- List of book reviews

Sand Talk | Tyson Yunkaporta

2026-03-18T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Sand Shut Up

In nonfiction, a writer's credentials are often used to assure readers of their expertise and are meant to lend legitimacy to the text. Books on health, for example, often guarantee us that the author is a medical doctor. Writers of business books use dust jackets to brag about their own successful businesses. And the author's photo inside a gardening book depicts them with their plants. But in the end, the text has to speak for itself.

I was sympathetic when Tyson Yunkaporta opened his book by complaining about a readership "preoccupied with notions of authenticity and the writer’s standing as a member of a cultural minority." This betrays a kind of reader who wants to tick boxes, one who has misunderstood identity politics and cares only about whom they read rather than what they read. But he soon relents and does provide a short autobiography, which identifies him as belonging to the Apalech clan, apparently fit to examine "global systems from an Indigenous Knowledge perspective," which is how he describes the project of the book.

And we quickly find out why he does this: his identity is the only reason one might possibly want to read the book. The content does not live up to the expectations set. For one, he is often confidently wrong about things. He claims that, in the thought experiment, Schrödinger's cat is poisoned before being put in the box. He attributes the long time between the releases of the films Avatar and its sequel to people being simply too blown away by the first one. And at one point, he uses blockchain as an illustrative example while mischaracterizing the way it works. After spotting these, it would betray great naïveté to trust him blindly on the rest of his assertions.

Second, a coherent structure is greatly lacking. The chapters are based on "yarns," conversations the author had with other people. It's often difficult to grasp where a story is headed or why an anecdote is told. Some interesting ideas are only implied, while others are repeated over and over. A written table of contents is completely absent from the physical copy^{1</a>.}

The structure could be excused as more closely aligning with Indigenous ways of organizing knowledge. The associative jumps between topics evoke the feel of an unstructured conversation. There is a replacement for the table of contents in the form of a mosaic comprising icons representing each chapter. But when it is placed in the middle of the introductions and page numbers remain absent, it is unclear how we are to use it. At the same time, other Western conventions are followed: the book opens with an introduction, it closes with acknowledgements, the back provides a blurb. This calls into question how intentional the other changes really can have been. In any case, they are unsuccessful and result in an unsatisfying reading experience.

The book itself is written in a conversational style between reader and writer, highlighting the relationship between what he calls "us-two." This brings us to my final complaint: the author comes off as rather unlikable. Granted, this is a matter of personal taste, which is why I will do my best to provide examples of what specifically bothered me.

First, there's a lot of toxic masculinity, racism, and sexism. For example, at one point he claims—or jokes?—that "any blackfella caught eating tofu could lose his race card on the spot." Further, he seems quite immature. In one chapter, he describes being in a hotel he believes to be haunted by a ghost. The author reasons that the ghost must be a heterosexual male frustrated at finding him in his home. The specific words he uses to describe the situation are: "Now he's all unbusted ghost nuts and acting out."

One of the first things Tyson Yunkaporta talks about is "the most destructive idea in existence: I am greater than you," and he comes back to this a couple of times. And still, he himself often comes off as arrogant, signaling his own superiority. About Schrödinger's cat he says, "I can't see any sustainability solutions in thought experiments about felines in boxes." Well, I can't see any value in reading this book, where the content does not seem to have been checked for accuracy or edited for comprehension. An empty book by an author full of himself.

The eBook has one. ↩</a> </li> </ol> </section>

Über Menschen | Juli Zeh

2026-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Dieses Buch am besten über gehen

Robert ist mit seinem eifernden Aktivismus fürs Klima und für stärkere Corona-Maßnahmen unausstehlich geworden. Also flüchtet seine Freundin Dora Anfang 2020 aus ihrer gemeinsamen Berliner Wohnung in den fiktiven Vorort Bracken. Ihrem Job als Texterin einer Hashtag-Öko Werbeagentur kann sie auch von dort aus nachgehen. Und beim Anlegen des eigenen Gemüsegartens kann sie die gute Landluft atmen und sich die Traumata therapieren, die das Stadtleben ihr angetan hat. Wenn da nicht ihr Nachbar Gote wäre, der sich als "Dorf-Nazit" bei ihr vorstellt.

Autorin Juli Zeh versucht hier ein Plädoyer für Empathie, gegen militantes Abschotten, dafür, das Gespräch zu suchen. Zum Beispiel mit dem Nazi von nebenan. Ich sage "versucht," denn das ganze Projekt gestaltet sich dann doch recht beschwerlich.

Den Menschen hinter der Ideologie nicht aus den Augen zu verlieren. An sich eine banale Zielsetzung, die aber dadurch spannend wird, dass sie sich in der Praxis als äußerst schwierig erweisen kann. Nicht so für Dora und Gote. Zeh zieht hier alle Register, um Gotes Nazi-Sein stets im Hintergrund zu halten: Er trifft auf keine Ausländer, hat kein Problem mit dem schwulen Nachbarpärchen und ist eher bemitleidenswerter Mitläufer als Überzeugungstäter. Um ihn gleichzeitig zu vermenschlichen, wird auch tief in die Klischeekiste gegriffen: Er ist hilfsbereit und kompetent, hatte eine tragische Kindheit und hat nun selbst eine kleine Tochter, die ihn über alles liebt. Und er ist todkrank. Wer kann da noch böse sein, wenn sich das Problem bald von selbst löst?

Daneben verfällt der Roman einer ermüdenden Dorfromantik: Die körperliche Betätigung an frischer Luft ist der engen Stadtwohnung zu bevorzugen. Das Handy mal beiseite zu legen, beruhigt. Und ohne Lichtverschmutzung kann man die Sterne sehen. Das ist genauso schal wie die Darstellung der anderen Charaktere, die in den freundlichen Rezensionen zu diesem Buch immer als "zielsichere Satire" beschrieben wird. Aber für Satire müsste man eine tiefere Wahrheit an die Oberfläche holen, anstatt letztere einfach auszustellen.

Schließlich ist auch der Stil zu kritisieren. Erzählt wird aus Doras Perspektive. Unter anderem bekommen wir auch durchweg ihre Gedanken zu lesen. Diese bestehen vorwiegend aus stumpfen Reimen, kurzen Sätzen, Wiederholungen und Anglizismen, aber die nicht so richtig. Sie werden nämlich jedes Mal sofort übersetzt und erklärt. Mit diesen sprachlichen Mustern (ausgenommen der Anglizismuserklärungen, die eher dafür gedacht sind, die Leser*in nicht zu verlieren) wird natürlich die Werbetexterin Dora charakterisiert, doch ich empfand es als eher lästig.

Insgesamt sind die Anliegen des Romans also lobenswert und richtig, aber ebenso banal. Zusätzlich wird in einem erschöpfenden Stil und in Klischeebildern erzählt. Das Fazit mag überheblich klingen, aber mir wurde Über Menschen schnell überdrüssig.

