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sebby_reads's reviews
242 reviews
မြေးသူကြီး by ညီပုလေး
2.0
It was a swift read and I didn’t enjoy it much. I think I might have expected much for this one, comparing it with his last year’s National Literature Award winning book.
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
4.0
What a book! Sapiens is a total eye opener for me. Yuval Noah Harari has done an excellent job of storytelling on this brief history of humankind. It is easy to understand, not boring (once you pick up the pace) as well as entertaining (I had a few chuckles in every chapter). I enjoyed it cover to cover although it can be a little too harsh on some parts. Bold and exquisite. We all have beliefs and opinions about the history of our ancestors and how we have transcended through various ages of the world. While I was reading this book, it has given me doubts for my belief but sometimes reinforced my theories, too. As a good book should have always done, it has given me time to contemplate, sometimes re-evaluate, my opinion on our own species and the inevitable effect we had on other species as well as on the nature. I normally enjoy reading only the beautifully prosed fictional books but this non-fiction is an excellent read.
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
4.0
My very first non-fiction of Murakami’s. This could be regarded as his memoir on the running journey he had taken. This book isn’t just about running. It covers how he started running, his preparation for the marathon and also the thought crossed through his mind while running. Each chapter covers the certain period and he immensely tells the story about things and events around him through the art of running. So it doesn’t feel like I’m reading a bunch of articles on running. It is like him telling me how to handle life through the usual Murakami’s metaphorical writing about running.
Life itself is a big race and all of us are running with our own pace for various marathons. We may win some and we may lose some but what to learn from each marathon is one key thing we must achieve. When one marathon is over, nothing really matters at all. Your individual pain and gain as well as the experience you shared with co-runners, do they all really matter to put into your head if it is gonna trouble you? No. Just learn from it and prepare for your next marathon.
Life itself is a big race and all of us are running with our own pace for various marathons. We may win some and we may lose some but what to learn from each marathon is one key thing we must achieve. When one marathon is over, nothing really matters at all. Your individual pain and gain as well as the experience you shared with co-runners, do they all really matter to put into your head if it is gonna trouble you? No. Just learn from it and prepare for your next marathon.
TELL TALE by Jeffrey Archer
4.0
Tell Tale is the collection of short stories by Jeffrey Archer and most of them are, as he admitted, inspired by real events. It is always a thrill to read his stories. A perfect brew of drama, humour, suspense, and a dash of philosophy sprinkled on top.
Confession is one great piece although I have one disagreement on how it ended. The Road to Damascus and A Good Toss to Lose are brilliant read with a tug in your heartstrings whereas the Senior Vice President and Who Killed the Mayor are joyful suspense ride. I also love the two 100-word short stories, not 99 nor 101, Reader’s Digest had asked Jeffrey to write: Unique and the Perfect Murder. A Wasted Hour is a great read, too.
Confession is one great piece although I have one disagreement on how it ended. The Road to Damascus and A Good Toss to Lose are brilliant read with a tug in your heartstrings whereas the Senior Vice President and Who Killed the Mayor are joyful suspense ride. I also love the two 100-word short stories, not 99 nor 101, Reader’s Digest had asked Jeffrey to write: Unique and the Perfect Murder. A Wasted Hour is a great read, too.
The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami
3.0
This book had been on my bedside table for quite a long time. The Elephant Vanishes is a collection of short stories by Murakami and that is one key reason I intended to devour each of them slowly. A couple of months ago, I had only finished a few stories from the book although I had read some of the short stories in somewhere else. Then I saw the trailer of Burning, a film adapted from the story Barn Burning which also happened to be in this book. The news about it receiving praises from all the critics at the Cannes urged me to read it before I get a chance to see it at the cinema. (I always try to read the book before I see its film adaptation.) Anyway, my revisit to this book was quite fast. As usual, I couldn’t put down the book once I picked it up and I finished all the remaining stories in a short time.
It includes 17 short stories and about 10 of them are remarkably great. On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning is one of my all time favourite of his. The titles story, the Elephant Vanishes is also a good one, too, with a subtle touch of view on our pragmatic world. Barn Burning is one little pill that we all needed to take but hesitate to. It definitely took you to some places. The Last Lawn of the Afternoon is pretty vague, yet interesting enough to read till the end. Sleep, Family Affair, TV People, and The Silence are good read, as well.
It includes 17 short stories and about 10 of them are remarkably great. On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning is one of my all time favourite of his. The titles story, the Elephant Vanishes is also a good one, too, with a subtle touch of view on our pragmatic world. Barn Burning is one little pill that we all needed to take but hesitate to. It definitely took you to some places. The Last Lawn of the Afternoon is pretty vague, yet interesting enough to read till the end. Sleep, Family Affair, TV People, and The Silence are good read, as well.
Human Acts by Han Kang
4.0
“Is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? Is the experience of cruelty the only thing we share as a species? Is the dignity that we cling to nothing but self-delusion, masking from ourselves the single truth: that each one of us is capable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, slaughtered - is this the essential of humankind, one which history has confirmed as inevitable?”
A story based on Gwangju Massacre, the horrendous event in a South Korean city where a group of student protesters were gunned down and beaten by the government forces in the 80s. Many were left dead in the streets and a pile of corpses were left unburied. The bodies were stowed in the hall of a provincial office and when the bodies grew too many, they were moved to the school gymnasium, and there, a boy named Dong-ho looked for the corpse of his best friend. His story—The Boy—is the first section and the book covered six more stories of the victims of Gwangju including the heartbreaking story from the point of view of the boy’s friend, the mother of a dead boy, an editor trapped under censorship, a prisoner, and the story of the writer.
