Yeah I was expecting more from the midnight library. In the end I found it quite disappointing. The premise of the book is pretty good, but don’t like the execution.
My main problems were how easy she was hopping from life to life, and how amazingly varied her lives were. I just don’t think that you can be anything like she was, I get the idea of ‘infinite’ books, but felt this just was a bit too much of a reach. Idk, I just never really cared about any of the characters in the book either, which makes sense since they keep changing every ‘life’.
Also didn’t like that I saw the ending coming from a mile away
agreed, i thought the concept was pretty cool but the execution was lacking and agreed on the ending as well.
I didn’t like that she didn’t know anything in each life, like I get that he says that the longer you are in that life you pick up stuff, but it just seemed to needlessly complicate each life, like i said, the execution was weak.
Search tells me they’ve been mentioned twice already but I’m going to promote them again anyway. I just burned through 4 novellas in 3 days and am about to start the first full length novel. They’re about an introverted, misanthropic security cyborg that hacked its own governing module so it can be a free agent and spend its downtime watching serial dramas. Lots of fun to read and frequently laugh out loud hilarious.
Both. Almost literally read both back-to-back in one sitting, barring a sleep break obv, this past weekend.
Station Eleven first if you’re curious.
I have a feeling this is gonna ruin me for awhile on other books. I started reading some psychological thriller that won or got shortlisted for awards and three chapters in I’m like, “It’s fine… even good… but goddamn it ain’t no Emily St. John Mandel.”
The Tale of Genji set is the hardcover edition of a 2001 translation, now only available in paperback as a single volume.
The Mark Twain set was published in 2020 by Abbeville press, using Norman Rockwell illustrations from 1936 and 1940 editions. https://www.abbeville.com/
The Kafka volume is a special edition published on the hundredth anniversary of his birth (1983).
Reread Barbra Tuchmans Guns of August about the events leading up to the outbreak of WW1 and the first month of conflict, which defined its parameters.
This made me realize that I should have a deeper understanding of WW2. I tried to find the best single volume history from the last 20 years. Amazon/google led me to the Second World Wars by Victor Davis Hanson, but he’s a high volume scrivener associated with the National Review who’s written a pro Trump book, so seemed like a bad idea. (Though it was decently reviewed by serious people.)
Finally found a good reddit thread on the question of best single volume history and general concensus is that Beevor’s The Second World War from 2012, so reading that now.
I need some good suggestions for audible books about mountain climbing or big wall adventures or basically anything like exploration adventures or war action that keeps me riveted.
I’m hitting the diet pretty hard and also hiking and working out a ton. Stuff like Ed Viesturs book about K2 (or Into Thin Air obviously) and or even Krakauer’s book about Pat Tillman, keep me completely engrossed and help me push through.
I think I’m running out of books about big Himalaya climbs. But I know there are tons of other climbing adventure stories. Has to be audible though.
I read Blackhawk Down when it came out but am thinking about reading it again - to give an idea of the kind of riveting adventure/tragedy (which sounds weird to say but it keeps me engaged) I’m looking for.
The first book in the series is a masterpiece. I couldn’t put it down. Its structure, a Canterbury Tales like structure of a series of people telling how they ended up all together, could have been terrible, but instead works perfectly with questions you have in one story get answered in another. I swore the author was reading my mind. It’d be impossible to film but id love to see it as a movie.
This on the other hand is a straightforward epic sci story, but all the mystery and mysteriousness of the first book is replaced with more linear plotting. The interesting characters in the first book turn into convential protagonists. I just lost interest and couldnt keep going.
The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
Most political policy books really can be summed up in like 10 pages but then have 300 extra pages of antidotes, facts and figures.
It’s not a bad book. The thesis is that race was used to destroy public goods that benefited people of color and white people and by bridging the color and advocating for universal public goods will make a better society of all.
In address race vs class she talks about addressing both.
Like I said a good book, but like I just can’t get through political policy books unless they’re doing something outside of the box.
I’ll probably finish it, chapter by chapter at a time, but for now Ive lost interest.
You might like Ilium and Olympus from Simmons. It’s Homer and the Tempest instead of Keats and the Canterbury Tales. It’s not a frame story, but my recollection is that it remains a bit more committed to the “wtf is going on” bit for longer.