Poor Things | Alasdair Gray

2026-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Bountiful treasure
Individuals are shaped by the society around them in a process sociologists call "socialization." An individual internalizes ideas and learns behaviours from the society. These are rarely explicitly taught but rather soaked up by osmosis. However, the process and its results differ from person to person. The way an individual internalizes the implicit "lessons" is one factor. The different people every individual comes into contact with are another. Yet another factor that hugely influences socialization is the dimensions of an individual's identity, like their age, class, gender, ability, or race.
The complex interplay of these identities and socialization is practically impossible to disentangle and trace. But some patterns reveal themselves in edge cases. A person who finds themselves transitioning between identities might discover their learned behaviours to be ineffective or inappropriate, or their beliefs to be incompatible with their new peers. Think of how much awkwardness</a> many people experience in their teenage years, when they transition from being children to being adults, unable to fulfill their own expectations of "adult behaviour." Or you might recall how, in Pretty Woman (1990), the sex worker Vivian crosses class boundaries and suddenly finds herself dining in fancy restaurants and enjoying the opera. Her socialization has prepared her to fend for herself and to speak her mind, but not for polite conversation or for identifying the salad fork.
Socialization is also what Simone de Beauvoir was talking about when she wrote, "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman," in 1949. She goes on to explain that children are born without any conception of sex or gender and that the divide is instilled in them through socialization. She observes that the process of "becoming a woman" is unending but identifies that the quality of gender socialization changes through life and builds upon a foundation laid in childhood.
We might ask ourselves: what if we skip this childhood—what kind of person would an adult woman become without early socialization? Bella Baxter, the main character of Poor Things, is such a woman. She is the Gothic creation of Doctor Godwin Baxter, who, at the end of the 19th century, has taken the brain of an unborn child and transplanted it into the body of a 26-year-old woman. We follow Bella on her—at times literal—journey of becoming a woman. Other characters, mostly men, are often confused or angry with her behaviour because she has not internalized their view of womanhood. Her naïve questioning and often blunt refusal to adopt their ideology make for an amusing read, and a modern-day feminist will find themselves nodding along easily.
This isn't to say that following Bella's journey is overall easy or comfortable, though. Reading how she develops her own ideas not only on womanhood but also on childhood, sexuality, morality, and politics naturally raises questions in the reader: when did I grow out of these ideas, and what gave me the right to become so jaded and cynical? Bella's analysis of one man offers an avenue to explore:

"Then please hold my hand for a moment."
So I did and felt for the first time who he really is—a tortured little boy who hates cruelty as much as I do but thinks himself a strong man because he can pretend to like it. He is as poor and desperate as my lost daughter, but only inside. Outside he is perfectly comfortable. Everyone should have a cosy shell round them, a good coat with money in the pockets. </blockquote>
p. 164</figcaption></figure>
The novel is epistolary, wrapping the main story in layers of commentary that are regrettably absent from the 2023 film adaptation by Yorgos Lanthimos. These different perspectives call into question, among other things, what kind of woman Bella becomes and how abnormal or impossible her childhood actually is. In doing so, they elevate the already smart and gripping tale into a postmodern masterpiece.

All Systems Red | Martha Wells

2026-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

👍 That's a green light from me
A cyborg calling itself "murderbot" is rented out to accompany a research team on a survey mission on a foreign planet. Its job is security, but thanks to a hacked governor module it spends most of its time streaming entertainment programmes directly into its brain. Soon members of the survey team fall victim to strange happenings that appear less and less like mere accidents and more like foul play.
All Systems Red is the first book in the Murderbot Diaries series. The main appeal is most definitely the narrator and protagonist, murderbot. As readers, we can easily empathize with it and obviously see its humanness. Murderbot itself does not think as highly of itself. But its low self-esteem and the low value it ascribes to its life are enforced by the way humans treat it: as property. Add to that an (un-)healthy dose of anxiety and a dash of PTSD, and you've got yourself the cutest little bundle of anxious nerves you can imagine.
The plot is rather on the thin side, but it does what it needs to do: keep up a brisk pace and provide a context for murderbot and the other characters to interact. So if you are looking for something lighthearted, character-centered, and exploring relationships mediated through technology, I recommend uploading this to your brain.

Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket | Hilma Wolitzer

2026-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Today a woman fell madly in love with this book
We all are living in our routines. They are not static routines. They are changing slowly, often without us noticing. I don't know when I started taking a different route to work. And I used to spend more time reading—where did that go? But every once in a while, we experience a disruption. Something throws us off—a metaphorical curveball that won't let us continue in the same way. We can become open to new opportunities or simply aware of the patterns we have been falling into for months. Or years.
This book collects thirteen short stories of such disruptions. All of them center female characters, often the same woman at different times throughout her life. Sometimes the disruptions are up close and personal, like a death in the family, becoming pregnant, or being visited by the husband's ex-wife. Other times they are more diffuse, like rumors of a "sex maniac" spreading around the neighborhood, or a sleepless night spent wandering the apartment.
The stories take a distinctly female perspective, focusing on aspects of womanhood, like sexuality, marriage, motherhood, or domestic work. Especially the inclusion of this last one might give pause. But the stories were originally published between 1966 and 2020, capturing not just the author's perspective but also the world at these points in time. They do not, however, allow us to follow the development of Wolitzer's writing skill, as it is superb throughout. She vividly describes the usual with all its texture and then effortlessly ties the extraordinary back into it, as if the two had been entangled from the start. If you are looking to be pushed out of a rut, you can wait to find an anonymous letter somebody wrote to caution your neighbors about you—or you can read this book.

Der Belgische Konsul (orig. Premier sang) | Amélie Nothomb

2025-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Ein diplomatisches Schulterzucken
Wer durch meine Rezensionen scrollt, kann leicht feststellen, dass ich Amélie Nothomb sehr gerne lese. Ihre Bücher sind kurz, haben einen schlauen Humor, ein rasantes Tempo und schildern oft grenzüberschreitende Situationen, die uns Wahrheiten des Menschseins enthüllen. Die besondere Herausforderung, all das mit einer Biografie zu verbinden, meistert sie hier nicht ganz. Für einen charakteristisch starken Start spielt ihr allerdings in die Hände, dass Patrick Nothomb 1964 im Kongo Geisel genommen wurde. Das Buch beginnt so:

Ich werde vor das Erschießungskommando geführt. Die Zeit dehnt sich, jede Sekunde dauert hundert Jahre länger als die davor. Ich bin achtundzwanzig Jahre alt.
Der Tod vor meinen Augen hat das Gesicht der zwölf Vollstrecker. Üblicherweise ist unter den ausgeteilten Waffen eine blind geladen. So kann jeder sich für unschuldig an dem zu verübenden Mord halten. Ich bezweifle, dass dieser Tradition heute Respekt gezollt wird. Keiner dieser Männer scheint den Wunsch nach möglicher Unschuld zu verspüren. </blockquote>
Zur Hinrichtung sowie zu den Ereignissen, die unmittelbar dazu führen, kehren wir aber erst nach über 100 Seiten wieder zurück. Zunächst geht es achtundzwanzig Jahre zurück, an den Anfang von Patricks Leben. Dann arbeiten wir uns langsam vor, durch den Kindergarten, dann die Ferien bei Großvater Pierre Nothomb. Viele Seiten werden dem Alter von sechs Jahren gewidmet, als wollte der Erzähler hier verweilen, in dem Wissen, was ihm bald blüht.
Durch die Ausdehnung gewisser Erfahrungen und die Aussparung anderer tut sich langsam die Frage auf, wie ein Kind erwachsen wird. Was kann ihm mitgegeben werden, welche Umstände begünstigen das Erwachsenwerden? Und wenn wir schließlich wieder im Kongo sind und unser Erzähler eine von 1500 Geiseln wird, müssen wir zwei Schritte zurücktreten und ganz neu fragen, ob es überhaupt möglich ist, auf das Leben vorbereitet zu sein.

