Book Reviews

Jul 1, 2024

My copy of this novel has the following summary on the cover:

The famous novel. The unforgettable people. The crazy, colorful world they lived in.

I can’t help but think that this does a disservice to the world crafted in Cannery Row. The world isn’t crazy - it’s real. Steinbeck shows you the salt and dirt of California rural life with no holds barred.

This is the only...

Dec 27, 2021

This is a children’s book that you can almost finish in a single bath session before the water’s too cold. I definitely knew of the book before I picked it out from my family home’s bookshelf, but I did not realize it was so shockingly popular in the 20th century. Only The Bible has been translated more than this book.

I intend this to be a short review, and so...

Dec 12, 2021

It’s possibly a bit embarrassing how much art, literature, and poetry I’ve become engaged with because it was feature in a James Bond movie. Well, I’m sorry, but I finally got into Jack London after one of his quotes was used at the end of No Time To Die:

“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to...

May 16, 2021

This book is a remarkable journey. The author, Daniel Keyes, does a wonderful job using prose to track the increasing and decreasing intelligence of the protagonist, and the central theme of the book, I think about the relationship between kindness, intelligence, and loneliness, is a knockout.

I’d heard that this was a top-tier tear-jerker, so expected to be a weeping mess at the end, but I may have spent all...

May 4, 2021

todo

✭✭✭✭✭

Apr 17, 2021

Adorable, warm, restorative. David Foster Wallace is possibly the person most associated with calling out how irony-poisoned and insincere contemporary 21st society has become, and I’d bet he’d prescribe a dose of Little Women is you’d finished all of Cheers and still found you’d couldn’t really believe in yourself, love, and others.

✭✭✭✭

Dec 28, 2020

This book is Hemingway at his finest: a man, a boat, and the struggle to survive both against nature and against oneself. I read this book in one sitting, and I think that’s the way that it should be experienced.

✭✭✭✭✭

Dec 7, 2020

This book's vibe is not like anything else I've read. I'd describe it as brooding and disturbed. The main character's journey is like a cursed pilgrimage or something. I've read that this book has been super influential, and I think I can see why. ✭✭✭✭

Dec 5, 2020

I had no idea what Foundation by Isaac Asimov would be like; I just knew it was regarded among the greatest science fiction novels ever written.

I bought it in Bryon Bay alongside the book I entered the store for, Dune Messiah, and read them both on the same trip. They are quite different science fiction books. The Dune series is much more introspective, psychological, and heroic.

Overall I thought...

Jan 19, 2020

For context, Slaughterhouse Five is possibly my favourite novel, and Kurt Vonnegut is tied with George Orwell as my favourite writer (which makes some sense because Vonnegut called Orwell his favourite writer).

Right after finishing Cat’s Cradle, I had the impression “that was fun, and curious, but not as immediately wonderful and impactful as Slaughterhouse 5.” The plot is whacky, going all over the place so that Vonnegut can make...