justinlife's Reviews (916)

This wasn't what I expected. 

If you've read the Sandman Series, at the end of it, the lead character goes through a metamorphosis and becomes something newer.  This overture goes back to right before the events that started the Sandman series and shows how he was able to get captured and be that vulnerable. 

It's a great read and the art really does a great job of matching the originals while updating it. We get more of some of Dream's family including his parents. I liked revisiting these characters and seeing them again. It was fun to go back and it was done thoughtfully and felt fresh. 

I read this book right after a couple heavy books. This was a nice break. 

I really loved the first of this series so I was expecting to love this one. What I didn't expect is that this book takes place in an entirely different part of the galaxy and does not include any of the characters from the first one. This can really be read as a standalone. It took me a good 50 pages before recognizing that it was completely different. Same galaxy, different area, different government, different characters. 

The story is solid and I enjoyed the ride this book takes the reader on. I appreciate that Maxwell created a character that is chaotic and remains chaotic all the way through. The character does grow, but he still remains chaotic. This was a fun sci-fi novel that was a nice reprieve from heavier books. 

I look forward to seeing where she goes from here. Will there be a connecting line to all the coalitions? Will we see some of these characters again? Who knows, but it's a fun read regardless. 

What a delightful read. Honestly the audiobook is lovely too. 

Without giving too much away, here we have warriors from two sides trying to ensure their future exist by making changes to the timeline. Two warriors start communicating to each other and leads to some of the most romantic and sweet letters surrounded by dense images of science fiction. 

This books is exquisite, short, and just lovely. Falling in love with someone through their words and communicating only via letters is something we don't get to see much of. We forget how powerful our minds are when we want to communicate. 

If you're looking for romance that's yearning and wanting filled with luscious imagery, this novella is for you. 

Part memoir of smut, part critique of city planning, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue discusses the lived experience of author Samuel Delany from the 50s to the 90s and the potential change of what Times Square will be and the problems with removing the salacious aspects of life. 

The book is two essays. In Times Square Red we follow Delaney as he offers personal stories in the porn theaters and the culture they create. Through him, you meet his friends, his liaisons, and you get to navigate a world often talked about but for most never experienced. We meet people who might be mentally unwell, students, teachers, blue collar workers, and white collar workers. Delaney shares his experience and history and the lives of these men. It's kind of like a smut memoir without the titilation. 

In Times Square Blue, Delaney discusses why these spaces are important to cities and kindly rebukes many if not all your assumed complaints. He offers insight into public planning, self policing, understanding how similar small town/city life can be and also who benefits when these change. Times Square Blue is a bit more meatier as he brings in Marxism and some terms that I did not know. If I'm being vulnerable, the last five pages were quite difficult and I had to read them aloud to make sure I understood what I was reading, and even then, I'm not sure I did. 

Combined, we get this view of an old Times Square where the sex world operated in full view. We see how much more conservative we've become as a society (this is more about America than internationally). Because he was focused on his experience and this one area, there were some things that were lacking to me. I would have added a comparison to international cities that have legal sex work practices and how America, particularly NYC differs. 

Being that it's now 26 years after the book has been published, we can see where he was right and where he might have been mistaken. His view of how to stop domestic violence and things like catcalling seemed very narrow minded, but of the era. It was an interesting read. 

There is much to appreciate about this book. I will keep this book in my mind when visiting cities and having random conversation with strangers. He makes solid points and he challenges your views in a good way. It's good to get uncomfortable. 

I would've given this book 5 stars because of the practical information that one can put into practice right away, which is something you want from a book like this. After thinking about it though, this book, while amazing, isn't for everyone. Particularly those suffocating under debt, low wages, and chronic illness.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's discuss why this book is really good. I feel like there are a lot of people who have an unhealthy relationship with money and credit. There's this thing about it that feels overwhelming and scary. There's shame. There's denial. There's the fear that a financial book is going to tell you are doing it wrong and you're worthless. Well, this book does the opposite of all of that. This book challenges a lot of the ideas around saving and investing, around budgeting and planning, and about shame and denial with money. This book understands that things happen and that not everyone starts at a good place. It recognizes the psychological toll finances can place on us and provides basic knowledge to arm ourselves.

