How I read this: Free ebook copy received from author
So, she is now reading books about shit, you think. What dire straits this reviewer must be in, rHow I read this: Free ebook copy received from author
So, she is now reading books about shit, you think. What dire straits this reviewer must be in, right?!
Truth is, I would have probably never picked this up on my own - but the author sent an unsolicited review copy to me, and upon seeing what it was, I burst into laughter and thought, well, now that it's in my inbox - it's just too intriguing not to read, right?
In the preface, the author says that the main goals of this book were to destigmatize swearing, and also be a useful tool to non-native speakers of English to learn the swear-slang, which in any foreign language is pretty hard to pick up if you're not out and about socializing all the time (and most likely making a fool of yourself for only ever using that ONE swear word you saw in that ridiculous soap opera.)
Now, I don't normally give 5 stars to books I don't consider favorites or something close. But here we have a special situation - objectively speaking, this book definitely deserves to get 5 stars, because it does absolutely achieve what it set out to do, and I would say it's probably a unique example and the only one of its kind. So since I'm one of the first few reviewers, I'm bumping up my 4.5 stars to 5.
There are topical anecdotes in this book, and also a ton of useful phrases that include the word 'shit' explained. The author also uses a lot of witty social and political commentary to illustrate his point (although I must warn you that it also includes a fair share of spoilers for popular media such as Game of Thrones.)
If you're a native speaker, you probably won't find much practical use in it - although it IS quite entertaining, surprisingly! But if you're learning English as a second language, this book would be great for you. It includes a lot of nuance that is otherwise very easy to miss for a foreigner, unless you've completely submerged yourself in the culture for years. Alternatively, it could probably make for a real ice-breaker of a coffee table book.
This book was delightful - just like Dimity herself. The feel is quite a lot like the Finishing School series, and much more stuff is going on compareThis book was delightful - just like Dimity herself. The feel is quite a lot like the Finishing School series, and much more stuff is going on compared to the first book (Poison or Protect). But there is also just enough focus on the romance. It was a lovely read!...more
After finishing the Finishing School series, I just NEEDED more. I knew this series wasn't going to be the same, because it's romance, so it's centereAfter finishing the Finishing School series, I just NEEDED more. I knew this series wasn't going to be the same, because it's romance, so it's centered on the relationship rather than a government plot involving supernaturals and evil lords that schoolgirls are trying to thwart, but... Poison or Protect was just SO DULL. It's literally just the romance. Nothing happens, no plots, no nothing even remotely interesting. And to top it off, it's about a character who was basically a villain in the last series..? I liked the whole redemption arc and all, but like... It's hard to enjoy a book about someone who was a vain dick throughout four of the earlier books.
I've already started the next one, and from the very first pages it reads much better than this one. I enjoyed it in the end, but nowhere close as much as I did the Finishing School series. Here's to hoping the next one is a little bit more involved!
UPDATE: I just finished the second book, and it was absolutely amazing! Definitely worth it to keep reading....more
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
All round, this was a fun adventure through space, much like the blurb and cover quotes proHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
All round, this was a fun adventure through space, much like the blurb and cover quotes promise - quite in the vein of the Hitchhiker's Guide (maybe even a little more like Guardians of the Galaxy?), although the characters were all much more capable than in those stories, in my opinion.
The human main character is kind of adorable, although all characters seemed a little flat for me. You don't go too in-depth with them, it's more of an adventure that rolls over you. Some of the situations were also glanced over and quite simple, but certainly fun and fast-paced. The characters had their archetypes (the funny annoying guy, the secretly world-wise earthling who knows nothing but accepts things readily, the noble strong alien, and of course, the foxy and admirable female officer of the law, which, of course, develops an unlikely attraction to the human male). I liked them all well enough.
I did like the plot as well. Despite being somewhat predictable, it's an okay plot, and although I knew from the start which characters are being planted for which purpose, I didn't guess at the details straight away, so it had me pleasantly wondering as the story went on. (Although I will admit I was disappointed that not all my questions at the end were answered, and I felt like some threads weren't quite followed through to the end.)
