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chronic_listener 's review for:
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I love John Green, his fiction and non-fiction alike. As a (pre)teen, I devoured all his young adult novels and they fundamentally shaped the person I am today.
This book, too, was great! A collection of essays about our "human-centered planet" chock full of interesting stories, hilarious personal anecdotes, heartbreaking history and profound insights. The star reviews made me giggle every single time, I loved the concept.
One thing about me: I LOVE learning things, always have, and probably always will. This book was a stark reminder of all the things I do not know, and it made me feel kind of hopeful. With everything going on in the world today, it's easy to give in to despair but this made me remember there's so much beauty out there, so many fascinating and interesting things to discover and explore and find out? Oh, I really really needed this book right now.
There were so many brilliant quotes from him, and other people, I love reading lines that resonate deeply. John Green has such a unique voice, acknowledging despair while remaining hopeful despite it all.
He's also so funny (dry, self-aware, self-deprecating) with his narration it was even better, you could hear him smile as he told the stories — I really loved the audio.
Highly, highly recommend!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Alcohol, War, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Xenophobia, Vomit, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation