Review: The Death of Ivan Ilych

The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There is a panicked urgency that picks up in this book. The beginning is softer, slower, even satirical, but the pace grows in an subtle way till you need to know what comes next with fervour. The Death of Ivan Ilych is a book about many things, but primarily a book about pain and falsity and the end.

I want to say more, but I am afraid that spoilers aren’t your friend here. The book must be discovered by a reader, it cannot be taught or reviewed. It will mean something to you, as it will to everyone, because it is a book about death. Tolstoy is beautiful. The power of his words, the pain he is dealing with, and the existential struggle of being that this period of his life suffered bleeds through the pages.

It is a terrifying book, worth reading.

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Review: A Room of One's Own

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was so incisive, cutting, the subtlety undercurrent to the sharpness, well-written with the surging import of something urgent. There is little more to be said, except that the relevance of the book is staggering, and the power is palpable. Virginia Woolf is brilliant.

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Review: Enigma: The Definitive Edition

Enigma: The Definitive Edition by Peter Milligan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's hard to know where to start with this. The art is classical-ly comic book, reminiscent of old-school comics. It comes together well with the story, which is a strange blend of surreal, thoughtful, and interesting. It creates mysteries and solves them, but in a way that is satisfying without being satisfying. Your expectations are not met, rather they are subverted in a way that you could not have foreseen. The more I try to articulate why this book is interesting, the more difficult it gets. I will leave it at saying that it was, intriguing at first, sublime by the end.

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Review: Subpar Parks: America's Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed Visitors

Subpar Parks: America's Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed Visitors by Amber Share
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Oof, I really wanna visit after reading that. The parks sound so beautiful, and the tiny bits of information are enough to pique interest and cause me to google and look at pictures. The drawings are where the charm is, the review-lines posted above and below beautifully drawn illustrations of the parks and their beauty. A very pleasant, slightly funny read that I enjoyed thoroughly.

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Review: Blue in Green

Blue in Green by Ram V.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story is tantalising, but too short to do justice to the power that it promises. You feel bits of the music, teasing you, but they are unheard. On that count, however, I can hardly blame the writer.

Yet, what makes this work is the art. Beautiful and flowing, almost as if the music itself is rendered on the page. The horror, the beauty, the melding together of memory and desire, into a canvas. Worth picking up just for that.

You shall flip through, and read again, over and over, to absorb as much of the paint as possible, and to try and touch the music through it. The story will hold you for moments, here and there, but never truly.



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Review: How to Avoid Falling in Love with a Jerk: The Foolproof Way to Follow Your Heart Without Losing Your Mind

How to Avoid Falling in Love with a Jerk: The Foolproof Way to Follow Your Heart Without Losing Your Mind by John Van Epp
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There are two things to talk about here: the writing and the content.

The writing is by and large engaging. It drags on at bits, but usually brisk and to the point. The advice is clear, though not too directly actionable. The stories are the most informative, because they illustrate principles that are hard to imagine sometimes otherwise. All-in-all, a decently written book. I did wish the research was quoted a little better, maybe footnotes, for easier delving deep. Which brings me to content.

For the most part, I felt like the book was generally giving good advice. It seemed logical, the research supporting it seemed relatively believable. Then, towards the end, it quoted some data that didn’t seem quite right. The interpretation seemed to confuse correlation for causation. The problem is, I have prior opinions about parts of this book and so I can’t judge it without bias. It does quote research and is written by a practising expert, so I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. I’ll follow the footnotes at some point and decide what I feel about the content.

Worth reading with an eye open. Don’t fall asleep at the wheel and take it for gospel. Do your own research.

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Review: Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Very short read on organisation and getting to tasks. Nothing too groundbreaking, just general advice. The core of the book can be summed up with: Find your most important tasks and get them done NOW. That’s it. The rest of it is just general advice on how to do that and how to maximise your efficiency. It deals mostly with prioritisation and growth. You need to find the most important tasks. You need to constantly be learning. If you expect to get any more significant insights from this book, you’ll be disappointed.

Now, I’d complain that this could be covered in a quick blog post, but the book is short and sweet and doesn’t meander anyway. It could be shorter, but as is it’s a pleasant read. It gives it to you straight, it organises its advice into little exercises, and honestly it’s worth reading because of how direct and straightforward it is.

