Jacob

Men Without Women is an anthology of short stories that are often ironic and dryly humorous. They're about boxers, bullfighters, and old prize fighters or reflect Hemingway's own experiences in WW1 and the Spanish Civil War. I really enjoyed the man's man material, but behind Hemingway's machismo subjects there are simple observations of humans and how they interact. In old fiction this gives a nice look into what kind of lives people lived (the early 20th/ late 19th century in this case). I personally enjoy getting the historical insight and parsing through what I call artifacts, which are just words or phrasing I don't understand because how they're being used no longer make sense in my modern senses.

About Hemingway's writing, I think he's very skilled at giving just enough information to make a scene work. I would even describe his writing as terse. It's also heavy on dialogue, and an interesting feature of his dialogue is that he puts in repeated phrases or utterances that aren't usually included in writing. I suppose that conflicts with my claim that he has terse prose, but Hemingway's repetitive and circular dialogue feels like it's used as a literary device rather than any kind of bloat.

This book has good bones but the author's prose is bloated and often felt like I was reading a teen's diary. Maybe the first person POV made it seem worse, but I felt that the narration was made up of incessant inner dialogue from the protagonist that repetitively over explained their feelings about everything. This narration also frequently trails off into exposition that is largely inconsequential.

This writing gets in the way of itself and keeps any good moments in the book from being great.

Awesome read. Orlean tells a lot of history about American libraries and significant figures that have shaped them. She has also made me better understand the civic importance of libraries and all that they contribute to the communities they're in.

Wow, this has gotta be peak Stephen King. My jaw literally dropped multiple times while reading this.

The main thought I have post reading this is, how much does King relates to the protagonist, Paul Sheldon? They're both authors and Paul has some interesting thoughts about his writing that I could see King having.

This book is a great introduction to architecture and very palatable for the average reader. Although the book had images and diagrams of some mentioned buildings, I kept my phone handy to look up other un-pictured buildings and terms I was unfamiliar with. I would say this book is only as good as you are interested in architecture/history.

Read this for class. It's a funny and meaningful satirical short-story on American culture that I very much enjoyed

An excellent biography that provides a grounded look at Michelangelo as a person and the milieu of Renaissance Italy that was extremely influential to the course of the artist's life. I loved the letters Wallace included that show not only some of the day-to-day happenings in Renaissance Italy, but also Michelangelo's personal struggles, such as his grapple with death in the final decade of his long life.

In his collection of letters, Rilke writes about the human experience. From doubt to love to fear, he provides comforting epithets on these universal emotions. I wasn't looking for comfort from his letters, but I found it.

The Blade Itself is an enjoyable book, but has some problems. The first and foremost being the author's prose. Not all of it is bad, but many of his descriptions are wrought with overuse of adjectives. I also roll my eyes as a lot of his phrasing, it being over dramatic and a little cringey like something you would find in a fanfic. Toward the end of the book these problems lessen and I hope that trend continues in the rest of the trilogy. I'll continue reading for the well-established politics, interesting characters, and complex plot that I'm sure is hiding a lot from us in the first book.

The second book of the First Law Trilogy is a big improvement over the first. It's paced better, written better, and the characters are fleshed out.

Starts out as a familiar slice-of-life SK book that turns into a fantasy adventure. There were a couple build ups that got to feel long, but definitely paid off in their climaxes for me.

This short story collection is full of bizarre stories that often end with me asking, “what?”, but keeps my interest throughout. Kafka is skillful at expressing anxiety and uneasiness in his characters, in turn making the reader feel the same.

1984 is a good novel dragged somewhat by modern context. Orwell wrote this novel in post-war England and depicted a future where: people live in a surveillance state, the public's perception of “truth” is clouded by misinformation, and humanity loses itself due to war hysteria and thirst for power.

