I read Dr Zhivago recently, and this feels like a better version of that book, using modern Chinese instead of Russian history and adding a dollop (though not too much) magical realism into the mix. It is a masterful history from the Boxer rebellion through various wars, the great leap forward, the great famine and the cultural revolution without ever really talking about politics or history.
Having said that, I’m still not too sure about the book’s obsession with breasts. You can take it two ways - a commentary on the cultural value of women as mothers, life-givers and sexual objects; or plain lecherous. There were times when it really seemed to veer into the latter, but for the sake of the rest of the book, I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt.
Also, an absolute nightmare to read in public with a name like this plastered across the …
Reviews and Comments
The book collection of @PublicHealthInnit@sciences.social
Love a good mix of fiction and non-fiction. I like to keep learning and keep reading different types of stuff!
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PublicHealthInnit rated Piranesi: 4 stars
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2021
PublicHealthInnit rated Charles Dickens' Hard times: 2 stars
Charles Dickens' Hard times by Charles Dickens (Longman cultural edition)
Dickens scathing portrait of Victorian industrial society and its misapplied utilitarian philosophy, Hard Times features schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind, one of …
PublicHealthInnit rated Covid by Numbers: 3 stars
PublicHealthInnit rated Secret Barrister: 3 stars
PublicHealthInnit rated Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: 3 stars
Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (Oxford world's classics)
Published in 1845, this pre-eminent American slave narrative powerfully details the life of the internationally famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass from …
PublicHealthInnit rated Anne Donovan's "Buddha Da": 4 stars
PublicHealthInnit rated Aftermath: 3 stars
PublicHealthInnit reviewed Big Breasts, Wide Hips by Mo Yan
Review of 'Big Breasts, Wide Hips' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I read Dr Zhivago recently, and this feels like a better version of that book, using modern Chinese instead of Russian history and adding a dollop (though not too much) magical realism into the mix. It is a masterful history from the Boxer rebellion through various wars, the great leap forward, the great famine and the cultural revolution without ever really talking about politics or history.
Having said that, I’m still not too sure about the book’s obsession with breasts. You can take it two ways - a commentary on the cultural value of women as mothers, life-givers and sexual objects; or plain lecherous. There were times when it really seemed to veer into the latter, but for the sake of the rest of the book, I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt.
Also, an absolute nightmare to read in public with a name like this plastered across the front and spine!
PublicHealthInnit rated Practising Public Health: 3 stars
PublicHealthInnit rated Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy: 3 stars
Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy by Lynne Segal
Why are we so obsessed by the pursuit of happiness? With new ways to measure contentment we are told that …
PublicHealthInnit rated Doctor Zhivago: 3 stars
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, B. Pasternak
This epic tale about the effects of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath on a bourgeois family was not published …
PublicHealthInnit rated The War of the Worlds: 3 stars
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (Aladdin Classics)
The ultimate science fiction classic: for more than one hundred years, this compelling tale of the Martian invasion of Earth …
PublicHealthInnit rated Scottish Nation: 3 stars
PublicHealthInnit rated 1984 - George Orwell: 4 stars
1984 - George Orwell by George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often referred to as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by the English novelist …