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brannonkrkhuang's reviews
468 reviews
The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright
5.0
Richard Wright always cooks. One of the best to ever do it (it being write).
Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend by Domenico Losurdo
1.0
I'm really disappointed with this book. I was looking for a book that could offer a more nuanced take on Stalin than just "Stalin is the most evil man in all of human history and everything he ever did is worse than anything you can imagine and also communism is bad - I like being ruled by billionaires and corporations; I like when the poor don't have access to healthcare, etc."
The issue is, this book is nearly impossible to read because the writing is that annoying kind of "intellectual" writing where it doesn't make sense to a good majority of readers, specifically working class readers (it's me. I'm the working class reader - somebody make this book make sense please).
Here a sentence I just read, "A new order presupposes a redistribution of individuals into 'spiritual spheres,' into social organisms, into intermediate bodies, albeit constituted and organized according to different and new modalities, respectful of the principles of the revolution."
This does not make sense to me. I've never heard anyone say "spiritual spheres" before in my life. The whole book is jam packed with sentences like these. Please make these writings accessible to the masses. Why should just the vocab-knowning brainiacs get to know that Stalin did some good stuff? It feels like we're gatekeeping this info, and surely that goes against our very interests. Why is this? Was Stalin really just not that great of a guy, and so we're masking that fact behind an impossibly convoluted word wall? It reads like a phd paper that someone wrote where they HAD to hit a certain word limit and so they had to stretch it out as best they could and they also really wanted to impress their professor, so jammed it with every obscure word and every additional thing they could think of.
If anybody knows a better book on Stalin, one that presents him and his actions clearly, without an anti-communism bias, please let me know. I couldn't finish this one.
The issue is, this book is nearly impossible to read because the writing is that annoying kind of "intellectual" writing where it doesn't make sense to a good majority of readers, specifically working class readers (it's me. I'm the working class reader - somebody make this book make sense please).
Here a sentence I just read, "A new order presupposes a redistribution of individuals into 'spiritual spheres,' into social organisms, into intermediate bodies, albeit constituted and organized according to different and new modalities, respectful of the principles of the revolution."
This does not make sense to me. I've never heard anyone say "spiritual spheres" before in my life. The whole book is jam packed with sentences like these. Please make these writings accessible to the masses. Why should just the vocab-knowning brainiacs get to know that Stalin did some good stuff? It feels like we're gatekeeping this info, and surely that goes against our very interests. Why is this? Was Stalin really just not that great of a guy, and so we're masking that fact behind an impossibly convoluted word wall? It reads like a phd paper that someone wrote where they HAD to hit a certain word limit and so they had to stretch it out as best they could and they also really wanted to impress their professor, so jammed it with every obscure word and every additional thing they could think of.
If anybody knows a better book on Stalin, one that presents him and his actions clearly, without an anti-communism bias, please let me know. I couldn't finish this one.
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
5.0
This book gets me. It is exactly the kind of book that I want to read. I will be reading all of Zadie Smith's books from now on.
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
5.0
This book is excellent. Jennette McCurdy is an amazing writer. I didn't want the book to end.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
5.0
This book has got some really great stuff in it, while also being super accessible and easy to read. Down with U.S. imperialism. Down with the police. Down with Capitalism.
One Day in December: Celia Sánchez and the Cuban Revolution by Nancy Stout
5.0
Yes, this is one of the best books I've ever read and the single greatest account of the Cuban Revolution that may ever be written. Celia Sánchez is an icon. Thank you for everything! One of my goals is now to go to Cuba and eat that ice cream!
The Outsider by Richard Wright
5.0
I really love Richard Wright. I just read Black Boy/American Hunger and Native Son recently. Now onto this. This book felt a lot like Native Son. A lot of similar things take place to push the story forward, and the communists come back into play. This one feels like it was written when Wright was having issues with the party in his real life. The book is a clear condemnation of the power-hungry paranoia and toxicity of the communist party that was taking place at the time. Hopefully things have gotten better in today's communist party. This book also had some other creepy things in it at the start, like our main character having a relationship with a girl who was underage. It was a hard book to read for reasons like that, but I liked his portrayal of the problems within the communist party, and feel that he wrote this with the hopes that the party would get better. I love when Wright digs into the thought process of his characters, and when they have those intense conversations at the end of the book. That's the good stuff.
The Innocents Abroad: Or, the New Pilgrims' Progress by Mark Twain
1.0
Stopped reading when he started talking about how he wished he could kill all the Native Americans. Not a good book. Not a good person writing it.
My Struggle, Book 2: A Man in Love by Karl Ove Knausgård
5.0
This book is brutally honest. There are times I hate Karl Ove. There are other times when I really dislike him. But the writing is so captivating I can't stop. I expect I'll read every single book in the series like this. What I loved most about this book is his stories about his kids, about raising them, and the struggles that come with raising children. I think this book is a good cautionary tale for pre-parents. I respect the book for its excellent writing and the author's honesty, his total willingness to show himself in all his bad glory. We often try to bury the bad things in our lives and sugarcoat who we are. You don't get that here. You get everything. You get all the mess and agony and self-inflicted torture of life.
Native Son by Richard Wright
5.0
One of the best books I've ever read. Richard Wright is one of the all-time greats. Put him up there with Proust and any other big names you feel like thinking of. I will always remember this book. It will stay with me forever.