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huerca_armada's reviews
73 reviews
Authority by Jeff VanderMeer
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Some of the most tedious characters that I had ever encountered before in fiction. While the dynamic between the brother and the sister at the heart of the story felt fleshed out, I could not grow to like either of them. Maybe it has a lot to do with the personal choice of the brother to abandon the path of being a doctor, which he hates, so he can follow in his father's footsteps of being a landlord, but I just can't connect with it. No one under the age of 30 can connect with that. No one who doesn't own property can connect with that. It's a little insane to think that this is the type of character that we are supposed to relate to; for me, the attempts to humanize him and make him a relatable character in pursuing his father's career path just made me feel contempt and antipathy towards his character.
Such as it is, I struggled through the Dutch House. Like the mother of the story, I dreaded to return to the eponymous place, regarding it with barely contained disdain. As the ending drew closer and closer, rather than achieving some sense of catharsis from teh climax of the novel, I could feel only relief at the prospect of the ponderous thing finally coming to a close. The story beats had, by that time, become so familiar to me as to dull and aggravate me every time they finally came to fruition. Because of all of these reasons, I ultimately cannot find it in myself to recommend this book, except to a certain class of people.
Such as it is, I struggled through the Dutch House. Like the mother of the story, I dreaded to return to the eponymous place, regarding it with barely contained disdain. As the ending drew closer and closer, rather than achieving some sense of catharsis from teh climax of the novel, I could feel only relief at the prospect of the ponderous thing finally coming to a close. The story beats had, by that time, become so familiar to me as to dull and aggravate me every time they finally came to fruition. Because of all of these reasons, I ultimately cannot find it in myself to recommend this book, except to a certain class of people.
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invas Ion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neill
challenging
dark
slow-paced
3.25
Against a backdrop of the rich cultural history of the 1960s, O'Neill paints a beautiful picture of the seedy elements that underlie this crystalline structure. Drug dealers, retired air force colonels and generals, CIA spies and FBI informants, celebrity musicians and movie stars, all moving in the same circles as that of the Manson Family lend a strange fabric to the story that O'Neill presents to us. Gradually, by peeling back these layers, O'Neill draws you into the many threads that tie these things together, until you find yourself nodding along with the evidence presented to you. What seems on the surface to be vaguely circumspect gradually becomes more and more plausible as these layers are unveiled.
While overall, I am able to thoroughly enjoy the inconsistencies that O'Neill is able to uncover within the official Manson investigative story, there is frustratingly no large through line that we can draw from any of these disparate pieces. That's the nature of a book that attempts to unmask the evidence that is arrayed in a jumbled jigsaw of names, dates, places, and timelines that only some of those involved can corroborate whilst others refuse or are incapable of refuting at all. And because of that, we cannot ever know if the conclusions that we may attempt to draw from the evidence presented will ever be true. All we can do is just draw conclusions and fall further down the demented rabbit hole.
While overall, I am able to thoroughly enjoy the inconsistencies that O'Neill is able to uncover within the official Manson investigative story, there is frustratingly no large through line that we can draw from any of these disparate pieces. That's the nature of a book that attempts to unmask the evidence that is arrayed in a jumbled jigsaw of names, dates, places, and timelines that only some of those involved can corroborate whilst others refuse or are incapable of refuting at all. And because of that, we cannot ever know if the conclusions that we may attempt to draw from the evidence presented will ever be true. All we can do is just draw conclusions and fall further down the demented rabbit hole.
Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
5.0
This year was the 50th anniversary of the Attica Prison riot, though it wouldn't be surprising for you to suddenly learn this fact. Outside of a tepid few articles in the mass media and institutional press establishments, this historic milestone received very little fanfare whatsoever. And why would it? As Heather Ann Thompson displays in her powerfully moving work, the State (both New York state and the entity of authority that we can refer to generally as) has done everything in its power to make sure that Attica is not just forgotten, but actively suppressed. This ranges from how long that victims, both former prisoners and hostages, have been forced to wait for redress by the state, to the fact that even now, decades later, boxes of sealed papers on the events that took place in early to mid September in Attica remain censored, unable to be accessed by the public.
