andy

It provides a profound insight into various factors such as biological, psychological, sociological, and marketing aspects to elucidate our recent dependence and addiction to UPF, despite our awareness of the potential health risks associated with their excessive consumption.

However, the author includes some shocking facts that lack substantial support from reputable scientific sources. Additionally, I found the author's extensive incorporation of personal anecdotes into the book somewhat off-putting. While this opinion might be polarizing, it didn't resonate with me. Furthermore, I disagree with the author's reliance on newspaper articles for references instead of directly citing the studies themselves. Especially in today's attention-driven media landscape, where newspapers often use sensational and inflammatory headlines to boost traffic, citing the actual studies would provide more credibility.

Overall, I believe that discussing this topic is crucial in today's society. However, we need more nuanced, scientifically-backed, and non-inflammatory perspectives that promote critical thinking and genuine knowledge, rather than resorting to fear-mongering and anti-science rhetoric.

I would rate it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Wow that was quite an experience. I usually don't gravitate towards books with extensive internal monologues that could be perceived as whining, especially from an unlikeable character. However, this book handled it exceptionally well. The author deftly explored numerous themes, avoiding the pitfall of feeling checklist-like or forced in the plot. Themes such as nepotism, class privilege, race privilege, and male entitlement were woven seamlessly into the narrative, with the obsessive parasocial relationship being a particularly captivating aspect.
The brief chapters dedicated to these important themes were both enjoyable and analytical, avoiding one-dimensionality. However, I found myself wondering if these self-reflective passages were also the monologue of our deranged protagonist, who seems to be more of an outsider in her own story and life. Despite this ambiguity, the portrayal of the psyche of “a fan” in the present time was well-executed.
Overall, I would rate it 4 stars out of 5.
p.s- I'm glad that the author used Marina Abramovic's Rhythm 0 to depict our inherent inclination towards violence in the face of someone else's vulnerability, especially in the context of misogyny
p.s 2- Thank god the boyfriend got separated from her

For the first 1-2 chapters, this book seemed more like a memoir rather than a work of literary criticism, and I wasn't a fan. But the author delved into the primary aspects of the book soon enough, and it improved significantly. Towards the last chapters the author's memoirist voice became more prominent again, and the main argument seemed underdeveloped. Instead of discussing the consumption of the artist's work and dealing with the problematic aspects of the artist's personal life, some parts were overly convoluted, focusing excessively on the admiration for the artist at a superficial level. This was unexpected from a book of literary criticism. Initially, I wasn't too fond of the open-endedness in each chapter, but after the author's explanation on the topic of subjectivity and personal experience, I gained more clarity on that. However the thesis, pointing to “there's no ethical consumption under consumerism” seemed rather lazy and uncreative. Coupled with the author's excessive sentimentality towards some of the artists, repeatedly expressing “I love him” I had hoped for a deeper exploration of this topic, combining both logical analysis and subjective viewpoints. I expected more exploration of the parasocial relationship between fans and problematic artists, as well as more rigorous explanations on capitalism's influence on our consumption habits, especially concerning specific artists.

I would rate this book 3.5 stars out of 5

Simplistic prose, but the thematic notions were quite multilayered. I won't say the visualization of the landscape factor is mind-blowing, but it fit the scope of the novella quite beautifully. 4/5 stars.

I expected the author to delve deeper into how she felt as someone so enamored with reading, yet faced significant hardships while learning a foreign language in a challenging environment. I would have liked to hear more about how she overcame these obstacles and reconnected with her passion for writing.

Well, I was really infuriated with Stevens when he acted coldly with Kenton after she told him about her engagement, I still have my doubts about his romantic feelings towards her runs how deep as there was no definitive response after Kenton's confession other than he said his heart broke and his teary eyes(which I don even know if it's because he was talking about his old post). I don't think wasted his life away though maybe if his self-realization was prevalent when his life was at the morning stage then he would've been supposedly much more of an original person not only someone's employee. The title was very nice, by that I mean really really nice. Oh well, Mr. Darlington was a Nazi sympathizer... I don't know how to feel about this as I've not encountered his personality other than Steven's vision. The portrayal of the aftermaths of ww1 and ww2 behind the life of a butler in a grand mansion, and how little it affects him personally is also depicted here quite nicely.

My rating is 4 stars.