Winston's (the main protagonist) monologues on the Party's use of misinformation to manipulate the public happens to be a hyperbolic reminder of today's political climate, yet to me it felt somewhat stale and long winded. He also explains the surveillance state and “new” technology in great detail, but once again this sounded like something I've heard before. The idea of society being under constant watch by a government entity is now a mainstream topic of debate, and the technology to do it already exists. This made even more of the book slightly tedious to read for me, although, my casual boredom speaks to Orwell's uncanny foresight on how these topics fit into modern society, and if I had read this 10 years ago I might be writing a different review.

Orwell also makes a point that we could lose our humanity by becoming cogs in a destructive, power-hungry machine, despite (or because of) the emergence of new technology and the abundance of resources provided by manufacturing. This would be a palpable prediction coming out of the World Wars and it's even more interesting because it's basically true during the Cold War era in the last half of the 20th century. Americans squirmed under the pretense of nuclear war and destruction, yet it became an ordinary part of life and people went about their lives. But now, in 2022, I believe that we've mostly avoided this fate. War has largely fallen out of favor (I'm thinking of the loss in Vietnam, nuclear disarmament, withdrawal from Afghanistan, and economic globalization) and, more or less, the pretense for war has withered. Now, our generation's hurdles are consumerism, equity, and climate change. In my opinion, if we lose our humanity it will be due to mindless scrolling, a corporate job, or obscurity in history.

As a casual reader, 1984 dragged in bits throughout, shined in the last quarter, and provided some interesting introspection, so “I liked it” at 3/5 stars.

Good book, but I didn't connect with the characters well. Some parts were great, others dragged for me.

I think anyone who lives in a large or growing city (Nashville/Knoxville!) should read this book. In her criticisms of mid 20th century city planning, Jacobs provides some rigor as to how a city street, park, or people can thrive. This information allows city residents to understand their environment while also creating a foundation of knowledge that ensures they'll be able to discern when their representatives might be making city planning decisions not within their interest. Poor city planning can exasperate crime, inequality, and poverty so it's important to stay informed!

I thought about giving this book 2 stars because I thought the ending was interesting, but I still don't think it's quite there for me.

Colleen's prose is generally weak because she pretty much names every feeling each character feels through narration instead of conveying these feelings through dialogue or descriptive action. This left me feeling bored and like I was reading a child's diary. There's also some moments where the male love interest of the book acts pretty aggressive, but the author doesn't recognize or address this which was pretty off-putting to me.

Could be a fun popcorn read for some people, but not for me.

This book is set on mars but has very human stories, often dealing with loneliness and loss. The chapters almost read like an anthology and were tied together by the setting and passing of time. Overall I enjoyed the book, but the anthology-like structure had some chapters feeling experimental and often disrupted the momentum of the story.

On another note, I enjoy the artifacts an author leaves behind once their work is aged by a few decades (or more). Whether it's Martian wives serving in their gendered role as household caretakers (on mars!), or the overall theme of war always being an inescapable, close thing. It's obvious to see the influence of 1950s America on Bradbury. I've started looking up authors before I read their books so that I understand where they're coming from, and it's always gratifying to see how the world may have been influencing them from that time.

I almost want to rate this 4 stars. I'll see if the sequel takes it. This is a cool read with lots of action and drama.

I started this book without looking much into what it's about and got something I didn't expect from a sci-fi novel. This book tends to be very introspective. It brings a lot of direct commentary on social structures (capitalism/socialism) within a sci-fi setting. Overall it was interesting and I became invested in the characters. I recommend it if you're looking for something different to read, but it can feel slow at times if you're expecting a traditional sci-fi story.

Probably the worst of Abercrombie's books. I liked it for the old characters he brought back and some really cool moments, but much of it dragged and for some reason half the dialogue is made up of sarcastic one-liners. There's also too many “I'm 14 and this is deep” type of quotes. Abercrombie likes to criticize society through his characters, but it's usually too on the nose in this book.

Tim expressed a lot of things I've felt myself. Things that I don't think I could have put into words or knew that others felt.

If this book was 300 pages shorter I could've easily given it two stars. It's not well written, but it does have exciting moments and an interesting plot. These redeemable qualities could've carried my rating to two stars if the book wasn't exhaustively long and bloated. I do not recommend spending your time in this one.