Ninett

This was a good book, just not aimed at me, someone who has already implemented a lot of the suggestions outlined within. Some of the internal triggers solutions we too vague to be put into practice, and I'm not sold on scheduling every moment (waking AND sleeping) of my day. I did put some of the advice to use though, especially the distraction tracker and the scheduling of the work day. 

I learned quite a bit from this book. It was informative and digestable, not to mention easily actionable, and I can definitely begin to see certain elements of my body in a new light now that I have been shown the tools to do so. What brings the score down is that I found the narrative stories a bit contrived and I got completely lost in all the metaphors (monitor, flock, garden, one ring, and so on). As a STEM girl myself I appreciate clarity over metaphorising everything, but I also understand some audiences may need the illustrative style. 

A good tour of some of the ways fungi are shaping us, whether those avenues are medical, culinary, or even social. The writing is entirely accessible and the personal narrative weaving its way through gives it life and brings the sometimes disparate topics together into a cohesive book. 
I have learned and thought a lot because of this book. The author seems like an intriguing personality. 
In spite of these favourable views, I did still find myself thinking about whether certain things were repeated too often, and I did miss the presence of some kind of mycological scientific primer.

A collection of short stories set in the universe of the original trilogy, featuring side characters from the original. It includes an origin story for Goddard. I'd say well worth reading to eke out a few more drops from the world built by Shusterman, and some of the short stories are really great in their own right, though some did fall a bit flat for me. I was comfortably able to read it in two train journeys and return to the library within a few days.

Good, simple fun.

Not bad. At first I was annoyed because I thought the plot was just going to be a repeat of the first book, and it kind of still is, but at least there is a twist in the appearance of an AI bad guy . I did find myself annoyed that at times I was just essentially reading a tldr of a twitch stream rather than an actual story. 
Still entertaining, but also it's hard to write a continuation story about an underdog character who is no longer an underdog. 

Excellent writing for a science book. Lots of evidence-backed information and an engaging narrative throughout. I found myself adding unprecedented quantities of new words to my vocabulary bin, and really enjoyed the shake-up of traditional exercise advice and the evolutionary perspective. As a sedentary person in a job best described as a complete sinecure, I have certainly been inspired to exercise, but can I keep it going and turn it into a habit? 

Quite good. I don't even mind the swearing, but the liberal application of sex kind of bothers me, although I am not averse to reading it when it furthers the plot. The world-building is great, and there are lots of unique elements to this story which make it fresh. Scalzi's writing style is engaging and does not bear around the bush, making this a fast-paced story that does not assume the reader is an idiot.

I wasn't sure what to expect going in, and I read the copy in which China Mieville wrote an introduction as a prelude to the introduction written by the author herself. I think for me, I couldn't find the feminism in the story, which was promised in Mieville's introduction. Maybe it is because I am reading this in 2024, which Mieville hints at when he says we may not perceive it as ground-breaking in light of what came after its publication, and I think this must be the case with me. The use of male pronouns also made it challenging to view the characters as anything other than male, despite the author???s intentions . 
Aside from that, it's creative and innovative in its storyline, and I understand entirely why it is such a pillar of this genre. It is hard to write a believable, realistic sci-fi, and I think the focus being on the characters rather than worldbuilding (not that it lacks that, either) is what lends the whole thing so much credence. 

This is an interesting piece of writing. In some bizarre way, it reminds me of a meticulously curated pen and pencil library I made when I was a child. Each writing utensil had a serial number, and there was a ledger in which I kept detailed records about each item in the library. 
The story was good, the illustrations were beautifully drawn and the typesetting around them was lovely. 

Maybe this rating is unfair because I did just read two Ken Follett tomes almost back-to-back, and I was able to predict the outcomes of the story from extrapolation based on what ‘usually' happens in a Ken Follett book. Regardless, an enjoyable read, and would certainly be perceived as more complex and frustrating (in a good way) if I hadn't just read a very similar story from the same author. 
I haven't read another book set in this specific time period, so by that token I am pleased, as I have managed to understand a lot about the age (hopefully true things) - especially the everyday lives of those who lived through the first industrial revolution. Some of the themes in this novel have a lot of bearing on us today as well, with the advent of AI and its ability to replace a lot of ‘clicking' type tasks.

Science and action : excellent
Religious dogma and gender cliches: pass??

I kind of hated it. I don't mean to be a pearl clutcher here, but I did feel it was in bad taste to make the suffering and subsequent death of a little boy (albeit a boy looooong dead) into such a weirdly perverse story. It's grotesque to me. I nearly gave up on it at page 30 because I had no clue still what was going on and the narrative style never grew on me. I get that the afflictions of the bardo dwellers are symbolic of the personal limbos they faced, but I still just didn't connect with it. 

An alright instalment. Entertaining, as usual, but the usual gripe with believability within the world itself - our main guy surely is undergoing the most rapid advancement of anyone, ever, in this universe.

I am pleased that we are no longer outside of civilisation, and I enjoyed the city from dragon bones idea and setting. I love Orthos. One thing I will say though, which is still a longstanding grievance I have with this series, is that Lindon is a bit insufferable because he succeeds ceaselessly. I understand that this is like a microcosm and we are following this guy because he is the chosen one, and I know this is kinda like some kind of book version of the anthropic principle - you'd never write a book about someone who just isn't a main character. BUT it's maddening. Best iron body, fastest progression, most prepared, wins against higher ranks who should demolish him, most creative, inventor of techniques, charming, tall, handsome, smart.... endless list of stand-out qualities and not a single flaw other than being unsouled (quickly overcome in the first book). Anyway, the read at least is enjoyable and if you don't mind the above mentioned, which I myself have grown used to, then it will certainly be fun to read.

