This is a book that seeks to challenge you. It wants you to consider your food choices and your morals. Can you really love animals if you still eat tThis is a book that seeks to challenge you. It wants you to consider your food choices and your morals. Can you really love animals if you still eat them? This is the question Jeffrey Masson asks.
And it’s an important one because many people call themselves animal lovers but continue to eat them. Is this not morally inconsistent? Masson delves into the emotional lives of animals, highlighting the pain and torment they go through when they are farmed for human consumption. He highlights the unnatural environments, the unnatural behavior patterns they display and how far removed they become from their natural selves.
He focuses on chickens, sheep, cows, ducks, and pigs. He looks at how unhappy they are in farmed conditions, and proposes that we should stop using animals entirely on moral grounds because we enforce on them the most unnatural of lives. He also looks at how they treat each other, how they fight for their young and how they seek to protect members of their same species. He considers their emotional intelligence and considers that perhaps we could learn a thing or two.
“Just imagine how rewarding it could be to contemplate the emotional superiority of an animal when it comes to compassion or love: to think we have something to learn.”
I like this quote in particular because it captures the intrinsic value that comes with non-human animals; it captures that, in many ways, we could learn a thing or two because our values have become so distorted. Overall, this is a great piece of writing.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree. __________________________________...more
The visuals in this comic are great; it’s dark and steam punk themed. It’s all rather cool and the action scenes are illustrated brilliantly. It even The visuals in this comic are great; it’s dark and steam punk themed. It’s all rather cool and the action scenes are illustrated brilliantly. It even has a special race of fighting cats that are so ridiculously bad ass; yet, for all that, I found the whole thing quite confusing.
There’s a lot of history with this comic book, which is fine, but I don’t feel like its very well established. There are brief mentions of past events, but not enough details to establish their significance. I feel like the world building is a little too complex for a graphic novel. It’s trying to squeeze so much information in, but it can’t quite cope with the amount it has. And that’s why it all seems brief.
Monstress is trying to be too many things at once far too early on in the series.
[image]
[image]
[image]
Look at Saga. With each volume more story is added and it becomes increasingly complex. It doesn’t begin so. I was lost for most of this. It’s like I’m starting with the second volume, where everything is already clear and the characters and locations make sense. I had no clue who half of these people were supposed to be. I really think the author needed to take a step (or two) back and slow down. I don’t need everything thrown at me at once.
Other than the confusing world building, I think the story is rather solid. The central plot is very strong, it follows a young girl who is inhabited by an evil tentacle monster that feeds of the living and can take possession of her body whenever it chooses. So she’s quite dangerous and she’s trying to discover/remember how she came to be so powerful. Her family have the answers and she’s attempting to find them in this labyrinth of a world that doesn’t yet make sense to me.
However, I won’t be reading the next volume. I don’t think the author quite knows how to write a balanced story, I can’t see this improving. I’m happy to leave it here.
Merged review:
The visuals in this comic are great; it’s dark and steam punk themed. It’s all rather cool and the action scenes are illustrated brilliantly. It even has a special race of fighting cats that are so ridiculously bad ass; yet, for all that, I found the whole thing quite confusing.
There’s a lot of history with this comic book, which is fine, but I don’t feel like its very well established. There are brief mentions of past events, but not enough details to establish their significance. I feel like the world building is a little too complex for a graphic novel. It’s trying to squeeze so much information in, but it can’t quite cope with the amount it has. And that’s why it all seems brief.
Monstress is trying to be too many things at once far too early on in the series.
[image]
[image]
[image]
Look at Saga. With each volume more story is added and it becomes increasingly complex. It doesn’t begin so. I was lost for most of this. It’s like I’m starting with the second volume, where everything is already clear and the characters and locations make sense. I had no clue who half of these people were supposed to be. I really think the author needed to take a step (or two) back and slow down. I don’t need everything thrown at me at once.
Other than the confusing world building, I think the story is rather solid. The central plot is very strong, it follows a young girl who is inhabited by an evil tentacle monster that feeds of the living and can take possession of her body whenever it chooses. So she’s quite dangerous and she’s trying to discover/remember how she came to be so powerful. Her family have the answers and she’s attempting to find them in this labyrinth of a world that doesn’t yet make sense to me.
