aaronj21's Reviews (912)

This was an interesting title that I feel served as a useful introduction to the vast and frankly intimidating topic of Chinese history. The author admits at the outset that a complete historic overview is beyond the scope of this or any single volume. However, he intersperses his sweeping historical narrative with a wealth of primary sources, giving an excellent feel for the time and place of these events.

I would recommend this to anyone curious about Chinese history and wanting a very brief introduction, or anyone who enjoys well written, informative history books.

This book was a delight, quick and completely bizarre, I truly never once gained my footing when reading this book. A brief passage from early on in the story may illustrate what kind of incongruous, off beat, and often hilarious tone this novel has:

“The voyage from San Francisco to Hawaii had been the most terrifying experience Greer and Cameron had ever gone through, even more terrible than the time they shot a deputy sheriff in Idaho ten times and he wouldn’t die and Greer finally had to say to the deputy sheriff, “Please die because we don’t want to shoot you again.” And the deputy sheriff had said, “OK, I’ll die, but don’t shoot me again.”
“We won’t shoot you again,” Cameron had said.
“OK, I’m dead,” and he was.


Certainly may not be everyone’s taste or humor, but I would definitely recommend giving it a try if you manage to come across it. It entertained me thorough in the few hours it took to complete.

This quick read would be perfect for fans of Sam J. Miller or Clive Barker as it features grizzly and shocking short, horror, fiction with a decidedly queer bent. This brief collection is perfect as an appetizer as we head into Autumn and soon, October, the height of literary spooky season.

As in any short story collection some entries are stronger than others. For me the book seemed to lose steam somewhat as it went on, (the beginning three stories Digging, deathshed, and Garage Door were my favorites), and recover a bit at the end (of the later entries, Petting Zoo was my favorite premise, Torture Device was a bit of a miss for me, and Defilement was compelling if disorientating and a bit of a slog at times). But taken altogether this new book is certainly worth being given a chance and I’d look forward to reading anything else the author puts out.

I don’t usually make a habit of reading about WWII (either fiction or non-fiction). I’ve read some about it but my general view is that it’s a topic that has been done to death and then some, particularly in the historical fiction sphere it seems not a week goes by except there’s a new offering of some historical drama set in WWII. I tend to think the market is completely saturated and that other periods of history could benefit from some of the massive attention lavished on these six years in human history (even given their massive impact and importance).

However, this book came highly recommended to me and I realized my limited reading on WWII never dealt specifically with the central theme of this volume, namely how Weimar Germany fell and was replaced with the one party Nazi state. The recommendations are well deserved as this book is simultaneously sweeping in scope and deeply personal in its account of a country on the brink of a fascist takeover. The obviously immense amounts of research are balanced with first hand accounts from primary sources that show the human face of this turbulent time.

I’m planning on finishing the trilogy on the strength of this wonderfully written first volume. Whether or not I finish the remaining two books this is an excellent non-fiction title that hardly feels as dry or daunting as many history books.

Wow this book was something. It wasn’t what I was expecting but it was definitely an experience and I’m glad I read it.

To start, I have a complicated relationship with Paul Tremblay’s books (ditto Grady Hendrix’s work, these two authors are in a remarkably similar wheelhouse really, has anyone ever seen them in the same place at the same time??). I LOVED Head Full of Ghosts and was beyond creeped out and entertained by it. But nothing he’s written since has been as good as that first title I read of his. Survivors Song was a little meh if I’m honest and Growing Things I couldn’t really get in to despite loving short story collections. Admittedly those are the only books of his I have read / tried to read so maybe I should give the others a chance.

This book, in its best parts, felt as good as Head Full of Ghosts. Tremblay writes excellent characters and expresses the supernatural (if there is anything supernatural, it’s largely up to you to decide) beautifully and believably because it is seemingly so grounded in reality. This book delivered massively in terms of readability, atmosphere, and several truly scary passages. The pacing was a bit hit or miss at times and overall I wish there had been more interactions between Art and Mercy (where the writing really shines) and less descriptions of his (Art’s) ill-fated musical career. However, the format of the book added a lot to the story and was wonderfully executed. The author also had some remarkably poignant things to say about grief, loss, and the fundamental nature of memoirs (novels).

I finally read a book about the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, I can cross that off my bucket list!

I was thrilled to find a whole book about this disaster and even more excited when I started reading and found it was a lucid, informative account. The author takes pains to set the scene, including the global socioeconomic factors that led to the molasses tanks' shoddy construction and eventual collapse. The one issue I had with this book was that sometimes this penchant for scene setting strayed a bit too far from the narrative at hand. When the author is describing Italian anarchists for pages and pages one gets the sense he’s trying to fill space more than provide crucial information. This is a minor point however and overall this was a great historical account, I especially loved the tail end of the epilogue where the author recounts how the various people in the book spent the rest of their lives after the molasses flood. I love a good post credits, “where are they now?” paragraph to end a history book.