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics | Olivia Waite

2025-12-13T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Stellar in its genre, dim around the edges
Let's get this out of the way first: this is a lesbian romance novel set in the Regency era. It's what comes up if you search for "Bridgerton, but gay." And it succeeds perfectly at that, making it a really good book. At the same time, it does not reach beyond the genre, leading me to classify it as mere entertainment and not recommend it. But let's properly get into it.
The Polite Science Society is looking for somebody to translate a groundbreaking work on astronomy from French into English. Lucy Muchelney has become adept at astronomy herself by working with her late father, and she reads fluent French. But she's missing the one qualification the men of the Society value most: she is not a man. In swoops the widowed Lady Moth, who wants to independently finance Lucy's translation of the text. During Lucy's stay at Lady Moth's mansion, the two women slowly discover their love for each other, but is a union of the two possible with all outside forces working against them?
From the first line to its finish, this book does an excellent job of transporting the reader into the Regency era. The language is reminiscent of authentic works like those of Jane Austen, with vocabulary that's period-appropriate without ever feeling stilted or foreign. Similarly, descriptions are colorful and display a range of synonyms that never feel forced.
The budding romance of the two leads is very sweet to witness. In its pacing, it feels true not only to the rising passion of the women but also to their circumstances. And while a more definite resolution to their courting is reserved for the finale of the book, there are intense romantic as well as sexual moments sprinkled throughout. Like all else, these are executed skillfully and range from cute and heartwarming to sexy and hot.
The plot around the romance introduces some stakes and drama that threaten to pull the two ladies apart. All of this is well constructed, with setups that pay off much later and side characters that go through their own little stories. Interwoven is a theme of science versus art: which has greater value, how are they connected, and—period appropriately—how are they gendered? This is a nice exploration, expertly paced to always mirror the women's relationship, and it is as neatly tied up in the end as all other elements of the plot. And this is where the problem lies: every little aspect is so planned out, and all the stars align so perfectly that it actually becomes unsatisfying in the end. There is no room left for things to go wrong, for things to not fit, for the messiness of life, or for ambiguity. It's as if you're looking up at the night sky, and somebody else has already marked all the constellations for you.

Das Meer der Aswang | Allan N. Derain

2025-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Lasse dich im philippinischen Meer ertränken
Nachdem Luklaks Mutter für ihr Fremdgehen hingerichtet worden ist, verspeist das 15-jährige philippinische Mädchen ihren Bruder. Dass dieser ein Aal ist und vorher bereits tot war, macht die Sache nur bedingt besser, denn in den nächsten Tagen beginnt Luklak, sich in einen Aswang, ein krokodilartiges Wesen, zu verwandeln.
Wie aus der Prämisse hervorgeht, handelt es sich um eine farbenfrohe Mischung aus Coming of Age—genauer: Initiationsroman—, mythologischer Erzählung sowie philippinischer Kultur in der Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Handeln wir diese Aspekte also einzeln ab. Letzteres, die philippinische Kultur, schlägt sich am stärksten in den Lebensumständen der zentralen Charaktere nieder: Ihre Häuser stehen auf Stelzen, die Männer halten auf dem Wachturm Ausschau nach Piraten, und der spanische Priester wirbt unter der Bevölkerung für das Christentum. Die koloniale Gewalt macht sich immer wieder bemerkbar. Zuletzt gibt es häufig metafiktionale Einschübe, welche sich oft mit der örtlichen Sprachvielfalt befassen und linguistische Beobachtungen machen.
Die vielen Mythen und Legenden, die dem Roman eine verführerische magische Qualität verleihen, sind natürlich eigentlich nicht von der philippinischen Kultur zu trennen, wie ich es oben tat. Im Gegenteil präsentiert der Autor im Nachwort eine sehr ausführliche Auflistung seiner Quellen, die einladen, einem goldenen Schamhaar, einem Affen mit roter Hose oder eben den Aswangs aus dem Titel tiefer auf den Grund zu gehen. Wie für Mythen üblich, sind viele von ihnen von Gewalt durchzogen. Hier bilden einige nüchterne Anmerkungen des Erzählers einen Gegenpol, der sich zu dem sehr trockenen Humor gesellt, der sich still durch das gesamte Buch zieht.
Wenn wir nun zum Coming of Age kommen wollen, so offenbart sich langsam mein größter Kritikpunkt am Roman. Losgelöst vom Setting und den Mythen bleibt hier nämlich nicht mehr viel übrig. Ich will mich nicht missverstanden wissen: Luklak ist ein interessanter Charakter, und wie sie den Tod ihrer Mutter und ihr eigenes Erwachsenwerden erlebt, ist spannend erzählt. Nur funken hier oft eingeschobene Sagenerzählungen dazwischen, sodass Luklaks Geschichte sich teils träge oder sogar unwichtig anfühlt.
Das kann natürlich beabsichtigt sein. Mit Blick auf die Gesellschaften, deren Teil wir sind, werden wir alle zu Fußnoten degradiert. Dennoch lässt sich nicht abstreiten, dass die Geschehnisse um Luklak den rote Faden der Erzählung bilden und damit noch mehr hätten ausgeleuchtet werden können.
Insgesamt ist die Geschichte also gut recherchiert und abwechslungsreich, mit etwas zu wenig Ziehkraft in ihrem Haupthandlungsstrang. Außerdem ging mir das Allgemeine zu sehr im Spezifischen verloren. Dadurch, dass eben jedes Detail so minutiös nachgeforscht wurde, fiel es mir schwer, das Universelle darin zu erkennen. Am Ende möchte ich niemandem abraten, dieses Buch zu lesen, aber für eine Empfehlung reicht es eben auch nicht.

BLAME! | written and illustrated by Tsutomu Nihei

2025-11-17T00:00:00+00:00

👎 More like LAME!
To this day, the manga series BLAME! is celebrated for its world building. It takes place in the far future where humans have built autonomous robots called Builders. These Builders have, in turn, built The City, a construct billions of kilometers in diameter, made of metal and concrete. Its inhabitants are a variety of creatures, humans, and artificial life forms, ranging from humanoid to insect-like. The world's strange and vast architecture, as well as the diversity among its denizens, is indeed quite notable. Some double-page spreads simply leave the reader in awe.
The protagonist of the series is named Killy. In stark contrast to many other characters, who boast imaginative designs, he looks like any generic male manga protagonist: average build, black hair, no distinguishing features. His personality is similarly flat: he talks very little and does not seem to care about anything. Even the character guide doesn't know what to say about him:

