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4thace

4thace@books.theunseen.city

Joined 1 year, 4 months ago

I try to review every book I finish. On Mastodon: noc.social/@Zerofactorial

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Valerie Valdes: Fault Tolerance (2022, HarperCollins Publishers) 3 stars

Mid-tier space opera trilogy comes to a conclusion

3 stars

I read the first book in the series three years ago and unfortunately forgot most of the backstory of the main antagonists and secondary characters. I think I must have skipped the second book entirely which probably contained some plot points I could have used. There are a lot of characters whose stories did not hit with the right impact with me as a result.

This space opera trilogy about the captain and crew of an interstellar cargo ship tasked with saving all the civilizations in the universe sets the reader on a treadmill early on. It felt like a series of difficulties which eventually all point in the same direction, without confusing branches. There is one excursion along the way in the form of an unforced error, but by that time I was already certain they would find a way out of their jam eventually, with no chance of …

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings (2012, Penguin Books) 4 stars

Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains.' These are the famous opening …

Surprises in a theory of government 250 years old

4 stars

This was a challenging book to consume in audiobook form. It demands the listener to understand concepts in political philosophy and political sociology, to construct an awareness of 18th century European history, and put aside preconceptions of the intent of the author, all in an aural format. some words such as "sovereign" and "magistrate" turn out to have a meaning different from what I thought at first. Also, some of the writings here come down to us in a fragmentary form so things are not as orderly as one would like. The author is building on and replying to earlier political science and economics works by Montesquieu, Hobbes, Machiavelli, and others on specific points so some of the intent is probably lost when those other works aren't at hand. Despite all the difficulties, it was an engaging piece of scholarship.

As suggested by the title there are a number of …

Grady Hendrix: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires (Hardcover, 2020, Quirk Books) 3 stars

Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this '90s-set horror novel about a women's book club that …

Starts satiric, ends graphic

2 stars

It's been a long time since I've picked up a horror book so I grabbed this one when I saw it at the library. I knew about this author from back when he used to make appearances on podcasts before his writing career really took off. I would say that the title gives the summary of the book only if one applies a couple of adjustments. It isn't really much of a 'guide' except perhaps by example. The book club ladies' scheme nearly fails at several points, however. But more importantly, there's only one character that might be classified as a vampire, not multiple 'vampires.' The first 60% of the book was a fairly easy non-strenuous read where you're introduced to the major characters and it drills into the societal values of Charleston. Then it takes a hard turn where the viewpoint character, Patricia Campbell, gets into trouble, landing in …

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (Paperback, 1995, Scribner Paperback Fiction) 4 stars

This is the definitive, textually accurate edition of a classic of twentieth-century literature, The Great …

A quick reread to get a feeling of his style

4 stars

I am pretty sure I read this long ago but this time I remembered virtually nothing about it. I picked this up as a second-hand paperback heavily highlighted by its previous owner(s), probably for a school assignment. All I really recalled was how the story was told from the point of view of a secondary character, Nick Carraway, who knows as little about the title character initially as we do and has to work out his attitude to all the principals as he meets them. What I was mainly interested in was the reputation it has had since its publication in 1925. The writing shows its age but I did notice the care the author took with each of the characters to establish a clear voice, and with the settings to help the reader imagine what it felt like to experience along with the characters. There are a few flourishes …

Mary L. Trump Ph.D.: Too Much and Never Enough (Hardcover, 2020, Simon & Schuster) 4 stars

How not to parent

4 stars

I have let this book sit on my shelf for years since it came out, but now that the author's social media activity has ticked up it seems like this moment of peril is the right point to read it through. It is part memoir and part biography written without the cooperation of its subject, but viewed at close quarters. I decided the author is able to put forth an honest portrayal of Donald Trump despite her personal stakes in calling out his actions that deprived her of a large inheritance. I think there is enough detail here to back up the claims when combined with other stories of the rise of businessman Trump and other objective of his character. Behind it all is the author's grandfather who built the real estate empire in Brooklyn and who was responsible for Trump's strange psychology by encouraging his lying, applauding the flamboyance, …

Sharon Olds: Balladz (2022, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Knopf) 4 stars

An exciting read with pathos and vision

4 stars

The poems here refer to standard forms without being strict about them. The section titled "Amherst Balladz" uses Emily Dickinson's style of capitalization and punctuation and short lines without much attention to the ballad meter, but still evokes an echo of her strangeness. The most characteristic feature in this collection is the choice of subject and imagery of which crosses the lines of polite social convention whenever it needs to as it makes its own point. At the beginning of this collection, in a section called Quarantine, and again at the end in one called Elegies, the poems focus on death and dying, with the last eleven describing her companion Carl Wallman's illness, last moments, and aftermath of death in just as honest and forceful a way the other poems do. In several others she talks about the neglect and abuse of her childhood in terms that make the shock …

Ottessa Moshfegh: My year of rest and relaxation (2018) 4 stars

Early 2000 on New York City's Upper East Side. The alienation of an unnamed young …

What can happen when someone tries obliterating her mind

5 stars

This is the first book I've read by this celebrated author who came out with this particular work not long before the COVID-19 pandemic with its grief and trauma erupted, causing a big reception on social media then. She has been influenced by writers who take risks with characters who live on the edge. Here the protagonist is struggling with grief and trying to extinguish her consciousness through drugs for a year, believing it will wipe herself clean again. The writing makes it clear she is doing bad things, though not to get high, and subjects her to as much ridicule as anyone else. This is not as much a moral judgment as a description of the mental and physical process of abusing her body nearly to the point of death, with the gross parts left in. The disgusting sections serve a function, and even the nihilism gets a take-down …