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Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
5 reviews
gris_zorra's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Suicide
lia_mills's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
"The Anthropocene Reviewed"
Method: audiobook by the author
One thing about me is: I love a theme. Themed events, themed locations, themed decor: give me something with a clearly-stated uniting category attached to it and I will be happy. And never more so than when it comes to collections of writings - be they essays, poems, short stories, letters, what have you - give me a clear overarching connection and I will be happy.
As themes go, "The Anthropocene" is broad enough to potentially be self-defeating. If it could be anything about human life (which in a piece of media made for humans essentially means 'anything at all', since everything we communicate about will always come back to us), what's the point in having a theme at all? Maybe that's me being too simplistic, but honestly the broadness of this theme does brush against the reason why I love them so much - I like being able to categorise things, and (to a somewhat lesser extent) to compartmentalise them, and a theme like this doesn't really allow for that sort of thing.
But my own personal taste in theming aside, I freaking loved this book. From the opening review of the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" from the musical 'Carousel' - a song I also have a personal connection to, with my very first time performing in a stage show having been as one of the Snow children who appears onstage during this song, in an experience which helped spark the love of theatre that has had such a profound influence on my life - I was hooked. My favourite reviews are the ones on the 1950 drama film "Harvey" (which serves as a deeply personal and empathy-facilitating explorarion of Green's experience with depression) and on the folk song "Auld Lang Syne" (which serves as a beautiful tribute to the work of his departed friend and mentor Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and has given me a variation on the song to sing which I will remember for the rest of my life). This book has so many interesting, at times hilarious and at times profound reviews in here that are well worth reading - it's just that I love these two most, in equal measure.
One of my favourite things about art is how it begets more art - both from a creative perspective (artists, writers, musicians, etc. being inspired by those who came before them and by their contemporaries), and from an audience perspective (one of my favourite examples of this is finding music for the first time through great needledrops in film and television). And to me, this book is at its best when it highlights some of the beautiful and strange and intriguing things that humans have created. I personally lean more towards the artistic ones, but the exploration of some of the more pragmatic human creations, such as vaccines, is also excellent - informative and evocative, in equal measure.
And this book does what so many of the books I deeply love do - it makes me want to write more, and it makes me want to participate more in the world. It makes me want both, in equal measure.
I give "The Anthropocene Rewiewed" four and a half stars.
Method: audiobook by the author
One thing about me is: I love a theme. Themed events, themed locations, themed decor: give me something with a clearly-stated uniting category attached to it and I will be happy. And never more so than when it comes to collections of writings - be they essays, poems, short stories, letters, what have you - give me a clear overarching connection and I will be happy.
As themes go, "The Anthropocene" is broad enough to potentially be self-defeating. If it could be anything about human life (which in a piece of media made for humans essentially means 'anything at all', since everything we communicate about will always come back to us), what's the point in having a theme at all? Maybe that's me being too simplistic, but honestly the broadness of this theme does brush against the reason why I love them so much - I like being able to categorise things, and (to a somewhat lesser extent) to compartmentalise them, and a theme like this doesn't really allow for that sort of thing.
But my own personal taste in theming aside, I freaking loved this book. From the opening review of the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" from the musical 'Carousel' - a song I also have a personal connection to, with my very first time performing in a stage show having been as one of the Snow children who appears onstage during this song, in an experience which helped spark the love of theatre that has had such a profound influence on my life - I was hooked. My favourite reviews are the ones on the 1950 drama film "Harvey" (which serves as a deeply personal and empathy-facilitating explorarion of Green's experience with depression) and on the folk song "Auld Lang Syne" (which serves as a beautiful tribute to the work of his departed friend and mentor Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and has given me a variation on the song to sing which I will remember for the rest of my life). This book has so many interesting, at times hilarious and at times profound reviews in here that are well worth reading - it's just that I love these two most, in equal measure.
One of my favourite things about art is how it begets more art - both from a creative perspective (artists, writers, musicians, etc. being inspired by those who came before them and by their contemporaries), and from an audience perspective (one of my favourite examples of this is finding music for the first time through great needledrops in film and television). And to me, this book is at its best when it highlights some of the beautiful and strange and intriguing things that humans have created. I personally lean more towards the artistic ones, but the exploration of some of the more pragmatic human creations, such as vaccines, is also excellent - informative and evocative, in equal measure.
And this book does what so many of the books I deeply love do - it makes me want to write more, and it makes me want to participate more in the world. It makes me want both, in equal measure.
I give "The Anthropocene Rewiewed" four and a half stars.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Chronic illness, Cancer, and Animal cruelty
takarakei's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
THE AUDIOBOOK! John narrates it himself (I find his voice so soothing) & one of my favorite essays was an audio exclusive. I just described this book to someone as a 'pop culture' book, but I think that does it a great disservice. This book is just so much more than that. I actually have not read any of John Green's novels (yet), but I have been following him and his brother Hank (read The Carls!) for a couple years, so I knew going in that John has a way with words. You may flip through the table of contents to read the titles of the essays and think this book sounds rather ordinary, but John is able to take even the most seemingly mundane topics and weave beautiful connections to (the often brutal) humanity. There were several times when I was misty eyed.
I give John Green's book 5 stars.
I give John Green's book 5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Mental illness, and Death
Moderate: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content
Minor: War, Slavery, Alcohol, Bullying, Cancer, and Antisemitism
Animal death -scruffie's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
I could hear John's voice in my head while reading this book. Simultaneously sad and anxious and hopeful, it felt very comforting to me; exactly what I needed right now. Medium-paced most of the time, but also slow-paced, on occasion.
Probably like others before me, I give the Anthropocene Reviewed five stars.
Probably like others before me, I give the Anthropocene Reviewed five stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Body horror
Moderate: Antisemitism and Terminal illness
Minor: Vomit, Slavery, Colonisation, Islamophobia, Drug use, and War
phobosm's review against another edition
informative
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.0
The audiobook is a pleasure to listen to. Audio clippings of near-extinct birds and a singing John Green. Way too saturated with disease and pandemic ramblings scattered throughout the book, got stale eventually.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, and Terminal illness
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, and Drug use
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