Not much is known about Killy. Even his age and origin are a mystery, as he no longer possesses a complete memory. [..] Killy is a quiet person; he is rarely seen smiling. </blockquote>
appendix of the German edition of Volume 6, translated by me</figcaption></figure>
You could imagine this working as a "drifter" type character, as is popular in many Westerns, but unlike those kinds of characters Killy isn't carrying the burden of his past—he doesn't know his past! Drifter characters also need to be propped up by a strong supporting cast, which BLAME! is thoroughly lacking.
Most of the characters Killy meets on his journey fall into one of three categories. First, there's neutral characters living in their settlements. They are mostly concerned with their own survival, and Killy is really not the protagonist to find out more about them. Rather, he quickly abandons them once they start to show any more personality. Next, there are the Safeguard, a synthetic life form with one directive: to kill Killy. Not very interesting, and they themselves mostly get killed within a couple of panels. There are some exceptions, Safeguard that get a flicker of individuality, but they similarly extinguish mere pages later. Finally, there are some major characters that follow Killy for multiple chapters. But they are also written to barely reveal anything about themselves before being abandoned sooner or later.
The action scenes, which could be the last saving grace, also disappoint. Here, the series' strengths already work against it: because the architecture, as well as the characters, are so varied and imaginative, it's tough to read the panels. In addition, establishing shots for the opponents as well as the location are often missing. Even during the action, the location often changes as characters get thrown around by the heavy recoil of their weapons or by jumping for cover. Finally, many weapons dismember and decapitate the characters, confusing their anatomy even more. There's also little consequence to these action scenes. Mostly it's just some enemies showing up and being disintegrated by Killy. Even when Killy loses a limb, it will be repaired or grown back a few pages later, leaving not even a scar.
The way the central driver of the plot—the thing Killy is looking for—is handled is equally frustrating. Killy keeps asking people for the "Net Terminal Gene," and proceeds to kill them when they don't have it, don't know about it, or sometimes when they take too long to answer. The exposition as to what the Net Terminal Gene is and why it might be useful is delayed for much too long, making it hard to care.
The pacing being off for this one plot detail is no exception. The reader is often left wondering why some characters, locations, or developments get so much spotlight while others are left by the wayside. The biggest failure in that regard is the way in which Killy's travels are presented. Again, the selling point is the city and its incredible scale—the vast scale, the potential to walk for years, becoming lost. It seems straightforward to spend time showing the silent protagonist simply wandering these seemingly infinite and empty hallways, stairs, and bridges. In reality, it's quite the contrary. First, the journey is interrupted at every turn by Killy stumbling upon some village, the Safeguard, or some other character sitting there. In stark contrast to the idea of a vast and empty structure, this makes it almost feel overcrowded.
The other thing making the city feel small is that between panels there often are huge jumps in time and location, making traversal seem quick and easy. This is best illustrated with an example. At one point, Killy enters an elevator. Inside the elevator lives a character whose whole purpose is to operate it. Killy asks him about the Net Terminal Gene, the whole exchange taking about four pages. When he's informed of a distress signal, he asks the operator to take the elevator there. The operator says it will take 800 hours, and one page later informs Killy that they have arrived. When I first read that I was confused whether this might just be a joke, but it does not seem to be one. A short conversation gets four times as many pages as a month-long elevator ride.
In all, this series was a huge letdown. I was looking forward to getting lost in the megastructure but found every other aspect, which could have elevated the manga—character, action, plot—working against it. Ultimately, the whole experience is rather cumbersome and disappointing, almost like the reader is exploring their own never-ending, bland domain.

Audition | Katie Kitamura

2025-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

👎 You won't get a call back

My dad used to tell me a joke. I nodded and waited for him to continue. He said that he had a friend who was no longer in love with his wife, no longer took joy in his children, but who nonetheless did not want to leave his family. He only wanted to feel the way he used to feel. He asked his therapist what to do. She told him to pretend he was in love with his wife. To enact it as fully as possible, and then eventually, he would be in love with her again.
Why is this a joke? I asked irritably and checked the time. [..]
Oh, he said. Because he was talking about himself. My mom was the wife he was no longer in love with, and me and my brother and my sister were the children who no longer gave him joy. </blockquote>
Audition, pp. 88-89</figcaption></figure>
The whole of our subjective realities is constructed through narratives. The stories we are explicitly told, especially when growing up, the stories we absorb through osmosis, by inferring what others are believing and living, and finally those we tell ourselves: I'm no good with music, I am a writer, this date went well, we are a happy family. By changing these stories, we are able to quite literally change reality. Reframing anxiety as excitement, for example, is a common tip for combating stage fright or similar performance anxieties: you aren't scared of failure, you are excited to go out there and perform!
The success of such reframing, of changing reality by changing the narrative, depends on the believability of the narrative. If it runs counter to other experiences, it's difficult to maintain. The subject has to explain away these experiences and entangles themselves in conspiracy theories. What's helpful, on the other hand, is to get your narrative confirmed by other people. Together, a shared reality is built and upheld.
In the "Diner Wink" sketch</a> of the brilliant series I Think You Should Leave, a father in a diner reaches out to a man at the neighbouring table to corroborate his story of ice cream stores being closed when the weather gets cold. The man agrees, lending additional credence to the story, enough to convince the child that it's not the father deciding against ice cream, but a higher power preventing them. In this demonstration of narrative power, the stranger now spots an opportunity for himself: he can create a reality in which he is rich, collects classic cars, and one where his wife is still alive. The comedy of the sketch lies in the contrast between the triviality of the original ice cream store lie and the raw grief the stranger suddenly exposes.
Another example would be the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and its 1966 film adaptation. Without spoiling too much, it shows us a couple that has spun its own fairy tale and maintained it for seemingly decades, only for it all to come crashing down in the end. As viewers we have been roped in by their narrative as well, and the reveal leaves us dumbfounded and shaken.
Finally, we come to Katie Kitamura's Audition. The story revolves around the nameless narrator, a revered actress at the end of her forties, her husband Tomas with whom she leads a shaky marriage, and Xavier, a 25-year-old who shows up during her rehearsal one day. Placing an actress at the center of a story about living—enacting—a false narrative seems like a good idea at first. But more themes are attached to her character: being insecure and self-conscious, being afraid of her fading youth, and lacking artistic inspiration. She is written well enough not to be a cliché, but the constant self-doubt still makes for an exhausting read. The rest of the plot is no relief either, as it is similarly overladen with themes—jealousy, maternal instinct—resulting in a very confused story where each constituent part works against the others.
As a whole, the book is structured around the experiment of a pretend reality: part one sets it up by explaining how the eventual participants come to decide for it; part two takes place in this pretend world, which finally implodes on itself. But even ignoring where the other threads interfere and confuse this main storyline, it does not hold its own. In part one we eagerly await the characters making some decision; in part two, knowing the characters are pretending, we wait for this reality to break. Both leave us hanging too long, failing to maintain suspense throughout.
The payoff, the moment the pretend reality bursts under its own weight, provides limited catharsis. Some of the other themes play into it in an interesting way, but on the whole it's not drastic enough to counterbalance the stretched-out anticipation. It's further undermined by an epilogue, which restores almost complete order to the lives of all the characters, undoing all that's come before, resulting in a deeply unsatisfying read. That is the narrative I have spun about this book, the reality that I live in.

Awkwardness: A Theory | Alexandra Plakias

2025-10-31T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Well, this is awkward. No, wait. "Awkward," this is well.
While awkwardness has always been around, the past 20 years especially have seen consistent popularity of awkwardness in media, specifically "awkward comedies."1</a> Examples include shows like The Office, Fleabag, I Think You Should Leave, or anything Nathan Fielder touches. In real life, on the other hand, people are looking to avoid awkwardness. An online search for "awkward" yields lots of articles and videos promising to help you "overcome awkwardness" or even to "be less awkward" altogether. The advice is mostly of limited practical use, and the articles often don't even attempt to properly define awkwardness.
Wikipedia is no help either. It does not have an article for "Awkwardness." Instead, the page for "Embarrassment</a>" lists it as a synonym. But the idea that these two ideas are the same quickly falls apart under scrutiny. So what is one to do if they are searching for guidance on what awkwardness actually is, where it happens, and how to navigate it—either intentionally leaning into it for exploratory or comedic purposes, or avoiding it? One might look to a book titled Awkwardness: A Theory.
Indeed, this book is an excellent and thorough look at awkwardness. It starts by defining awkwardness not as a feeling, nor as a descriptor of a kind of person, but as a property of a social situation. Specifically, awkward situations are those where you find yourself at a loss of what to do, to say, to feel—in short, you find yourself without a social script:

