Review: Bluets

Bluets by Maggie Nelson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am often tempted to send quotes from books I read to friends and family, to share the beauty and to ascertain response. With Bluets, this becomes difficult for every line demands such sharing.

It is a book of condensed poetry, every verse encompassing something of weight, holding in it distilled essences of important things. Even so, they come together in an impossible tapestry that winds and bends and shakes and ripples in the wind.

It is, if nothing else, beautiful.

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Review: The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Way of Kings is an interesting book. I wanted to love it more than I did, despite the fact that I did love it quite fiercely. Sanderson is a brilliant writer, and while I have complaints, they cannot take away from how fantastic this book was overall.

The Way of Kings is an epic book in the genre sense of the word. It is set in a world that is clearly vast and extremely interesting. The analytic of the world-building is indubitably incredible. The elements have been thought out well, so they fit in perfectly despite being foreign and unique. Every new piece of information is beautiful in a way, holding deeper mysteries that are yet to be unfurled. New words are juggled and lost, but they never feel out of place. Sanderson is at his best in this.

His characters are fine. They are flawed, interesting, with goals that drive the story, but they are not compelling. Their struggles are painful, and they get moments to shine, but I felt a distinct lack of attachment to them. The plot itself, driven by these interesting characters, is intriguing and keeps you reading. There are few moments of deep and complex emotion, instead the book relies on complex situations where you must draw out how you feel in a more subtle way.

Where the book is best is worldbuilding, but alas here is also its greatest flaw. Sanderson's worlds are like Chekov's guns, everything is explained and everything is useful, but that makes everything feel just a little bit shallow. Where there is incredible depth in the exploration of implications, there is little sense that the world is significantly wider than we see. In this, this is a weaker fantasy book than some classics.

At its core, however, Way of Kings is beautiful. It was moving, exciting, and fun to read. Highly recommended.

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Review: I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Baek Se-hee's book is an intensely personal exploration of therapy, one of the most transparent books I've ever read. The discussions with her therapist are vulnerable and incomplete, they touch and go on topics, and it's clear that we're getting but a tiny glimpse of a larger person. In principle, this would be a great book because of how open it is. In that, I cannot fault it. It does not feel minced or over-edited with regards to the brutality of the themes, it feels honest.

However, the actual book ends up somewhat underwhelming. Perhaps it is the way it is translated, the cultural differences, or just the short-length not allowing for a deep dive into the therapy, but it just feels too quick, too impatient, too quick to move on from deep and dark ideas. We do not have the context to understand the complaints Se-hee is making to her therapist, so her stories all feel slightly one-dimensional. The vulnerability is not paired with particularly special stories.

In addition, the writing itself is okay but not special. While it does somewhat ground the book, it prevents the book from being poignant or beautiful. It is a reflection of the world, which I cannot fault, but amidst the lack of depth in story or language, it does lose engagement as it goes on

Decent book about therapy, cultural differences, and the future of work.

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Review: My Documents

My Documents by Alejandro Zambra
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love Zambra. I feel like I've started a review with this before. I love Zambra and the way he uses words. He pulls a magic trick, it feels as if his word are like cards that have been dropped onto the floor, haphazard and careless. Yet, you look closer, and it is clear that he is a deliberate and cautious writer, the planned carelessness, the constructed breeze, everything right where it belongs.

My Documents is an interesting collection of short stories. It is haunting, especially towards the end where the stories introduce some jarring themes (including rape). It is a conflicting set of stories, the characters are complicated, their motivations sometimes obscured just enough to keep them strangers. There are compulsions on display, so human and so terrifying and so bizarre but so real nonetheless.

It lacks the depth of some of his other work, but I love Zambra's language and his ability to write pieces that feel so much a part of this world, inexplicable but familiar.

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Review: I Will Write to Avenge My People: The Nobel Lecture

I Will Write to Avenge My People: The Nobel Lecture by Annie Ernaux
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A short, interesting read, a look into the broader context of Ernaux's work. This is more a preparatory reading I did in the build up to reading more of her work, so not much more to say than that.

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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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