I still remember the first time I read this book. It was a birthday gift, I was 17. In the middle of the most stressful summer, the summer before our JEE exams (Indian kids, can I get an amen?) my friend gifted me this. The first page is signed by all the kids in my class, wishing my a very happy birthday and on the last page is a message from my friend, right next to a beautiful doodle she made. This book is a bulky memory. The doodles and the wishes summarise my two years of senior secondary school. So when I picked this up in the middle of feeling lost and anxious (queue: the pandemic), I was transported back not only in the familiar story of the characters but also back to a much simpler and carefree time.
A lot has changed since the first time I read the book. For starters, I am not longer best buds with the woman who gifted me the book. I have read far more John Green and I don't have the optimism and the enthusiasm of my 17 y/o self. When I first read it, I loved Augustus' character. I wanted to be him; always the bright side, always high energy, always carpet diem-ing. But 6 years on, I am more Hazel. Pragmatic, cynical, and still low-key hoping for a love story. My favorite bits from the book have changed. I longer like the poetry bits (17 y/o Sneha was way more pretentious than the 23 y/o ).
What has not changed is the bittersweet cry at the end. I still enjoy the picture of Amsterdam that Green painted for me. I still think kissing in Anne Frank's house is rude. I still find comfort and bizarre solace in this book. Amidst my perpetual state of overwhelm, I paused and tried to empathize with these fictional characters rather than worrying for me, and that felt nice. I still relate with Holden Caulfield (from The Catcher in the Rye)when he said, “... a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it”. J.Green, can I have your number? I promise to not call in the middle of the night.
A wonderful insight into the various women living in Mumbai and their claim to the public space. This book discusses the nuance of women and their access and right to public space in a very easy to understand manner. Wonderful ethnographic work!
** this book had some seriously good LOL moments and such tight writing but I don't enjoy David Nicholls' weak-ass defence of the protagonist's sexist-entitled behaviour who is a proper prick**
Our hero is a man child with deeply sexist and racist ideas and claims to be a liberal - often using his “intellectual capacity” as a shield against his vulnerability and teenage insecurities. His lying, cheating, misogynistic actions all go unpunished and had his own “happily ever after” with “she is not like other girls” heroine. No, no, just no.
I love the quotes, quiz questions at the beginning of the book. How real and raw the university scene is talked about, the coming of age struggle, the loss of a loved one, the chase of a beautiful stranger but this archaic understanding of “out-of-my-league hottie” for whom he'll spread himself thing and kiss his self-respect goodbye only to turn back and call her “she is pretty and she knows it”, or “prick teaser” is unacceptable. What is more unacceptable is him findings a happy ending with a “not too pretty, cursing a lot but so bloody smart” girl. These tropes are just - argh - no. The target audience for this book is teens and adolescents and we really don't want this message for them.
David, you know how to write a story well and I enjoyed and laughed at some bits.
But I can't, I just can't enjoy this trope of “intelligent” boys who feel victimised because “they are the nice nerdy guys but pretty hot girls don't like me so I'll act like a desperate creep and stalk her and get outraged when she eventually rejects me and call her an attention-seeking whore/prick-tricker but also expect everyone else to feel pity for me because I'm the poor nerdy nice guy. “
And the worst thing? They are real, very very real.
This could have been so much more satisfying and enjoyable :/
Heard this on audible. The performance by Radhika Apte and Kalki Koechlin made it engaging and fast-paced.
The bad:
I do not understand the obsession with legitimising criminals and celebrating them as some kind of girl boss. Yes, they were women to “achieved” things in a male-dominated industry. But the industry itself is awful so maybe rethink this approach?
The good
A lot of new stories about women in the shadows and shady parts of Mumbai. A chill, true-crimey casual listen, but the male gaze in this book kept annoying me.
Mixed feeling but regardless, worth a listen.
for a book that is about women who committed war crimes during the holocaust, there isn't enough of her or the effects of her actions
Here's my problem with books like these: they have an interesting hook, a very promising storyline, and even juicy blurp, and then that's it — that's where all the work ends.
The Reader is about a boy and her fantasy obsession Hannah. This young boy who physically grows up and becomes a man is still a clingy confused teenager all his life. I don't blame him entirely for it. Our lad needs therapy, lots of it. He falls for a much older woman and has an affair with her only to find out a few years later that she is being prosecuted for her role in Nazi Germany. This “erotic clandestine affair” is neither racy not romantic; it is an older woman almost exploiting a teenager and his boy living out his teenage fantasy. If anyone views or appreciates this book as a romance, get help immediately! It raises compelling arguments about what constitutes a “fair” punishment for those who were part of the Third Reich, both the individuals directly involved with the SS, running the concentration camps, and also the population at large that stayed quiet and looked the other way. But that's it, it just teases these pointers and fizzles away into whinny complains of this man-child who misses Hannah and divorces his wife of five years and mother of child because “she doesn't smell like Hannah, feel like Hannah.” Oh, the heartbreak (-_-)
The potential of this book was endless. One of its central themes is that of illiteracy and how it affects one's life, and that is covered with some decency through the length of the book. But honestly, for a book about a woman and the turmoils of post-WW II Germany, there was not much of either of them.
The writing was windy and went on pointlessly in many chapters. The main chunks of the story — the difficult parts were handled in a loose, nonchalant fashion. Scenes that were of importance didn't feel impactful and the rest felt like nonstop rambling.