Don’t expect it to be too revolutionary. It’ll just hit reset and help you reorient your goals, and get started on what’s important.

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Review: Start with No: The Negotiating Tools That the Pros Don't Want You to Know

Start with No: The Negotiating Tools That the Pros Don't Want You to Know by Jim Camp
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s hard to judge too accurately without applying these tips for a significant amount of time, so I can’t speak too intelligently. At first glance at least, it appears to be a decent book about negotiating. The author assures us the tips aren’t “gamesmanship” but pay close attention when he says that because they really are gamesmanship. Some of it is cold and calculated, and for the most part the book embraces that. I think the idea is that the author suggests that everyone does it, so it’s okay. Those bits feel a little sleazy to me.

The rest is pretty solid. It’s about clear planning and communication, very actionable, and reasonable. Definitely stuff I will be trying out. A lot of pragmatism. The very last tip is what brought it together for me. The author tells us that he feels okay asking for a fair price because he’s okay paying a fair price. That’s what the value is driving this book. I felt that really painted everything in a new light. He’s not trying to give us tips to manipulate and squeeze every dollar, he’s trying to give us tools to counter others and get a fair price. Of course, it’s not that straightforward, but the intent seems more honest in that light.

A lot of hate towards win-win negotiation tactics, especially “Getting to Yes”, but I felt a lot of the tips were complementary, so go figure. I’ll do a deeper dive at some point to compare the two. As is, I’ll probably start using some of this and see what happens.

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Review: Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Decent book. Not the most revolutionary tips, just things it’s nice to keep in mind when going into a negotiation. The tips seem practical, with a lot of anecdotes that show clear, crisp application of principles. Some of the ideas seem to be pulling more weight than the others, and some seem a little underdeveloped, but the overall key lessons feel fairly actionable.

It’s more a run-of-the-mill cover-the-bases negotiation book than anything else. Nothing special, but a primer on the basics.

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Review: Alexa, what is there to know about love?

Alexa, what is there to know about love? by Brian Bilston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, addictively rhymed, and heartwarming in all the right ways. I loved it, I read through it, and I read bits and pieces out loud. I smiled because it all came together and laughed at the worst and the best of the humour. I loved it far more than I expected to.

I’m still smiling, grinning, with teeth showing at my iPad screen, as I think of the poems I was reading not an hour ago. Refreshing. Must-read.

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Review: Sleepless, Vol. 1

Sleepless, Vol. 1 by Sarah Vaughn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a proxy review for all issues of Sleepless.

It was such a sweet and cute story. The political intrigue was what took most time, but the relationship between the two central characters was definitely the focus. It was a semi-romance, but it was really fun to read.

That’s pretty much it though. A short, fun read. There wasn’t enough time or space for much more, but that’s okay. Some days, you just need something quick and fun.

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Review: Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China

Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China by Guy Delisle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think I’ve a soft spot for books like this one.

It’s so beautifully drawn. That’s the first thing that needs saying. Roughly, charismatically, beautifully drawn in a way that makes you feel like these are observations. Put down quickly, capturing essence and form, holding these forever.

And they are observations. The story here is one of witnessing. It is not crystal or crisp, merely written at the intersection of Guy Delisle and Shenzhen. It is a peephole into the world of late-1990s China. It makes me feel a certain emotion that I find it hard to describe, a mix of second-hand nostalgia and peace, the kind of emotion you feel only when you read stories like this one.

It’s acute. It’s nice. It feels incredible.

It’s worth reading, but as I said, I have a soft spot for books like this one.

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Review: Less Stuff: Simple Zero-Waste Steps To A Joyful And Clutter-Free Life

Less Stuff: Simple Zero-Waste Steps To A Joyful And Clutter-Free Life by Lindsay Miles
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fairly decent, fast-paced, and actionable. The advice is direct and drills down onto that which is important. Nothing revolutionary, stuff you can probably figure out yourself because it’s all so obvious, but the book does some of the heavy lifting so you can get right to it. Decluttering is hard, so might as well use this book.

