A review by bookish_brain1
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

4.0

I read this book in a book club which included a zoom meeting with John! Let me say, he is simply the best, loved hearing him talk about the book, and I found myself thinking, when did John Green get hot?!? Also, he had Covid! This book is a collection of essays about our human-centered planet, focusing on subjects that John found sublimely interesting or intriguing to think about, but I think what it ended up being was a memoir. These short essays collectively tell the story of John, and it's beautifully moving and heartfelt. He talks about anxiety and depression in ways that felt so real to me and that I've never heard described in this way but yet felt like YES! someone finally gets it. It was poignant and thoughtful, funny and serious. All of the things. At the end of each essay, he gives it a rating, which is completely arbitrary but for some reason just so John Green. If you don't know him, I recommend following him on Tik Tok, Instagram, or Twitter and following him and his brother Hank on YouTube. I discovered them on YouTube and they have both proved invaluable in my homeschooling journey with Ethan. The book is also a podcast, and the audible version is terrific. In his chapter about hot dog eating contests, he drops this nugget "When you have the microphone, what you say matters, even when you're just kidding. It's so easy to take refuge in the "just" of just kidding. It's just a joke. We're just doing it for the memes. But the preposterous and absurd can still shape our understanding of ourselves and one another. And ridiculous cruelty is still cruel." In his chapter on Mario Kart, he talks about structural power ups, like graduating college with no debt or being white, and how these power ups routinely favor those with wealth and privilege which is the single greatest failure of the American democratic ideal. I, like John Green, owe much of my success and privilege to injustice. John goes on to say that "real fairness is when everyone has a shot to win." I love that. There are so many quotable moments in this book, I just want to live in it. I think I could read it over and over again and find something new that will hit me in that sweet spot.