alice

This is a book that perhaps, if time allows, one might as well go through the context again for multiple times.

It was written in a morose tone, and it was about nothing exquisite, heroic, or you might call it a book of the defeated, who are unable to summon the right life-a friendship with great depth and proximity, a marriage of mutual respect, not founded on love, as Stoner stumbled his way towards the end-where cancer paved the path and death awaited before him.

It was a life of no significance, as brought up at the very first of the book. Stoner was no much of a hero, his presence meant little to the field he was deeply rooted and found a profound love for. To his daughter and wife, he was just a man who supported their living and lived in their household. To Lomax, he was a target for his utter of hatred, as his stubbornness prohibited them to get along well due to a talented student.

Academically, the book serves a purpose for all literature lovers as it connected the contexts of different proses, works, arts written by famous writers like Shakespeare, Shelley, etc. Despite that facet of the book it reigned, to me, the emphasis was more about the life Stoner led himself into-for sure he couldn't lead all of it. The melancholy he experienced each time was heartfelt, as the words brought me along with him. And how it was to be, after all, numb by all the events one had gone through in his life. It was to no uncertainty that I found myself resonating with every single word used to describe Stoner's internal feelings without difficulty. It was so smooth, so realistic, so beautifully written.

And I believe as well, that we might all find little parts of ourselves in the book, whenever we felt aloof, distracted by people, or due to that long-bore loneliness that we carried within ourselves since the date we met the earth. It was with great pleasure I had found in reading the piece of work, despite its contextual remorse.

If you can, don't just give it a read, but serveral.

At the first few chapters, my rating for this book would be 1 star.
In the midst of it, i would give a 2.
And till the end it's a 3.

The theme was alright. The problem again lies in the manner of story-telling and how the writing was like–well, i wouldn't want to say it's bad but it is indeed. Alongside those cliche quotes, which at times made me cringe, and oh yes, the weird fast-forwarding relationship going on for 6 months into marriage and children directly? how convenient that is!

Oh sure, maybe the bit about domestic abuse is the best about this book, but then the main problem to be solved or the moral of the story is easily known, and that might even downgrade the raise the awareness of some issues bit.

And i wonder why is this worth a 4.xx average rating while other literary fictions only have a 3.xx? Oh. how universal the side people take here!

This was an utterly heartwarming novel that was and will always be available for those who are in despair, getting lost in this so-called life thing, and grieving upon it. It surely has a self-help sort of nature with it, which I don't find it the least bit annoying. Rather, I would say it was quite necessary to have a book focusing on that topic, especially for the time we are in.

I like the way how philosophers are being quoted throughout the book, and I found it even more compelling to see how a philosophy graduate cannot help herself even after studying about the subject. To me, it seems like it is a notion of ambiguity that Nora has, that she was actually willing to live and die at the same time; not loving others but actually wanted to be cared for; wanting to achieve something or to commit but eventually stop midway... I wouldn't say this is an absurd idea to put in a novel, but that is what life is—you get stuck sometimes, and for me it's how you're going to get through the rigmarole and to seek a meaning from it.

It helps me to realise, also, what a life I would like myself to be in. But then there's no ends if you skip the process, and yet it's still long way to go for all of us, isn't it? So a few more words to go, this book helps to alleviate the pain you're experiencing at the moment, and it's not some sort of inundated self-help guru recommended type of book. I think there's still the essence of it, as speaking of the book alone.

Give the book a read, there's surely some enlightening ideas for you to grab some bits of.

It was very resourceful to read this book and to adjust our tendency to bias facts due to exposure in mass media as we are living in the age of technology, fast-spread messages and news, that everything comes in a snap and we absorb them without filtering the knowledge through our brain first.

In my opinion, Hans Rosling has done perfectly well in awing readers with his straight forward and engaging, simple but clear language to deliver us the main theme throughout the book–we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, yet also by the history of humankind. It highlights the point where we should learn to view things in an up-to-date manner, and rather not judged by the fact or so-called leaps in technology advancement we've made–especially for the western countries, that western still dominates the world in a “privileged” way, ahead of all its rivals. Indeed, it continues to emphasise on the misjudge in facts, mostly based on the old facts opinions that were embedded among us and harvested to other ones as we grow up. Our world view is outdated. And yet we shall learn to change our view on that.