To be in an awkward situation is to realize simultaneously that you lack guidance and that you should have it; that there’s a kind of knowledge you usually have and suddenly don’t. </blockquote>
from the Introduction</figcaption></figure>
After providing numerous humorous examples and diving a bit deeper into the definition, the next chapter deals with awkwardness as it relates to feelings. While awkwardness itself is not a feeling, there are feelings that typically accompany an awkward situation ("uncertainty, self-consciousness, and discomfort"). We also associate awkwardness with cringe, but it's not so straightforward:

[C]ringing is a symptom of embarrassment, and we’re often embarrassed by our own or others’ awkward moments, so cringing and awkwardness do tend to correlate—but the mediating factor is either embarrassment or shame. Cringing isn’t a direct result of awkwardness itself, but part of an experience which responds to awkwardness, among other things. </blockquote>
from chapter 2: Feeling Awkward</figcaption></figure>
We are not cringing at the awkwardness itself, but we cringe because we are embarrassed at not having been able to navigate the situation, which led to it being awkward. Recognizing that a situation was awkward because we did not know how to deal with it, and subsequently forgiving ourselves for not having been equipped, is an easy way to finally let go of the negative feelings we have been carrying with us.
When I brought up the topic of awkwardness with people, they often connected it with social norms. Awkwardness, they would say, is when we break social norms. Chapter one will already have demonstrated where this falls short 2</a>. Chapter three takes a look at the interplay between awkwardness and social structures, and also returns to examine awkwardness' relation to social norms:

When a topic is awkward, it’s hard to get information about others’ attitudes. Thus, awkwardness is an epistemic double blow: by stopping us from discussing topics, it stops us from gathering the information about others’ expectations needed to determine which norms govern the issue. So even as awkwardness signifies an absence, it impedes our attempts to remedy it. </blockquote>
from chapter 3: Awkward, Socially</figcaption></figure>
Social norms guide us through social situations. When we find ourselves in a situation for which we don't know which norms apply, or we interpret either the norms or the situation wrongly, the situation is at risk of becoming awkward. This can deter us from further pursuing a direction, or even stop us from broaching a topic altogether, as might be the case with discussions of pay, death, or periods. Some topics are actually better not discussed, so awkwardness provides a decent barrier here. But as our culture and norms shift, awkwardness can also hinder our progress in developing new norms.
The book includes three more chapters: one on morality, one on awkwardness' silencing effect, and the last a conclusion with a look at the future of awkwardness. I'm not here to spoil all of it, so you'll have to read the book yourself to hear about those topics and to dive much deeper into the areas I've quoted above. And I think you should. Awkwardness: A Theory is an excellent guide to this quirky human phenomenon. Lots of fun and cringe-worthy examples illustrate social as well as philosophical insights and keep the text easily approachable.

"Cringe comedy" is a more popular term and often works as a synonym ↩</a> </li>

For one, purposefully breaking social norms is just rude, not awkward ↩</a> </li> </ol> </section>

Permutation City | Greg Egan

2025-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Thought-provoking arrangement of letters on the page
In 2050, Paul runs some experiments on a simulated Copy of himself to probe the nature of consciousness and reality itself. He slows the computation of the Copy to a crawl. He assigns different steps to different computers around the world. He splits the computation into parts, which he distributes globally to be computed at different speeds. When all of these experiments result in coherent subjective experiences for his Copy, he comes up with a business proposal.
The author's vision of the future contains the fairly common sci-fi concept of a "simulated brain," where scanned versions of human brains can be run digitally. But while most other works of fiction leave it at that, this novel asks the follow-up: If consciousness is not bound by meat-brains, what are its restrictions? It arrives at the mind-bending conclusion that consciousness is bound by little—that it and the reality it perceives are merely patterns that find themselves in the dust of the universe. The amazing feat of the novel is not just having this fascinating "Dust Theory" at its core but introducing it bit by bit in a way that makes it accessible and exciting.
Other aspects don't get neglected either. Expected philosophical themes of identity, eternity, and death get their deserved exploration. The future of 2050 is painted vibrantly across multiple strata: class issues are acknowledged, public opinion on the ethics surrounding Copies factors into the story, an effort to combat climate change plays a minor part, and new religions have emerged. Overall, we are presented with a rich and bustling world that convincingly does not revolve solely around the characters or key concepts of the plot.
Not as varied is the cast of about five characters we follow throughout. They all carry a loneliness with them, their thought processes fall on the rationalist side, and they're all deeply embedded in technology. This is especially tragic because some minor characters embody very different experiences, which always made me wish they'd stuck around the narrative longer. Still, the existing cast forms a broad enough kaleidoscope of perspectives, backgrounds, and fates to be satisfying.
All in all, the novel renders a reasonably paced and exciting plot with a decent cast of characters set in a rich world. But the strong point most definitely is the "Dust Theory" at its center. New implications of the theory are revealed and explored right up to the end and leave the reader with ideas to ponder long after finishing the book.

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept | Elizabeth Smart

2025-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Read this and let yourself be overcome with emotion
I generally start my reviews with a synopsis of the beginning of the book—its hook, if you will. I want you to get a quick feel for what the book is about, why you would read it, regardless of what I have to say about it. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept requires a slight adaptation, as the plot is not really what it's "about." As Yann Martel, in the foreword of my edition, points out (emphasis mine):

[W]hile love is the theme, language is the plot, the character and the setting. </blockquote>
Martel refers to the fact that Elizabeth Smart has written this novel in poetic prose, and her command of language becomes the primary experience of reading. So, to give you the tiniest taste, here's how she describes the moment the narrator's lover arrives at the door:

When the Ford rattles up to the door, five minutes (five years) late, and he walks across the lawn under the pepper-trees, I stand behind the gauze curtains, unable to move to meet him, or to speak, as I turn to liquid to invade his every orifice when he opens the door. More single-purposed than the new bird, all mouth with his one want, I close my eyes and tremble, anticipating the heaven of actual touch. </blockquote>
This short passage is exemplary of how the author pinpoints those seemingly mundane moments, filling them vividly with love and desire. She then finds absolute treasures of evocative metaphors, which never feel trite or cliché. In her specificity there always lies a universality, and in her fantastical metaphors a brilliant clarity.
The lyricism is still wrapped around a plot in the traditional sense: it is the story of a woman madly in love with a married man, their affair, and the world interfering—both because of moral qualms about their relationship and because of World War II unfolding in the background. All this is based on Smart's own experience of her relationship with the British poet George Barker, which started in the late 1930s and ended only well after the publication of this novel.
This "scandalous" affair is interesting to look into, but the ever-present poetry transforms the desire into a more universal experience. Every page, paragraph, and phrase resonates with this consuming passion. Smart manages what any butterfly collector could only ever dream of: she captures her subject and presents it to us in all its beauty and detail without killing it, actually presenting it at its liveliest. Truly: sit down, read, and weep.

