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mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Great little murder mystery.
I read this years ago but it wasn't in my read list for some reason. It's a must read if you're interested in naval non-fiction.
dark
sad
fast-paced
You know a company and its upper echelon are rephensible when you read a 300+ page hit piece on all the cosmically evil, morally bereft, super weird things they’ve done and Cambridge Analytica is only mentioned in passing.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
If you read one slice of life graphic novel this year, make it this one. It’s hilarious, the art grew on me so much, and the characterization is intensely good. I’d give it 6 stars if I could.
inspiring
reflective
Surprised to see such divisive reviews of Practical Gods. I really enjoyed it.
It's very reflective and pulls heavily from classical and biblical themes. There's a deep sense of loneliness and coming to terms with the end of one's life.
Some lines that really stuck with me:
From Department Store:
"Thou shalt not covet," hardest of the Commandments,
Is listed last so the others won't be neglected.
From Not the Idle:
The few who refuse to live for the plot's sake,
Major or minor, but for texture and tone and hue.
From Prophet:
If you're going to be a prophet, you must listen the first time.
From A Chance for the Soul:
Have I planted the seed of my talent in fertile soil? Which seemed a musing right at home with the best of Mary Oliver.
And finally, all of The God Who Loves You, worth savoring in its entirety.
It must be troubling for the god who loves you
It's very reflective and pulls heavily from classical and biblical themes. There's a deep sense of loneliness and coming to terms with the end of one's life.
Some lines that really stuck with me:
From Department Store:
"Thou shalt not covet," hardest of the Commandments,
Is listed last so the others won't be neglected.
From Not the Idle:
The few who refuse to live for the plot's sake,
Major or minor, but for texture and tone and hue.
From Prophet:
If you're going to be a prophet, you must listen the first time.
From A Chance for the Soul:
Have I planted the seed of my talent in fertile soil? Which seemed a musing right at home with the best of Mary Oliver.
And finally, all of The God Who Loves You, worth savoring in its entirety.
It must be troubling for the god who loves you
To ponder how much happier you’d be today
Had you been able to glimpse your many futures.
It must be painful for him to watch you on Friday evenings
Driving home from the office, content with your week—
Three fine houses sold to deserving families—
Knowing as he does exactly what would have happened
Had you gone to your second choice for college,
Knowing the roommate you’d have been allotted
Whose ardent opinions on painting and music
Would have kindled in you a lifelong passion.
A life thirty points above the life you’re living
On any scale of satisfaction. And every point
A thorn in the side of the god who loves you.
You don’t want that, a large-souled man like you
Who tries to withhold from your wife the day’s disappointments
So she can save her empathy for the children.
And would you want this god to compare your wife
With the woman you were destined to meet on the other campus?
It hurts you to think of him ranking the conversation
You’d have enjoyed over there higher in insight
Than the conversation you’re used to.
And think how this loving god would feel
Knowing that the man next in line for your wife
Would have pleased her more than you ever will
Even on your best days, when you really try.
Can you sleep at night believing a god like that
Is pacing his cloudy bedroom, harassed by alternatives
You’re spared by ignorance? The difference between what is
And what could have been will remain alive for him
Even after you cease existing, after you catch a chill
Running out in the snow for the morning paper,
Losing eleven years that the god who loves you
Will feel compelled to imagine scene by scene
Unless you come to the rescue by imagining him
No wiser than you are, no god at all, only a friend
No closer than the actual friend you made at college,
The one you haven’t written in months. Sit down tonight
And write him about the life you can talk about
With a claim to authority, the life you’ve witnessed,
Which for all you know is the life you’ve chosen.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This is genuinely such a great, informative read about the complex systems that bring us water, electricity, and data.
One thing that has irritated to no end with the rise of graphic novels is the finished product that had no real reason to be a graphic novel. A textual endeavor with some pictures shoe-horned in. Hidden Systems is not that. In fact, I don’t think its message could be as effectively told merely in text.
So hats off to Dan Nott, I learned a lot and enjoyed doing so.
One thing that has irritated to no end with the rise of graphic novels is the finished product that had no real reason to be a graphic novel. A textual endeavor with some pictures shoe-horned in. Hidden Systems is not that. In fact, I don’t think its message could be as effectively told merely in text.
So hats off to Dan Nott, I learned a lot and enjoyed doing so.
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Dark one shot graphic novel about teens whose parents are in a cult in a fictional town in Ohio. It's vague in a way that I found somewhat frustrating. The art is very well done.
The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor
informative
fast-paced
I put this on my to-read list in 2012. It’s an interesting look at both the sad life story of a teen hell bent on doing nuclear experiments and public policy and reception to nuclear energy from the 50s thru publication.
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Gruesome AF. The artwork is stunning.