It is an incredibly useful book in proving common misconceptions wrong, alongside the facts and the uses of data that helps to establish another new level of understanding in the current global situation. Worthy to read.

Perhaps it was a bit too flat and too patched up with melancholy. Yet the melancholy was not in a flat but perturbing manner that got through the soul. That is in such way, I found the novel not sufficing my expectation or any kind of sadness that would feed me well.

To be frank, the story itself was fine, and there were obviously layers to the rendition of the world that the novel was based on. The basic settings and social backgrounds were revealed in a natural manner with the utmost simplicity in language, to which throughout the book was the narration of it. Yet it could not be so relatable, this sadness, in itself was in disguise but notable, just as paradoxical as the ugly truth of what the students' lives were set out to be, and how they were “sheltered” to be in Hailsham. It was fine, it really was, perhaps I was all too young to understand the magic of it. But again I could not relate to or feel the emotions as much as the characters did.

This is a very depressing note on how capitalism also enslaves us into mere consumers to fill our day with shallow meansings, alongside with how modernity has failed us, as famously inspiring the works of The 1975.

Is this a tough read? For me not, mostly because i think about these things in the same dimension as the writer did, and he surely carried it with a great deal lot of depth than me, which is precise and thought-provoking enough to say that this is the new bible.

The mere problem would be that it acts as more of a criticism work instead of providing some feasible actions to remedy the grave reality of modern world, which only intensifies as time moves on to the 21st century. Despite this, i just think that it is justified for how good it is.

So basically this book, to me, was full of love, hope and nature. I totally appreciate the writing style of Delia, putting pillars of clues of a murder with Kya's growth from a wild girl into a woman who could read and write well. Surely, the suspense in this book was very well shaped, it keeps you digging more and more as to know what will happen next. What more to say is the theme of the book, the core of how isolation can affect we humans, the social mammals at all. It was really deep to me that the long lack of love and care of Kya could cause her to react so strongly when to deal with sexual violence. She was long abandoned by her family, so she seek the sense of community, living like everyone else does, and to understand that she was forever an outcast of the place, leaving her with wild until her death. It was a heartwarming book. It taught us there's love and hope, and there'll always be pain while dealing with people. And to illustrate the point that us, humans, as often the intruders of nature, breaking the perfect balance between nature and living species, just like the town in North Carolina slowly turning into a commercial and developed place within years. It gets rarer and rarer for us to live fully by wild every now and then. So as to treasure the sight of nature's beauty presence while we still can, do our part to not destroy it as much as we can.
Indeed a very well-written novel.

Would it be rather some cliché to talk about relationship in a book? Honestly, shift that position of Connell and Marianne onto other types of relationships you have in life. Well, then you will end up finding some resemblance between yours and theirs.
In a modern society, on-and-off relationships are never any rare scenes. However, being centred as mostly sexual, yet friendly kind of relationship, it would be rather difficult to define its nature, and conventionalists might call this inappropriate and certainly, unadvised.
If all of the above is exactly what this chart-topping, bestselling book want to tell us, I would hardly give it a go. But now, on the second ride, I feel like there is something prominent enough for it to enter that position. It is not my Rooney favourite, obviously, but there is resonance of the relationship itself, happy mixing with unhappy moments, silent treatment and negligence with fervid conversations, misunderstanding with understanding, replaceability with irreplaceablility... This obfuscating sort of relationship is nothing abnormal or too fictional to get personal. Rather, I would think this is a perfect rendition of the modern definition of relationships.
So Normal People, is perfectly normal.

literally it's welcome to discovery channel for the first half, then afterwards it's deliberately fitting in “reflective” and perhaps “philosophical” context in the old man's monologue to himself, yet, in fact mostly they are just imageries of the sun and the moon, the tortoises, fish, etc. i had high hopes for its simplicity in tackling the topic of life and death, and the fighting spirit, but no it just doesn't live up to the supposed height of thinking and reflection it should equip, and it stays on the surface only.