Prophet Song | Paul Lynch

2025-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Captivating
Eilish, mother of four, is waiting for a knock, it will come and it will be two plainclothesmen of the Garda, come to ask about her husband, he isn't in, she says, tell him to call us when he gets back, they hand her their card, I will, the situation slowly resolving itself, but an uneasiness will remain and it will haunt her and she pressures her husband to call back and to demonstrate his willingness to cooperate, but it will not be enough and Eilish and her family have marked themselves as enemies of a government all too eager to rule through violence.
Set against the backdrop of present-day Ireland, maybe one election away, this novel spells out the nightmare of modern fascism. It dares to go where it hurts, and in this act it is simultaneously terrifying and cathartic. Terrifying because it's fascism, the everyday disrupted by military violence, social cohesion aggressively fractured by shame and fear, the facelessness of the oppressive government. Cathartic because it does not pretend—it's not set in an imaginary country far away, it's not the past, not the future, it's here and now.
Still, it is an agonizing read. Long paragraphs, made up of long sentences, relentlessly drag the reader along, leaving little room to breathe. The events themselves, of course, are horrible to witness, exacerbated by everyone in this family of six pulling in different directions, disagreeing on whether to flee, to fight, to stay and wait it out—the children not realizing the gravity of the situation, the grandfather unable to live alone due to his dementia but unwilling to come live with his family, the mother unable to protect everyone, in her caring accidentally pushing people away.
Prophet Song deservedly won the Booker Prize in 2023. It is the book to read for those of us who are worried about our political landscape, those looking at the US in horror and then staring in disbelief at our media at home pretending that it's fine and normal, that Trump is just a quirky guy and our politicians have seen through him, have hacked our foreign relations by becoming sycophants to the dictator. Prophet Song isn't blinded like that. It stares unflinchingly at the horror.

Lebensgeister (orig. "Sweet Hereafter") | Banana Yoshimoto

2025-07-07T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Wird mich nicht nachhaltig heimsuchen
Sayoko und ihr langjähriger Freund Yōichi geraten in einen schweren Autounfall, der sie schwer verletzt und ihn tötet. Es dauert Jahre, bis ihr Körper sich genug erholt hat, um ihr wieder ein normales Leben zu ermöglichen. Doch der seelische Schmerz um den Verlust von Yōichi bleibt. Gemeinsam mit seinen Eltern navigiert Sayoko den langen Prozess der Trauer.
Erzählt aus Sayokos Perspektive, spiegelt sich ihr mentaler Schmerz in der erzählerischen Form wider: verwirrte Sprünge zwischen Geschehnissen der Gegenwart und Vergangenheit, Gedankenkreisen um Leben und Tod, eine ständige Rückkehr zu Yōichi, die Suche nach Halt. Das Ganze ist auch insofern effektiv, als es zumindest diese Leserin sehr erschöpft hat – doch leider nicht auf eine Weise, die als Erfolg des Romans verbucht werden kann.
Schuld daran ist aber nicht nur die besagte Form, welche lange unklar lässt, wohin die Handlung noch gehen wird, sondern auch, wie fremd Yōichi uns bleibt. Sayoko erinnert sich hauptsächlich daran, dass sie ihn sehr geliebt hat. Doch was ihn wirklich ausgemacht hat, wer er war, bleibt für uns ein Schemen. Damit lesen sich große Teile dieses Romans wie jene Schwärmereien von Freundinnen über ein Date oder einen neuen Freund, den wir noch nicht kennenlernen durften – es ist verständlich, warum sie so starke Gefühle empfinden, aber wirklich Anteil zu nehmen bleibt schwierig.
Als Sayoko knapp vor der Mitte des Romans schließlich auf Ataru trifft, der seiner verstorbenen Mutter nachtrauert, beginnt sie, sich langsam zu fangen. Die Erzählung schwelgt weniger in Erinnerungen an Yōichi, während sich auch die Erzählstruktur stringenter präsentiert. Handwerklich sicherlich ein schöner Kunstgriff, doch er hätte auch schon ein Stück früher eingesetzt werden können.
Das gelungenste Element bleiben vielleicht die Lebensgeister aus dem (deutschen) Titel. Nach ihrer Nahtoderfahrung sieht Sayoko Geister. Was wir Lesenden anfangs noch einfach als Einbildungen abtun könnten, wird nach und nach, sehr langsam und mit Finesse, mystisch aufgeladen, als schließlich auch andere Lebende die Geister spüren oder ihr früheres Leben beschreiben. Ein schönes Element von magischem Realismus, komplementär zu den sonst so alltäglichen Szenen, insgesamt aber überschattet von den oben genannten Problemen.

Creation of the Gods (often also "Investiture of the Gods," orig. 封神演義) | translation by Gu Zhizhong

2025-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Should've spent a bit more time on creating this novel first
Without Grand Tutor Wen by his side, King Zhou is seduced by a fox sprite into letting his wickedness run wild, dooming the Shang Dynasty to end. But a dynasty that's lasted for well over 500 years doesn't fall in an instant. Over a span of 28 years, we witness the King fall more and more into depravity, his enemies unite on one front, and the army of the Zhou,1</a> led by Jiang Ziya, march on Zhaoge.
Filled with some historical and many mythological characters and events, this is a leading work in the Chinese shenmo (gods and demons) genre. As such, it has been a significant influence on Chinese media, like the recent New Gods</a> films</a>, or the highest-grossing animated film of all time, Ne Zha 2 (2025)</a>, as well as operas and plays, which aren't as available to a Western audience. Despite its importance, the author remains unknown.2</a>
Outside of China, the text is not widely available. Most translations are incomplete, often not even spanning half of the chapters, sometimes making up for it by at least including summaries of the missing chapters. Gu Zhizhong's 1992 translation is the only complete English version of the text and has been out of print for decades. Online, copies are offered for triple-digit prices, but there are also some digital versions floating around.
Are we in the West missing out on something? Well, the story itself is a compelling blend of history, myth, and fantasy. There is the real historical context of the end of the Shang Dynasty. The tyrannical King Zhou was actually the last ruler of the Shang, and his story did end as described in the novel. General Jiang Ziya was similarly a real person, and while historians are not sure about his long life before he became a general, the account in this novel is one version that's circulated.
This historical context is then enriched with mythological and fantasy aspects: characters use magic like traveling on the elements, possession, magical healing and revivification, or use magic items that release pests, reveal people's true nature, or simply knock an enemy unconscious. Similarly, important figures of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism show up to join the fight on both sides. But with over 400 characters in this novel, there are few—if any—that a Westerner might recognize and appreciate their inclusion. Still, quite a handful will merit looking up on Wikipedia for some interesting additional context.
During such research, the reader will also quickly identify that the split into "historical" and "fantastical" elements I have undertaken above is only accurate at first glance. As the Shang Dynasty came to an end, there was a huge PR push to frame King Zhou in the worst light possible, to make him the tyrant he is in this novel. Similarly, the Zhou Dynasty, starting with King Wen and King Wu, was framed as incredibly virtuous.3</a> And while Confucianism didn't even exist at the time the novel takes place, the way it places the Three Teachings</a> (Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism) next to each other has become "historical" canon in parts of Chinese philosophy.
So, at its best, this novel really is incredibly rich in form and content. There are some plot devices unusual to Western storytelling, many jumping-off points for deeper research, intriguing themes below the surface, and equally provocative themes on the surface: fate (the "will of Heaven"), patriotism and loyalty, and (poetic) justice.
But at its worst, this can be a real slog, mostly due to its repetitiveness. Many things happen again and again in quite similar ways. Especially the battles from chapter 38 onward are all much the same.4</a> With 400 characters, obviously not everyone can get enough characterization to make them memorable, but a lot of them aren't even more than a name. The magic items are similarly not described beyond their names and their "being used." Different characters repeat the same pieces of dialogue over and over. And while I can't judge the accuracy of the translation, I can say that some vocabulary feels suspiciously out of place.
In all, I would not recommend a Western audience read this novel. The latter two thirds just sag too much. The beginning is strong and varied and might be worth reading on its own.5</a> But if you're really interested, I'd recommend listening to this story on the Chinese Lore Podcast</a>. John Zhu takes his time to go through the novel without any abridgment, staying very close to this translation. He occasionally adds some snarky remarks, which work well to lighten up the monotony of the later parts, and he provides some additional historical and cultural context to close the gap between a Western and a Chinese audience.

