J’s books on Goodreads (866 books) (original) (raw)

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| | # | cover | title | author | isbn | isbn13 | asin | pages | rating | ratings | pub | (ed.) | rating | my rating | review | notes | | comments | votes | count | started | read | addedDown arrow | | owned | | | format | | | -------- | -------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | -------------------- | --------------- | ------------------ | --------------- | --------------------- | --------------------- | ----------------------------- | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------ | ------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | ------------------------- | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | --------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | ------ | | | checkbox | position | cover The Shining (The Shining, #1) | title The Shining(The Shining, #1) | author King, Stephen * | isbn 0450040186 | isbn13 9780450040184 | asin 0450040186 | num pages 497pp | avg rating 4.28 | num ratings 1,562,738 | date pub Jan 28, 1977 | date pub edition Jul 01, 1980 | J's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review None | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started not set | date read not set | date added Oct 17, 2023 | owned | format Paperback | actions view | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Heroes: Mass Murder and Suicide (Futures) | title Heroes: Mass Murder and Suicide | author Berardi, Franco "Bifo" | isbn 1781685770 | isbn13 9781781685778 | asin 1781685770 | num pages 224pp | avg rating 3.90 | num ratings 953 | date pub Feb 03, 2015 | date pub edition Feb 24, 2015 | J's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Critical theory can at times, offer powerful, haunting observations about the state of our world...but it always seems to need some broad theme or mot Critical theory can at times, offer powerful, haunting observations about the state of our world...but it always seems to need some broad theme or motif to really ground that interrogation. Franco Berardi's choice to bring that lens to mass shootings doesn't do him, or the topic, much good. Heroes makes some meaningful, if predictable points for someone published by Verso, but it also relies on some tiresome theory generalities, most of which are cribbed verbatim from Jean Baudrilliard (eye-roll).And the way he draws tangential connections between school shootings, corporate culture, techno/semio-capitalism, Japanese suicides, the Korean war, etc. feels less like a web of inspired connections, and more like the work of someone who lacks the rigor to really dig deeply into any one of those gruesome concerns (usually one thing theory is good at).Maybe I need to read his more major works, but Heros feels sloppy, undisciplined, rant-ish, and ultimately fizzles out in the anemic final chapter.I used to find critical theory dense and intimidating. A lot of this struck me as embarassing. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started Jun 26, 2022 | date read Jun 28, 2022 | date added Jun 28, 2022 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover On Violence | title On Violence | author Arendt, Hannah | isbn 0156695006 | isbn13 9780156695008 | asin 0156695006 | num pages 106pp | avg rating 3.76 | num ratings 4,616 | date pub Mar 11, 1970 | date pub edition Mar 11, 1970 | J's rating it was ok | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Honestly...I thought this was mostly junk. Hannah Arendt's examinations of the totalitarian horrors of the 1940s still offer powerful, scathing analys Honestly...I thought this was mostly junk. Hannah Arendt's examinations of the totalitarian horrors of the 1940s still offer powerful, scathing analyses. Personally, I think Eichmann in Jerusalem should be more widely read than it already is. But this (deep breath) seems like a Baby Boomer trying to understand anyone under age 40 today. Arendt appears generationally unequipped to fully grasp or interpret what was going on in the protest movements and the new left of the 1960s. And she approaches this brief analysis with an old-world continental philosophical lens that seems more interested in criticizing 'young people these days!', than offering any powerful insight beyond some rather uninspired first principles/definitions.This is probably best for completists only. