jarvvis's reviews
81 reviews

Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Ben Miller, Huw Lemmey

informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

Been a huge fan of the pod for a long while now, so this was good fun.
I love history, I love gay history, and I particularly love history that I have heard a hundred times before when I’m very stressed. Do tell me about King James I & VI.
Well researched and well put together, very coherent and fast paced. Not by any means a comprehensive historical text, more like character profiles with a central theme. Very good character profiles though. 

The City & The City by China Miéville

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

(Important note: it took me forever to read this and so I did not have the best experience. I was very busy, forgot and skimmed portions of this, so that was a big contributor to my feelings on this book. Take this with a grain of salt, I was incredibly distracted.)

• Too coy with information in the beginning, drags in the middle, good ending. 
• The cultural differences between Besźel and Ul Qoma never really landed with me, they’re very vague about what the whole this person “looks like they’re from this city” or this guy “looks like they’re from neither city. I didn’t get a sense for what that actually meant, in reality
• “Unseeing” is likely a metaphor for something, presumably the uncomfortable facts of our society that we all ignore and live with, but it’s so metaphorical that it loses all meaning and becomes untethered from itself.
• The reasons for a city/two cities deciding to live this way are easily the most interesting part of this pitch and the answer is “because we’ve just always done it this way no one knows why??” 

Probably a better novel if you’re not mid exam prep.

The Aeneid by Virgil

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

2.5

(Ok so technically I didn’t finish the Aeneid because the course only requires we read half of it, but we read summaries of the rest so here it goes.)

The Aeneid is primarily a work of propaganda rather than one of fiction, and it really shows in parts. Not to say that it doesn’t have artistic merit or that the tale of a man driven entirely by destiny isn’t an interesting one, but there’s an awful lot of lapsing into speeches about Rome’s glorious future that sort of kill the vibe. I’m not sure what sort of person reads the Aeneid for the joy of the story rather than a historical artefact, but I’d like to meet them.

Outofshapeworthlessloser: A Memoir of Figure Skating, F*cking Up, and Figuring It Out by Gracie Gold

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

I’m not a longtime figure skating fan, but I am a passionate one. This book was on my TBR as soon as I heard about it. The behind the scenes of skaters lives is something that is often put through the rumour mill before it reaches the public, so it was refreshing to hear an honest first hand account. The book still has a lot of the hallmarks of a twenty-something memoir though, it’s clear she hasn’t come to terms with a lot of things in her life, like her relationships with John Coughlin and her father. Something to whet my appetite during the off-season.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Overall a well-written, enjoyable book, but one I feel is missing something essential.

• A lot of this book is about the small moments between people that dictate relationships, which, while being fairly realistic, gets a bit tiresome at times.
• There’s not a huge amount of dialogue in this, and when people do talk to one another, it’s in this strange stilted way where they say exactly what they mean. It is a good way to indicate how strangely socialised these kids are but also just rings of bad writing.
• Following on from that point, every character in this book has the same voice, and you really have to pay attention to when you’re told their personalities rather than just get a sense of who they are in a more natural manner.
• There’s not a whole lot driving this book forward other than the pure enjoyment of it in the moment, I wished it was a bit plottier and the stakes, which are fairly high, felt more intense.

Not sure how I feel about likely reading this next year for English. I might return with an updated review.

The Mad Emperor: Heliogabalus and the Decadence of Rome by Harry Sidebottom

informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

Perhaps there isn’t a whole book about Heliogabalus.

A lot of this, especially the early portions, is excruciating detail about tangentially related characters to pad out the runtime because there simply isn’t a lot to say about Heliogabalus, particularly his days before he was emperor. It gets better when he does take the throne, I must say. Slightly harsh review, it is enjoyable and comprehensive, but far from a must read.

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

emotional reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

4.25

I have a deep affection for books that trundle along and explore what they like without much regards to plot, so Brideshead Revisted suited me just grand. There’s a lot of naval gazing, some confusing themes and character directions (

shocked that Sebastian did just seem to fade into the background with no great conclusion to his character other than “he might die of alcoholism soon”

), but it is wonderfully well written and manages to convey this crumbling lifestyle of English country houses, deep rooted Catholicism and unquestioned wealth and privilege. I do wish there was a little more depth/romance on Charles’ relationships with both Sebastian and Julia: he has a number of wondrous lines and scenes with the two of them that I wanted more of - he was the forerunner is an excellent quote, and a fascinating angle for a relationship. I also am a little lost on the whole religious angle and not entirely sure if we ever got a proper answer to that niggling question, but I digress. It’s a lovely book, worth a read.

Medea by Euripides

challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Bitch it’s Medea!

Didn’t bother to log this when I first read it, guess I just wasn’t feeling it. Back now to tell you Medea is great, and you should read it, it’s very short and is so densely packed with tension and cultural analysis. She’s an icon and a monster and a product of her circumstances. 

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Damn. Shit. I am crying right now.

I don’t really go in for war novels, but perhaps I should, this shit was soul destroying. The violence is very cut and dry, it’s gratuitous and unsentimental, much like the love story at the core of this whole thing. It’s honestly fucking brutal to read, to go through it all and feel that love is just as unforgiving as war. It does, vague spoiler here,

end on a lighter note but is far from saccharine, which did not comfort me in my final moments reading this but was objectively the correct choice

. Huge departure from what I normally read, would do this again. 

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

adventurous funny inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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

4.25

Hey! This was delightful!

I’ve had the Hobbit and the Lord of The Rings trilogy on my shelf for years now, and only recently have I decided to crack them open in order to please a very dear friend of mine who’s a huge fan of the franchise. The only expectation I had was that it would be more lighthearted than my other books of late, which it very much was. Reading this was a wonderful romp.

The Hobbit is a classic for a reason, there’s so much warmth and depth here, and just a hundred hallmarks of really good, simple fantasy. It’s like seeing a roast dinner done right: it’s not rocket science, but it’s very satisfying.