maddness22's reviews
711 reviews

A decent collection of abstracts about various philosophies. I think this is a great introduction read for folks exploring philosophy for the first time and it offers some great little nuggets of wisdom on how to live a good life. It gets a bit dull at times and some essays are stronger than others, but I particularly loved Skye Cleary's essay about existentialism. 

Honestly if I wasn't forced to binge this book for book club, I probably would've never finished it but it was still an incredibly solid read. The cast was a bit large and the pacing a bit slow for my personal tastes, but I very much enjoyed how expansive the whole world felt in this post-war 1919 British seaside village. The conversations about grief and post-war trauma were very well done and I also enjoyed the talks about women's rights and their place in the world during this time. Klaus and Harris were probably my favorite parts, but Poppy was a proper menace to society that I loved and appreciated (until the end). 

The plot is a bit hit or miss, but Colin and Penelope are literally just so cute and wholesome together that it all comes together and creates a very enjoyable experience. I loved that we even saw how much they truly loved each other and continued to care for each other even after marriage. It's also always fun seeing the larger Bridgerton family interacting with each other but it's low-key hilarious that we keep dropping off the married ones one by one as the series progresses. 

Book fans should be outraged by Colin and Penelope's portrayal on the Netflix show, honestly. 

Not great. In fact, highly problematic with how it keeps comparing dating to dieting to an almost obsessive point and how it assumes the only way to live a life is in love without reassurance that life can be fulfilling without love too. I'm pretty sure it even directly quotes "Love is the most fulfilling journey a person (woman) can take" which is.....an opinion, for sure. 

I did find the chapter about vetting your friends' opinions about new relationships mildly interesting because it seems like the default advice is usually "always trust your friends no matter what" when this book takes the stance of "actually your friends' opinions might suck sometimes" which was refreshing. The last chapter was also good, but it negates the majority of the book so I'm conflicted about how much I want to enjoy it. 

At least it reads like one long Cosmo article so it's an easy enough read to breeze through if you need a shallow perspective on love and dating with basic relationship advice that can be found for free on any given "Top 8 reasons why you can't find love" blog post/Instagram reel. 

I really can't stand how much the author is inserting himself and his opinions into the history. I also can't believe it's been 30 pages and we've barely had any mention of Mary Magdalene despite it being the focus of the cover and book description. The few book reviews for this one remain pessimistic that this isn't going to change for the rest of the book so I'm just going to quit while I'm ahead, which is a shame because I love a good Mary Magdalene read.

Honestly not that bad. The clear appreciation and adoration for the outdoors and a lifestyle centered on nature across all stories was probably the highlight of the book for me, but I also enjoyed the complex relationships and feelings associated with love across all of the stories. I didn't have a specific favorite story, but I think the one about sheep hunting will stick with me for a bit. I also very much enjoyed the prose and writing style. 

I think I really took one for the team on this one, folks. There's just so much going on in this book. We have the absolutely dismal writing style and awkward pacing, dialogue fresh from a Jane Austen novel despite being set in early 2010's Seattle (at one point the two college kids say their men are "beguiled" with them), we have Ana Steele who was born and raised in a dark box away from society only to emerge as Christian Grey's perfect blank slate of a "partner" (I use less than polite terms in private company), we have Christian Grey who would be an absolute cringe incel if he wasn't so rich and handsome, and then we have SO MUCH lip biting, so many elevators, and SO MANY uses of the word "taciturn" that is never quite used correctly. 

The truly compelling aspect of this novel, which absolutely was not this novel's intention, was how Ana was so easily manipulated into an abusive relationship. This is textbook emotional (and towards the end, physical) abuse and I was physically screaming about how controlling Christian was regarding her boundaries and personal life choices. She endured a ton of this abuse on the concept of "but I love him and he's the only man I ever loved" and how he was nice to her some of the time which is so incredibly toxic but so realistic to how folks can end up in these situations. 

I would honestly give this book 2 stars because parts of it were still kinda fun and funny, especially out of context, but I was truly disturbed by the end of the book about how dark and controlling Christian became with FULL APPROVAL from everyone in Ana's life. Not a single soul stepped in to offer any meaningful guidance, aside from maaaaaaybe Kate who conveniently disappeared as soon as the getting got tough. 

Gross, awful, and poorly written. Worth all of the hate given to it.

Wow this lady really likes birds. I enjoyed the explorations about how our need to do something is corrupting our attention spans and ruining our communities and chances at connection. I also enjoyed the criticism of homogenized content due to the "personalized" feeds from social media that fail to allow us to explore new content and discover new interests. It's a great call to pay more mindful attention to the world around us despite some clear privileges required to do so. 

Repetitive and really only beneficial if you're not already self-obsessed with self-improvement. Most of the practices seemed to be built around recognizing areas for improvement/support rather than actually building those areas 

Super quick read! I loved the cozy setting and the bittersweet nature of the characters' lives. There's clearly a lot of love and heart written for the characters. I wish it was just a tad bit longer and more in-depth but the shorter nature of the book and heartfelt story makes this feel like a good cup of espresso meant to be savored while reading.