However, I won’t be reading the next volume. I don’t think the author quite knows how to write a balanced story, I can’t see this improving. I’m happy to leave it here....more
The visuals in this comic are great; it’s dark and steam punk themed. It’s all rather cool and the action scenes are illustrated brilliantly. It even The visuals in this comic are great; it’s dark and steam punk themed. It’s all rather cool and the action scenes are illustrated brilliantly. It even has a special race of fighting cats that are so ridiculously bad ass; yet, for all that, I found the whole thing quite confusing.
There’s a lot of history with this comic book, which is fine, but I don’t feel like its very well established. There are brief mentions of past events, but not enough details to establish their significance. I feel like the world building is a little too complex for a graphic novel. It’s trying to squeeze so much information in, but it can’t quite cope with the amount it has. And that’s why it all seems brief.
Monstress is trying to be too many things at once far too early on in the series.
[image]
[image]
[image]
Look at Saga. With each volume more story is added and it becomes increasingly complex. It doesn’t begin so. I was lost for most of this. It’s like I’m starting with the second volume, where everything is already clear and the characters and locations make sense. I had no clue who half of these people were supposed to be. I really think the author needed to take a step (or two) back and slow down. I don’t need everything thrown at me at once.
Other than the confusing world building, I think the story is rather solid. The central plot is very strong, it follows a young girl who is inhabited by an evil tentacle monster that feeds of the living and can take possession of her body whenever it chooses. So she’s quite dangerous and she’s trying to discover/remember how she came to be so powerful. Her family have the answers and she’s attempting to find them in this labyrinth of a world that doesn’t yet make sense to me.
However, I won’t be reading the next volume. I don’t think the author quite knows how to write a balanced story, I can’t see this improving. I’m happy to leave it here. ...more
The Living Mountain is a short piece of writing that is rich in allegory and meaning; it comes from a dream brought on by anxiety surrounding the AnthThe Living Mountain is a short piece of writing that is rich in allegory and meaning; it comes from a dream brought on by anxiety surrounding the Anthropocene and its connotations: it comes from nervousness about the future in the wake of our attitude towards the natural world.
This takes on the form of a fable, one that highlights exactly what can go wrong if we dominate nature and cultivate too much of her riches and resources; it is a story that is very ecologically aware and one that is cautionary and intelligent: it is a very timely and important piece of writing. I find myself drawn to more and more books like this, books that engage with issues of ecology and the environment.
“How dare you speak of the Mountain as though you were its masters, and it were your plaything, your child. Have you understood nothing of what it has been trying to teach you? Nothing at all?
Amitav Ghosh is becoming one of my favorite writers because of the way he tackles environmental crisis and the way he situates it in a postcolonial space. And this is strikingly important, I have only ever seen a small handful of writers do this. When he talks about the mountain he is talking about nature as an entity, as a living system that we cannot control or should never attempt to do so. When he talks about invaders attempting to take all its resources, he is using the fable as an allegory for colonialism and its impact on the natural world.
Overall, this is a strong short story and I would love to see more of these from him. This would fit perfectly in a collection of them addressing similar themes.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree. __________________________________...more
The beauty of The End of the Affair resides in its ability to capture the multifaceted nature of love in such a marvelous display of tremendous pain aThe beauty of The End of the Affair resides in its ability to capture the multifaceted nature of love in such a marvelous display of tremendous pain and anguish.
Love makes life worth living but it also makes us want to die. Love can drive us into madness or it can make us happy. Love makes us jealous and unreasonable and angry and it can turn us into something we don’t recognize. Love can be possessive and haunting; it can leave us feeling empty and dissatisfied when our needs aren’t met or it can be overwhelming and terrifying if we don’t quite know how to process it or deal with someone else’s love we can’t reciprocate. All this Greene captures in this slender novel. He certainly focuses on the darker side of love.
