Review: Understanding a Photograph

Understanding a Photograph by John Berger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This collection of writings by Berger was an interesting little read on the form. While a little tedious in parts, and maybe mildly repetitive in bits, Berger generally has novel takes that inspire reflection and pause.

Berger's analysis of photography is interesting in multiple ways. At first glance, he is definitely got a unique perspective on what photos are. While I did not agree with all of his analysis, there is a clear power to the way he thinks of historicity, the importance and limitations of photography, and how it relates to seeing and memory. On another level, though, his analysis of photography falls within the larger philosophical positions he is defending in the broader sets of writing he does. Finally, his work is set within a specific temporal framework, there is a time and place within which his writing clearly sits.

As a result, this book is a fascinating snapshot of a developed philosophy about art. Its temporality means that parts of it are dense and have academic language that is somewhat outdated, and parts of it are outdated in content where the art of photography has moved forward. At the same time, other parts feel all the more richer because of how concretely they are grounded.

The volume only includes select photographs. I found myself having to google the others, and missing the detail.

Overall, not bad.

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Review: The Labours of Hercules

The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It was a perfectly pleasant set of short stories in classic Agatha Christie style, though none were too in-depth or too emotionally inspiring. They were quick, fun, charming, and each had a twist or the other that was impossible to foresee but felt plausible nonetheless (though unsatisfying due to the former quality).

I enjoyed it, but it did not strike me as particularly impactful. A good way to spend a nice sunny afternoon.

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Review: The Final Empire

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a perfect prototypical modern epic fantasy novel. It is technically masterful, with every plot point and every twist and every fight executed to maximise wish-fulfilment and joy. It is just the right amount of intriguing, just the right amount of tragic, to be fun and engaging all the way through. The writing is stellar, it is effortless while still being articulate and interesting. There is a clear technical mastery of the form itself, the structure is so well-thought-out, the characters so likeable and subtle, the world so full. Every twist is predictable, but in a good way, where you feel like the twist was bound to happen after it has happened because it makes sense.

Starting from the prologue, all the way to the very last page, this book delivers.

It may lack the depth of a Wheel of Time, but it is a fantastic book.

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Review: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit V. Banerjee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An interesting and engaging take on the economics of poverty, drawing from data to draw small but consequential conclusions. Banerjee and Duflo refuse to sacrifice nuance while still building an accessible set of ideas about how poverty works.

The book does a great job of introducing novel ideas, providing surprising facts, and using real-world anecdotes to generate towards interesting conclusions and policy suggestions. It is at its best when it uses the statistics to make largely descriptive claims about how people in different countries behave, and it is fascinating.

There is a tendency to overgenerate, such as using laboratory experiments to make broad claims about human behaviour in contexts where such claims should not as easily be made. However, these are few and far between.

Overall, an informative and interesting book.

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Review: The Creative Act: A Way of Being

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On a purely physical level, this is a beautiful book. It is bound well, the cover has texture, the built in ribbon as a bookmark reminds me of old books I used to own. It has heft and weight, and it feels good to hold. It is, physically, a book that I enjoyed having with me.

The content itself is far too light. It is short chapters that lack the punch to justify their length. It's clear that Rick Rubin is a man who knows something about the creative process, it's just frustrating that he refuses to tell us in 400 sparsely populated pages of vague statements with scattered gems. I wish this book had more exercises, a more coherent analysis of rules in the creative process, a proper chapter on the financial pressure and how it inhibits art. Even in the glimpses we get, there are hints of value.

But not enough. The book is a bit of a disappointment, in part because it so clearly has the potential to be so much more than it is.

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Review: How to Build Impossible Things : Lessons in Life and Carpentry Mark Ellison

How to Build Impossible Things : Lessons in Life and Carpentry Mark Ellison by Mark Ellison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

How to Build Impossible Things is an interesting book, in some ways it feels very much like a stream of consciousness ramble by an experienced man who's done lots of amazing things. It is part-memoir, part-notes of life, philosophy in the loosest sense of the word. Where it lacks depth, it tries to make up for it with the wittiness and personality on the pages.

Reading it felt like what I imagine New York feels like. It was irreverent, bold, a bit too much bluster at first but then the style grows on you as you come to respect the ease with which it doesn't take itself seriously. The stories are brash but funny, and they are the best part. For someone who hasn't had to renovate houses for the super rich, it is a window into a fantastical world where the author finds space for challenge, originality, and great folly. The last of these sometimes made me laugh out loud.

On the other hand, there is a loose sense of philosophy about the whole thing that doesn't quite work. The lessons are often basic but also, in an almost comic way, just not very aligned with the stories themselves. I think part of this is that the book is not chronological, but it is still kinda funny when the author tells us he is unafraid to tell people when he doesn't know something, and then a chapter later he tells us of how he got a job by lying to someone about whether he knew how to use specific bits of equipment.

At its core, How to Build Impossible Things is not a book that I could take very seriously. I don't think it wanted to be that book. Instead, it was funny, interesting, and sometimes wise purely through the brute strength of experience.

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Review: All the Bright Places

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

All the Bright Places is a painful book, in a good way. It starts off cliche and then quickly snowballs into a complicated messy story about hurt, love, and death. It is unexpected in interesting ways and it will emotionally empty you by the end. It is a painful book, and it is manic and draining and powerful.

What Jennifer Niven does well is pull together something with a kind of raw energy. It is unapologetically giddy, it races up to the highs and then rushes down to the lows, over and over. The voices of the characters, while a bit same-y across the two main narrators, is unreliable in the sense that knowing their innermost thoughts does not translate into knowing how they are perceived or what actions they end up taking in the heat of the moment or outside the frame of our reference. This keeps the characters intimate yet known. The plot races towards tragedy, and it hurts when it hits because it's impossible to not hope for the people you are reading about.

On the other hand, this is not a perfect book. The cliche's are a bit on the nose at times, Violet and Finch sometimes come off as stereotypes of YA characters rather than actual characters. Their personalities outside of the plot itself are vague and remain unexplored. The plot itself, while strong, is missing some complexity. The central relationship is interesting, but no other ones are properly explored. These are complicated themes and ideas, and I feel like the book doesn't quite do them justice in the space it has taken.

I do want to note, however, that these critiques are mostly post-hoc. While at points I was taken out by a paragraph here, or a creative choice there, overall the book kept me engaged. For all my complaints, I needed to take a long walk to clear my head after I finished because of how painful a book it turned out to be. That's worth something.

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Review: The Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I cannot remember the last time I read a book like this one, where as the final pages turned I found it difficult to breathe.

This is a complicated book. It is a story of love and friendship, and of great men from myth and legend. It is a tragic book, where with every turn of the page you condemn those in it to a fate that rushes towards them. I started it knowing how it would end, but in moments I would forget and find myself hoping that it would end differently. It is not a great book, but I don't think it strives to be. It's goal is not scale but tenderness.

I cannot deny that in some ways, it's rough around the edges. The world does not feel as large as it did with Circe, the words do not always flow, the characters are not always as naturally pulled together as they need to be.

But it does not matter. The parts that shine are bright enough.

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