brendamn's Reviews (370)

It feels almost criminal that I hadn't known who Frances Perkins was that well until fairly recently. She was briefly mentioned in another book, Last Best Hope, which listed her major achievements through the The New Deal. My first reaction to which was "Wait, wasn't it FDR that did that?"

I do not mean to diminish the role of FDR. None of these successes could have come to pass if we had not had a President which supported the causes and would have placed Frances Perkins in a role of influence. All the same, it was Perkins who brought those causes to the table in the first place within his administration and did the work that needed to be done to see them through. It all may very well would not have come to pass as it had if it were not for her.

The description of this book lists many of the things she achieved in her career, though as lengthy as it is this biography shows there is still so much more she has done for the United States. Even our global society as well given her work with the International Labor Organization.

I feel the magnitude of her presence cannot be overstated, though maybe I am doing just that all the same due to sheer awe of this account. As of now she is surprisingly not well remembered, but if more people realize all the improvements she brought to our lives that easily get taken for granted that could hopefully change.

Yeah somehow this book being a romance escaped me when it caught my eye, this definitely isn't my kinda book at all. That is on me though for still picking it up. Personal taste aside, this was painfully mediocre and sloppily written. I'm glad to be done.

The best kind of book is where after it is over, you are unable to think of a book that surpasses it that has a similar structure, plot, and subject matter. The Library at Mount Char is an incredibly unique read, and I struggle to come up with a book superior to it which has any sort of significant overlap. If there is a book that delivers what I am talking about hear, I need to get my hands on it, because this was extraordinary. Umbrella Academy might be the closest thing I can think of to compare to this too, and The Library at Mount Char overshadows it overwhelmingly. When judging the merits of a book, this kind of analysis is something I take in serious consideration, a book that expertly fills a niche that we didn't know we need filled.

It is laden with mysteries that only lead to larger mysteries, which sounds very cliche but I think is excusable in this case. Because every time something is revealed to the reader that leaves the reader realizing things are much grander than they initially appeared, the plot, characters, and everything else do not suffer from it. The grander the scope of the book got the more invested I found myself wanting to find out more and more.

The book does get excessively gory, though it does it well, it has purpose and doesn't come off as gore for the sake of gore. The brutality experienced and delivered by the characters is understandable and is what keeps the book on the trajectory to develop the story which Scott Hawkins aimed to deliver.

I found it gripping from beginning to end, it is one of those books where the closer the end came the stronger the sense of dread came over me, it ultimately left me wanting much more.

My only sticking point is when a certain grand master plan of a certain character finally is laid out bare for the reader. It is just a little too fantastical and too convenient for that character to achieve what they set out to achieve. It does of course offer explanation, though it is mostly chalked up to the character having such unimaginable power of comprehension and unparalleled foresight and through the means of executing such a plan is beyond the readers able to understand. Basically a plan worked because the plot called for it, and is explained away as that it just serves as proof of how crafty and beyond comprehension the character pulling it off really is. For me though the book does an overwhelming amount of things right that my wariness with this in particular is easy for me to overlook.

One of the best books I have read in a while, I want get my hopes up for any kind of sequel but if there is one I would pick it up in a heartbeat.

I honestly don't know what I just read here. There is a coherent enough plot to string everything along forward, so the book wasn't unreadable even if a majority of the subtext flew over my head. So much of it remains a mystery, but I still came out in the end with a valuable interpretation of my own. I don't know if that was the intention. On one hand it feels like the kind of book where author's intent becomes very important to know in order to "get" the book. Though somehow simultaneously it also gives the feeling that any intent Delany might have doesn't matter, the book proves so amorphous that hammering for a unified meaning would only detract from its power. I think William Gibson put it best, Dhalgren is "a riddle that was never meant to be solved".

It takes on class struggle, sexuality, racial injustice, and mid 20th century bohemia and scales it all down to just a "city" of 1,000 or so people. If that sounds like a lot of people, it is not.

I have my own goofy interpretation of what the book really is trying to do, but probably best to keep to myself. This is the sort of book where it is better to have everything revealed along the way.