brooklyn1's reviews
29 reviews

Walkable City (Tenth Anniversary Edition): How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time by Jeff Speck

hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Wow! My new favorite book, especially in the nonfiction category. I finished this book a couple months ago and I still regularly think about some of the points he made. The roads are so integrated in our lives it's impossible not to, and he completely changed how I look at things. He revealed how the design of our road influence the collective behavior of drivers, which is something I found particularly fascinating. I like how he provided tangible ways in which US cities can improve, by using other US cities as examples. I mean not all of our cities are completely hopeless it turns out, even if that was a pretty bleak 10 year revisit. 

My only gripe would be there are no images in the book. Sometimes I think it would have helped to support his point if he were to show a map of the city he's talking about or show an image of a concept that to most readers would find foreign. I just used Google, but I think it would've helped ensure all the readers are on the same page. 

But still, that's my own hangup! Overall, great book and I highly recommend it. 

Disasterology by Samantha Montano

informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

Great book. Revealed a lot about a topic I am fascinated by: natural disasters and the response by the government. I found her anecdotes interesting and they seemed quite seamless, unlike some other nonfiction books. 

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was definitely an interesting read and I can see why it gained the popularity that it did. I was fond of the writing style and I thought most of the characters were three dimensional with their own unique motivations (although some character's storylines were a bit slow-paced and maybe even boring at points). 

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

There were some storylines I was invested in, but Oscar's was not one of them.  The footnotes were frustrating; I shouldn't need to use a magnifying glass to read what could have been integrated into the main work. Nothing was more disappointing than turning the page to find a footnote that was so long that it spilled over onto the next page.  I found it hard to get through but I had to for my contemporary lit class. 

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan by Vonda N. McIntyre

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Love it! I have not seen the movie (but I have seen the series) so I cannot compare, but I honestly couldn't tell it was based on a screenplay. It read like a regular novel and it was a lot of fun to read. I really liked Saavik, and I like how much we got to learn about her. I also thought the author was able to deliver on all the emotional beats around the midpoint to end. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture

Redshirts by John Scalzi

adventurous funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I really loved this book, probably far out of proportion to its goodness. It's very heavy in dialogue and very plot-driven, but those are stylistic choices that I like. I loved the meta commentary and the Trek references. The comedic-timing is amazing and the emotional moments in the third act really hit for me. Kerensky was hilarious. I know he's supposed to represent Chekov but I imagined him as Paris the entire time lol. Definitely my favorite Trek book I've read. 

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

adventurous tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I am a little conflicted. If this book is about censorship, then it fails in every way. But there are prescient details about technology and its effects on the mind. I wish it removed the "authoritarian government" aspect from the book altogether because that part undercut the point. Why does the govt want to censor books? Because it keeps the population stupid and distracted and easy to control? It seems they were already heading down that path so why put in billions to trillions of dollars to speed up the process? Why does the govt want to do that? To what end? So it can remain rich? It seems like that's the most inefficient and convoluted way to secure power. The book barely spent any time on the motivations of the government, but it spent a ton of time on the ramifications of it being so hell-bent on wanting to destroy book in existence. I think the book would have been more impactful if there were no laws against books, but people had just burned most of them of their own accord so there were few left. Then the story could focus more its strong aspects such as mindless media and how that creates a lack of human connection. 

Yesterday's Son by A.C. Crispin

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 I honestly like it a lot. It got off to a rocky start in my opinion, with the prose and dialogue, but it really grew on me the more I read. I liked Zar (I was kind of envisioning him being played by Elnor from Picard lol) and the ending was very crisp and sweet. I would recommend the book overall. You get some excellent Kirk, McCoy, and Spock interactions and it felt a lot like an episode of the original series. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Torture

Animal Farm by George Orwell

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

It was good. It was short, but I think it could have been even more succinct, especially in the final chapters, as it began to feel repetitive. I didn't find the story itself that compelling, and its not exactly a page-turner, but the allegory was successful. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty

Cohesion by Jeffrey Lang

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I enjoyed the book. A good read and I liked the worldbuilding, even though I don't think how it was integrated into the story was the most seamless. The scenes where B'Elanna and Seven were part of a mini-collective were a lot of fun. And I was satisfied with how the book ended. The reason I am not rating it higher is because I feel how B'Elanna was portrayed was overexaggerated and her fights with Seven were very contrived. In the show their rivalry was always portrayed as B'Elanna being a little emotional and a bad manager. In this, it just felt... cruel. Like she's picking on someone who is a little different and is struggling to socialize into the crew. I know B'Elanna isn't meant to be the most tactful character, but I don't think it was ever this bad, even in season 4 of the show. Anyway, other than that I enjoyed the book, I liked the other characters, and I finished it in under a week.