Ryan
A few moments in this book really blew me away. Exactly what I've come to know and love from a sally rooney book. Appreciated the different tones to each characters narration. Liked the Ivan chapters more personally, but maybe because they were less of a challenge, found him more sweet, even though I did relate to Peter a lot. Much like his chapters style, I love stream of consciousness in theory but struggle to read it in practice.
3.5 stars. I should really love this book, which tells the story of the Brooklyn underground rave scene and the pre-through-post Covid era. I got into the Brooklyn underground rave scene at around the same time. yet somehow I struggled to connect. Maybe it was the lack of characterization? Maybe Covid is too recent? Maybe the author doesn't have anything interesting to say? What kind of person is she? I could hardly say.
Hard to say. A couple of the chapters completely blew me away and lead to some really great insights about myself. Others I found very trite and boring. Still glad I read it.
The first half or so is amazingly good, I couldn't put it down. Once the book jumps ahead to Theo as an adult I struggled with it a lot more, it felt like it was reduced to cliches and a crime novel?
4.5 stars rounded up. Wow I really loved this. Wouldn't expect this book to be a page turner but it was. What a beautiful and sad portrayal of a normal man's life. He can't help but get in his own way but maybe that's the point of life, to get in your own way. Didn't love that the two main villains were a woman and a disabled person but I'm willing to forgive because Stoner himself does and it feels like the book does a pretty good job of showing how they all ultimately come to love and respect one another
Crazy this was written in the 90s. Feels like the three body problem ripped this off a lot, but this is much better written. I think I liked permutation city slightly more than this
3.5 stars. I enjoyed it, cool concept, more literary than I expected. Really slow pacing, tons of monks just saying things in Latin, just glazed over all those parts.
4.5 stars. I had always hesitated to read this book, I felt like it might be inferior to her other work, which I love, as it was her first book? I needn't have worried, I found it as readable as all the rest. It didn't quite all tie together and land for me but I still really enjoyed it nonetheless.
I mean the writing and plot are incredible. I especially love Ishmael's relationship with Queequeg. And of course Ahab. A lot of the whaling explanatory chapters are tedious and incredibly out of date so they feel especially pointless to read. But that's part of it. The actual plot-bearing chapters are incredible and I highly recommend.
Wow this book blew me away, and it came out in 1995? It would feel ahead of its time if it came out today. One of the best sci fi I have read in years.
Read this when I was a kid, re-read as an adult. I remembered most of the big plot points but there's a bunch of detail that I totally forgot. Lots of great characters, a few really fucked up moments. Great concept, great execution. Not particularly scary but definitely some disturbing moments.
Ehhh, I found this kind of infuriating, but maybe because it's the kind of book I would try to write myself and I found that embarrassing. It has all the hallmarks of a book I should like and maybe that's why I didn't? All the chapters that weren't from the authors POV annoyed me irrationally. The ending annoyed me even though it's the only “plot” that happened, which I guess is good because it was just cliche tropes. All that being said I found it very readable and despite not enjoying it, I kept reading it.
3.5 stars. Mostly really boring but a few interesting insights, though I now feel like I don't need to read the little prince
Feels like the communist version of Stranger in a Strange land. This is the kind of sci fi I want to be reading, where the future stuff is just a framework to tell a human story. And Ursula as always, does it so well.
4.5 stars rounded up.
What a monumental task, writing this book must have been. Reading it certainly is, though very rewarding as well.
He covers all aspects of the topic of depression, literally from all the angles. He includes research, interviews, and his own personal experience. It's both scientific and emotional.
I wish I could read other books like this on other subjects, written as exhaustively and from every angle.
I especially liked this section on this history or melancholy, and the story of the authors mothers assisted suicide.
I found this book extraordinarily difficult to read and I think that's because I found it quite triggering. I related to far too many parts of this book.
Shocking that came out in 2001.
Ursula does it again. An easy read, but completely worth it, she creates a fascinating world that captures the wonder and grandeur of the lord of the rings but much more subversive and original and with impeccable writing.
Not sure what to think of this one. Parts of it were amazing but I mostly found it tedious. The writing was good and the story easy to follow but it's soooo slow. I still highlighted a few quotes but I think back when novels were serialized I tend to not be a fan.
Could have kept reading this book forever. I got completely lost in this one. All the characters felt very real to me, and relatable. Enjoyed for the same reasons I love Sally Rooney
The first part was phenomenal but I struggled with the second part. It just felt like it dragged. Also it feels like the main character is so detached? I mean understandably considering what he goes through but it also makes it hard to connect.
4.5 stars. What a great character. And a greatly told vivid story. You'd never know it was old as hell. The occasional sentence would blow me away and the dialogue is just so charming.
2.5 stars. Lots of useful stuff in here but I also found it a complete drag to get through.
Re-read. I really loved it the first time and liked it a little bit less the second time. Like a lot of sci-fi there's not a ton of characterization, all the characters talk and behave in the same way, but considering most of the characters are clones of each other maybe this is the point. Most of the book is just various hyper rational people explaining their behavior and the logic of their choices, which is both boring and immensely satisfying, the term “competency porn” comes to mind. I didn't much care for the “flashback” chapters that proceed every new section though I couldn't exactly tell you why. All that being said it's still an immensely good book packed to the gills with amazing ideas, an incredible world and backstory. I also love all the characters names for some reason.