robertrivasplata's reviews
613 reviews

Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal

challenging emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Love letter to old books, old Prague, & that old time drinking on the job. Explains the joys & risks of extreme tsundoku, with occasional views from insect & rodent perspectives. References various works of art, philosophy, & religion. Follows a guy who works as a paper recycler for the purpose of scavenging from the books people throw away. Introduces the idea of books that are published solely to be sent straight to the pulping plant, which is a plant whose sole purpose is to recycle newly printed books that no one has read. Contrasts the old-style workingman who is drinking pitchers of beer to get through the workday with the socialist youth who get through their days by thinking about their vacation time, & who drink milk & eat actual solid food on their lunch breaks. Work-life balance, retirement, & nostalgia also figure heavily. Thank you Tom for recommending this!

LaRose by Louise Erdrich

dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

4.25

Novel about the experience of growing up Indigenous, across multiple generations, as well as the connections between the reservation and the outside (mostly white) society. The boarding schools figure prominently, with some characters having ambivalent relationships with them, & Romeo having positive feelings about his time at the boarding school. Quite upbeat for a book where a young child is killed on the first page. Features a Chekhov's (unloaded) rifle. Characters include ghosts, spirits, a hot priest, & a dog (who survives). Romeo's revenge plot is a little anti-climactic. I was interested in Romeo, but I couldn't get that interested in whatever big bad secret he was sitting on. Set 1999-2003, with such millennial era markers as Y2K preppers & the start of the Iraq war. Will need to re-read to be fully prepared for the book club meeting. 

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

Harry Potter meets Squid Game meets His Majesty's Dragon, with some Ender's Game. Dialogue reminds me a little bit of the dialogue from Andy Weir novels. Features big nerds who fuck, and who say “fuck”. To me, the appeal of The Fourth Wing rests upon world-building, teen drama (I know they're supposed to be in their 20s), and dragons. The kingdom of Navarre seems like a dystopia run by dragons and a military which kind of functions as a priesthood to the god-like dragons. The riders quadrant is basically a combination Hogwarts and death camp. It reminds me a lot of the priests in Berserker Planet with their sacrificial rites and battle royale for the evil computer they worship. The dragons often say they don't really care if the humans understand them or not, but at the same time, they do seem to have an interest in running the humans' kingdom. I think a lot about the dynamics of places where the main avenues for career advancement is the demise of your superiors or your competitors (e.g. resistance movements, Roman politics), so I feel like such an environment would reward loyalty to cliques/gangs over following the codex to the letter. We kind of see this with the marked sticking together the way they do, but I still feel like the rule-follower characters are somewhat over-represented. This book has confirmed for me that I do not have a kink for people who want to kill me. FYI it takes over 300 pages to get to the sex stuff. The twist at the very end is very messed up. 

The Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin

adventurous informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

4.5

Series of essays from 1902-03 about the natural and human environment of Inyo County, CA (generally). Uses many dated or idiosyncratic names for animals, plants, and places. Condors are referred to as “Buzzards”, and the Clark's nutcracker is the “Clark's Crow”. she's upfront that “Las Uvas” is a pseudo-toponym, and “Jimtown” is not to be found on contemporary maps. Mary Austin's house in Independence CA still stands, but a lot has changed in the past 120 years. The LA Aqueduct wasn't built yet, Manzanar did not exist yet, nomads of various stripes still roamed, the California Condor was still common, and the Alabama Hills had not yet graced a silver screen. Great book for lovers of the High Sierras, the Owens Valley, and the Mojave. Also good for nature lovers, CA native plant heads, and eco-poetry practitioners. (So, my mom and dad.) A good book to take on your road trip down highway 395, with a stop at the Eastern California Museum in Independence CA. 

Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master: Pong, Atari, and the Dawn of the Video Game by David Kushner

funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

The genesis of video games as told through the perspective of Ralph Baer's & Nolan Bushnell's rivalry over claim to the title of father of video games. Depicts the freewheeling 70s tech industry scene with small companies & corporate giants alike racing to get in on the video game gold rush. Both Baer & Bushnell are figures that I could read a whole book about each. Baer was an electronics inventor whose inventions included the first video game console, & later the Simon. Bushnell founded Atari, then went on to found Chuck E Cheese. Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master also portrays Baer & Bushnell's rivalry as a contest between the corporate and entrepreneurial images of the early days of the tech industry. This book makes me want to read more about the history of the computer industry. Maybe Harris's Palo Alto might be a good start, or maybe I should finally read Vineland. Finally, I was pleased to learn a little bit about the creation of one of my old-time Mac game favorites, Brickles. 

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense 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

Page-turning neo-noir southern serial killer mystery. S.A. Cosby has a some good turns of phrase. “Death, darkness, terror: nothing would stop them from setting up the pie-eating booth and the crab-pot-pulling platform.” I think he has a good horror novel in him; All the Sinners Bleed is already kind of a slasher. The part with the Fall Fest reminded me a bit of the “Thanksgiving” trailer from the early 2000s Grindhouse movie. its a lot of mystery novel/neo-noir tropes: the detective with a past (& whose first love is the law), the very genius killer, the phone call with the killer (quoting bible verses). Has a good deal of commentary on 2020s era southern local politics, with old money, black liberation theologians, neo-confederates (with statue), old-time religion/cult types, & good ole boy gangsters all represented. 