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started Jun 25, 2022 | date read Jun 25, 2022 | date added Jun 25, 2022 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia | title The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia | author Le Guin, Ursula K. | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 387pp | avg rating 4.25 | num ratings 132,790 | date pub 1974 | date pub edition Oct 20, 1994 | J's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review One thing that makes this work so well is how bland Ursula K. Le Guin initially presents her Utopian society (Annerres) as being, and how marvelous an One thing that makes this work so well is how bland Ursula K. Le Guin initially presents her Utopian society (Annerres) as being, and how marvelous and plentiful she presents her neo-liberal hell-scape (Urras). Life on Anarres is as barren and un-adorned as its desert terrain. Everyone contributes, and times of plenty and times of hardship are shared equally by all. There's still factions, still power struggles, still politics as we fundamentally understand it. Living with only an 'honest day's labor' day in and day out, in a society that militantly refuses hierarchy and status is hard work that requires an exacting, total commitment. And it's made even harder when you get glimpses of a world that, at least from afar, looks like a place of material luxury, plenty and comfort...Le Guin's handling of these concerns is, like her other best work, humane and eloquent. There are even a few scenes in here that are downright moving (a rarity in didactic literature). Personally, I think The Left Hand of Darkness is a notch ahead of this as a novel overall, The Dispossessed does have some slight issues with pacing. But books like this will never not be relevant. How should we live? ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 4 | # times read 1 | date started Jun 19, 2022 | date read Jun 24, 2022 | date added Jun 25, 2022 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry | title On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry | author Gass, William H. | isbn 1590177185 | isbn13 9781590177181 | asin 1590177185 | num pages 91pp | avg rating 3.85 | num ratings 1,870 | date pub Jan 01, 1975 | date pub edition Mar 11, 2014 | J's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review While almost totally forgotten now, William H. Gass was as formidable a fiction writer as anything America produced in the last century. And as this m While almost totally forgotten now, William H. Gass was as formidable a fiction writer as anything America produced in the last century. And as this mad-cap essay proves, as totally erudite as the best of them, to boot.This is a kooky, free-wheeling reflection on the theme of 'blue' and what its meant in both literature and life. There's no thesis per-se here. On Being Blue reads more like a stunning roller coaster ride through history, verse, philosophy and humanity, both high-brow and low, as filtered through Gass's own protean intellect.This is 90 pages long, and nearly every paragraph dazzles with brilliant word play, weirdly elegant sing-songy rhymes, wacko excerpts from all-but-forgotten classics, horny reminiscences, etc. Seldom is a tour de force just a tour of one man's head. It's staggering to witness a mind like this just riff on something. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Jun 18, 2022 | date read Jun 18, 2022 | date added Jun 18, 2022 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Girls Against God | title Girls Against God | author Hval, Jenny * | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 240pp | avg rating 3.04 | num ratings 4,504 | date pub Oct 02, 2018 | date pub edition Sep 01, 2020 | J's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Like most, I know Jenny Hval for her beguiling art-pop music more than anything else she's done. Girls Against God isn't a memoir, or a manifesto, or Like most, I know Jenny Hval for her beguiling art-pop music more than anything else she's done. Girls Against God isn't a memoir, or a manifesto, or a diatribe against prudish Norwegian conformity, but a hybrid that fluidly bends between these different poles. It's clear that for Hval, much of her personal and aesthetic interests have developed as a revolt against the smarmy scandinavian, Protestantism she grew up around (as someone who openly loathes much of the smarmy American protestantism they grew up around, I'm something of a fellow traveller).Her thoughts on this anger run all over the place chronologically, geographically and conceptually. There are moments here of strong, reflective insight where I found myself nodding along in total agreement...and there are moments where she is describing some idea for a project that, at least on paper, sounds pretty dumb. But that's the risk an artist takes when they try to write a book nailing down the terrain of their inner life. If nothing else, it made me want to go back and re-listen to all of her music. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Jun 16, 2022 | date read Jun 17, 2022 | date added Jun 17, 2022 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels | title The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels | author Kristóf, Ágota | isbn 0802135064 | isbn13 9780802135063 | asin 0802135064 | num pages 478pp | avg rating 4.41 | num ratings 33,358 | date pub Jan 1991 | date pub edition Jun 23, 1997 | J's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review I can appreciate this, but I think I'm at too much of a cultural/historical remove to really get a lot of it. Obviously, the generation of Hungarians I can appreciate this, but I think I'm at too much of a cultural/historical remove to really get a lot of it. Obviously, the generation of Hungarians who came of