andy

A book with brilliant and multifaceted themes, but an undercooked ending. I was captivated by the book's surreal and atmospheric appeal, and I was sure it would rank high on my list of best reads for 2024.but it had too many loose ends and ultimately didn't lead to a satisfying conclusion.
3.5 stars /5

this has been so difficult to rate and review since I was so conflicted about what my actual feeling about this book was. In short words, I liked this book but some minor (??) things bugged me a lot namely the practicality of Dr B's chess excellence and the demonstration of his skill in the match. The second thing would be skipping any exploration of Czentovic's character and the things that I really liked the exploration of the aftermath of torture in the theme of chess, the description of Dr B's gradual descent into monomania and ptsd books that have the depiction of war crimes and human suffering occupy a special place in my heart although it's not on my top tier, its certainly on a high place.

Now the plot of the book was pretty much the same as I expected but my prediction of the ending was a little incorrect, overall it suited the plot so I was pleasantly surprised. But the repetition of incidents that shadows the theme of savagery vs civilization was done so many times that the plot seemed rather dry. Sure many things are going on hypothetically but all of these are so repetitive that it bored me. I don't know if I would have liked it more if I was in the same age group as them cause sometimes I was not amused by how simply the boys got manipulated, was I that naive (p.s-dumb) back in my kiddy age? The depiction of a power struggle between two boys was something that I think was very well done and I theorized that maybe they were mentally prepared for extreme situations(cause there was a world war going on) when they get used to being stranded on an uninhabited island so easily.
3 out of 5 stars.

Overall I liked it but it wasn't extraordinary 3.75/5. The ornate prose is not overdone like Dicken's third person pov but IMO It isn't the most exclusive feature of this book, also judging it only by its prose is kind of shallow which our man Wilde doesn't approve of. Chapter 11 was a bit like a summary of some years of Dorian's life. I would've liked more elaboration on his hedonism tbh :hmmmmmmm: Victorians were too fussy about many normal things. I liked the philosophical exploration or art, aesthetic along with morality but it wasn't that spellbinding, the main theme was confined to that issue only and at this point in modern times, after reading so much about Faustian bargains or the horrible limits people can go on to preserve their outer appearance. It didn't seem like some great discovery. Btw Wilde's occasional incorporation of witty dialogues was great!!
Now some life lessons self-proclaimed intellectual, Andy has learned from this book- people really need to wake up from the notion of associating only aesthetics and beauty with a scale of morality and how pursuing it only limits not only their intellectual growth but restricts them from opening up their true selves with others around them, creating a paradox of lies and deception.
Considering all of these I would say it was pretty nice but I just wasn't particularly impressed by it, it is on my mid-level radar

Tamiki Hara was among those who held first-hand experience of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In this novel, he has shared the painful experiences and memories he suffered during that period of history. The English translation wasn't available singularly so I read this story from [b:Hiroshima: Three Witnesses 771290 Hiroshima Three Witnesses Richard H. Minear https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348831967l/771290.SY75.jpg 111924]. The prose is simple, has no embellishments and no extraordinary features maybe because of the English translation but this made me feel it to be more like a memoir than a novella. The first two sections were very stomach churning and just thinking about how much suffering they had to endure made me think about how luckier I am to be born in this century in a relatively stable country. The author has written all of the struggles and misfortunes without any exaggeration sometimes it felt like he was talking about some trivial topic. The third section ‘ prelude to annihilation ‘ was disjointed from the other two. All these war memoirs/novels are hitting me fatally every time and I can't say that I am disliking these. Although these are painful, I think awareness about them is necessary for all of us.3.75/5

Despite being in the mood for reading some world history, this book felt pretty heavy-handed and super dense or maybe I had considered the history of Afghanistan from the medieval to 2012 as somewhat short and manageable to complete in a few days without noting it down thoroughly. I am regretting my decision to pick up this book as I was largely interested in Afghan history before and during the cold war till now.
I also didn't like how the author had written, it was structured as story-like and not too convenient to memorise and understand the dense details.
3. 5 stars for now(although it's kind of my fault..)
P.S- Need to reread this when I get plenty of time

A very short mysterious story. I have to say it made me very confused and I still wasn't sure who's the real offender. The story is divided by 7 different people's pov and the people who were directly affected by the accident had their different variations of stories. It made me pretty confused and I liked that . 4/5 stars