Different "Zhou" than King Zhou of the Shang. Confusing, I know. ↩</a> </li>

This is due to the fact that novels of the Ming era were typically published anonymously or under pseudonyms. Today, this novel is most commonly attributed to Xu Zhonglin or Lu Xixing. ↩</a> </li>

Any reader will probably get suspicious of King Wu's literally incredible virtue as it is displayed in this novel, even without doing any outside research. ↩</a> </li>

The novel comprises 100 chapters, so this encompasses pretty much the latter two thirds. ↩</a> </li>

Maybe that's why there's a handful of incomplete translations? If you read any of them, let me know how they fare. ↩</a> </li> </ol> </section>

Claimed! | Gertrude Barrows Bennett

2025-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Oh good; then nobody else has to pick this up
Somebody dared to take this box out of the ocean. It's made of some shimmering green material with a scarlet inscription decidedly on its bottom side, as the inscription will inevitably return there if the box is left unattended for a while. And now it has found its way into the greedy claws of rich man Jesse Robinson. But since its arrival, everybody in his household has been having nightmares of the ocean coming to take them. Some thief tried to steal the box, and the man who sold Mr. Robinson the box has gone missing.
Today we'd call this kind of setup Lovecraft-esque, but when Gertrude Barrows Bennett published this story in 1920, H.P. Lovecraft had only published a handful of stories himself. But it's tough not to measure Claimed! against the expectations that a modern reader with moderate familiarity with Lovecraft's stories brings to the table—which is why I won't pretend and will do exactly that: Measure Claimed! against those expectations.
The first chapters of Claimed! constitute a competent and suspenseful setup of a cosmic horror plot: The box at its centre comes with a strange and old history, relayed to us through multiple characters and framing devices. The unexplainable events ratchet up in power, and our cast of characters slowly descends into madness.
But it all begins to fall apart around the halfway point. First, too much of the lore is explained. It can be fair to criticise Lovecraft for calling his horrors "incomprehensible and indescribable," but Claimed! shows us that a full lore dump can be equally unsatisfying. The occult history is much too small in scope to raise the stakes for the finale, never mind capturing the reader's imagination beyond the plot of the novel.
In the same vein (and slight spoiler), the antagonistic force reveals itself as quite weak. Granted, it doesn't need cosmic powers, but the provided lore raises expectations far beyond the demonstration of power that awaits at the end.
Finally, let us talk about the problematic parts. H.P. Lovecraft is rightfully criticised heavily for his overt racism. Claimed! demonstrates that the genre, even though it revolves around "fear of the other," does not require racism to function. Different cultures and countries are used to great effect in broadening the scope and mystery without any racist over- or even undertones. All goodwill generated through clearing this—frankly low—bar is lost, though, when the slight sexism present throughout the novel finds its most overt and shocking expression in the form of a punchline at the very end of the novel.

Seven Sons | Robert Windom, Kelvin Mao, illustrated by Jae Lee

2025-05-12T00:00:00+00:00

👎 And none worth saving
Prophet Nicolaus predicted that seven identical sons would be born to seven virgins on 07.07.1977. When it actually happened, it shook all world religions to their core and made Nicolaus a respected and wealthy figure. But now Muslim terrorists calling themselves Allah's Watchmen are killing the Jesi.
Wait, what? I really hope this graphic novel takes great care with such a touchy subject as religious extremism. It doesn't? Well, gosh. But let's shelve this for later.
Seven Sons is a seven-issue miniseries, available collected into one 230-page paperback. The art is very nice to look at, done in a rough style. There's decently stylish violence, impressive religious icons and architecture, and dynamic page layouts.
After a strong hook and an okay introduction to the setting and characters, the story takes a quick nosedive into the boringly terrible. The supposedly world-spanning events feel small and are connected in a disappointingly simple and straightforward manner. The main driver of the story, the mystery of the Seven Sons' origin, is revealed in the middle of the story in an underwhelming manner and with no big consequence. All plot developments after that point are repetitive, and there remain no clear stakes. While the nonsensical details of the plot are not predictable, the character arcs are telegraphed much too clearly.
Even though the first issue was published somewhat recently (in the middle of 2022), its themes can more closely be placed in its 1977 setting. In a world of secularisation and a simultaneous resurgence of spiritualism, this graphic novel instead criticises the financialization of religion, and the sensationalist legacy media. The most salient point might be the complete absence of religious faith in its world and story, but I'll hardly give big credit for not doing something.
Let's return to those Muslim terrorists, whom I teased earlier. Overall, I felt that the handling of religions was a very mixed bag. I'm no expert in any religion, but it seemed to me that the authors did an okay portrayal of a couple of religions in some unimportant side characters. But then they need some violent extremists for their plot to have some stakes and pressure and they opt for "Allah's Watchmen." The first twist even made me think that the authors might be aiming to subvert this idea, but nope.
In conclusion, this is a book that's nice to flip through for its art, but the antiquated themes and observations, the subpar handling of religions, and the boringly simple plot make it overall not worth a look.

21C Human | Arch Hades

2025-04-20T00:00:00+00:00

👎 More like a C-
In essays and poems, the author works through the experience of being alive in the 21st century. This is divided into three parts. The first, titled "21C Human," deals with topics of populism, social media, and climate anxiety. The second, "21C Woman," concerns itself with feminist topics like men's perception of women, and a female perspective of hetero relationships. The final part, "21C Plague," collects pieces on isolation and more general anxiety, fuelled by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The author once again demonstrates that she has read far and wide, directly citing Marshal McLuhan ("the medium is the message"), or writing tributes to Karl Popper ("The Open Society and Its Enemies"), Anne Applebaum ("Twilight of Democracy"), and more. Sadly, the essays don't go beyond these sources and are quite boring to any informed reader.
Similarly, the poems are very didactic, trying to describe intellectual concepts without going beyond. They end up wordy, yet sparse. They prefer technical language over metaphor and don't flow nicely.
The poems in the third part don't adhere as strongly to the theme, and it feels more like a dumping ground for "the rest." This actually works in favour of the poems, as they are more vague and provide a wider range of impressions and ideas. Still, I did not find much to love. I'd highly recommend Thumbs upArcadia</a> instead.

Happy End (orig. Riquet à la houppe) | Amélie Nothomb

2025-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Ich war Happy bis zum End
Als Déodat zur Welt kommt, ist er ein abscheulich hässliches Baby. Auch später wächst er da nicht so recht raus. Das Gegengewicht dazu ist seine unglaubliche Intelligenz, die er ohne Arroganz trägt. Als ihm mit sieben Jahren ein Vogel auf den Kopf scheißt, beschließt er, Ornithologe zu werden.
Dieser Roman beginnt mit dem für die Autorin typischen Tempo und Witz. Die absurd komische Prämisse trägt die Leser*in bis kurz vor dem Ende, wo schließlich das im Titel versprochene "Happy End" eine Pointe setzt.
Dieses wortwörtlich märchenhafte Ende ist bewusst provokant und seine Intention wird der Leser*in ausbuchstabiert. Diese ist nachvollziehbar und ein interessanter Gedankenanstoß, aber die Dreistigkeit des Happy Ends bricht doch zu sehr mit dem Vorhergegangenen, als dass ein kohärentes Ganzes entstehen kann.