This book has described how to criticise and dissect pretty useful books and the instructions were clear and meaningful. Next, the authors introduced 3 levels of reading and IMO Analytical reading was the best among them.
Now to the point where they described reading books on different subject matters and various literary structures, where they mostly talk about what to expect while reading a particular subject. I think his points on -History, biography, philosophy, theology and social sciences were solid although their points on history and biography seemed kind of the same. For science, they only discussed the history of science, which was not that much helpful. Overall his lecture on philosophy was thorough albeit a little bit draggy to read.
I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to charge up their reading game
P.s- I didn't read it cover to cover

Much better than Stephen King's [b:On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft 10569 On Writing A Memoir of the Craft Stephen King https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1436735207l/10569.SY75.jpg 150292] but it is greatly leans on narrative nonfiction writing or more like journalistic nonfiction writing.

It is such a tiny book but surprisingly it kept me engaged in the dark, dreary atmosphere of this book. Written from the pov of a generation whose whole life is very much shaped by the years of dictatorship, it has discussed mostly the political prosecution(with a light hint of censorship) of the opposition/ or anyone who has a different ideology from the current government. One thing I have also noticed is how Gonzalez's close friends also distance themselves from her probably because of her family's association with the military . Many details/incidents are not properly concluded in the book, depicting the mystery and uncertainty of the time. Although The thing I am most pleased about is that this book has encouraged me to read more about the history of Chile, Peru and Bolivia to get more context on the story.

4.25/5
p.s- Read it for the women in translation challenge

Books that are comically dark, whimsically surreal, and sometimes strangely wholesome are currently my vibe, so it fits the bill. Even if at first the plot seems aimless, it ultimately wraps up quite nicely.

• avoid Multitasking
  - eliminate distraction
  - remove misinformation or useless information from your memory
  - visualise the concepts to get better grasp on the subject
  - active learning and reviewing regularly
  - Take plenty of rest, sleep plenty
  - Focus on consuming nutrient rich food
  
  More or less same advice as others

I doubt there has been any other book published till now that has compiled the gender data gap corresponding to so many sectors/fields in a single place. The structure of the book is mostly smooth but some chapters do have the tendency to jump around a little bit. One thing I do wanna discuss is the references, the author has provided fairly adequate references but there are still some disparities among data, like The minimum paid parental leave duration in Portugal was downright wrong and there was no reference to it, and some other references just have the surnames of the researchers who have done the study and nothing else. I also did not like that she didn't explain some barely believable points like once she said that the average cleaning staff of hotels lift more than average builders per hour and didn't explain how(the reference was just as useless). I also didn't like that she didn't specify countries most of the time (you just have to guess it's about the USA/UK).
Even if I have some criticism for this book I can't explain how informative and essential this book is. I would gladly recommend it to everyone who is interested in learning more about the gender gap.
3.75 stars/4

This little book has only 7 very tiny chapters each dedicated to the aspects directly related to the theory of stoicism, among all the chapters the ones I have found the most useful would be the second chapter (what do you control?) and the third one (the problem with emotions), these were the most pragmatic and practical chapters in my opinion where the author mostly discussed about feeling negative emotions and the aftermath. The other chapters namely ‘adversity' seemed to hold too simplistic theory and ‘Life and death' also wasn't that enlightening. I wouldn't say it is a book for someone who's looking for more scholarly material, it's pretty much practical for the novice who wants to get simple tips on everyday stoicism.
3.5 stars/5

I was too generous to give it 2 stars so changing it to 1 star

some of the chapters were really unnecessary and seemed like fillers otherwise the instructions were pretty simple, intuitive and perfect for minimalistic, simple journaling

This felt like a single long university lecture. First, the author discussed the linguistic differential of bullshit and its commonly used synonyms. Then it gravitated towards the psychological aspect of bullshitting and how it differs from the psychology and philosophy of lying. The book wasn't something that I expected it to be, sometimes the repeating concept seemed to be a little annoying but overall I got a good idea of detecting the general basic level of bullshit, which is one of the most prevalent problems of our society today.