The thing is not about the idea of the book, it is the fact that it's solely based on a very unnecessary new term to categorise something called irrational thinking and biased judgement. So as we want to make ourselves look smart, we go by inventing this new term called noise and it's everywhere. This is the issue. It is mainly aimed for being a NYT bestseller without a lot of substantial research and reasoning that could support the sole 400 pages of this book. And by saying, you might think I've got a lot of noise in my review cause I've only managed to read a chapter or two and then skimming through a bit and reading other reviews to find out that...well, there is simply not much of a solution to solve the noise problem that roots from the very term bias. Maybe we could just group them altogether don't you think so? Ah. Yes, Daniel Kahneman, I think you might just contribute the very idea. Thought Thinking fast and also was very liberating. But this one is more or less a book to be skipped. Cause the sole synopsis can sum up most of the content. Noise.

I am not a frequent poetry reader, but from my experience and some little glimpses into contemporary poetry, this is the top-notch ones of them all. Yet, I only find the pleasure in enjoying some of them, not fully, and so the lack of more details and creativity upon themes is the downgrading bits. For sure I do love the way he uses the words, but whenever the enter button is pressed, I lose my trail to the words. (This is a fine 3! Though a bit placid for me.)

It's a good book.

Nevertheless a good book has its limits. First coming with its suddenness in introducing a mental illness, or maybe it's simply that detachment to modern society or upper class social events, which the latter is much relatable.

Okay, don't blame the victim here. Esther is all right to think that way. Or should she not? Shutting every possible outlet to something better? Have we not learnt that constraint choice is better than keeping your options open? Well, anyway. Never mind. Great talent lost. In battle of freedom and marriage. (As one opting for the first, well I wouldn't die yet)

I don't think Esther did have any sorts of recovery towards the end. But if you say that exchange a life for one is worth it then, well, I suppose this book serves its purpose.

i think it somehow achieves to blur the line between the sane and the insane in a violent and bloody way, somehow it is alike Jeans Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, but in a more modern context with modern issues to catch on in south korea. although it might seems disturbing to some, i think it conveys something more than just blatant feminism, and somehbow the latter part also seems to arrive at that destination, of which is some sort of you'll have to go through hell in order to reach heaven redemption. the bonds between the sisters actually do highlights the last climax, alongside with a paralleling vision on life, and how they actually cross at a point, but diverging still because of their difference. the good thing is that it's not totally hopeless. and there's still a beam of light to clutch on.

kudos to a bit of nihilistic approach at the end, and in a very extreme way it achieves the purpose of telling how it's still an issue to be repressed by men in modern society, alongside with how artistic pursuit can literally because art for art's sake, sexualising women, commodifying them too, a total destruction of pre-existing morals, contrasting to the good old traditional society of south korean, and as standing up to the confucian ideologies. i think this speaks a lot in all due honesty.

this is like a close to 4 stars book, mostly due to its pretty imagery of the nature and those really grasp me! but considerably looking at the messages these poems were to convey, are mostly about love and a search for meaning, which might not be a fit for my taste and the questions raised upon to question faith, as humans did, is an ample reflection on how the technological, scientific progress help shape those beliefs, and to address them would be a great topic to set foot in. however my reasons are that they are sort of just a bit explicit and the wordings are not that powerful to me, which is a bit of a downside as towards the end i think i'm just sort of reading affirmation of the lovelies in the world—which is great, but it sort of becomes a bit of a repetition and cliche, as it could very fit into that category of hopeless romantic. don't get me wrong, i love romantics, but perhaps some more sadness is needed in here to layer up the effects of the poem. here's a bit of the quotes i love.

“i have refused to live
locked in the orderly house of
   reasons and proofs.
the world i live in and believe in
is wider than that. and anyway,
   what's wrong with Maybe?”

