vhindy's reviews
6 reviews

The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso by Dante Alighieri

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is easily the most challenging read of my life but that being said, I’m glad I made it through and I think I would like to revisit it again in the future.

The Inferno is a the famous one which I can see why but I found that Purgatorio was my favorite. Paradiso is was a bit too dense for me and I think an easier translation would do me wonders when I revisit. 

I think this is a book that should be read in a group setting or with discussion but I’d challenge anyone to find a translation that’s readable and give it a try. It’s grand and I think contains many truths about the nature of the Divine and how it relates to men, even if you don’t hold the strictly Catholic view. Give it a try at least one time

Ratings by story:
Inferno: 4.25/5 - Really good imagery but need notes to understand the historical & mythological beings as well as the Florentine Politics of the time

Purgatorio: 4.5/5 - I found this to be so profound and it’s where I came to really love the characters of Dante & Virgil. Near the end where

Virgil disappears

was the most moving and profound part of the story for me. This one should get more hype than it does.

Paradiso: 3/5 - This one was a bit too dense and I’d like to revisit with an easier translation. Lots of symbolism and I think is where it becomes the most Catholic to me. I love how he ended it.

God’s grace and greatness is too much for a mere mortal mind to comprehend, he only knows that his soul is forever changed by what he experienced and he yearns for his return to bask in His glory.

One nitpick I didn’t love how the

character of Beatrice

was presented in Heaven. I just didn’t feel the attachment I thought I would but Dante’s ending words to her were sweet. Maybe I need to read La Vita Nuova to more fully understand her.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

What a book.

This one is a slow burner but the payoff is so well done. I was liking the book but feeling lukewarm towards it until the setup started to payoff. Keep going if you struggle in the beginning and middle.

In the book we get a compare and contrast of both England and France, and in particular focus on the French Revolution. I had just learned a bit about it earlier this year which I think added to the experience. 

In many ways, the story’s end game can be predicted but the execution still left me with multiple surprises and twists that greatly enhanced my experience. It feels like Dickens wanted us know the ending early so that we could be filled with the dread and anticipation that was to come and it paid off with a really chilling, tense, and bittersweet moment.

Madame DeFarge

ranks among one of my favorite villains ever. Ruthless, cold-blooded, and ever-watching. 

Overall, this was my first Dickens and I’m impressed. I’ll probably need to dig into his other works after this fantastic first impression. I highly recommend it

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This one is a bit hard to rate because I think I discovered from this book that I’m not a fan of short stories. There’s so much that gets lost because you don’t have a full book to develop out the characters.

That being said, the first 4 stories are the reason I picked up the book and didn’t really care for the remainder but I wouldn’t call them bad. The tonal shift was just too much for me. I did like the last two stories as you saw some recurring characters. Overall I give the book a 3.5/5 but to rate them all individually, they’d be:

Repairer of Reputation: 4/5
The Mask: 4/5
In The Court of the Dragon: 4.5/5
The Yellow Sign: 4.5/5
The Demosielle of D’Ys: 3/5
The Prophet’s Paradise: 2/5
The Street of Four Winds: 2.5/5
The Street of the First Shell: 3.25/5
The Street of Our Lady of the Fields: 3/5
Rue Barree: 4/5

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.25

This book really picked up in the second half for me. I was struggling with the foreign character names and the similarities of them at the beginning. By the middle and the end I had a full grasp of the all the characters and how each reacts to one another the writing was great even from reading a translation.

This book had so many moments of incredible tension with intensity that seemed like it could flip on a dime.

I think this is one I’d like to read again with a separate translation to see if what the differences are. 

I only marked this down because at times the dialouge could be a bit lengthy and I had to slow down in order to grasp what was going on. I really feel like this would be solved on a re read so I could better enjoy the beginning parts of the book. And because sometimes

Rodya was so insufferable and seemed to not truly account for his crimes while others seemed to suffer on his behalf. That being said I found myself to still care about him and was happy with his ending.

The main character is complicated and I had a hard time understanding why I should feel any type of sympathy towards him but really liked how he develops along the way.

Really good book and I look forward to a reread in the future

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

What a read. There were multiple parts of this book that had me in tears.

I haven’t read a novel in my real adult life. I thought I knew better and there was no value in them. I’m grateful that this novel broke through for me. 

Without going into spoilers, I feel like I’ve lived 3 lifetimes with this book. As Steinbeck says, in it you examine every fiber of what it is to be a human being. There’s lovable characters, there’s hatable characters, there’s character arcs, and life lessons and philosophy aplenty. 

I can’t get over how deeply this book seemed to reach in and touch my soul at various parts. It’s long but I found myself wishing for another 600 pages at the end.

I’m not moved quickly to tears but this book had me sobbing at multiple times in its pages. It’s probably my favorite book of all time at this point. I can’t recommend it enough. 5/5

The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor by Howard Marks

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

Great book and definitely would recommend. It is centered more around the philosophy of investing and what makes for a successful investing career that will span decades.

I constantly found myself writing down notes of wisdom that I will carry with me in my investing journey.

Marks writes in a way that can make a dry subject appear engaging and easy to understand. That being said, he doesn’t dive into formulas but provides you with his insights into the human psychology that prevents an average investor from succeeding and how you, if you can resist it, can get superior results.

I would say this book is for people who have a baseline knowledge on security analysis and a beginning investor would get more from it if they waited until they became more familiar with valuing securities themselves.