Thompson's work won the Pulitzer a few years ago, and for good reason. Her work is a phenomenal display of love and dedication towards uncovering the truth of what happened at Attica. From the painstaking backstories that trace a host of prisoners and correctional officers to the prison itself, virtually every step is traced in recounting the tragedy. The motivations that sparked the uprising, ranging from the minor to the major, are given life, while when the shooting starts virtually every shell casing, bullet fragment, and injured victim is accounted for from multiple angles. Thompson refuses to shy away from the grotesque or the gory, giving us detailed descriptions of what the assault looked like, how those very same injuries affected countless men years later, and the nature of the beatings and gauntlet runs men were forced to make once the prison had been retaken. It is enough to churn the guts in disgust at what transpired all those years ago, but you should not shy away from it.
Even more powerful than the physical details of broken bones and bullet wounds is that of the sheer anger that you will feel developed towards anyone in a position of even moderate power in the New York state bureaucracy by the end of the book. This isn't even from a personal position of "screw authority, that shit sucks mannn," but instead from a deep sense of disgust that is far different from that which you would have felt reading about the horrific things that men sustained in the retaking, but instead a chilling sense of disgust about the callousness of those in power and their inability to accept responsibility for the blood that soaked their hands after just 30 minutes. It would take 21 years after the storming of Attica by the New York state troopers, hundreds of correctional officers, and sheriffs, all of them gun toting and firing at prisoners armed with only light weaponry and who would have given up if warned appropriately or even offered clemency for the riot. Instead, retaking the prison was more important -- and as a result, 40 needless deaths transpired, all of whom died of gunshot wounds, all of whom have their blood staining the hands of men like Nelson Rockefeller and his cronies.
You owe it to yourself to read this book. The amount of times that I was reading passages from Blood In the Water, and with a sinking feeling realized how applicable these same things I was reading today were to the state of prisons today speak volumes to how much the lessons from Attica have been sought to be repressed by institutional power. Don't let Attica be forgotten.
Thompson's work won the Pulitzer a few years ago, and for good reason. Her work is a phenomenal display of love and dedication towards uncovering the truth of what happened at Attica. From the painstaking backstories that trace a host of prisoners and correctional officers to the prison itself, virtually every step is traced in recounting the tragedy. The motivations that sparked the uprising, ranging from the minor to the major, are given life, while when the shooting starts virtually every shell casing, bullet fragment, and injured victim is accounted for from multiple angles. Thompson refuses to shy away from the grotesque or the gory, giving us detailed descriptions of what the assault looked like, how those very same injuries affected countless men years later, and the nature of the beatings and gauntlet runs men were forced to make once the prison had been retaken. It is enough to churn the guts in disgust at what transpired all those years ago, but you should not shy away from it.
Even more powerful than the physical details of broken bones and bullet wounds is that of the sheer anger that you will feel developed towards anyone in a position of even moderate power in the New York state bureaucracy by the end of the book. This isn't even from a personal position of "screw authority, that shit sucks mannn," but instead from a deep sense of disgust that is far different from that which you would have felt reading about the horrific things that men sustained in the retaking, but instead a chilling sense of disgust about the callousness of those in power and their inability to accept responsibility for the blood that soaked their hands after just 30 minutes. It would take 21 years after the storming of Attica by the New York state troopers, hundreds of correctional officers, and sheriffs, all of them gun toting and firing at prisoners armed with only light weaponry and who would have given up if warned appropriately or even offered clemency for the riot. Instead, retaking the prison was more important -- and as a result, 40 needless deaths transpired, all of whom died of gunshot wounds, all of whom have their blood staining the hands of men like Nelson Rockefeller and his cronies.
You owe it to yourself to read this book. The amount of times that I was reading passages from Blood In the Water, and with a sinking feeling realized how applicable these same things I was reading today were to the state of prisons today speak volumes to how much the lessons from Attica have been sought to be repressed by institutional power. Don't let Attica be forgotten.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.75
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
From the interior, all of the prism's flaws can be swept away with simple, airy platitudes. Those flaws exist because there is no possible way to remove them. The prism has achieved perfection, you see. Anything done in the course of creating the prism is justified; any deficiency is something integral not just to its structure, but all prisms that could ever be made. And from the inside of it, it is hard not be inculcated in the ideology that upholds that narrative.