Human relationships are complex and often tragic especially when they end over banality or a failure to properly communicate needs, wants and desires. So, the writing here takes on a stark introspective nature, exploring the psychology of what it means to live when one’s love has been lost. Moving on from a relationship is difficult, looking at another can feel impossible when one’s heart belongs in the past. Life can feel like an endless sea of grey; it becomes monotonous, tasteless, and expressionless: it feels like an empty void. And then suddenly color returns. Life returns.
For Maurice, the narrator and protagonist embarking on this dark journey into his own psyche, life returns when his lost love reappears in his life and causes him more pain, drama and anguish. But that also comes with hope and a desire to rekindle the past. Without giving the rest of the plot away, what follows is an even more potent exploration of how easily love can turn into hate and how they walk together on a spectrum of sorrow.
This is a special piece of writing; it’s a book that deals with grief and broken hearts, though it does so in a delicate way. It understands that time can cure everything. Life will never quite be the same after a broken heart, everything will feel a little different, but it will make you stronger.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree. __________________________________...more
“There are boundaries in nature. There are rivers, forests, escarpments, ravines and mountain ranges; there are cellulose walls. But these boundari
“There are boundaries in nature. There are rivers, forests, escarpments, ravines and mountain ranges; there are cellulose walls. But these boundaries are in fact areas of transaction, semi-permeable membranes. The notion that a perimeter should be impenetrable is a human contrivance alone.”
The land belongs to everyone and nobody. We shouldn’t be able to place restrictions on who can go where and what we can see and be part of. Although we have long since forgotten it, we are part of nature and we should be able go wherever our instincts take us.
Hayes offers a passionate case for breaking boundaries between the wild and society; he offers a polemic that strikes at the heart of a restricted landscape. He trespasses to see nature as it ought to be seen, up close and personal rather than through a fence or over a wall gazing into land owned by the rich. Private ownership of the country’s natural landscape has robbed us of our comment heritage, and it impoverishes us all. This shouldn’t be so.
The book becomes a manual on how to traverse these natural spaces when the law says we shouldn’t be there. Hayes has filled his book with illustrations, illustrations penciled down hastily when he was loitering and very much aware he may run into an angry gamekeeper or landowner at any moment. And through this he captures an aspect of the wild, one untamed that should be accessible to all.
This is a fantastically written book because it is so atmospheric; it feels like the history of the land is being told around a campfire. As Hayes recalls the stories associated with each space he trespasses in, he offers a glimpse into historical injustice and how it is still being perpetuated today.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree. __________________________________...more
Gun Island is a beautifully written and clever novel that deals with myths and legends, environmental crisis and how our place in the world is fueled Gun Island is a beautifully written and clever novel that deals with myths and legends, environmental crisis and how our place in the world is fueled by uncertainty and catastrophe.
Amitav Ghosh is a writer whose work I've come to admire greatly. This novel deals with several themes that consider the difficulties of living in the modern world; it engages with displacement and identity, refuge and relocation: it captures the ever changing and ever evolving nature of a multi-cultural metropolis in the wake of increasing urbanization. It also captures the issues asylum seekers face as they cross boarders into the unknown. In the wake of tornedos and a shifting natural landscape, people are forced to evolve and adapt into something new: it’s a book written under the ever reaching and ever increasing shadow of climate change as we begin to enter an unrecognisable space. It's remarkable and potent.
“We’re in a new world now. No one knows where they belong anymore neither humans nor animals.”
Such is the dilemma of the protagonist, Deen Datta. He is a rare book dealer with Bengali background feeling at odds with his comfortable New York life. He feels out of place and like he has lost a sense of his true heritage. He goes on a quest to discover the details of The Gun Merchant, a fictional character evident in Bengali oral tradition, and in doing so learns a lot about himself, the world and life itself. The story is a slow burn, and in taking it cautiously Ghosh reveals the interconnected nature of the themes and characters.
I’m impressed with the number of themes Ghosh has engaged with here, and he has engaged with them carefully and sensitively. I’ve read a lot of his non-fictional work and I can see a lot of his interests pouring through into the narrative here. For me, he occupies a completely unique place in the fictional world because of what he addresses (and how he address it.) He is certainly an author that explores his ideas creatively through the act of writing.
