Tag: review

Books

Asymmetry – Lisa Halliday

by MelLeave a Comment on Asymmetry – Lisa Halliday

Rating: 3/5

The NY Times listed this as one of their top 10 books of 2018 so I was immediately intrigued, but it turns out it didn’t do much for me.

The book is split into two stories that seem completely unrelated, but the connection is revealed by the end. Alice and Ezra inhabit the first half, and if I resort to cliches, their relationship is “flawed but beautiful in its own way”. Ezra is a famous writer (unsubtly modeled after Philip Roth, whom Halliday had a relationship with when she was younger) and much older than she is (think 65 to her 25), and while I loved seeing their interactions, it also struck a little too close to home because Alice is around my age and Ezra is around my roommate’s age – and not only that, but our personalities are also similar to these characters’. Even if we’re good friends, it’s just too weird imagining my roommate and I in a relationship 🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️

The second half focuses on Amar, who’s the opposite of Alice – he’s brimming with words and thoughts and opinions, and it’s really interesting seeing these two narrators side by side. Despite the lovely writing though, I didn’t feel particularly drawn to any of the characters, and actually got kind of bored partway through.

P.S. I love the cover though; it reminds me of this painting by Leo Chun.

Books

Educated – Tara Westover

by MelLeave a Comment on Educated – Tara Westover

Rating: 4/5

It’s impossible to love a book as filled with trauma, abuse, and violence as this one is, but nonetheless it was absolutely riveting. My jaw hit the floor over and over again as Westover kept revealing the next crazy scheme her father roped the family into, and I’m still coming to terms with the knowledge that there are still people out there who believe so strongly in fundamentalist survivalism that they refuse to go to hospitals and visit doctors, bury thousands of gallons of gasoline and other “supplies” underground for when the rapture comes, and think the government is out to get them at all costs, among other things. I mean, if you just faced a large, fiery explosion head-on and are suffering third-degree burns across your body and your face is literally melting off, go to the hospital! Don’t just wait for God and essential oils to work their magic on you!

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Books

Primates of Park Avenue – Wednesday Martin

by MelLeave a Comment on Primates of Park Avenue – Wednesday Martin

Rating: 2/5

Let’s just start off by saying, the fact that the front cover has a quote by Amy Chua of all people basically says what you need to know about this book and its author. That is, if the zebra-print pencil skirt and cheetah-print curtain and matching cheetah-print Loubs didn’t already give it away.

Anyway, this book is NUTS! Here’s the good and the bad:

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Books

Because Internet – Gretchen McCulloch

by MelLeave a Comment on Because Internet – Gretchen McCulloch

Rating: 3.5/5

I first heard about this book from an episode of the Ezra Klein show, but it wasn’t quite the book I expected going in – I thought it’d be more educational and that I’d learn more about how internet slang and memes and such developed, but it was more nostalgic and entertaining than anything else.

The book did a great job at putting into words things that an internet user already innately knows, but not so much at providing new information. For example, being a Full Internet Person, I already know the “anatomy” of a keysmash – usually starts with “a” or “asdf”, made up of the middle row of keys on a keyboard, doesn’t usually have the same letter repeated, if it doesn’t look genuine enough then people will often delete and do it again (that made me laugh, so real) – but I didn’t necessarily want to read about it. And the book is filled with instances like this. It was entertaining as a recap of things I totally do on the internet, but not as informative as hoped.

Books

Bad Blood – John Carreyrou

by MelLeave a Comment on Bad Blood – John Carreyrou

Rating: 4/5

I devoured this a few weeks ago but am still reeling at just how corrupt Theranos was. Back around 2012-2014 I remember marveling at this new Elizabeth Holmes figure that every media outlet was mythologizing, and thinking how incredible it must be to be so brilliant and wishing I’d been born so talented too. When the truth came out, I was scandalized and shocked alongside everyone else, but it wasn’t until I read this book that I realized just how fraudulent the company really was.

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Books

Save Me the Plums – Ruth Reichl

by MelLeave a Comment on Save Me the Plums – Ruth Reichl

Rating: 2/5

Big yikes. I really wanted to like this book because some of my favorite book bloggers said it was one of their favorite books of the entire year, which is glowing praise, but I couldn’t get past the cultural insensitivity. Most of it wasn’t bad, but I got to one page that had a recipe for “spicy Chinese noodles” and I just couldn’t believe what I was reading. You’re telling me that Ruth Reichl – former NY Times food critic, former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, and generally beloved food personality – is so culturally unaware as to call a Chinese noodle dish…literally “spicy Chinese noodles”?

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Books

The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov

by Mel1 Comment on The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov

Rating: 4/5

I feel like I need to reread this one three more times until I finally understand everything! This is definitely one of most imaginative books I’ve ever read, even though it came at the cost of my comprehension, ha. I chipped away at it for months because it’s just so wacky and nonsensical and dense that I kept having to put it down every few chapters to process what I’d read. The experience I had while reading it was very similar to my read of Neuromancer – I was really confused all throughout, but once I finished I was vaguely happy to have read it, lol.

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