I did feel as if I wanted more on the environmental side. Though the basics are well covered, I wanted to look for more advice for plastic-free living and more specifics on the kinds of products I can shift to in order to live with less waste. The advice here is more basic and general purpose. I can respect that, and that’s not really a fault of the book, just something I felt the title and blurb implied that wasn’t delivered.

All in all, pretty good.

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Review: The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh boy. I was so tempted to give this three stars. I was also tempted, briefly, to give it five stars. Before I go any further, I must make clear that I read the English translation. Unsure how much that impacts the review, but it’s necessary to keep in mind.

This is one of those books that does one thing REALLY well. A Hugo-Award winning science-fiction novel that gets the science perfectly. So perfectly. Thought-provoking and innovative, the science of this novel is speculative but just enough to make it believable. Every part of it is well-thought and interesting and worth reading into. There are deeply intriguing scientific and philosophical concepts, representations of real-world theories and so much more. Chaos theory, the problem of induction, nanomaterials, they all make an appearance in a way that almost feels intelligible and plausible. I cannot praise the science enough.

The fiction part of science-fiction, however, is lacking. The characters, the structure, the writing itself, none of them make the book worth reading. There is a lack of development, the characters’ reactions feel unrealistic for humans sometimes and we spend so little time with them that we have no clue how their individual personalities will react to things. When we are supposed to be surprised, we end up simply nodding because we didn’t know enough to be surprised. The plot is let down by the way it is structured. I’ll admit there are certain sections done in a textbook style, but most of it is doesn’t even achieve that. The writing style, in the translation, feels strange, unemotive, and foreign. That, however, is probably a result of the translation.

Yet, the science is interesting and the overall plot is genuinely surprising. So, I read and perhaps you should too. The shortcomings are many, but forgivable for the absolute beauty that accompanies them. The characters and writing will inevitably disappoint, but you will still come away thinking deeply about problems you had not considered before.

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Review: This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Oh, this book is so beautifully tantalising. There’s so much beauty here, so much knowledge, cool facts abound. I will be quoting ideas from this for ages hence, and I feel so much richer for having read it. So many questions, asked and unasked, answered well. And further research that I will be doing into the papers quoted and ideas presented.

I must, at some point in the future, find a long weekend and re-read this while listening to all the songs mentioned and slowly noticing the beats and tones being referenced. You should too. I honestly think that would be such an awesome way to broaden musical horizons.

What is music? Why does it feel good? What about it feels good? Why are musicians? How does your brain react to music?

The big ones come with smaller ones of their own.

A little dense, a little niche, but if it catches your eye then read it because it’ll be worth it.

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Review: Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again: Women and Desire in the Age of Consent

Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again: Women and Desire in the Age of Consent by Katherine Angel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An interesting book, a lot of pertinent ground covered, and perhaps worthy of being read because of the importance of the subject matter. At the same time, I feel like it suffers a little from a somewhat inconsistent writing style. The core ideas and questions are powerful, but lost behind unnecessary repetition and a meandering pace that presents arguments in a way that make it difficult to track properly. To parse and distinguish between the open-questions and the ones where the answers are provided is a bit of a task.

All in all, the core themes are decently interesting and thought-provoking. I cannot comment on the core message too much beyond that because the writing muddled it for me a little bit.

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Review: The Anthropocene Reviewed

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I resisted the urge to read this for some reason. The cover looked pleasant. Too pleasant. Then, as December rolled by and I couldn’t decide what to read, I gave in. I conceded. Sure, I’ll read the Anthropocene Reviewed.

It’s a collection of personal essays, open and interesting, sporadic and random in theme, drawn together by the idea of humanness and the idea of reviews. (The Anthropocene Reviewed. A review of the age of the humans). I liked the way it was a lightly tinted pair of glasses, a way to tie the reviews together but not something the author really focuses on at all. It’s just a thing, in the background, that you forget about often till the last sentence of each essay introduces it back to you. It’s never jarring, always a little surprising, and almost beautiful.

It was unexpected in its vulnerability. In the gorgeousness of its uncertainty, in its convictions. A snapshot of the author in the most real way possible, coloured by fears and weaknesses and strengths and ideals. Written well, written with heart. And it’s pleasant. Perfectly pleasant and joyful. It made me smile, audibly laugh out, and sit there and wonder. It was happy. A happy book. These are, in my opinion, so hard to do well. This one was done well.

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