age during World War 2 were traumatized by numerous forms of horror, both during the conflict, and afterwards when they fell under the soviet sphere.Agota Kristof does a cold, harrowing job of giving us a glimpse of what those depravities (which I suspect many Hungarians from that generation never spoke about), might look like. The flat, almost reportorial style here reminds me of Jerzy Kosinski, Claude Lanzman, and the long tradition of Europeans whose art serves as a testament to the brutalities of Mitteleuropa in the 1940s.Ultimately, I felt like her need to constantly reconfigure the lives and recollections of the twin brothers at the center of this gave these books a sense of stasis that I found a bit monotonous. I realize that's a creative decision that serves as a potent reminder of how many people in that time likely forgot/deliberately omitted unspeakable things seen and done, but it's a decision that kind of bogged down the reading experience, especially after the first book, which is certainly the best one. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started Jun 2022 | date read Jun 14, 2022 | date added Jun 14, 2022 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Death Sentence | title Death Sentence | author Blanchot, Maurice | isbn 1886449414 | isbn13 9781886449411 | asin 1886449414 | num pages 81pp | avg rating 3.71 | num ratings 1,338 | date pub 1948 | date pub edition Jun 17, 1998 | J's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review A little slice of brooding, existential french fiction from the 1940s. Blanchot's narration has an intensely hypnotic quality, as we swirl through the A little slice of brooding, existential french fiction from the 1940s. Blanchot's narration has an intensely hypnotic quality, as we swirl through the mind of a frenchman and his various entanglements with women at the Dawn of the second world war. This has some killer passages as Blanchot walks us through the brooding, noir-ish mirror of the self. You can almost imagine someone sitting in their little Parisian flat in early 1940, sucking on a cigarette, trying to navigate some romantic entanglement with a mysterious women while sun and shadow play off the curtains and the war drums grow louder. An intensely French sort of novella. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started May 30, 2022 | date read May 30, 2022 | date added May 30, 2022 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover A Bestiary | title A Bestiary | author Hoang, Lily | isbn 0996316744 | isbn13 9780996316743 | asin 0996316744 | num pages 156pp | avg rating 4.26 | num ratings 766 | date pub Apr 15, 2016 | date pub edition Apr 15, 2016 | J's rating it was ok | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review I don't get the hype for this.Clearly Lily Hoang has been through a lot. Abusive relationships, family with brutal chemical addictions and declining h I don't get the hype for this.Clearly Lily Hoang has been through a lot. Abusive relationships, family with brutal chemical addictions and declining health, severe parental expectations. She's survived all of this.But trauma, no matter how deeply felt, or courageously confronted, doesn't instantly transmogrify into literary art. And the tiny, essayistic/memoirish fragments that 'A Bestiary' is composed of rarely, for me, become more than little pinpoints of maudlin stasis. Some of the fragments are strong, and build up their own little self-contained momentum, but I think that aphoristic non-fiction is a do-or-die thing. It either creates these brilliant, haunting resonances... or just feels like notes for a rough draft of a better idea waiting to be realized.'A Bestiary' feels like the second thing. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started May 28, 2022 | date read May 29, 2022 | date added May 30, 2022 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Potted Meat | title Potted Meat | author Dunn, Steven | isbn 1939460069 | isbn13 9781939460066 | asin 1939460069 | num pages 134pp | avg rating 4.46 | num ratings 310 | date pub unknown | date pub edition 2016 | J's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review A brutal glimpse into growing up poor and surrounded by sickness, addiction and domestic abuse. Many writers would spin this through our culture's wel A brutal glimpse into growing up poor and surrounded by sickness, addiction and domestic abuse. Many writers would spin this through our culture's well-worn bildungsroman genre engine and cull up scenes of endless heartbreak and sympathy.Steven Dunn isn't interested in that.Instead, we get tiny flashes of his childhood, most of them bled free of the sort of emotional appeals and editorialization we expect from this kind of writing. Potted Meat gets right into the chaotic otherness of Dunn's childhood. We are given little context and no one to really 'sympathize' with. We just observe as a traumatic childhood and adolescence slowly accretes across tiny staccato moments and interactions. Much like in life itself, we are left to ourselves here to judge what the value or significance of any particular moment may be.Don't dare call it a memoir, more of an impression, etched in acid. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started May 26, 2022 | date read May 26, 2022 | date added May 26, 2022 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Trouble With Being Born | title The Trouble With Being Born | author Cioran, Emil M. | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 224pp | avg rating 4.10 | num ratings 9,457 | date pub 1973 | date pub edition Sep 15, 1998 | J's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review What's most disturbing about reading this for me (and apparently for many) is how casually right so many of Cioran's observations feel. Having someone What's most disturbing about reading this for me (and apparently for many) is how casually right so many of Cioran's observations feel. Having someone relentlessly re-iterate the sheer number of exhausting ways in which so much of existence is pure bullshit is oddly...liberating?Cioran's contempt for existence is matched only by his stamina. Each little aphoristic nugget contains something new and polished, like a black little gem of futility. For a misanthropic, insomniac shut-in, he's oddly generous in his elaborations on the wretchedness of it all. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started May 21, 2022 | date read May 24, 2022 | date added May 26, 2022 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2) | title The Silence of the Lambs(Hannibal Lecter, #2) | author Harris, Thomas | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 421pp | avg rating 4.25 | num ratings 563,001 | date pub Jul 1988 | date pub edition 2002 | J's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review If you ever wanted to write a thriller, this is as good a model as any. Thomas Harris has a great economy of style. He knows when to be descriptive, a If you ever wanted to write a thriller, this is as good a model as any. Thomas Harris has a great economy of style. He knows when to be descriptive, and he knows when to cut to the chase to keep things moving.The characters, dialogue, the pacing are all excellent in The Silence of the Lambs, and the shadings of working-woman sexism and federal bureaucracy give it a grounded-ness that most thrillers can't be bothered with. 34 years after it was published it's still a wonderfully propulsive read. I was surprised at just how much of the novel made it into the film. It's rare for something to feel this accomplished in 2 different mediums, but this is. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started May 17, 2022 | date read May 20, 2022 | date added May 26, 2022 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Fish in Exile | title Fish in Exile | author Khi Nao, Vi * | isbn 1566894492 | isbn13 9781566894494 | asin 1566894492 | num pages 192pp | avg rating 4.03 | num ratings 533 | date pub Oct 10, 2016 | date pub edition Nov 01, 2016 | J's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Let's be honest: our media has turned the idea of losing a child into a trope that screenwriters use to make characters seem interesting without havin Let's be honest: our media has turned the idea of losing a child into a trope that screenwriters use to make characters seem interesting without having to actually make them do anything.Enter Vi Khi Nao, who wrote this incredible short novel full of squeamishly oceanic, aqueous imagery where she really digs into the sheer numbness of loosing your kids. The bizarre little things you notice while everything within your heart and mind is scorched into non-feeling.Fish in Exile is sad, and freaky and at times just delivers one hay-maker of a sentence after another. There are passages that slam into you like something out of biblical verse. There are deranged, totally fucked conversations about greek mythology, aquariums, Adam and Eve...whatever. It's a book about how unspeakable loss re-programs your reality.This gets my highest recommendation, I seldom read things this powerful that are this unapologetically bizare ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started May 14, 2022 | date read May 17, 2022 | date added May 17, 2022 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Fra Keeler | title Fra Keeler | author Oloomi, Azareen Van der Vliet * | isbn 0984469346 | isbn13 9780984469345 | asin 0984469346 | num pages 128pp | avg rating 3.54 | num ratings 324 | date pub Oct 01, 2012 | date pub edition Oct 2012 | J's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review A brief American entry in the crowded field of damaged European voices slowly but inexorably descending into oblivion! Fra Keeler's narrator circles m A brief American entry in the crowded field of damaged European voices slowly but inexorably descending into oblivion! Fra Keeler's narrator circles monotonously through himself as he slowly but surely dissolves, Recalling bleak luminaries like Thomas Bernhard, Samuel Beckett, David Diop, etc.Honestly, I think the Europeans do this kind of thing better overall, probably because of the relentless, brooding haunted-ness of their 20th century relative to ours. But Oloomi still manages to turn out a short little slice of 'existence-is-futility' darkness all her own. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started May 11, 2022 | date read May 12, 2022 | date added May 17, 2022 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2) | title A Desolation Called Peace(Teixcalaan, #2) | author Martine, Arkady * | isbn 125018648X | isbn13 9781250186485 | asin B07QPJHNSM | num pages 496pp | avg rating 4.32 | num ratings 31,222 | date pub Mar 02, 2021 | date pub edition Mar 02, 2021 | J's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review It took me a bit to get into this, because Martine's vision in the first book is so intricately rich that I had to marinate in it a bit to get back up It took me a bit to get into this, because Martine's vision in the first book is so intricately rich that I had to marinate in it a bit to get back up to speed with the Teixcalaan empire.A Desolation Called Peace has the same wonderfully baroque sophistication of 'A Memory Called Empire'; the bizarro names, the overwhelming sense of history, the nuanced queer themes she weaves throughout, etc. While I enjoyed it, I think some of the plotting gets a bit messy going into the climax with some very 'let's find a way to get all these characters physically together' dynamics that were bit rushed. But you read these books as much (or more) for the incredible, textured world-vision she develops than for the plot per se.Don't even think about picking this up if you haven't read 'Memory' and kept it fresh in your mind. There is no way to gain late entry to something like this. You have to start at the beginning. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started May 05, 2022 | date read May 09, 2022 | date added May 17, 2022 | owned | format Kindle Edition | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Abandon the Old in Tokyo | title Abandon the Old in Tokyo | author Tatsumi, Yoshihiro | isbn 1894937872 | isbn13 9781894937870 | asin 1894937872 | num pages 224pp | avg rating 3.95 | num ratings 2,657 | date pub 1970 | date pub edition Sep 05, 2006 | J's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review If Raymond Carver was a Japanese Manga artist...he would be something like Yoshihiro Tatsumi. This is collection of manga short stories about various If Raymond Carver was a Japanese Manga artist...he would be something like Yoshihiro Tatsumi. This is collection of manga short stories about various down-on-their-luck people in the increasingly urbanized Japan of the 1970s. Tatsumi's working stiffs live far from the prosperity and largesse of the 'Japanese Economic Miracle' of that time. They struggle to hold down dead end jobs, care for decrepit loved ones, and combat their refreshingly non-romantic dissolution with sex and drink. What's most impressive here is the profound sense of anxiety and loneliness that Tatsumi invokes in nearly every frame. His characters are spooked by a modernizing japan that has changed so quickly, they can often only muster a sense of numb solitude.Tatsumi's artwork is lovely, and he can switch on a dime between sly moments of dark humor, and a gorgeous sense of private ennui that could give Edward Hopper a run for his money. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 4 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 21, 2021 | date read Aug 23, 2021 | date added Aug 23, 2021 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Zami: A New Spelling of My Name | title Zami: A New Spelling of My Name | author Lorde, Audre | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 256pp | avg rating 4.40 | num ratings 22,171 | date pub 1982 | date pub edition Jan 01, 1982 | J's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review I think I'm both the wrong audience and arguably, the wrong generation to really dig this.Audre Lorde was an openly queer black woman writing at a tim I think I'm both the wrong audience and arguably, the wrong generation to really dig this.Audre Lorde was an openly queer black woman writing at a time when belonging to both categories made you an outsider's outsider (hey! it still does in many places).The best parts of this are early on, when she describes her profoundly sheltered upbringing as the daughter of strict Caribbean parents in New York. It's an eye-opening account of how a black family navigated the brutal realities of segregation, and the enormous, unspoken emotional trauma and baggage that came with it.Lorde's real goal in this book however, is less to explicate the socio-political turmoil of her youth, and rather to examine the various emotional bonds she forms with other women, lesbian or otherwise, around her. Zami is a pensive story of how a marginalized woman learns to thrive and build community. The sheer inwardness of Lorde's focus makes it a work of intensely personal emotional reflection, more than a conventional memoir per se (hence her decision to call this a 'mythobiography'). The real audience for Zami, I suspect, is Lorde herself. Which is completely fair.The dominant