I really liked the book! The magic system is fresh because it has infinite variety - something that I suspect is more realistic in our analogue world as compared to the strict binary/tertiary/etc. magic systems in other books.  The worldbuilding isn't as extensive as other fantasy novels, though, and a downside is that every trick our main character attempts, he wins! He defeats everyone he fights and always succeeds in all his plans. This makes a lot of the outcomes predictable. Regardless, the book is immersive enough to have kept me reading. There is a largely unexplored aspect of the book that I suspect will open up more in later installments. The book cannot be read as a complete story - there is no real ending and it was written with sequels in mind.

Good novel. My boyfriend bought it for me because he thought it was a nonfiction book about chemistry (I feel there's irony there, with the subject matter of the book being what it is), and it turned out to be a novel instead. Not a genre I'd choose for myself to read, with it straddling the line between romance, tragedy and drama, none being genres I generally read. 
I liked Elizabeth because I identify with her in many ways. The cooking show theme of the book is an interesting invention from the author, but I found it to be quite left-field. I suspect this was the central idea around which the book was built. 

This book was actually fantastic as an introduction. That said, the problem I have with books written about scientific topics but not written by scientists is that they often don't delve deep enough for my liking. I realise this may be a tall order given that this is a whistle-stop tour of the human body and not a thesis, but I nevertheless did feel like I was reading a collection of semi-popular facts at times. There were a few chapters from which I made no notes (with my note-taking policy being only write down things you didn't know previously). 
The tone and language were excellent, however, and I did still manage to take away some newfound knowledge.
P.S: What about the lymphatic system?!

I love a good dark and whimsical piece of writing. Even if it's technically probably for kids. This was a rare instance in which I was genuinely sad the book ended because the characters grew on me so much: I felt the gut wrenching sadness of being left behind with the Owenses when Bod and Silas left at the end. I resented that the crew was scattered in the wind with no promise to ever again reunite. And the death of miss Lupescu- absolutely tragic.
All in all engrossing and I guess even though the Jacks' motivation felt like an afterthought it still held my interest all the way through. 

I just didn't get it. I thought it was unbearable in its dull, neverending descriptions of the most boring elements of peoples' lives. Maybe I should try again. I have a beautiful vintage copy.

Overall quite good, easy to understand and well written, especially like the summary table. My main trouble is that I read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and found this to be 80% a repeat of that book. I can't really rate it down for that (but I kind of did anyway), but it also didn't really bring much news to the table. Sound, actionable advice, and I did manage to get something out of it ultimately, but I just found the book by Duhigg (which is mentioned in atomic habits as an inspiration) more well written if a bit less directly actionable. 

This was good! Not really my usual genre, I read it because GPT recommended it as part of a Halloween reading list. I wasn't really sold on it until about at least a quarter of the way through, and I didn't like the main character - I thought she had a childish, spiteful streak that I didn't succeed in warming up to. The premise is great, and I was really into the gothic manor-on-a-hill vibe. I recently read Entangled Life, so the fungus aspect of it was also right up my (current) alley. Dark and at times disgusting, the evils were well fleshed out, I could practically smell the decay at times.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book at first. I struggled to read the first chapter and had to have a few goes at it before I got into it. The language is very poetic, sentences long and twisty-turny. The storyline is a little bit like the Odyssey in that it follows a series of travels of the main character to various places - while he searches for someone else. The ending for me was a little bit disappointing because Remfrey didn't go out in a spectacular way, the Lucidor died with a whimper and didn't even get to kill Remfrey, the big bad guy that started the invasion wasn't vanquished (or we didn't see or know it if it was), and even the shatterling storyline went out with a dim blinker rather than a bang. Regardless, I enjoyed the ride itself and the unique and unusual world so much that the shortcomings of the plot haven't deterred me from giving it 4.5 stars. 

Beware spoilers!

01/12/2024:

I've averaged the scores of my two readings of this book. When I read it in my teens I rated it 5 stars. I now rate it 4.

I still love this book: the myth-founding potency of the Dracula character portrayed in this book remains plain to see just by observing the impact on modern pop culture. Stoker dragged the Vampyre from the depths of folklore into common culture.

But as an adult I've seen some parts differently, too. The story is laced with a kind of benevolent sexism throughout, which is characteristic for its time, yet I find impossible to ignore. I feel the Dracula character did not make full use of all his powers and went out in a whimper rather than a bang. Stoker could have killed off his antagonist in a more befitting way. Also not sure why he kept Jonathan in the castle.

I read this on my nintendo ds originally back in the day, and I have my suspicions that I had read a strongly abridged version, since I didn't recall most of this story.

The cover lured me into reading a book that belongs to two genres I'd normally never read: a short story collection, and a crime one at that... 
But I'm glad it did. I have been meaning to open up my reading a bit recently. I liked the classic twists in each little story and the image of an era that it left imprinted on my brain (both this era of crime fiction writing and the era the stories were set in in general). The writing was excellent - flowing well and reflecting astute observations about what we're like as humans. 

This book came to me at the exact right time in my life for me to be able to appreciate it the most. I hadn't read much about Bayes previously, but my work has started to veer towards a direction in which I felt knowing more probability and stats would be useful. I have a background in engineering, so now that I am equipped with an intuitive understanding of what Bayes' theorem says, and what sorts of problems it can be applied to, I'm well placed to read further into the nitty-gritty of what I've read in order to apply this to my work.

I loved that this book wasn't written exclusively about the mathematics itself, but featured biographical elements of Bayes' life, places the story in a well fleshed-out historical setting, and shares anecdotes about the applications and development of the theorem.

Probably the most notes I've taken on a book in a long time.