It is a perfect memoir, the author highlighted the fragments of his life which is the basic skeleton of his likelihood. The way he incorporated so many chemistry metaphors with his philosophical and psychological views was a joyous read for me. Each of the chapter titles and the contents had deep(sometimes shallow) connections throughout the book although The second fable he incorporated in the middle section was kind of broke the sequence for me and it felt unnecessary

Now onto my personal opinion- I would be much more delighted if the chemistry portion was highlighted much more here since I was very much looking forward to reading the science bit in every chapter, some of the chapters seemed a bit dull to me which had very minuscule chemistry on it. But I suppose it has the perfect balance for someone who isn't too interested in the science part or has a hard time understanding it. Still, I wanted more science bits since the Royal institute awarded it ‘Best science book of all time'

I especially liked how he incorporated his scientific philosophy into his regular life too which is always fun to read because I could see from this book how passionate he was about chemistry. my favourite chapters were Nitrogen and Carbon, also the part where the synthesised fats in Auschwitz
3.75 for me .......okay maybe 4.

The collection comprises three short stories, with the eponymous “Nails and Eyes” standing out as the most memorable among them. Each narrative exudes an eerie and discomforting aura, steeped in mystery and occasional dread.
The utilization of second-person narration in the first story masterfully crafts a claustrophobic atmosphere, drawing readers into the unsettling worlds depicted. The deliberate ambiguity in the endings of each tale adds depth to the collection, compelling readers to contemplate the unresolved elements long after finishing.
However Fujino's decision to portray Hina as a mere 3-year-old, contrasting with her seemingly implausible meticulousness in uncovering her step mother's past and present circumstances, strains the bounds of credibility and detracts from the story's overall impact.
4/5

Chapter 1 was too repetitive and circumlocutory which is always bad news since many would drop the book if the starting is not strong, but I kept going and it turned out to be the right decision. Latter the theories turned out to be quite persuasive along with complementary examples and occasional sprinkles of historical/contemporary philosophy of scientific belief. I also like the format DR Oreskes went on to simplify various scepticism, misconceptions and biases. The cherry on top was the last bit where some experts expressed their queries about scientific trust on the basis of dr Oreskes's lecture at Stanford (prior to the publication of this book) and Dr Oreskes's responses.
4/5 stars
I highly recommend it if you like to read the history of science or the philosophy of scientific belief.

So, in Parts 1 and 2, the book discusses the history and early philosophical origins of various dominating philosophies. However, considering the title “Interpreting Modern Political Life,” it felt somewhat inadequate. There was very little focus on the evolution of ideology and more on accounting for the most prominent ideological and political phenomena happening in contemporary times. Although the discussions on fascism and socialism were very illuminating.

In Part 3, liquidized ideologies broke from the tradition of being solely confined to earlier times, and we got more discussion on contemporary issues. However, the lack of inclusion of ideological mashups in cyberspace made it seem unfinished.

Overall, I liked the book quite a lot, even though I had a hard time getting into some of the chapters. The author did a good job explaining some of the most dominating ideological beliefs.

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5.

The majority of this book seemed like a compilation of investigation journalism pieces with very few technical details which isn't something that I like very much but the last three chapters were quite satisfactory in that sense. If coupled with the fact that this book had achieved such a huge achievement in the past, this book is still current in terms of the relevancy of its factual information.
4 stars/5

This book only scratched the surface of the science (which can be a hit for one but a miss for another), and some of the advice can be a bit repetitive at times. However, the book itself contains many useful pieces of information that need to be more widely known and spread. I'd recommend it if someone is looking for a light but informative read on the endocrine system.
3.75/5

I don't think I would ever get bored of reading historical fiction which has the theme of war. This was recommended to me by my sister who used to think that an anime movie couldn't make her feel deep emotion(hate excluded) but after watching the movie she was so impressed by it that she bugged me so much for watching it. I am not a big fan of watching movies and I know behind every excellent movie there's a book on which it was based. So I found this semi-autobiographical short story and omg it was so much sad and heartbreaking that Even my robot-like brain was malfunctioning with grief and sadness (I'm kidding, I am actually very empathetic). It certainly doesn't help that it was semi-autobiographical too. All of these stories remind me every time that how wars destroy the lives of people who were the most passive about taking any decisions about them. Things that drew my attention most were -their sibling bond and how the timeline of the story was reversed so we already know what's going to happen at the end, how maturely Seita acted (despite being so young himself)to keep him safe.The compatibility of the title. I wish I knew enough Japanese to read this story in its original version. No thoughts, only sadness :sadpeace:

