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BEZORP@books.theunseen.city

Joined 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Mostly read around bedtime. Mostly.

He/him/they cishet white fragile trying dreamer antiracist gullible.

Since the ratings on the Bookwyrms don't impact authors' livelihoods, I feel comfortable getting more granular and using all the stars, so if you see a 3/5 rating on a book I say I liked, this is a rough breakdown of what I mean by my stars:

  • ★☆☆☆☆ I was offended. I think this book has serious flaws.
  • ★★☆☆☆ Not really my thing, and may have been a struggle.
  • ★★★☆☆ Liked it, maybe even a lot. Might re-read.
  • ★★★★☆ Loved this, and I want to talk about it.
  • ★★★★★ I am obsessed. I may even be shaking right now.

As always, the text of my review is a much more accurate representation of my feelings.

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reviewed Analog by Marissa Lingen

Analog (Paperback) 4 stars

Normally, we think of the March/April issue as something of our “humor and hoaxes issue,” …

Some gold in this volume

4 stars

A crazy amount of variety and value here. "Echo, Write to All" by Nate Givens is such a cool concept, jealous I didn't think of it! Emotionally, I found this story profoundly affecting. Even just thinking about it...

"The Return of Tom Dillon" by Harry Lang at the end is a great bit of pulpy detective goodness, with just the right amount of intrigue, and that trademark post-human philosophizing that I associate with the social sci-fis I grew up reading.

My only nitpick is the cover art. It's attention grabbing, but feels kind of fluffy.

reviewed Art History by Dana Arnold

Art History (Oxford University Press, USA) 3 stars

Art history encompasses the study of the history and development of painting, sculpture, and other …

Informative and respectfully brusque

3 stars

Good intro to the concepts and some key figures of art history. As a personal aside, I've been taking up shifts working the counter at a small art gallery, so I got to "test out" some of my newfound art history chops in real time. So while I can't hope to compare to the veterans, I was at least able to avoid embarrassing myself too badly--so I can consider that a testament to the utility of this book.

The delivery is economical, and uses accessible language. I feel like this is the author's voice coming through: some sentences give the impression they were tacked on as afterthoughts, or maybe as part of a final edit pass. They feel parenthetical, but they're not actually in round brackets, and the author does very little to explain them.

This kind of lack embellishment (or "didactics" for the art folks hehe) is the style …

reviewed The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

The Martian Chronicles (Hardcover, 1999, Tandem Library) 3 stars

This is a collection of science fiction short stories, cleverly cobbled together to form a …

Excellent prose

3 stars

Full of Bradbury's style of rich writing. Some definite allegory between martians and native peoples of North America, and not trying to be subtle about it.

Also in Bradbury fashion, one especially fat-phobic story in here. Actually his cruellest one, I think--at least by my reading. While I'm problematizing, his characterization of many women as delicate pale flowers and such is a bit disheartening, but that's also kind of Bradbury.

Despite these gripes, it's a varied and nourishing collecting of short stories, stitched together in a much much more coherent fashion than I would have thought (my understanding is that these were written separately over the course of many years).

Someone expecting sci-fi might be disappointed by the lack of sci, but if you know what Ray's about already, then you'll likely enjoy this a lot.

reviewed Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller

Canticle for Leibowitz (Hardcover, 1999, Tandem Library) 4 stars

Highly unusual After the Holocaust novel. In the far future, 20th century texts are preserved …

Very religious

3 stars

As if you couldn't tell from the title, this book really leans on 1) Latin, 2) Catholic lore. If you're a Sunday School alum or comparative religion nerd, you might get a kick out of it from those alone.

I have no history with the church, so it felt alien and sci-fi to me, but I recognize that the faith in the book is based on one in our real world. So if you're not down for some Abrahamic philosophy fanfic, then you might find large tracts of this book dull.

For my part, while the author might appear to editorialize for some morals that I find wrong, I get a real sense of humility from the writing. A kind open curiosity and questioning of deeply held beliefs, that is refreshing. There are some great conversations in this book, and the Christians are not always put on the "right side" …

started reading Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller

Canticle for Leibowitz (Hardcover, 1999, Tandem Library) 4 stars

Highly unusual After the Holocaust novel. In the far future, 20th century texts are preserved …

Off to an interesting start. I like the two initial characters. Just a few pages in, but I imagine that this books slaps so hard if you're studying (or know) Latin, because there is, so far, a lot of untranslated Latin; which I imagine probably adds some texture.g

reviewed The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (AudiobookFormat, Publisher: Macmillan) 3 stars

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | The Restaurant at the End of the Universe …

Really quite good wordplay, and fun scenes

3 stars

After reading through the entire series for the second time, I'm not sure I dare to say what it's about about, if anything, but it is a fun read, and at least half the joy is in the style of writing as much as the irreverent scenes Adams illustrates.