I’m going to end my review by sharing a quote that sums up a large part of the central motif behind this novel here:
“Only though stories can invisible or inarticulate or silent beings speak to us; it is they who allow the past to reach out to us.”
And we can use them to inform the present. We can use them to understand the changes we are facing. I liked this novel, a lot.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree. __________________________________...more
“Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in retu
“Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.”
There is something special about this book. It really speaks to the activist in me and the nature lover in me. And if, like me, you’re into nature writing then this is certainly the book for you; it’s one of the best in the genre I have ever read because of the way it captures the essence of what our role (as humans) should be in the natural world: we are here to protect and nourish, not destroy and overuse. The emphasis here is on gratitude and learning from plants, animals and the natural world as a whole.
Aside from the love of nature the writing possesses, it also stresses the importance of independent thought and academic originality in the face of overwhelming conformist data and rigid thinking. Science can be black and white; it can be data driven, practical and cold: it’s all about observation without really seeing and without really understanding. Robin Wall Kimmerer argues that science can be infused with folklore, stories, and history to enrich it and enhance it. We should never lose the wisdom our ancestors possessed. Kimmerer is from Native American decent; thus, she brings much of her lineage to her writing.
“Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.”
I want to also talk a little bit here about the quality of the prose, of the author’s ability to enchant the reader and capture the essence of the natural world through playing on every sense is of the highest quality. She writes remarkably well and the book flows very well from sentence to sentence, from description to description. However, it loses a star because of how disorganized the chapters are. Don’t get me wrong, I like the way thoughts and stories interrupt the narrative but structurally speaking it is a little bit messy and needs some editing. Other than that, it is a fantastic piece of writing and I recommend it most highly.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree. __________________________________...more
Life lessons to take away from The Death of Ivan Ilych:
1. Marry for love only not because you feel like you have to.
2. Don’t become obsessed with staLife lessons to take away from The Death of Ivan Ilych:
1. Marry for love only not because you feel like you have to.
2. Don’t become obsessed with status or money.
3. Find work you enjoy.
4. Your life is your life, live it on your own terms and not by the standards of others.
5. Work on your relationships, especially the one you have with yourself.
6. Death comes for everyone, no matter how “well” you think you’ve lived your life or how undeserving of it you think you are.
7. The most important one: don’t waste your life, not even a second of it because it will be gone before you know it.
Final Thoughts
So this was a great piece of writing with a lot of wisdom to share by providing an example of exactly how not to live your life. And for me it was a good introduction to Tolstoy, I keep trying to read Anna Karenina but always give up after a 100 pages. So I was glad to actually finish this one.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree. __________________________________...more
The Great Derangement is a term Ghosh has coined, and it refers to the inability of modern art, especially the novel, to address the issue of climate The Great Derangement is a term Ghosh has coined, and it refers to the inability of modern art, especially the novel, to address the issue of climate change. And this is, indeed, deranged because it keeps the climate question out of a very important cultural space.
Ghosh also suggests that unlike literary fiction, fantasy and science fiction dare to address the issue of climate change and put it into the forefront of their narratives. Unfortunately, at the time when Ghosh wrote this, in 2016, climate change was rarely – if at all addressed – in literary fiction.
Fiction involving climate change certainly would not be making best seller lists or onto literary reviews. And then came Richard Powers to turn that all on its head. But that’s beside the point because it has taken us far too long to get to such a moment.
I am so impressed with everything Ghosh has to say in this. I want to situate it in the realm of literary criticism. Ghosh is arguing a point, a point that to my knowledge no other mainstream author was championing, and its rather groundbreaking. Remarkably, though, Ghosh is suggesting that because of how innovative science fiction and fantasy has been in this regard, the writers actually dare to address the biggest issue of our time, and because of this genre fiction should be given more consideration from critics.