Seemingly a more philosophical work of ancient Greek literature, this book revolves around the notion of fate and free will, leading to an ambiguous stance on whether fate trumps or free will prevails. Similar to other Greek epics, the tragedy of the book is heavily influenced by divine and mystical beings, before whom mortals are depicted to be powerless. While the plot/narrative may be thin and contains several loopholes , I wouldn't say it is lacking in entertainment value from a subjective standpoint.
p.s: The translation by Robert Fagles stands out in comparison to David Greene/Richard Lattimore, and the extended notes accompanying each play add a nice touch to the book

3.5/5

4.25 stars/5 .
The main things that I've appreciated in the book-1. the family bonding, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the Joad family members had a close connection with each of them esp Ma, her support of Rosahran and Tom during the hard times,2. the characterisation- most of the characters were not one dimensional and layered and even Rose who wasn't that noteworthy, her kindness and bravery during the last scene of the book were pretty commendable, Casy wasn't a very strict religious ex-preacher, he has his disagreements with his almighty3. The end was pretty anti-climatic but I guess Steinbeck wanted to end it realistically without too much sadness or unnatural happiness, the migrant workers' condition is still unknown and hard, Tom probably following Casey's path and maybe he's going to die, Noah, Connie had no mention at last(although I hate him still).....

I finished it in the span of a few hours cause It was easy to read and I've been meaning to read this forever. Now I would first want to say that the writing style specifically on Celia's narration seemed so natural and original, it was a delight to read this but after Celie discovered Nettie's hidden letters and started reading them continuously I kind of didn't enjoy it but I don't know in how another way Nettie would've described her situation (which spanned for so many years) to her sister, seems logical but I didn't enjoy it much. for the first portions I was so much delighted to see that Nettie and Celia's sibling bond was so strong even tho Celie didn't possibly get empathy from many people other than her sister and probably her former teacher. I don't even wanna mention the monster stepfather who tbh not only sexually assaulted the kids but also sold Celia to another horrible disgusting man. at one point Celie was talking about how men scare her so she likes to stare at women feels so heartbreaking and obvious for repeated sexual assault survivors. in her ‘husband' s house she was treated so badly and the freaking asshole also encouraged his son to treat Celie badly cause she's a woman, she's supposed to be lower, felt sot typical disgusting behaviour I liked how he was called Mr.dash for most of the book,

[11:31]

I dunno if it's my correct interpretation but he was nothing in Celia's eyes other than an abuser so his name has no importance, he's a generic piece of shit. tbh I hated Shug Avery too after she was so rude to Celia at first she only opened up cause Celie was so good to her also in the last portions she was jealous of Albert and Celie's reunion (which I had another opinion personally). Shug Avery can empower people who are hurt, who're helpless and determined altho I didn't like her platonic and sexual relations with random people when she was probably down with std? (also not confirmed) and kinda in unspoken relation with Celia but I don't think she gave Celia any signal of becoming her life partner or something. although she seemed very jealous of Albert's relations which is kind of felt weird to me, she wanted to be his wife because of her sextual compatibality with Albert or mr. dash was nice? but Her contribution to empowering and helping many people Squeak, Sofia and Celia were very crucial above all to make them complete people even though not all of them are protagonists. I like her interpretation of god to it proves she was not only open-minded in sexual nature but her philosophical thinking is out of the box too, and for the purple field metaphor, I think it's mentioned cause blue is generally the colour of sorrow and red as happiness, our life is mixed with both of them so it's the secondary colour purple.now onto something that bugged me- I didn't like Celie told to beat Sofia even tho I dunno why she did that jealousy perhaps because she has enough self-respect which Celia doesn't? also the fairytale-like ending meh I didn't like alpherd or Albert whatever and Celia got chummy bruh wtf I don't' think he was supposed to be forgiven cause he does housework by himself now smh, also that Nettie became stepmom of Celia's lost children, talk about destiny, Corrine died and Samuel well married the children's real aunt huh okay seems too perfect and unrealistic for me.
Now I liked the most was Celia's character growth of becoming a self-independent woman and her reunion with her kids and sister. my overall rating is 3.75