One thing that was a little distracting though, there is like a million new alien species mentioned constantly. Most of them get only a glancing description, like "red" or "round with white hair". Some are described in more detail, but the problem is that when they're mentioned again, you're somehow supposed to remember how they look, despite encountering 5 other species in between the pages after you saw them last. I remembered maybe three or four species total. The rest were a jumble. In a way, I guess that suggests what the main character is feeling, thrown into a whole new world like that, but at the same time.. if this was a movie, it would have worked great. But in a book, I literally just imagined blobs. Too many different species, barely any reminder descriptions. The author did invent a cool world for himself. But I feel like maybe it wasn't quite described well enough to us. But, it might have just been me struggling with this, so take a look at some other reviews too.
Another tiny point is that while there were dozens of alien species, they were all... Incredibly human. I feel like it's unfair to say, cause they did seem to be visually different, but... Their dress, their shape, their weapons, even customs... They felt mostly like humans with a slightly different shape or color, maybe some scales. Red. Purple. Yellow. Some weird ears or no nose. But essentially... Human. I don't know, I think maybe I've just been spoiled by Becky Chambers and the like, who make their aliens much less human, while still being relatable. Then again, of course, these kind of stories need to happen in a very "human-like" world, because I guess they're sort of making fun of our social structures, just like The Hitchhiker's Guide did.
That said, this is a good adventure read for the evening, but I'm really not sure I'll remember what this was about next year. But it was a nice, fun way to pass the time.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Well, I feel absolutely guilty about writing such a review, cause I absolutely love the Parasolverse, and I loved all the characters from the FinishinWell, I feel absolutely guilty about writing such a review, cause I absolutely love the Parasolverse, and I loved all the characters from the Finishing School series dearly. The author also writes really well, and the story is valid and characters act realistic, so it's not like I've got anything to complain about. But this story was about a really messed up and damaging relationship in my opinion, and it just left me angry. Perhaps this story works for other readers, and the author has perfect freedom to do whatever she wants with her world, but... This book seriously didn't work for me.
I'm quite surprised by how sad and depressing it was. Agatha, the way she treated Pillover, reminded me of a friend who dumped me years ago (hey, non-romantic break-ups mess you up!) I thought Agatha cold and hard-hearted, despite understanding that it was meant to display her guardedness and that she was hurting herself too. (view spoiler)[The way she strung him along for so many years was brutal, and then kept coming back only when it was selfishly convenient for her. It was hard not to hate this character for that. I was also very angry on Pillover's behalf. (hide spoiler)]So here I was at the 80% mark, and the story is still depressing and the romance hasn't really started?
In my review of Poison or Protect, I said I thought the book was weak because it was just a romance - nothing else going on. Everything that happened was a backdrop, and a very flat one, at that. Just to accommodate the romance. This one though... Sad to say, I couldn't even call it "just a romance" (not that being "just a romance" is bad, it's just that after the Finishing School series, I expected more world building and general "going on" rather than just dealing in emotion, and to hell with the brilliant world the author built). But back to the point, this book has absolutely nothing going on in terms of the spy lifestyle (unlike Dimity's book had), but it also had precious little going on in terms of romance. To top it off, the main character acted like a cold hearted bitch to the poor soft boy. It was a very sad book. Totally out of left field, as I'm used to Carriger's books being a little more upbeat. Nothing wrong with a philosophical book, but... Sigh. This is an odd series, I guess.
About the only bit of this book I enjoyed was the snippets we get about what's going on with Dimity's family as time goes on. So not much.
Perhaps the author wanted to make this a different book? Make the characters starkly different from the norm, make them independent and complex? I guess that worked. But for me, that made the book profoundly unsatisfying, and it made the relationship appear to be very damaging, maybe even manipulating. I liked Agatha in the Finishing School series. I have a firm dislike of Agatha and her choices now. Ugh.
I wonder what other reviewers will say about this one - I'm off to read some of the other reviews......more
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
3.5 stars, rounded to 4
A relatively quick read, Seven Down engages you right from the startHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
3.5 stars, rounded to 4
A relatively quick read, Seven Down engages you right from the start. It's a sort of epistolary novel, told through debriefing files of a political/corporate conspiracy manipulation gone terribly wrong. And it starts off with just about the most emotional character - full of regret, uprooted from a life she sold years ago. The text was emotional and shook me quite a lot from the start.