It took me weeks to finish the first section as it was impossible for me to continue reading it after some violent scenes. They were written in abhorrent detail and the translation is so vivid, too. Deborah Smith’s translation work on this heart shattering story was totally brilliant. (I obviously couldn’t not use the word ‘beautiful’ for its incredibly sad story.) Han Kang immersed herself so much in these stories and events. (She was only 9 years old when Gwangju Uprising occurred.) She immaculately portrayed how human can sometimes be so cruel that you disgust yourself for being one of that same loathsome species.
A story based on Gwangju Massacre, the horrendous event in a South Korean city where a group of student protesters were gunned down and beaten by the government forces in the 80s. Many were left dead in the streets and a pile of corpses were left unburied. The bodies were stowed in the hall of a provincial office and when the bodies grew too many, they were moved to the school gymnasium, and there, a boy named Dong-ho looked for the corpse of his best friend. His story—The Boy—is the first section and the book covered six more stories of the victims of Gwangju including the heartbreaking story from the point of view of the boy’s friend, the mother of a dead boy, an editor trapped under censorship, a prisoner, and the story of the writer.
It took me weeks to finish the first section as it was impossible for me to continue reading it after some violent scenes. They were written in abhorrent detail and the translation is so vivid, too. Deborah Smith’s translation work on this heart shattering story was totally brilliant. (I obviously couldn’t not use the word ‘beautiful’ for its incredibly sad story.) Han Kang immersed herself so much in these stories and events. (She was only 9 years old when Gwangju Uprising occurred.) She immaculately portrayed how human can sometimes be so cruel that you disgust yourself for being one of that same loathsome species.
The Last Lecture - Lessons In Living by Randy Pausch
4.0
Unexpectedly good and very inspiring. Unexpected to be this good cause I considered this might be a little dull and I thought only Mitch Albom could ease my troubled mind. How wrong I was. This book, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, has become my second Five-people-you-meet-in-heaven book.
Randy was a professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Many professors give talks titled “The Last Lecture” which has become a common exercise in colleges and Carnegie Mellon had the “Last Lecture Series” for years. Professors are asked to deliver a final lecture on what matters most to them and their reflection on life as well as what they would want as their legacy. When Randy was given a slot for the last lecture series, he already had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Just a few weeks before his lecture, he received the news that his recent treatment had not worked and he only had a few months left to live.
Randy Pausch gave his last lecture on “Really achieving your childhood dreams”. This book is not entirely about his last lecture. It covered how he prepared for his last lecture and the overwhelmingly positive aftermath of it. There were a few times my inner cynicism emerged while reading this book cause some pointers were a bit too cliché and some were cringeworthily conservative for a millennial like me. But, most were very on points and I could really see myself applying most of his teachings later in life.
The stories with his students and colleagues, the stories with his parents and teachers, all were beautifully told. The most eloquent one is the one with his wife and the kids. Regardless of the further vigorously painful treatment he had had, how he manoeuvred his remaining few months was truly inspiring. All in all, it is totally a great read for I needed a book like this these days. For weeks, I was in the abyss of I-couldn’t-finish-any-book and I climbed out of it with the help of this book.
Randy was a professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Many professors give talks titled “The Last Lecture” which has become a common exercise in colleges and Carnegie Mellon had the “Last Lecture Series” for years. Professors are asked to deliver a final lecture on what matters most to them and their reflection on life as well as what they would want as their legacy. When Randy was given a slot for the last lecture series, he already had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Just a few weeks before his lecture, he received the news that his recent treatment had not worked and he only had a few months left to live.
Randy Pausch gave his last lecture on “Really achieving your childhood dreams”. This book is not entirely about his last lecture. It covered how he prepared for his last lecture and the overwhelmingly positive aftermath of it. There were a few times my inner cynicism emerged while reading this book cause some pointers were a bit too cliché and some were cringeworthily conservative for a millennial like me. But, most were very on points and I could really see myself applying most of his teachings later in life.
The stories with his students and colleagues, the stories with his parents and teachers, all were beautifully told. The most eloquent one is the one with his wife and the kids. Regardless of the further vigorously painful treatment he had had, how he manoeuvred his remaining few months was truly inspiring. All in all, it is totally a great read for I needed a book like this these days. For weeks, I was in the abyss of I-couldn’t-finish-any-book and I climbed out of it with the help of this book.
သူ့ဆံပင်နှင်းဆီပွင့်တွေနဲ့ by မင်းလူ
3.0
Roses in Her Hair by Min Lu. A little predictable but it was a good read
This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
2.0
When a schoolmates becomes the terrorist with a gun and shoots up the school auditorium filled with students and teachers, it’s horrifying. Told from different perspectives of the students, the story covers the 54 excruciating minutes of a shooting at a high school.
I have a mixed feelings for this one. The characters looked too polished to be liked and they became somewhat superficial, albeit the story felt very real. With merely 200 pages, it has very little room to say about the intricate psychology of a person that committed mass shootings especially when the shooter is a teenage student.
There should have been a better perspective story for the perpetrator–not to feel pity on his choice of actions. Its character seemed three-dimensional yet lack of many backstories to trigger this act. The complex characteristics had to be laid out and the psychology of the shooter should have been analysed and explained in more detail.
I have a mixed feelings for this one. The characters looked too polished to be liked and they became somewhat superficial, albeit the story felt very real. With merely 200 pages, it has very little room to say about the intricate psychology of a person that committed mass shootings especially when the shooter is a teenage student.
There should have been a better perspective story for the perpetrator–not to feel pity on his choice of actions. Its character seemed three-dimensional yet lack of many backstories to trigger this act. The complex characteristics had to be laid out and the psychology of the shooter should have been analysed and explained in more detail.