I heartedly agree with this point. I’ve always felt there is a certain sense of literary snobbery when it comes to realist fiction. Ironically, how real can it be if it ignores real issues? Food for thought. Overall this is a fantastic piece of writing.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree. __________________________________...more
This is essential reading for children and adults alike because it will help them understand the perspective of others.
I listened to the audiobookThis is essential reading for children and adults alike because it will help them understand the perspective of others.
I listened to the audiobook version of this on a flight from England to Rome this morning to help pass the time. And I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it was. I thought it would be a nice simple novel about horses that would help me feel relaxed as I tried to forget about my dislike of heights and airports. Instead, it’s a heartbreaking tale with a very powerful animal rights message.
The novel is told in such a clever way. It’s told from the perspective of a horse, Black Beauty. He experiences all manner of treatment from humans: kindness, neglect, ignorance and objectification. Some of his worse experiences are when he is a cart horse. And as I walked round Rome and saw the sad looking horses strapped to carts to drag tourists around the city, it made me think about this even more. Why do we still do this in the 21st century? Why are we still using horses as beasts of burden?
Of course, this is more prevalent in other parts of the world and in other cities. And it was even more prevalent during the era in which this book was written. And it is so easy to forget about the silent victims of society and history. This novel asks us to look a bit closer; it ask us to consider what our way of life costs other animals. And I really do encourage everyone to read it because it has a very powerful and very important message to share.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree. __________________________________...more
After finding The Great Gatsby completely underwhelming, I’ve been meaning to try another of Fitzgerald’s works for a very long time.
And I wasn’t disAfter finding The Great Gatsby completely underwhelming, I’ve been meaning to try another of Fitzgerald’s works for a very long time.
And I wasn’t disappointed with this one. I watched the film a long time ago, and I quite enjoyed it, but it failed to capture the perplexing nature of this case. The situation just doesn’t make much sense and there aren’t any real answers to be had, and that’s the beauty of it because it leaves you wondering.
Indeed, a good short story leaves you wanting more. The message is brief and it sweeps over the plot offering you only a glimpse into the character’s lives. Your imagination fills in the blanks as you ponder what else could have happened. And this helps define a truly great piece of writing; it has autonomy and it exists beyond the words on the page: there’s so much more to it. I feel like this short story creates many questions but leaves them totally unanswered.
Why did it happen? Why was Benjamin Button born an old man? Is it a gift or a curse? The story does help to put many things into perspective though about life and aging. It’s a clever idea and a very clever piece of writing.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree. __________________________________...more
2023 has been an interesting reading year for me. I’ve read several great books but not nearly as many as I’d like to have. I’m coming towards the fin2023 has been an interesting reading year for me. I’ve read several great books but not nearly as many as I’d like to have. I’m coming towards the final stages of my PhD so a lot of my time has been taken up writing my thesis or reading academic text books. So, I’ve not had as many reviews to share this past year!
I’m hoping to balance things a little bit better in this coming year and be a bit more present on Goodreads! For now, though, here is my favourite book from 2023:
1. Children of Time
[image]
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree. __________________________________...more
I’ve been listening to the audio book version of this for a couple of weeks on my drive to work, and it certainly has made the journey more exciting. I’ve been listening to the audio book version of this for a couple of weeks on my drive to work, and it certainly has made the journey more exciting.
I do love a good adventure book and this one if full of enthusiasm for the unknown. The plot is a basic quest like narrative in which the narrator, and his uncle, seek passage to the center of the earth via an Icelandic volcano. The descriptions surrounding the geology and natural history of Iceland were superb. Plot-wise the book is very straightforward, but it is this sense of adventure that keeps the story alive.
Some books age like fine wine, and although the science surrounding this has become quite dated, it hasn’t lost any of its charm. I do wonder, thought, how great this would have been to read in the nineteenth century without any of our current cultural and scientific imagination. It would have been splendid! The prehistoric humanoid and primitive vegetation would have captured the minds of its readers much more so. When reading old science fiction, considering how much the genre has grown and developed in both film and literature, it can be a little lackluster.
I did enjoy this though. And I liked how in the end the power of nature prevailed.
___________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via My Linktree. __________________________________...more
Loading...
