Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

57 reviews

danasaur's review

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

4.5

Particularly excellent as an audiobook!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, and Mental illness

Moderate: Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Alcohol, Cancer, Vomit, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Drug use, and Death

lia_mills's review

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. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Chronic illness, Cancer, and Animal cruelty

grace33's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Child death and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Cancer

chele96's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer

beingbrigi's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

This book is more for John Green than for us as readers. The strong essays were great but the weak ones were all over the place.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Pandemic/Epidemic

rosalyn's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I actually enjoyed a collection of essays. That's a miracle. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, and Grief

Minor: Cancer

dev921's review

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Child death, Cancer, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

2.75

Formatting would have benefited greatly with the use of footnotes, which in turn would have helped with pacing and flow.

I found myself reading an essay or two about topics I had varying levels of interest in, and on to the next essay I would read the title and often put the book down because I had had enough of the meandering stream of consciousness associations for that session.

There were some things that I found value in, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Toxic relationship, War, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Cancer, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Death, Deportation, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Alcoholism, Classism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Child death, Chronic illness, and Mental illness

bbygirl21's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective slow-paced

4.0

I was thoroughly surprised by this book. I went in open minded, but I fully expected not to enjoy this book. I don't usually read nonfiction books. I don't go out of my way to find nonfiction books and beyond that general hesitation with nonfiction, the premise of the book didn't really interest me all that much when going into it. But I surprisingly really liked it. I did start to feel a little bored with the book near the end of it. But overall I really enjoyed it and would recommend.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, War, Confinement, Genocide, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Grief, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Alcohol, Cancer, Chronic illness, Animal death, and Antisemitism

zoiejanelle's review

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

i very casually listened to the audiobook (thanks spotify premium!) and really enjoyed being able to listen to a few chapters at a time. listening to him read the book, laughing with him and crying with him, made the experience so much more enjoyable. i would love to go back and read the physical book when i have time so that i can pore over his syntax and highlight my favorite phrases/sentences. 

john green was one of my favorite authors as as teen, and i am so glad to still be learning from him. his unique experience as an almost-pastor, a writer, a father, and a person who struggles with mental illness all really inform this beautifully reflective and inspiring body of work. his voice (literally and figuratively) really shine through each chapter and the context/further research provided made me feel like i was FEELING but also LEARNING at the same time. 

 i'm not sure what i expected from this book, but it was certainly profound. i found myself considering not just the human condition but my own place in the world and my own motivations. this was a really beautiful read, and i highly recommend it to anyone who likes memoirs, non-fiction, or yelp reviews. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness, Mental illness, Cancer, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, and Death