Take a photo of a barcode or cover
svjak's reviews
90 reviews
The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I tried. I really did. But this book series is clearly just not for me.
People have been recommending this series to me for as long as I can remember and I get looks of shock and disbelief when I say I haven't read it. So I figured it was about time I sit down and give it a shot.
And honestly I wasn't impressed. There were some funny moments throughout the book where I started to get interested, but by and large this was such a mediocre story, both in writing and the tale of creation itself. For a series lauded for it's mystery and magic I really expected something more than this.
There were several times where the writing felt disjointed. We would get very descriptive paragraphs followed by stints where the author told you everything instead of showing. And that flopped back and forth several times.
At the end of the book, when they're standing there and the sun is starting to come up over the horizon (the creation myth part of the book - aka how Narnia came to be) I really hoped that there'd be more mysticism and excitement to the whole thing. These people are watching a whole new world being created in front of their own eyes and there's almost a subtle nonchalance to their reaction. Nothing felt genuine or real coming from these characters, even from the perspective of an excited (or scared) kid.
There was no real character development either. Polly and Digory felt very flat and boring. You could have replaced them with any other character and I probably wouldn't have noticed.
There were elements to this book that were amazing, take the bar that was lodged into the ground sprouting into a lamp-post tree as an example, that's hilarious and original, but the execution just wasn't there for me. I think that feeling of magical wonder and awe wasn't established very well earlier in the book, so by the time we get to the end and all of these magical, wonderful things are happening I just felt a bit apathetic about it all.
I've read many children's classics and children's novels over the years and this is unfortunately one of my least favorite. I probably will not continue reading the series.
People have been recommending this series to me for as long as I can remember and I get looks of shock and disbelief when I say I haven't read it. So I figured it was about time I sit down and give it a shot.
And honestly I wasn't impressed. There were some funny moments throughout the book where I started to get interested, but by and large this was such a mediocre story, both in writing and the tale of creation itself. For a series lauded for it's mystery and magic I really expected something more than this.
There were several times where the writing felt disjointed. We would get very descriptive paragraphs followed by stints where the author told you everything instead of showing. And that flopped back and forth several times.
There was no real character development either. Polly and Digory felt very flat and boring. You could have replaced them with any other character and I probably wouldn't have noticed.
There were elements to this book that were amazing, take the bar that was lodged into the ground sprouting into a lamp-post tree as an example, that's hilarious and original, but the execution just wasn't there for me. I think that feeling of magical wonder and awe wasn't established very well earlier in the book, so by the time we get to the end and all of these magical, wonderful things are happening I just felt a bit apathetic about it all.
I've read many children's classics and children's novels over the years and this is unfortunately one of my least favorite. I probably will not continue reading the series.
2022 Year in Review by
For non-book records, review text and ratings are hidden. Only mood, pace, and content warnings are visible.
What Really Happened In Wuhan: The cover-ups, the conspiracies and the classified research by Sharri Markson
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.0
So this year I challenged myself to read books that challenge my perspectives. Obviously I've been taking that challenge seriously.
I picked up What Really Happened in Wuhan because I honestly didn't know much about the argument for a laboratory origin for SARS-CoV-2 aside from the 'conspiracy' arguments thrown around online. And I wanted an evidence based explanation of this theory. Sharri Markson delivered that.
This book was actually very insightful and informative. It's very information heavy and can be hard to follow at times, but as a whole I enjoyed listening to another perspective. Is some of it a stretch? Yeah. A lot of it is based purely on circumstantial evidence. Pointing out events that may or may not have had anything to do with the outbreak, that sort of thing. I can't say that this book makes me sold on the theory of a laboratory leak but after reading it I can say it's opened me up to the idea that it's a possibility. The struggle with finding the source of SARS-CoV-2 is that there is a high possibility we will never know due to the way the outbreak occurred and the way it was downplayed at the beginning.
Markson also goes into a lot of detail about key figures in the sociopolitical response to the outbreak, including Faucci, Trump, the Trump administration, the Australian government, the Chinese Government, WHO, and Chinese researchers and journalists. Having this through background was extremely helpful in even contextualizing news headlines and understanding where conflicts lie and why certain arguments that seem insignificant are actually a pretty big deal.
