Indira
The writing itself is great, but honestly the story is creepy AF. Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza met as teenagers and Florentino quickly falls in love with Fermina. After a few years of “dating”, Fermina realizes that Florentino is not the man for her, and rejects him. Up to this part of the story, everything seems fine. But then it all goes downhill from here...
Fermina eventually marries Dr Juvenal Urbino, a wealthy doctor. Florentino on the other hand wants to remain “faithful” to Fermina and decides not to marry anyone. He does, however, end up sleepy with a myriad of different women, including América Vicuña, a 14-year-old girl who is sent to live with him. For a 70-something year old man to be intimate with a 14-year old girl is one thing, and add to that the fact that she eventually kills himself after he rejects her in the end!
Finally, after 50 years of marriage, Dr Urbino dies after falling from a ladder while trying to rescue his parrot. Florentino learns of this news and decides to re-confess his love to Fermina all these years. She initially outright rejects him, but after his consistent advanves, he wears her down and they become intimate.
So is the moral of the story here that you can be a creep and still get what you want?
Klara and the Sun is set at some point in the future, in a world where humans have developed Artificial Friends (AFs), solar-powered humanoid robots commonly sold as companions for children. The story is narrated from the perspective of Klara, a Girl AF, and in a way, it's her coming of age story.
One of my favourite things about this book was the “world-building”. I absolutely loved the way Ishiguro slowly revealed bits and pieces of this futuristic world, careful to reveal just enough but not too much so that readers can fill in the gaps and interpret the story however they want.
At the root of it all, this is a thought-provoking story that explores what it means to be human. I'd highly recommend this book!
“It isn't fair to be the kind of creature who is able to love but unable to stay.”
Migrations follows Franny Stone's journey to follow the last migration of the Arctic terns. It's a story set in the near future, on an earth that's been ravaged by the warming climate and where most species of animals have gone extinct. It's a heart wrenching story centered on a character who is so damaged and has lost so much.
I found the story to be predictable to a certain extent, but Charlotte McConaghy's story-telling is so beautiful that I found myself hooked anyways.
This is a must read book on climate change.
Reading this book honestly made me feel considerably more anxious about the state of our earth. However, he's right—the reality is that the situation is absolutely dire, and if we don't do anything about it soon then we're all f*cked.
I do have a couple of criticisms about the book: 1) I wish it was written in more straightforward language (yes the writing was beautiful but he could've said the same thing in less words), 2) some parts felt a little repetitive.
Overall, great book though. Honestly at this point everyone should be aware of the state we are in, and thus I'd highly recommend this to anyone and everyone.
Oh man this was disappointing. I wanted to love this book because it's about badass women of color (!!!) but damn it was so dry and boring. The message of this book is very important but I didn't feel that the author narrated it very well. There were some interesting bits but overall I felt very underwhelmed.
This book didn't bring me joy, so I didn't finish it. I'll just watch the movie
I have so much respect for Greta Thunberg however I would not recommend this book. This “book” is a collection of her various speeches and although listening to one or two of them can be inspiring, listening to 20+ of them is not. Her speeches all sound the same and unfortunately, I didn't feel like I learned anything new.
A well-written wake-up call on the loss of our planet's biodiversity and its impact on our climate.
First of all, I'd highly recommend listening to the audiobook. If you love Sir David Attenborough's documentaries, then I think you'll really enjoy hearing him narrate the book. I normally listen to audiobooks at 1.5x speed or higher, but this was one of the only books I listened to at 1.0x speed because 1) it didn't feel right to listen to it any faster than that, and 2) Sir David's voice is so calming!
The book starts out somewhat like an autobiography as Sir David takes his readers through how he became a well-known naturalist. Eventually, through his work showcasing wildlife around the world, he starts learning about the deteriorating biodiversity, and that's where he starts delving more into the topic of climate change.
You can really tell that this book is written by a natural historian because of its focus on animals and biodiversity. I recently read Bill Gates' How to Avoid a Climate Disaster and though both are of the genre “intro to climate change”, it felt like they were approaching the topic from two different angles. Sir David's book talks more about the impact of deforestation, illegal trade of wild animals, etc whereas Bill Gates' book had much more focus on innovation.
As someone who isn't well-versed in climate change, I felt that this book gave me a solid understanding of the topic. It gave a comprehensive overview of the different ways we currently add carbon to the atmosphere, the different ways we can tackle the problem (through innovation), and a little bit on climate policy as well. I like his emphasis on the fact that it's developing countries that will be hurt the most by a climate disaster, as I think it's a fact that people in most “rich” countries often forget or disregard altogether.
This book also presents a very optimistic view on us actually being able to tackle climate change, which I guess is not that surprising considering his success with Microsoft and his belief in the power of innovation. I definitely finished this book feeling more optimistic about this issue.
The book did feel a little repetitive towards the end, and it was annoying in some parts to keep hearing about how he invests in all these green companies, etc., so I would say it's more of a 4.5/5 for me. I'm also aware of all the “controversy” around this book—definitely agree with what Jenna discussed in her review!
4.5/5
I picked up this book at the recommendation of a friend, and as someone who studied Computer Science at university, I wanted to love it. I did find this book interesting, but I also found myself skimming a lot. I felt that some of the chapters were quite long and I lost interest towards the end. I'm not sure it got the right balance between hard CS concepts and their real-life applications.
This book got raving reviews from my friends so I decided to pick it up without reading the synopsis. Although it was not what I expected I loved it anyways. It's both a brilliant love story and a powerful story about a queer Cuban woman succeeding in a male dominated world. Surprisingly somewhat feminist and I love it. ✊
4.5/5 for me!
Show Your Work is a quick and easy read that left me feeling motivated. I decided to get this book after Ali Abdaal recommended it in his video titled “How Writing Online Made me a Millionaire”, and managed to finish it all in one sitting. I'd highly recommend this for anyone who needs an extra nudge to get yourself out there!
As a developer, I'm not the intended audience for this book but I thought it was still good to understand more about the PM role. I also enjoyed the examples of successful PMs at different organizations. Some parts felt a bit repetitive and/or obvious for me (but I suppose a lot of things make more sense in hindsight), but overall I thought this book was interesting and helpful!