Naomi Klein's seminal book is the strongest possible denunciation of mellifluous, abhorrent economic design that has gripped the world. It goes by many names; Freidmanism. Neoliberalism. Neoconservatism. Globalization. The hallmarks are all the same between these names, however. Mass layoffs, the unfettering of capital and the removal of the obstacles placed before its rapacious desire to conquer new markets. In a modern age where there is no longer an economic or political counterweight to it, neoliberalism metastasizes like a cancer across the globe. It flies from nation to nation, carving up their industries, opening up their markets to the world, and vampirically siphoning away the wealth of generations for the benefit of an elite few.
The Shock Doctrine is an immensely upsetting book for a myriad of reasons. It isn't just the helicopter caravans of the Pinochet regime that murdered dissidents across Chile in the wake of his successful coup. It isn't the myriad of textual examples of hopelessness and despair faced by ordinary people from Myanmar and the Philippines, to Russia and Poland, to Bolivia and Trinidad, and countless others that are seen as collateral damage in the face of massive market and debt restructuring. It isn't even the gruesome realization about the privatization penetrating even the American military so that everything from nation-building, to torture, to staffing the bases' McDonalds is taken care of such monolithic groups like Halliburton. What gets me is the abhorrent smugness that many of these neoliberal pundits have, and continue to have as they drift through the halls of power decade after decade.
This book is many things. It is a denunciation of the hidden empire that pretends that it is anything but. It is a catalogue of the abuses of the international and transnational monetary empires that dictate the lives of the world from their looming, glass towers. For those who are still in the thought prism of the "peaceful" rise of global capitalism in the post-history world that we've been in since 1989, it is perhaps the most radicalizing book that you will read. It deserves to be read by as many people as possible, and I cannot recommend it enough.
Naomi Klein's seminal book is the strongest possible denunciation of mellifluous, abhorrent economic design that has gripped the world. It goes by many names; Freidmanism. Neoliberalism. Neoconservatism. Globalization. The hallmarks are all the same between these names, however. Mass layoffs, the unfettering of capital and the removal of the obstacles placed before its rapacious desire to conquer new markets. In a modern age where there is no longer an economic or political counterweight to it, neoliberalism metastasizes like a cancer across the globe. It flies from nation to nation, carving up their industries, opening up their markets to the world, and vampirically siphoning away the wealth of generations for the benefit of an elite few.
The Shock Doctrine is an immensely upsetting book for a myriad of reasons. It isn't just the helicopter caravans of the Pinochet regime that murdered dissidents across Chile in the wake of his successful coup. It isn't the myriad of textual examples of hopelessness and despair faced by ordinary people from Myanmar and the Philippines, to Russia and Poland, to Bolivia and Trinidad, and countless others that are seen as collateral damage in the face of massive market and debt restructuring. It isn't even the gruesome realization about the privatization penetrating even the American military so that everything from nation-building, to torture, to staffing the bases' McDonalds is taken care of such monolithic groups like Halliburton. What gets me is the abhorrent smugness that many of these neoliberal pundits have, and continue to have as they drift through the halls of power decade after decade.
This book is many things. It is a denunciation of the hidden empire that pretends that it is anything but. It is a catalogue of the abuses of the international and transnational monetary empires that dictate the lives of the world from their looming, glass towers. For those who are still in the thought prism of the "peaceful" rise of global capitalism in the post-history world that we've been in since 1989, it is perhaps the most radicalizing book that you will read. It deserves to be read by as many people as possible, and I cannot recommend it enough.
The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
An incredibly cutting look into the relationship of humans to each other, to society, and to forces so large and ephemeral that we may barely be able to see them, let alone grapple or understand. Though slow at first, the mysterious nature of the sprawling titular Factory is a powerful draw to the story, and as the minds of the characters bleed out across the pages, one cannot help but feel a creeping sense that the fictional novel that they are reading is more pertinent than ever.
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher
5.0
Essential. The late Mark Fisher writes with a saliency that is often missing from an age that desperately needs it.