All in all this was a very different book to what I usually read but I'm glad I read it. I'll now be looking for a pro-natural-cause book to hopefully get a science based explanation on that side as well.
I picked up What Really Happened in Wuhan because I honestly didn't know much about the argument for a laboratory origin for SARS-CoV-2 aside from the 'conspiracy' arguments thrown around online. And I wanted an evidence based explanation of this theory. Sharri Markson delivered that.
This book was actually very insightful and informative. It's very information heavy and can be hard to follow at times, but as a whole I enjoyed listening to another perspective. Is some of it a stretch? Yeah. A lot of it is based purely on circumstantial evidence. Pointing out events that may or may not have had anything to do with the outbreak, that sort of thing. I can't say that this book makes me sold on the theory of a laboratory leak but after reading it I can say it's opened me up to the idea that it's a possibility. The struggle with finding the source of SARS-CoV-2 is that there is a high possibility we will never know due to the way the outbreak occurred and the way it was downplayed at the beginning.
Markson also goes into a lot of detail about key figures in the sociopolitical response to the outbreak, including Faucci, Trump, the Trump administration, the Australian government, the Chinese Government, WHO, and Chinese researchers and journalists. Having this through background was extremely helpful in even contextualizing news headlines and understanding where conflicts lie and why certain arguments that seem insignificant are actually a pretty big deal.
All in all this was a very different book to what I usually read but I'm glad I read it. I'll now be looking for a pro-natural-cause book to hopefully get a science based explanation on that side as well.
Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster by Andrew Leatherbarrow
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This is a fantastic account of what happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. Probably one of the better books I've read on the subject. Leatherbarrow doesn't shy away from the technicalities of what happened and talking about the reactor in depth, but he also doesn't come across as a textbook using jargon only students of nuclear chemistry would understand. This book is very much right down the middle.
The first half of the book is focused on recounting what happened in 1986. What exactly went wrong, why did it get as bad as it did despite the safeguards in place, how did the scientists and crew at the plant not realize what was happening, what happened to the people who were tasked with cleaning up the disaster, what happened to the town of Pripyet? Leatherbarrow goes over so much in a short amount of time. It's very concise and straight to the point. It's also very clear Leatherbarrow has done his research and knows what he's talking about in relation to the reactor, from how he describes the inner workings of the reactor to how it blew apart from the pressure of the steam build-up (not from a nuclear explosion.) That was something that I really appreciated seeing.
It might be difficult to understand if you don't know anything about RBMK reactors or what happened because a lot of the content in this book is a step up from the very basic stuff. My best advice is, read this anyway. And if you find yourself struggling to understand the details when he starts talking about the reactors, go watch a few youtube videos that break it down visually so you can see with your eyes what he's talking about. It's worth the extra effort.
The second half of the book tells the story of Leatherbarrow's trip to Pripyet and the Chernobyl power plant, including very haunting pictures and stories of the cleanup. Understanding the technical side of it and then following it up with a sort of journalistic exploration of these places so many decades later really works to put the scale of this tragedy into perspective.
This was a very well written book on the Chernobyl disaster, and I expected no less after learning that Andrew wrote this book for himself, to simplify the technical jargon in a way he could understand. This book made it's rounds on reddit amongst people familiar with the disaster (i.e. nuclear chemists, historians, etc.) prior to being released, and was edited based on feedback from those people. And I think that really shows when you look at the details in this book.
This is by far the best book I've read on Chernobyl. You can get more technical if you want to start looking into scientific analyses of what happened, but as a book, this is the best one I've read.
The first half of the book is focused on recounting what happened in 1986. What exactly went wrong, why did it get as bad as it did despite the safeguards in place, how did the scientists and crew at the plant not realize what was happening, what happened to the people who were tasked with cleaning up the disaster, what happened to the town of Pripyet? Leatherbarrow goes over so much in a short amount of time. It's very concise and straight to the point. It's also very clear Leatherbarrow has done his research and knows what he's talking about in relation to the reactor, from how he describes the inner workings of the reactor to how it blew apart from the pressure of the steam build-up (not from a nuclear explosion.) That was something that I really appreciated seeing.
It might be difficult to understand if you don't know anything about RBMK reactors or what happened because a lot of the content in this book is a step up from the very basic stuff. My best advice is, read this anyway. And if you find yourself struggling to understand the details when he starts talking about the reactors, go watch a few youtube videos that break it down visually so you can see with your eyes what he's talking about. It's worth the extra effort.