3.75 stars out of 5

The book was quite lighthearted and non-exhaustive, which can sometimes make some of the theories oversimplified and shallow. However, it does a good job of keeping the reader's attention. The topic of this book is quite interesting, and just like the author has said, while many books sing praises to the greatness of the human body, this book discusses something that shows a more pragmatic nature of evolution (similar to ‘The Blind Watchmaker' by Richard Dawkins, but with more information on designing faults). I do think the first chapter, ‘Pointless Bones and Anatomical Errors,' could have been more elaborated upon. I also liked how the author discussed our cognitive biases as a bug in our system in Chapter 6, ‘A Species of Suckers.' I'm not sure if the long epilogue added much to the book, but it seems alright.
4 stars out of 5.

Some Interesting concepts by Sun Tzu which can be used in the modern world too where it's more about wit's war. In The last chapters (where the literal warfare tactics were discussed ), I was surprised that Sun Tzu had adviced to treat the fellow soldiers with consideration.

• When I would reach for my phone, I will ask myself why. What is the main reason that I'm picking up the phone?
• Then, ask myself why I need to look RIGHT NOW.
• Is there any important thing I could be doing right now besides checking my phone?

Even though some ideas of Dr Singer can be considered radical/controversial majority of the essays tackled the reasonings logically and ethically. The bad point was that some of the essays weren't updated and so they don't balance out with the current economic, political situation well. Although it won't be the cup of tea for everyone I personally benefited a lot from this book. The latest edition of this book has 90 essays, the one I have read has 86 essays so I might have missed some but the essays were concise, interesting and highly readable. Recommended if you can tackle serious and solemn topics with open-mindedness.
3.75/5

This book mainly discusses the selfish gene hypothesis in parallel to the animal species' reproduction and social behaviour. Most of the book has discussed the basics of reproductory behaviour till chapter 9 then chapter 10 focused on The social and communal construct. Some parts of it were repetitive and purely theoretical. But since the selfish gene is a hypothesis then the absurdity isn't shocking. Some of the concepts and explanations of our evolutionary behaviour were pretty good and it made me think about them more deeply than what we believe on the surface. My favourite was chapter 11 which focused on humankind and how we were set apart in this hypothesis from other animals.
3. 5 stars from me.

This book really got to me , it's one of the most heart-wrenching reads I've had this year. The author did an amazing job gathering stories from a diverse array of people affected by the disaster. Svetlana Alexievich deserves credit for bringing the scale of the Chernobyl tragedy to international attention for the first time, inspiring others to share their experiences and shed light on this dark part of history.
While the book offers invaluable insights into the personal experiences of those affected by the Chernobyl disaster, it leans more towards being a historical and biographical narrative rather than a strictly scientific or informative account. It's important to know that some of the initial beliefs regarding radiation and contamination depicted in the book are outdated and downright wrong, given recent scientific advancements. So it's best approached as a history and biography book rather than a comprehensive scientific analysis.
As for people on the GR reviews getting upset about others (the regular people who were interviewed) not understanding the dangers of radiation, it's important to remember the circumstances. firstly, there was a lack of information about the disaster and the gov was hush hush about it and lastly even experts were uncertain about the risks, protection measures, mitigation strategies and even the theoretical details. So it's understandable why many normal people were “ignorant”
4/5

Highlights from the book-
When next you need to get into a deep mode:
• shut down your social media notifications;
• make sure not to switch to the next task until you have finished the ongoing one. There will be an attention residue — working in a semi–distraction state, which is counterproductive;
• spend less time on the Internet and no time playing games on your telephone/ computer;
• exert maximum productivity from the hour's work, and maximum recovery from your downtime.

I knew it before that Dr Dawkins sonetimes rambles too much about the same topic but some of the chapters (the latter ones from chapter 7-8)were really quite unnecessary and I didn't find any worthwhile information from these chapters.
P.S- need to cut down some of the parts, the core meaningful parts were pretty straightforward and in my opinion the circumlocution was pretty tiring.

soliloquizing- took me 14 days to read it

My rating is 3.5 ⭐. I had quite a few disagreements with Harari's opinion which was written here. Also sometimes I didn't understand which party is supported by Harari because of his confusing lines and just like he mentioned that it is not always possible to consider them purely good or bad.
Despite all of these I have to say that this book made me think about many instances more deeply? More like with a different perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed binging it. I also found some books that were at Harari's footnotes to be very interesting (more books on my tbr.. yay). I would love to reread the parts I've enjoyed especially the polytheism and the ethics of AI part