The story is told in a similar manner to Fredrick Backman's Anxious People - but where that one is a "realism through humor" kind of tale, this one's more of a "realism through tragedy" sort of one. Definitely reads as literary, and you need to concentrate, as the story has been especially mixed up in the timelines. The characters digress a lot, so you don't just get told simply about the mission they had, or the things that happened during that fateful day - no, you also learn about them as people - their thoughts, regrets and how they dealt with everything that happened after the event.
There is a sort of dark humor in this tale - it does have a sort of jokey manner, especially with some characters, but even then, it's dark and tragic. It's meant to make you laugh, but only in a depraved sort of way. And you'll definitely be sad after you finish it.
Seven Down makes you... Feel ever so much uncomfortable, as well. And I think it's meant to. Not only that, some of the characters, the way they tell their stories, their regrets and how they've literally sold out their lives, it broke my heart. The loved ones they had to leave, all of that felt to me like that fairytale, where a King or Queen promises the witch their firstborn because before they have one, it seems an easy bargain, but then after the time comes and they have to make good on the promise, they realize it was the worst decision of their lives. This story goes on in a similar fashion. It was really sad to read those bits, and I had to keep taking breaks from the book because of that. But not all the stories are like that, and pretty much all the characters are meant to seem quite unlikeable, so when they overshare their regrets and mistakes, you just feel uncomfortable, and that's the way the book must've been intended.
It's also interesting how most of the these characters don't seem to know they were pretty much all of them embroiled in the same scheme. It's all like a big stupid stage of theatre going on, and at times it seems more like a circus, really. It adds to the uncomfortable feeling. But also, it's unsettling in the sense, that you start wondering how much of this kind of thing might actually be going on? You think of all the incidents that have happened over the years - the toxins in the little town who took out unsuspecting victims, was that in Ireland? Was it something like... this? Could this possibly be, not really JUST fiction..? Profoundly uncomfortable to think about. And also probably someone's reality.
Seven Down is hopefully just fiction, but... It's not a book you'll easily forget for sure.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This is definitely a one of a kind book. I fell in love with the author’s voice straight afHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This is definitely a one of a kind book. I fell in love with the author’s voice straight after the first few pages! She’s so cool to listen to (well, read is what I mean, I guess), and despite the differences between our circumstances, I found it super easy to vibe with all she was saying.
If you don't want to read all my thoughts though, here's the end bit that sums it up.
I’m giving this book 5 stars, because it’s necessary, it needs to be heard and it said things that need to be said, and also because it was snarky, and taught me some things I didn’t know. But it doesn’t mean that I agree to everything 100% – I don’t need to, and that’s not the point (because I am nondisabled). I just need to hear what’s being said and get educated, just as any nondisabled reader.
My bottom line is – if you’re nondisabled, well, it’s quite likely some things in this book will make you uncomfortable! And you know what? It’s meant to do that, and that’s the whole point of you reading it.
You might not agree to some things, you might not want to hear others – but the main idea here is – read it, learn it, mull it over. And next time you see ableism, do something about it. Bring a small positive change to the world.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
Well, this book isn't your typical read for sure. And while the author makes sure to put a How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
Well, this book isn't your typical read for sure. And while the author makes sure to put a disclaimer at the start of the book that he by no means intends to make light of substance abuse, this book is certainly the "nudge nudge wink wink" kind of read. From the very first pages it's clear that he will make every joke possible, puns included, about every little fact he will throw at you. And it's funny! The facts are also very curious, unexpected, and you definitely want to know about them. So quite probably, this will be a read you won't forget.
But it's not just a jumble of jokes and anecdotes about animals intoxicated - by no means. Admittedly, the style is anecdotal, but the author keeps up the main direction of what he's talking about in every chapter, and he covers a lot of ground. He introduces the main distinctions between intoxicants (for example, the rousing kind, such as caffeine, and the subduing kind, such as morphine). I found it perhaps the most interesting to read about how these chemicals even came to be (evolutionary reasons for them existing) and how various animals, us included, found their way to them. It's interesting how different substances affect animals differently, but it's even more interesting how it seems some of them affect vastly different animals the same way (for example, would you expect cocaine to do the same for a human's appetite and sex drive as it does for a cicada's? Me neither, but it does, apparently.)
