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carlyshoo's review against another edition
4.0
This book is the perfect size for a bite full of reading sessions. I listened to the audio, for reference.
Lulu Miller didn’t get to me emotionally until the topic of Unfit and the women Anna and Mary entered the topics of the book. At first, I felt bored of how revered the man, David Star Jordan, was to the author. I get tired of men, generally, and reading about them and their accomplishments.
When Miller introduces the dark past of U.S. involvement in eugenics and eugenics programs, and stated the vast numbers of sterilized people, especially BIPOC people, robbed of their ability to procreate… the tears fell off my face.
Lulu Miller didn’t get to me emotionally until the topic of Unfit and the women Anna and Mary entered the topics of the book. At first, I felt bored of how revered the man, David Star Jordan, was to the author. I get tired of men, generally, and reading about them and their accomplishments.
When Miller introduces the dark past of U.S. involvement in eugenics and eugenics programs, and stated the vast numbers of sterilized people, especially BIPOC people, robbed of their ability to procreate… the tears fell off my face.
lindsert's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
The people that need to hear this may never do so, but what a beautiful little weird fish book.
kek7rdu's review against another edition
3.0
i enjoyed this book for the most part but very uncomfortable that over half the book is praising a eugenicist (and this wasn’t addressed till almost the end). i like the overall theme that categories are meaningless ideas that box us in and joy is as much as a guarantee as suffering, but personally i wish she didn’t use a eugenicist to push this idea
(i also “read” this via audiobook so maybe that made a difference, but tbh i think it made me view it more positively)
(i also “read” this via audiobook so maybe that made a difference, but tbh i think it made me view it more positively)
sebast_torr's review against another edition
4.0
(Listened to the audiobook)
Fish don’t exist, dandelions are both weeds and medicine, and nothing matters! I am tentatively willing to say that I liked this book though it also wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting to read more about the man behind the drive to collect and categorize fish but I’m instead left with thoughts on eugenics, cosmic justice, and what does it mean to embrace fish not existing. Truthfully I don’t know how to feel. An interesting biography on a bad person that was a pioneer in our modern science. Is there a lesson to be learned from someone who would likely believe that I don’t deserve to exist… I don’t know.
An interesting read nonetheless and lulu miller is able to paint a fascinating picture of something as innocuous as the death of belief in fish. Excited to see what she writes next.
Fish don’t exist, dandelions are both weeds and medicine, and nothing matters! I am tentatively willing to say that I liked this book though it also wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting to read more about the man behind the drive to collect and categorize fish but I’m instead left with thoughts on eugenics, cosmic justice, and what does it mean to embrace fish not existing. Truthfully I don’t know how to feel. An interesting biography on a bad person that was a pioneer in our modern science. Is there a lesson to be learned from someone who would likely believe that I don’t deserve to exist… I don’t know.
An interesting read nonetheless and lulu miller is able to paint a fascinating picture of something as innocuous as the death of belief in fish. Excited to see what she writes next.
slipstitch's review
I could tell after the prologue that this writing style was not for me. I stuck with it for a couple more chapters, hoping that it might get better. It didn’t.
It tries too hard to make lofty, whimsical scenes out of the most boring details. This book takes the whole notion of “show, don’t tell” in writing to the extreme. I am not at all interested in imagining what color belly button lint the author’s father has…
It tries too hard to make lofty, whimsical scenes out of the most boring details. This book takes the whole notion of “show, don’t tell” in writing to the extreme. I am not at all interested in imagining what color belly button lint the author’s father has…
purplepierogi's review against another edition
2.0
I don’t know if this phenomenon has a name, but there is definitely a genre of book in which the writers project their emotional turmoil onto some long dead, real, usually profoundly flawed person, and then act surprised when that person turns out to be horrible. god, stop doing this! who gave this woman a book deal? this is Julie and Julia with a random woman going through a breakup and a dead eugenicist taxonomist. dude!
I think most of my violent reaction to this is because, god, the writing style is so, so twee. it's one thing to wax poetic about deeply problematic historical figures without disclosing their deep, life-long associations with eugenics, but it's so much worse with the fluffy, millenial-quirky tone this book employs. at first, I was like okay, lots of description, lots of fragmented clauses, it’s feeling very MFA. well, the author does indeed have an MFA and that's fine but an inspection of the author bio blurb reveals that she's also co-creator of the NPR podcast Invisibilia, which I actually hate for this same rambling and handwringing. here's an excerpt: "Morning after morning, I resisted the sunshine beckoning outside the windows, the scent of eucalyptus whispering come-hithers." this is the whole book.
the tone of speculation also grated on me, heavily. to be fair, she draws from archives and biographies and it's understandable she would like to disclose in some way this is her imagination at work, not mind-reading. But it was so annoying that every other word was 'perhaps,' or 'maybe.' Example: “Then, cracking his knuckles, perhaps, or removing a crick from his neck, he would inhale some of Earth’s good air, and exhale, for the first time ever, its name.” We're given the rich details of David Starr Jordan's world, and then yanked out of it with a repetitive marker that this is just some author's fixation and daydream. there wasn't enough memoir here to actually connect the dots and so we are just brought along down the rabbit hole of deeply sentimental reflections on this man, just to marinate in it.
I think most of my violent reaction to this is because, god, the writing style is so, so twee. it's one thing to wax poetic about deeply problematic historical figures without disclosing their deep, life-long associations with eugenics, but it's so much worse with the fluffy, millenial-quirky tone this book employs. at first, I was like okay, lots of description, lots of fragmented clauses, it’s feeling very MFA. well, the author does indeed have an MFA and that's fine but an inspection of the author bio blurb reveals that she's also co-creator of the NPR podcast Invisibilia, which I actually hate for this same rambling and handwringing. here's an excerpt: "Morning after morning, I resisted the sunshine beckoning outside the windows, the scent of eucalyptus whispering come-hithers." this is the whole book.
the tone of speculation also grated on me, heavily. to be fair, she draws from archives and biographies and it's understandable she would like to disclose in some way this is her imagination at work, not mind-reading. But it was so annoying that every other word was 'perhaps,' or 'maybe.' Example: “Then, cracking his knuckles, perhaps, or removing a crick from his neck, he would inhale some of Earth’s good air, and exhale, for the first time ever, its name.” We're given the rich details of David Starr Jordan's world, and then yanked out of it with a repetitive marker that this is just some author's fixation and daydream. there wasn't enough memoir here to actually connect the dots and so we are just brought along down the rabbit hole of deeply sentimental reflections on this man, just to marinate in it.