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byarielshirley's reviews
81 reviews
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
An informative, challenging, and thoughtful read. This was recommended to me by several people but I admittedly found there was quite a lot of waffling around initially, with the main points being wrapped up quickly at the end. The more I got accustomed to his voice and picked up the structure, I could then begin to appreciate his offerings and I thoroughly enjoyed the cross referencing (220 references is something I greatly appreciate in non fiction and believe it to be necessary imo). I ended up highlighting a lot of good points and had great discussion with my post it notes over my disagreements and debates - the next read I will likely do more advanced annotation with my iPad as a commonplace book to really go further and deeper with this text. I didn’t enjoy the theological interpretation that was dragged into it but I absolutely loved the coda and how the rules were turned into questions to challenge oneself on how to live life, but better. It’s definitely worth a read, but I will probably take some time before I commit to the second installation.
Apeirogon by Colum McCann
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
4.0
Reading this, is a transformative, haunting, and beautiful experience. The two main characters are bonded by the loss of their daughters. One father Israeli, the other Palestinian. The graphic violence, the grief, the poetic weaving of the same story from one side of the land to the other is deeply moving. I have been reading this over about 4 months as it’s been disturbing and I wanted to digest and wrestle with the text. I annotated this (until my post its ran out) and would highly recommend this to anyone feeling a bit ‘Switzerland’ with the current conflict that’s going on at present. My one criticism is that I often struggled to follow who the story was taking after but otherwise wow this is worth a read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence
The Girl with the Make-Believe Husband by Julia Quinn
5.0
Adored the first one, read this in one sitting (same as the first). Can’t wait to binge the next one!!
Jane Austen's Mansfield Park by Ayisha Malik, Jane Austen
5.0
I picked this up randomly on a whim, on my most recent visit to the library. This simple, modern English retelling gave me a good grasp on the story, setting, characters etc without wading through the old English. The illustrations were so lovely to have included and I would recommend this to parents/teachers/family members to buy for children. As a result, I am also excited to purchase the penguin clothbound edition and go deeper in Austen’s work.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
I absolutely loved this novel - I was constantly gripped and the story took me on such a rollercoaster. There were a lot of cultural issues and themes of present day as well as a lot of literary and pop culture references. I found out after that the author is the same age as me, which felt like explained the easy to read tone of the book. There were a lot of discussion points and clever juxtapositions to showcase subtle racism which gave me a lot to think about. I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up in English or contemporary literature classes. I would re read this almost instantly and would encourage anyone wanting to read to just grab a secondhand copy off marketplace and get your highlighters out.