brannonkrkhuang's reviews
468 reviews

By the River, Volume 6: Seven Contemporary Chinese Novellas by

3.0

Got this from the library specifically to read Chi Zijian’s story. It was entertaining and ended like all short stories end - abruptly. Then I read the story by Xu Zechen because the start hooked me and damn that story is very sad and merciless.

Socialism 101: From the Bolsheviks and Karl Marx to Universal Healthcare and the Democratic Socialists, Everything You Need to Know a by Kathleen Sears

3.0

I think this book is OK for someone who has no knowledge of socialism whatsoever and decides they want a little bit of knowledge about a lot of socialist things. I think the book is a bit too favorable toward the U.S., which oversaw the mass slaughter of communists all over the world throughout the Cold War (the Jakarta Method - no mention of this in Socialism 101). I think a better quick read about the fall of the Soviet Union would be Blackshirts and Reds.

The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World by Vincent Bevins

5.0

One of the most important history books I’ve ever read. Everything the capitalists in the US accuse communism of being is a self-report. Mass killings of civilians, thought police, the criminalization of opposing views, authoritarian/fascist dictatorships, these things have all come about at the hands of US intervention in third world countries, and the socialists/communists have been the victims of this slaughter and oppression, not the bringers of it. The word must get out. This must be taught!

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

5.0

This book taught me so much about Iran and its history. I loved it so much. Religious extremism is very oppressive. Reading this book really cements the fact that Christian nationalism in the U.S. is dangerous. Life will be better someday when we are less governed by religion and greed and more governed by empathy and generosity.

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Did not finish book. Stopped at 28%.

This book is actually boring and not good. 

“I wrote a bad book about my time living a privileged life in a colony and the money I get from it enables me to mope around wondering if I’m really a communist (and also all my friends in the colony were the worst, especially the guy I was dating).”

Shanghai Baby by Zhou Weihui

5.0

A book that is cool in a sexily sad sort of way that was really good to read. 

My Struggle, Book Four by Karl Ove Knausgård

3.0

I hate Karl Ove! I can't stand this man! But damn it the writing is so captivating. I can't stop reading. 

Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang

5.0

Eileen Chang writes such beautiful, sexy, tragic words and I’m obsessed. 

My Struggle, Book 3 by Karl Ove Knausgård

1.0

The main takeaway from this book is that I hate a man named Karl Ove's father. Don't get me wrong, I also hate Karl Ove, but for other reasons, and not quite as much as I hate his father. On one hand, these "Struggle" books are incredible. I always get sucked into the book and can't break loose till all the pages have been turned. On the other hand, Karl Ove is very "honest" within these pages, but he sometimes fails to follow up his honesty with any condemnations of his past actions, so when he starts describing the way he and the other 13-year-old boys literally assaulted the 13-year-old girls from school with nonconsensual skirt-and-shirt-lifting and groping, and he expresses no remorse, but just seems to offer that information up like it was just the way things were and the girls secretly liked it, without considering how it might have been from their perspective, I feel an immense sense of disgust and distrust toward him. Certainly I can respect his honesty in telling the truth, in telling what happened without trying to gloss over it or make himself look better, but I can't respect him, because how do you own up to that and not say, “oh god, I was terrible. It was a terrible thing to do.” It seems like he doesn’t think that way, which is a massive red flag. 

Clock Dance by Anne Tyler

5.0

Anne Tyler remains the best writer of all time. I do love the first part of this book that gives all the backstory more than the meat of it, but in the end it’s another certified Tyler classic and I can’t complain.