One of my favorite things about it was when she was describing credit cards as a knife rather than just evil. Yes, it can cut you, but it can also make you a nice stir fry. Those little nuggets can help change the way we view money and recognize our own power. While I am a guy, I didn't receive a lot of financial education growing up. This book provides the remedial education. If you already have some basic knowledge of how it works, then you might be bored, but you might also take something from her feminist perspective on how men are taught differently than women.

I enjoy Daryl Banner as a writer. I feel like with this series he is capturing a small town, queer friendly vibe and providing that blueprint not only for other creators but for people who read it and can see what an LGBTQ friendly small town could look like. For that, these books are fun to read. 

Overall, though, I didn't care for the romance in this. I struggle with characters who are too filled with anxiety and have a hard time finding their place in the world. One 0f the characters is like this and it's hard to read. I am sure there are people who can relate and I love that they can do that with this character. 

Banner plays with the secret romance and the former friends to lovers tropes well. He knows what he's doing with this genre. The characters care for each other and you want them to succeed, no matter how unlikely the pairing is. 

Banner shines with the supporting characters. A lot of former characters make an appearance and with these brief interactions, we get to see into their lives and what's going on. I appreciate that. I would really like it if he did a short story collection to touch base with them. In this book, we're introduced to a couple of new characters that could make good books for them up. Kudos to him for setting that up. 

It got too wordy for the plot. There’s a lot of good, salient points that are made but I didn’t care 

UGH! 

that's about all I can say about this one. Ugh. This is a tough read. It's kind of draining when you realize how those at the losing end of societies standards are affected by that physically. Weathering is a concept about the body ages more when faced with societal injustices. The case Geronimus focuses on most in this book is maternal death and birth rates. 

It's jarring. It's uncomfortable and at times depressing. That being said, it's an important book and I feel that most people should read this. It's not too academic that you can't follow along. Seeing how being any of the following can affect health is eye opening in the best way: poor, racial minority, sexual minority, any other sort othering society places. 

Having this knowledge can help us view people with empathy and look at ways to making society more equitable by adding compassion and empathy. Pick it up, prepare yourself, and take what you can to heart. When you have a stacked deck, how can you find ways of managing your body and not over aging it? 

It's hard with a book like this b/c I want to be honest with how I felt about it but also recognize the work it took to go into creating this novel. 

My review reflects my opinion. Others might enjoy it, but for me the book left me feeling disappointed. I was disappointed with the stories Obreht chose to tell and also sad b/c it felt like there were many many others she could have told. 

The book follows two characters, Nora, living in Arizona during a drought, waiting for her husband and sons to return and Lurie, who is an outlaw living with the ghosts of his past and the ghosts around him. Nora is one of the most unlikable and unsympathetic characters I've read in a while. I couldn't understand her choices and her refusal to see the present in front her. She was mean and mean spirited and seemed like someone who had to be right. 

Lurie's story was interesting enough but I barely remember a lot of it. Him surviving through the west with his animal made for interesting breaks. 

This book didn't grab ahold of me. It didn't make me want to read it. In fact, it did the opposite. I wanted to put it down at almost every chance. The pacing was weird and by the time the book does get interesting (about 100 pages from the end), I didn't care about any of the characters to really feel the gravity of the situations they were in. 

When the book ended, it just left me feeling disappointed. There was a lot that didn't get resolved. A lot that could have been fun to read. It's like if Obreht has condensed the first 200 pages and to 100 and took some to explore the aftermaths, I would have liked it more. 

Overall a fun read. Low stakes, past traumas affecting present day decisions, mending past relationships. 

Easy and breezy.