Acting Class by Nick Drnaso

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Fight Club meets Patience meets Killing and Dying meets Mimsy Were the Borgoroves. Very high WTF-factor. Are there acting classes that are like this? If so, is this what acting does to people? Or is this what happens to would-be theatre kids, if they're not exposed to theatre at an early enough stage? In any case, it makes acting classes seem much more terrifying and creepy than I thought possible. Drnaso's art is reminiscent of the world through the eyes of someone slightly nearsighted. I can kind of tell who is who, but the faces are indistinct until they come very close. Would probably be a good book club pick. A great present for any theatre lover or aspiring actor in your life. I think my favorite character is the dog. 

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

Pretty much just picks up where the Two Towers left off. Gandalf and friends are pretty much triumphant everywhere they go, so most of the suspense is in the second half which picks up Sam and Frodo's harrowing adventure through Mordor's barren landscapes. I like the scene where Frodo and Sam get press ganged into a company of orcs heading to war, but maybe that's just because that scene had the most bangin' song in the Rankin/Bass Lord of the Rings movies. While on the subject of adaptations, Peter Jackson's version did a pretty good job of capturing the true love relationship of Sam and Frodo. They truly are the OTP of the books as well as the movies. 

The stilted fantasy language is very silly, but it really laid the groundwork for the wave of fantasy novels from the 60s-70s that have journeyed from bargain bins, to vintage paperback sections in used bookstores, to be reprinted and appear in Barnes and Noble new release sections again. 

Includes the appendices to Lord of the Rings, including pronunciation guides, histories of the elves' (and others') languages, a guide to Middle Earth's Calendar, time lines, and more. The best part of the appendices is the brief epilogue of Aragorn and Arwen, telling how after Aragorn finally dies, Arwen goes back to Lorien and everybody's gone and the place is empty. The big question I think about when I think about Lord of the Rings is what is going on with the Elves? Why is everyone always talking about leaving Middle Earth? More importantly, why does Tolkien write this race of wise elders with one foot out the door, and why does it feel so powerful to me? That said, don't go into the Lord of the Rings expecting a super serious read. You can read various meanings into various elements, but it is still a silly read. 

The Lost Subways of North America: A Cartographic Guide to the Past, Present, and What Might Have Been by Jake Berman

adventurous informative medium-paced

4.5

City-by-city history of urban transit systems in North American cities. The history of mass transit systems in North America reminds me of the trajectory of the internet (especially social media), with public services and infrastructure being built by private companies on the basis of speculation, followed by market consolidation by ever more hated monopolists, finally followed by the service being run into the ground once it's found to be unprofitable (or not sufficiently profitable). The maps in this book make are a great accompaniment to Arcadia Publishing's Images of Rail books that you see seemingly everywhere. The chapters on Rochester and Cincinnati are very interesting and informative. I wish that the chapter on San Francisco had more about the other Bay Area transit systems such as the Key System and the Southern Pacific Interurbans. I also wish there'd been a chapter about Denver which has been investing heavily in transit since the 90s, & one about St. Louis, which was a center of the U.S. streetcar industry (until the demise of the U.S. streetcar industry). Each of the chapters in The Lost Subways of North America could be expanded into a book, and there could have been many more chapters, and the result would be a kind of Borgesian library of mass transit history. I'll have to content myself with the further reading section at the back. 

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle

adventurous funny informative lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing fast-paced

4.0

Guy Delisle reprises his idiot abroad persona (who you may recognize from Pyongyang & Shenzhen), this time in 2008 era Jerusalem. For some reason, Delisle seems more French than in his other memoirs I've read (even though he's from Quebec). Maybe it's because he's having more conversations in Jerusalem than in Pyongyang, Shenzhen, or the Factory back home, so his attitudes show more. Or maybe it's the ways the Holy City & it's people play foils to Delisle's atheism. Depicts the prosaic everyday aspects of his family's year living in East Jerusalem, such as supermarkets, cafes, playgrounds, traffic jams. He also goes out of his way to witness the occupation, visiting checkpoints, the separation wall, Settler violence flashpoints (e.g. Sheikh Jarrah), & among other places in the West Bank. The various religious sects (both obscure & mainstream) get their share of attention from Guy. Islam gets less coverage, but maybe that's because his access to the Muslim Holy Sites, & even to secular Muslim spaces & to Muslim people themselves is more restricted. Jewish & Christian communities appear able to be as open or closed as they want to be, while Muslims have movement & association restrictions which place limits on their contacts with outsiders. Delisle meets many Jewish settler fanatics, but never any Palestinian ones, probably because no Palestinian fanatic can risk meeting anybody. I was struck by the image of the Gaza MSF building's rooftop markings lost among the other buildings in its neighborhood during the 2008-9 Israel-Hamas conflict.