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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 pieces included here along with Of the Social Contract - Principles of the Right of War, Letters Written from the Mountains, Constitutional Proposal for Corsica, and Considerations on the Government of Poland. I actually thought the last two sets of essays were the most interesting because the author has to deal with specifics of how one implements a new system of government and not just talking about idealized concepts. Neither of the plans ended up going into effect because of circumstances, not because of inherent weaknesses.

To the extent that the author is remembered these days it is as a progenitor of the revolutions happening around 1800, but these texts show that the connection is not so straightforward. It is not the case that Rousseau favors liberty over monarchy or oligarchy. At times the recommendation is explicitly the opposite, sometimes for pragmatic reasons that became clearer during the revolutions decades later. There's an excitement when some far out idea puts in an appearance. One of these was the advice to deny voting rights to men who weren't married with children. It reminded me of when this idea popped up again during the 2024 US presidential campaign.

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 the hospital. Then there's a jump in time, another call to action, and things come to a climax. That's when it hits its stride going deep into dark places along with a fair amount of gore and graphic content culminating in the main big action sequence. It's definitely concentrates all the disturbing content in one place here.

I did like the gentle satire of the first part of the book, then repelled by the graphic violence and macabre nature of the second part of the book which the author intends. The trouble is I had a hard time sympathizing with Patricia enough to feel she earned the ending. She was the one that set off the inciting event, but she didn't actually play a part in the 'slaying.' I also did not like the bad guy protagonist he didn't really convince me at any point along the way that he was anything other than bad news and I would have liked to see a little more smoke and mirrors put up to disguise his evil nature. I think the author may have gone just a little bit too far making the male characters as awful as possible. Couldn't there have been at least one who wasn't absolutely worthless? I think I would have enjoyed seeing the one character of a marginalized identity, Mrs. Greene, as the viewpoint character in this story instead. I can tell that this is not the story that the author wanted to write, though.

That said, I would say that this is a competently written book by an author who knows his way around the horror genre with a bunch of other novels to his credit. I guess I would say that I'm really not the right audience for this book. Horror fans would mainly be much more receptive to the dark turn that this book takes towards the end. As a native of South Carolina, the author knows the setting in depth and it does show. Although I turned out not to be superfan in this case I do have one other of the author's novels on my to be read list and might just dip into that around Halloween time this year if I get a chance.

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 of colloquial, non-academic speech I noticed and some passages of emotional description to enhance the mood, whether during a boozy party, a tense situation rising toward violence, or the deep melancholy at the end. Carraway is taken with his enigmatic friend Gatsby and we the readers have to work out how far to go in along the same direction, or to instead reject that point of view as we are presented with that character's flaws. All the characters are messed up in various ways and the social environment can also come in for criticism. This book was closer to a novella, with just the Carraway/Baker subplot against the main story with the two love triangles. I wasn't drawn in as much with this as with the novels I enjoy the most but appreciate the chance to renew my acquaintance with this 99-year old standard.

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, and demonstrating that a total lack of morals is no impediment to a capitalist. The first three quarters of the book takes the story to the 1990s, and then came a rapid shift to the presidential era and its chaos. There is no attempt to analyze the subject at a deep level since his behavior is well accounted for by just a few basic childhood experiences forming the basis of his broken personality. I would not call it a must read, but I think it will be a reference of lasting value historically.

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 of this just as real and as immediate as when it happened many decades ago.

The collection asks a reader to work alongside the poet and not take easy ways out of the labor, which can be exhilarating while demanding. It is a pleasure to experience how each of these is so carefully worked out especially after having read lesser verse by others where you could never get the sense that the author has real mastery of expression. The words the author uses take unexpected turns but with intention and control from years of perfecting her craft. This volume was a finalist for the National Book Award

A solid collection of poetry that doesn't hold back

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 here. The prose is precisely crafted whether describing mourning customs, status signals in the year 2000, or the aftermath of a manic blackout. The protagonist has little interest in sticking to norms of behavior in any but an a superficial, ironic fashion. At the same time, it goes deep into philosophy as we spend so much time inside the head of a person who is relentlessly pushing herself into areas that seem anti-life, destructive, but also banal.

I was thinking if this story had been instead an adventure about an astronaut sleeping while traveling to a distant star, how much would my attitude to the story change? Why or why not? Or if it were about a vampire unconscious in a casket through centuries? By the end of the story, there is a remarkable section where thoughts about art and ordinary activities suggest an entirely different attitude to the reason for conscious life which felt like it took the book into a whole different plane. I did not expect to like this book as much as I did even as I recognized that it would not be the sort of thing for so many people I know.

The audiobook narration by Julia Whelan brought out the dark humor and portrayed the annoying characters in a way that helped make them seem like real people. I was able to sense now and then that there was real pain going on alongside the nonsense.

This is a portal fantasy romance book with the two main characters coming from worlds connected by a pawnshop in Japan where customers exchange their memories and regrets for money. The new proprietor of the shop in the magical world, Hana, meets a scientist from our world named Keishin on her first day in business and the two embark on an adventure looking for Hana's father owing to their suspicions that he has set a series of events in motion which may soon subject them to a harsh penalty by the monstrous enforcers of this world. The two journey through a dizzying assortment of bizarre settings pursued by the bad guys, fearing death or torture. They discover secrets about Hana's past and about the world itself, and in the process fall in love. There are some harrowing scenes along the way, both with regard to the main duo and in flashback.

I myself am not a fan of the "romantasy" genre and had trouble accepting the scenes between Hana and Keishin, mostly told in dialogue which struck me as hard to believe. Hana was betrothed to another man in her world who both cared for her and was treated badly for helping them, and I didn't like what he suffered. Also, the way the characters' quest was structured seemed too easy. Without an ultimate goal in mind that they would have had to try to break down in steps, they instead just happened to go though a long series of incidents that just happened to advance them steadily along the way, over and over, as though they were on a railroad track the the destination. In the version of the book I read, the ending was a sort of epilogue to the main action that didn't feel completely earned. But other than these structural elements, I would like to give praise to the book for its innovative worldbuilding and the unusual vision of an otherworldly Japan, which I would not mind seeing in other stories by this author. I know this book will have a devoted fandom when it arrives in stores.

I read this book in the form of an advance reader copy through Netgalley in exchange for sharing my review

Romance - fantasy story set in a secondary world's version of Japan