impression I get from this is similar to what I've gotten from Susan Sontag's memoirs: that this is a person whose sheer emotional maturity and awareness would make many people 3-4 times her age feel juvenile. Traveling alone to Mexico when you're barely 20 and ending up in an affair with an expat journalist whose pushing 50? Like...Jesus...As a white gay man who was profoundly closeted well into his 20s, and who grew up in the early years of the 21st century, there's a massive demographic and temporal distance that separates me from Audre Lorde's experiences. And the differences in economic dynamics of the America she grew up in versus today is so stark, it took me out of the book at times.A woman in her late teens/early 20s being able to afford a one bedroom apartment in a major eastern city while earning a single working-class income (and being able to attend college for free), without being saddled with crippling debt, is a set of lived experiences that is literally unthinkable in the America of 2021.Ultimately, and surely without intending it, Zami is a tacit chronicle of how far American economic prosperity has diminished since Audre Lorde's youth and our own times. While many structural things have not changed one bit, enough distance separates our moment from Lorde's youth to make a lot of this feel, at least to me, alas, unrecognizable. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 9 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 18, 2021 | date read Aug 21, 2021 | date added Aug 21, 2021 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, Volume 2 | title H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, Volume 2 | author Tanabe, Gou | isbn 1506710239 | isbn13 9781506710235 | asin 1506710239 | num pages 346pp | avg rating 4.36 | num ratings 2,081 | date pub 2017 | date pub edition Dec 03, 2019 | J's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Honestly... this is better than Lovecraft.Not only is Gou Tanabe's art work utterly gorgeous (the spreads in these two volumes offer a master class in Honestly... this is better than Lovecraft.Not only is Gou Tanabe's art work utterly gorgeous (the spreads in these two volumes offer a master class in black and white drawing), but he's also able to transpose and adapt Lovecraft's insular, repetitively overwrought prose into a propulsive visual style.This does a fantastic job of balancing action with atmospherics, and it feels almost cinematic at times. And Unlike virtually all the film adaptations of Lovecraft this comic gets the sheer weight of his doomy ambiance. It's Antarctica, it's BIG and it's DESOLATE. And that's before things get weird. At the Mountains of Madness also contains some of Lovecraft's most mind-bending ideas and descriptions. Tanabe does a phenomenal job articulating in ink drawings ideas that Lovecraft conveyed poorly in ink letters. What more can I say? This is a totally masterful adaptation that feels like an improvement on the original. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 12, 2021 | date read Aug 14, 2021 | date added Aug 15, 2021 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Ringworld (Ringworld, #1) | title Ringworld(Ringworld, #1) | author Niven, Larry | isbn 0575077026 | isbn13 9780575077027 | asin 0575077026 | num pages 288pp | avg rating 3.94 | num ratings 124,368 | date pub Oct 1970 | date pub edition Jun 09, 2005 | J's rating did not like it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Garbage.Ringworld is easily the worst book of any kind I've read in years. To say Larry Niven writes like a stupid child, would be insulting to the ch Garbage.Ringworld is easily the worst book of any kind I've read in years. To say Larry Niven writes like a stupid child, would be insulting to the child ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 03, 2021 | date read Aug 07, 2021 | date added Aug 07, 2021 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Akira | title Akira | author Otomo, Katsuhiro | isbn 1632364611 | isbn13 9781632364616 | asin 1632364611 | num pages 2,530pp | avg rating 4.68 | num ratings 790 | date pub Oct 31, 2017 | date pub edition Oct 31, 2017 | J's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review I've seen the film a number of times, and I was legitimately shocked at how much bigger and deeper the Manga is.There's an entire world of character a I've seen the film a number of times, and I was legitimately shocked at how much bigger and deeper the Manga is.There's an entire world of character and story development that takes place in the comic which got truncated, or more often, simply removed from the movie altogether. Otomo's art on the page is as gorgeous as his production companies is on the big screen, whether it's depicting moments of fragility and intimacy, or apocalyptic scenes of mass destruction.It's Akira, you don't need me to recommend it to you. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Jul 11, 2021 | date read Jul 18, 2021 | date added Jul 24, 2021 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | |

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