All About Love: New Visions | bell hooks

2025-02-03T00:00:00+00:00

👎 I don't love all about this
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The Light Fantastic | Terry Pratchett

2025-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Doesn't shine
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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell | Susanna Clarke

2025-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

👍 This is where English Magic has gone
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Starship Troopers | Robert A. Heinlein

2025-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

👎 You gotta be a Trooper to finish this piece of reprehensible trash
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The Colour of Magic | Terry Pratchett

2025-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Doesn't pop
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Ambivalenz (orig. Les prénoms épicènes) | Amélie Nothomb

2024-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Eindeutig gut
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Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction | Michael Tanner

2024-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Does what it sets out to do
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The Wave | Todd Strasser

2024-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Only a ripple in the kiddie pool
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Thirst (orig. Soif) | Amélie Nothomb

2024-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Not quite quenching it
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The Eyes Are The Best Part | Monika Kim

2024-10-18T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Delicious, but could've used a couple more minutes in the oven
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Notes on Complexity | Neil Thiese

2024-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Umm, I've got some notes of my own, buddy
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The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England | Brandon Sanderson

2024-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

👎 You might wanna invest elsewhere...
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Gods of Want | K-Ming Chang

2024-08-10T00:00:00+00:00

👍 So divine, you should want to be reading this book
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Die Scareman-Saga 12: Allianz der Hoffnung | Dirk van den Boom

2024-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Hoffentlich ist das Nächste, was ich lese, besser
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Die Scareman-Saga 11: Das Blaue vom Himmel | Dirk van den Boom

2024-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Löst zwar viele Versprechen der vorherigen Bücher ein, aber das heißt ja nix Gutes
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Die Scareman-Saga 10: Die Bio-Bombe | Dirk van den Boom

2024-08-03T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Weder ein gesunder Smoothie, noch ein gutes Buch
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Die Scareman-Saga 9: Karawane der Verlorenen | Sylke Brandt

2024-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Wäre nur dieses Buch auf dem Weg zum Druck verloren gegangen!
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Die Scareman-Saga 8: Reise ins Blaue | Dirk van den Boom

2024-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Eher ein Kindergarten-Wandertag
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Die Scareman-Saga 7: Krötenrebellion | Dirk van den Boom

2024-07-18T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Ich rebelliere auch gleich
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Die Scareman-Saga 6: Blutige Erkenntnis | Dirk van den Boom

2024-07-16T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Meine blutige Erkenntnis ist, dass jegliche Hoffnung für diese Bücher vergebens war
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Zombies in Western Culture | John Vervaeke, Filip Miscevic, Christopher Mastropietro

2024-07-14T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Nice brain snack—as in a snack for the brain
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Die Scareman-Saga 5: Das Ende Der Gewissheit | Dirk van den Boom

2024-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Das Ende des langweiligen Plots?
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Die Scareman-Saga 4: Fabrik der Zahlen | Sylke Brandt

2024-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Gutes vom Fließband
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Die Scareman-Saga 3: Herr des Meeres, Herr des Blutes | Dirk van den Boom

2024-06-25T00:00:01+00:00

👎 Herr, erlöse mich
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Die Scareman-Saga 2: Der Eine | Dirk van den Boom

2024-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Ich will lieber einen andern
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Ein Scareman erwacht | Dirk van den Boom

2024-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

👎 ... und ich schlafe ein
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Torture The Artist | Joey Goebel

2024-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Am I an artist now? Because reading the ending of this book was torture.
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Bluebeard's Castle | Anna Biller

2024-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Should've been a film
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Antichista (orig. Antéchrista) | Amélie Nothomb

2024-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Devilishly great!
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No One Is Talking About This | Patricia Lookwood

2024-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Every One Should Be Reading This
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The Enemy's Cosmetique (orig. Cosmétique de l'ennemi) | Amelie Nothomb

2024-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Gripping story at an incredible pace
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The Stepford Wives | Ira Levin

2024-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

👍 This belongs on your bookshelf like the Stepford wives belong in the kitchen
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The Vegetarian (orig. 채식주의자) | Han Kang

2024-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Skip the meat and go straight to this
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Tokyo Fiancée (orig. Ni d’Ève, ni d’Adam) | Amélie Nothomb

2024-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Not born of Paradise
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Veronika Decides to Die (orig. Veronika Decide Morrer) | Paulo Coelho

2024-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

👎 This book makes me decide to die
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Victory City | Salman Rushdie

2024-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

👍 A victorious book
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Wintersmith | Terry Pratchett

2024-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Will entertain you through the cold winter season
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Extremely Online | Taylor Lorenz

2023-11-27T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Extremely Boring
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Kassandra | Christa Wolf

2023-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Nicht ganz zukunftsweisend
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The Listening Society | Hanzi Freinacht

2023-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

👍 The key to understanding society
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Treacle Walker | Alan Garner

2023-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Not worth rag nor bone
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Romeo and Juliet | William Shakespeare

2023-09-23T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Poetry to die for
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Pick me Girls | Sophie Passmann

2023-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Lieber die Finger von lassen
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Alte Sorten | Ewald Arenz

2023-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Gute Ernte mit interessantem Geschmack
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Diary of An Oxygen Thief | Anonymous

2023-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Outrageous tale quickly turns stale
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Men Without Women | Haruki Murakami

2023-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Congratulations to the Women who don't have to deal with these Men anymore
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The Princess Bride | S. Morgenstern (Abridgement by William Goldman)

2023-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Not just the "good parts"
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A Hat Full of Sky | Terry Pratchett

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Can't stand on its own
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A Philosophy of Loneliness | Lars Svendsen

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👎 I'd rather be lonely than with this book
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A Room of One's Own | Virginia Woolf

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👍 A hundred years old and still very much relevant
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Alice's Adventures In Wonderland | Lewis Carroll

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Don't follow that rabbit
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Arcadia | Arch Hades

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Beautifully capturing the dystopian present
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Der Process | Franz Kafka

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Clever und unterhaltsam
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Der Sprung | Simone Lappert

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Zu welcher Idylle hast du keinen Zugang? Und willst du das ändern?
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Der Triumph der Waldrebe in Europa | Clemens J. Setz

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Nettes Stück über Erinnerung und Loslassen
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Desire | Haruki Murakami

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👍 A couple excellent short stories
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Dies ist mein Letztes Lied | Lena Richter

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Lieber mal auf Mute drücken
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Digitale Bildkulturen | Annekathrin Kohout, Wolfgang Ullrich, Tilman Baumgärtel, Dirk von Gehlen, Diana Weis, Jörg Scheller, Roland Meyer

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Interessante Texte zu Mode, Fitness und Überwachung
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How to Respond to Code of Conduct Reports | Valerie Aurora, Mary Gardiner

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Good starting point and reference
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Magdalenas Sünde | Romana Ganzoni

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Verbotene Frucht
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Metamorphoses | Ovid, translation by Charles Martin

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Monumental Work, Good Translation
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Paper Romance | Arch Hades

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👎 A few good ones
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The Cockroach | Ian McEwan

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👎 Coping with Brexit through humour
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The Dispossessed | Ursula K. Le Guin

2023-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

👍 Where does Anarchism succeed and where does it fall short?
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