The second half of the book tells the story of Leatherbarrow's trip to Pripyet and the Chernobyl power plant, including very haunting pictures and stories of the cleanup. Understanding the technical side of it and then following it up with a sort of journalistic exploration of these places so many decades later really works to put the scale of this tragedy into perspective.
This was a very well written book on the Chernobyl disaster, and I expected no less after learning that Andrew wrote this book for himself, to simplify the technical jargon in a way he could understand. This book made it's rounds on reddit amongst people familiar with the disaster (i.e. nuclear chemists, historians, etc.) prior to being released, and was edited based on feedback from those people. And I think that really shows when you look at the details in this book.
This is by far the best book I've read on Chernobyl. You can get more technical if you want to start looking into scientific analyses of what happened, but as a book, this is the best one I've read.
I Hate Men by Pauline Harmange
If they are going to call us sexist and misandrists anyway, why not at least make it true?
Here I expected to be picking up a wildly controversial book only for the majority of it to just be common knowledge.
I don't really have much else to say. There was nothing new or revolutionary said in this book. I Hate Men is just a short little conglomeration of typical white feminist takes, only with an edgy title to make it seem more contentious than it actually is.
Recommended for people who've been living under a rock for the last 20 years. And maybe also people who don't know much about feminism.
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
2.75
This book brought up a handful of really great points about women's rights. And despite the title, it didn't actually seem to be making a case for hating men. Sure, the author lauds herself as a misandrist, but then she also discusses the nuances of why women will say things like "I hate men," given the social context, and makes a case for the 'reclaiming' of the term.
"The accusation of misandry is a mechanism for silencing women, a way of silencing the anger-sometimes violent but always legitimate-of the oppressed standing up to their oppressors."
If they are going to call us sexist and misandrists anyway, why not at least make it true?
Here I expected to be picking up a wildly controversial book only for the majority of it to just be common knowledge.
I don't really have much else to say. There was nothing new or revolutionary said in this book. I Hate Men is just a short little conglomeration of typical white feminist takes, only with an edgy title to make it seem more contentious than it actually is.
Recommended for people who've been living under a rock for the last 20 years. And maybe also people who don't know much about feminism.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism
This book (obviously) talks at length about sexism as a whole, misogyny, and misandry.
The Perfect Swing by James McGirk
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
2.25
Honestly I'm not really a fan of baseball, but I found audible's sleep stories section last night and this was the first one on the list.
The Perfect Swing was an informational little sleep story about how Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams swing their bat. McGirk essentially wrote a compare-and-contrast essay on their techniques and the impact it had on their performances. The small nuggets of information about DiMaggio's stats (and how amazing his career actually was) is what made this worth listening to. McGirk does a good job contextualizing what he's saying instead of just spouting out numerical stats that are supposed to be impressive, which I appreciated as someone who does not watch baseball.
The narration wasn't great. It almost felt like Jonas was whispering (maybe almost like an ASMR video?) which is fine I guess, but on top of that there was no pattern or rhythm to the way he spoke. It was kinda choppy. And that's probably down to poor editing more than anything.
But I really can't complain, because I did manage to fall sleep after listening to this so it certainly served it's purpose.
I love how sleep stories have a way of clearing the mind and helping me relax.
The Perfect Swing was an informational little sleep story about how Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams swing their bat. McGirk essentially wrote a compare-and-contrast essay on their techniques and the impact it had on their performances. The small nuggets of information about DiMaggio's stats (and how amazing his career actually was) is what made this worth listening to. McGirk does a good job contextualizing what he's saying instead of just spouting out numerical stats that are supposed to be impressive, which I appreciated as someone who does not watch baseball.
The narration wasn't great. It almost felt like Jonas was whispering (maybe almost like an ASMR video?) which is fine I guess, but on top of that there was no pattern or rhythm to the way he spoke. It was kinda choppy. And that's probably down to poor editing more than anything.
But I really can't complain, because I did manage to fall sleep after listening to this so it certainly served it's purpose.
I love how sleep stories have a way of clearing the mind and helping me relax.
The Pear Tree by avoidingavoidance
For non-book records, review text and ratings are hidden. Only mood, pace, and content warnings are visible.