I tend to think of animals as not so far off from us in many ways, because we're all very closely related genetically (as opposed to how human culture and especially religious culture often puts animals in a different group from us altogether) - but this book has made me feel even more as if the differences between us and most animals might be marked, but there is much more in common between us and them than we think, especially systematically - and that's fascinating. Of course, that's something most researchers are fully aware of, but I don't think it's a mainstream idea for laypeople. So this book may blow your mind in regards to that.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
TL:DR review version: if you're looking into becoming a paleontologist and have actually drHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
TL:DR review version: if you're looking into becoming a paleontologist and have actually dreamt about it for a while, this book is GREAT for you. If you're just curious about paleontology and what these scientists do, maybe give it a pass, because it will probably bog you down.
It's hard for me to review this book, because as you might have guessed already, I don't think I'm the intended audience for it.
All in all, this book felt a little like sitting down with your great grandma and listen to her tell you about all those people she knew in her village in her youth. People who's names she'll remember incredibly vividly (middle names included), and people who have absolutely zero relevance to your life, and who you do not and will not remember. You'll hear who married who, who went to which school, how many jobs they held down and how many acres their farms were. You'll listen and politely nod, and think it was nice to talk to her, but hot damn. And you'll walk away forgetting them and their accomplishments the minute you touch the doorknob. This is kind of the way the book felt to me, cause while I'd love to know what paleontologists actually do, I don't even REMOTELY care about specific last names, their histories, the schools they went to and their theses they defended. I do, however, hope that for a person who's already filled out their summer program or university admittance papers this works out as a good, informative read. It's probably just for a super niche audience.
So if you think this book is about paleontology - that's not quite correct. It's more like, it's about paleontologists. And if you ask, where's the difference - well, there is definitely a lot of overlap here, but it's mostly about different kinds of jobs paleontologists can do, or what those specialties entail. There is a lot about paleontology itself too, but it's more about what paleontologists do with their time and how it relates with the science. I can imagine it's a pretty great book if you're deeply interested in becoming a paleontologist yourself, or thinking of related studies. However, if you're a random person who wants to learn more about the subject (like me), well, you're out of luck.
There's nothing wrong with the subject matter, and introducing different kinds of paleontology subdivisions and specialists is all fine and good, but I still feel like it lacked cohesive structure, because I had a hard time following. I wasn't sure if there was a, well, I obviously don't mean a plot, cause it's nonfiction, but something like a train of thought? A lot of the time, I didn't feel like I knew where the book was leading me. Just random bits about this paleontologist, then another, the one university, then another... It was a bit hard to follow.
Another thing that I didn't quite get in this book were these 'boxes' - like a short description of some random paleontologist whose photo I am not seeing and I guess who added to the words in recent paragraphs? Some of them had a photo, but not many, and I'm not sure whether this is because I have a review copy and it's not final, or if it's just going to remain this way. The boxes seem to be just a short bio, but honestly, I struggled to connect that to the text, and to me as a reader, it felt more like it broke up my reading without really giving me information that was in the least interesting or even connected to the story the book was telling me. In the first half of the page it would be about a branch of paleontology, and then there comes a box with some random scientist's "X got into paleontology through this random happening and chose field A or B" and like.. why do I need to know that again? I get the desire to introduce everyone who contributed to the book, but like.. Maybe that's something that should go in acknowledgments or something, because I skipped most of those boxes. I honestly don't need to know the bio if I don't even know WHY you're talking about this person here.
Other than the paleontologists themselves, of course the book talks about where they work (the field, the lab) and the instruments they use (also in the field and the lab). How much it has benefited as a science from digitization, as well as examples of how it affects the end-data you get. And it does give hints about how to choose a school, what to expect from it as a profession, both tasks-wise and money-wise. There's even info on how often a couple who are both working in paleontology (or at least academia) get hired into the same organizations, or how you can juggle these kinds of things that aren't really talked about, but do matter in real life. There is also a significant bit about sexism and women in the field, as well as balancing career and family (regardless of your gender).
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Evelina | AvalinahsBooks
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