Although the book is marketed as a Young adult book, in my opinion, the message and the realities of human greed and exploitation of nature and animals were strongly portrayed, although it was written from the singular circumstances of the Yukon gold rush and general treatment of sledge dogs and guard dogsother than this I liked how realistic was London towards Buck's attachment of his old family and the new kinder master Thornton, also his instinct of getting back to his space like in the primitive nature of a beast I can see why the title suits the story so much.
But I wasn't too interested in the adventure parts especially Thronton and Buck's many adventures in the woods, they were hard to visualise for me
3. 25 stars from me.

A book with ‘small' in its title tackled some big subjects at its core. The book's narrative is not chronologically smooth some even can say it's disjointed and confusing but for me, it was near perfect although I a few times got confused on the timeline It didn't make any impact on my experience cause the events and memories that Roy has written are most memorable not only for the individual characters but the way they're presented in, I would say it becomes somewhat memorable to the reader too. The prose was excellent, I just loved the metaphors she used and her humour. for me, the prose is a big thing for a book and this book has the perfect pH level for that. Neither too descriptive like some of the old classics nor too simple and bare-boned. Roy addressed so many sociological, cultural, and religious aspects here, sometimes the negative part. Even with All of this, her book didn't feel too saturated to the point of being careless and it didn't feel like somebody read a bunch of articles of societal and religious hypocrisy and dumped them at the same place.
I accept that some of the middle portions seemed rather mundane to the whole story that's why it doesn't become a 4.25 star read.
some might say that I enjoyed it more cause I'm pretty familiar with the political and social structure of that time, of Indian society but I think anyone who has a little knowledge about the political situation of that time along with keen observation and introspective thinking would be easily able to understand it pretty clearly.
so parts can be pretty triggering to some, but it was;t too gory in my opinion do check the trigger warnings before that. Otherwise, I am pretty sure I will recommend it pretty much to anyone who is looking for a realistic literary fiction book. It took me only 4 days even though I was only reading it on my breaks.
p.s- Now I understand why the hype and why it became a booker winner

The instructions were clear, and the advice was easy to follow for most people in real life. The references were solid, like those in a good popular science book. I wouldn't have read this book if it weren't for the review on redpenreviews. The one thing that made me skeptical was the advice on taking supplements, as the medical community has differing opinions on this.

Plotwise this book doesn't offer much content but the triumph lies in its straightforward and unflinching social commentary on women's bodily anatomy, and functions. Like the majority of people, I think the first part is better in terms of character growth and the realistic outcome of events. In the second part, it seemed like our protagonist's actions became more random and spontaneous and the motive behind her important decision seemed to be a fleeting thought which has little logical and empathetic reasoning, especially after Yuriko's conversation bit impacted me so much and it seemed like even Natsu has shaken I was disappointed with Natsu's decision at the end. It may seem like a happy ending for her but that doesn't strengthen the reason behind her ultimate decision. it seemed incompatible with the ultimate messages that are presented here.

People are willing to accept the pain and suffering of others, limitless amounts of it, as long as it helps them to keep on believing in whatever it is that they want to believe. Love, meaning, doesn't matter.

The vastness and individuality of each character make this book seem like an epic. The wittiness of Shree and the richness of the prose made me delighted and entertained throughout the book. The narrative is often dreamlike, unjunctured, and unfiltered, which made the experience more raw. Despite a seemingly uneventful storyline (particularly in part 1) the depth of thematic exploration makes every moment significant. What i liked the most was nuanced portrayal of intricate human relationships, from the dynamic between Ma and Beti, Beti and Bade, to the complexities involving Ma and Bahu, Ma and Bade, KK and Beti, Ma and Rosie, Rosie and Beti- each interaction and internal dialogue revolves in multidimensional authenticity.
But, all of these aside, I felt like the translation tried to be too literal in the sense of the original Hindi prose, and sometimes it felt quite meandering and awkward.
P.S: I haven't read many books with an older woman protagonist, and it was such a delight to read one.
3.5 stars/5