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marginaliant's reviews
1060 reviews
The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life: Before 8AM by Hal Elrod
4.0
Uses a lot of eye-rolling motivational language, but also has some good stuff in there. It's certainly inspired me to get up earlier to achieve my goals and to live a fuller life rather than just waking up for work, so that's something. It's also a very short read.
Our Lady of the Ruins: Poems by Traci Brimhall
2.0
Every time Brimhall writes one good line she follows it up with twelve lines of obtuse nonsense. She's working in traditions of post-Christian religious confusion but also in confusion about female trauma in the philosophical space, so if that appeals to you then you might like it more than I did. I feel like this was written to work through some of her own issues which, you know, respect, but I don't know why the reader is along for the ride.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
3.0
At first I was frustrated by her constant asides to her own feelings and squeamishness but, I suppose, I don't know what else I expected. Well, actually, I do: I expected history writing. And this certainly isn't that. Once you get accustomed to the fact that Roach is writing as a reporter rather than a historian, this text becomes a lot easier to read. It's like a cultural report on the current state of several aspects of dead bodies, with particular attention paid to what happens when you donate your body to "science." It's not ground-breaking for someone who has read rather a lot on this sort of thing (or if you're a member of the Order of the Good Death) but it might be a useful primer for the interested. As long as you haven't had someone die recently. It isn't a feel-good kind of book.
The Cathedral Builders by Jean Gimpel
1.0
I can't with this book. First he talks about the United States of America for pages upon pages, then he just says things that are wrong (there's no difference between Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals my ass), and the book itself is badly put together. They don't differentiate quotes from the rest of the paragraphs, no quotation marks, no italics, no indentation. What an unpleasant read.
Life in a Medieval Castle by Joseph Gies, Frances Gies
5.0
If you love castles, this is the book for you. Easy to read and interesting, it covers the basics of castle architecture as well as daily castle life. How were knights knighted? How did you use the bathroom? Where did the lord and lady of the castle sleep? Why do some castles have square towers and others rounded ones? I love this book and will be keeping it on reference for a long time.
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
4.0
There's something in this book for everyone. I was pleasantly surprised when the book started out with something that interests me particularly, art authenticity, but Gladwell's argument follows through examples from all sorts of fields from cola tasting to war games. It was a short, pleasant read and I'm searching out more of Gladwell's books now.