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Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
30 reviews
lia_mills's review
4.5
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.
Moderate: Mental illness, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Chronic illness, Cancer, and Animal cruelty
anni_o's review
4.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Grief, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Child death
sarahina_b's review
5.0
Minor: Sexism, Emotional abuse, War, Pandemic/Epidemic, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Animal death, Medical content, Grief, Xenophobia, and Suicidal thoughts
wickedgrumpy's review against another edition
2.75
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.
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
4.0
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
voldycat's review
5.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Mental illness
Moderate: Terminal illness and Chronic illness
jameyer1216's review
3.75
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, and Chronic illness
novella42's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Mental illness
Moderate: Grief and Chronic illness
issyd23's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Panic attacks/disorders
illgiveyouahint's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Medical trauma, Self harm, Animal death, Colonisation, Mental illness, Grief, Chronic illness, Death, Classism, Confinement, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Suicide, Racism, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Slavery, Violence, War, and Vomit