“there is nothing more pathetic than caution
when headlong might save a life,
even, possibly, your own.”

  the writing is supreme, effortlessly an easy flow, even though at times it might be a bit too flowery, but i doubt that there's anything outgrowing fatigue towards the language. it also managed to explore on several social issues, i.e. the vietnamese history, US social problems, a.k.a. arms, overdose, violence, etc. and most importantly, the handling of grief and losses. for a coming-of-age book it doesn't cheaply treat the topics of abuse and violence in household or romantic relationships, or the intersectionality as both a queer member and a racial minority merely as a tool for recognition and exposure, there's way more layers to build upon than that. most importantly, it is a sort of intricate love between the mother and son, which does not necessarily victimise the son or the mother, yet putting them both on different sides of the same balance, untilted.

have to say judging on the title, i did have very high hopes for this book.

but then it turns out to be something beautifully written, fruitful plot, and a lot of contradicting themes and how it all ends up reaching nowhere. it was also too languid, for which a lot of things could surely be shortened, and i doubt it was such a masterpiece as Maurice did, as the latter didn't get itself all mixed up in religions and stuffs and the stereotypes of genders. understandably it was hard to adjust the setting, but i think the character development is just not good enough.

the ending was...really...dramatic, if not more unreasonable

Words are never enough for me to express my feelings about this immaculate book.
As a lover of books in series, and keen of the idea of a Vivaldi seasonal quartet alike compilation, this book, the finale to a grandiose one, was an isolate read which I had not come across of any other books in the series before.
Being titled Summer, the theme of that radiant energy emitted from the sun, hoping for a everlasting primal time, warmth, the optimal season in the year, as written in the book “how we overload summer most out of all the seasons, I mean with our expectations of it”...all come together to formulate an exceedingly outstanding novel on which summer is the chief theme with the bringing up of several current topics, COVID-19, Black Lives Matters, Brexit, lives of the immigrants, etc. The strong sense in its catching up with the trends, on the globe, things that are seemingly local but global, worrying and devastating in their development, which somehow give the brightest season of all a new definition—the light in the darkness, grieving but with possibilities around, bringing about changes.
Yet, if this book only revolves around the cheerfulness of the summer days, the best weather guaranteed in the year, it would turn out to be rather a disappointment given that the dreamy features of summer does not get into accordance with the reality, especially a world full of turmoils that we are in now. To my surprise, it didn't, and was instead bonding in a close proximity to the vast arrays of emotions we are all feeling now: thinking that 2020, start of a new decade would have done us good; thinking that Brexit might bring the country up to an independent economic force, competitive enough for the US and China; thinking that COVID-19 was nothing prevalent and till the summer it would all be normal and at ease again... Let's not forget about these thoughts we had had during these last 18 months and yet, what did happened was that none of the good things seemed to sway its way into our lives, and everything was in recession—the equal to that of summer. The extent of relatability of the events and emotions are as surreal as it is now happening to us. Speaking only of how resonating the book is would already urge me to give a perfect score to it.
And time, the other dominant element in this novel. From the world war 2 to midsummer in 2020, which exhibits as a parallel of timeline, regarding the changing atmosphere, panic, all sorts of negativity. Yet this is never going to ruin summer, the eternal season withholding all sorts of expectations. “Because summer isn't just a merry tale. Because there's no merry tale without darkness.” This hopeful emotion, persisting from the very beginning of the book towards the end, in changing times we can still find laughter around our family and loved ones; in separations things can still be done without much ado; in hard times help can be brought to make a change in someone else's life... I am completely awed by such a message being put forth in this book, being some sort of an identity for us to grip onto, so we will not fall apart and being beaten because of how the world is now.
In memories, past would be the exact experience we want to relive again, but does a slightly off, less merry summer fail our expectations as to what summer should have been? Is that so in the season we are living in that carries no meaning at all? Or is that once the good old days are gone and they will never be lived again?
As summer never changes, this would be the one that reminds me of the times even if they are desperately in need of a promising future.

Read this because of the world literature course I'm taking.

To be honest, comparatively, if we are talking about works like this, Things Fall Apart is much better than Wide Sargasso Sea, as its take on history and those African customs are much more detailed and understandable.

The main character is so dislikeable, yet, in some way, the book is captivating on behalf on his take to oppose the coercion into transforming the faith of the indigenous people into one of theirs. The violence of the non-civilized versus the so-called civilized actually bears no difference at all.