nadia's Reviews (587)

Another excellent instalment. The action picks up in this one and I love how you see that mixed in with groundwork being laid down for narrative arcs that move more slowly and that we‘ll surely revisit in more detail in later volumes. 

The art remains stunning. 😍

I can't remember the last time I had a reading experience like this. I was NEVER bored. I laughed out loud — including on public transport — sooo many times. I learnt so much about South Africa and apartheid. And when there were tone shifts from the funny to the serious, it hit me.

There was one thing that struck me as strange about this book and it became increasingly (but still only slightly) jarring the closer I got to the end: it's like the book is trying to be standalone essays and a book with one narrative arc running through it at the same time. Sometimes, bits of information were repeated. You think: But Trevor, you already told me this! Then you remember: Oh yeah, standalone essays. Then within the same chapter something is referred to from a prior chapter. So, what the reader is supposed to know already within any given chapter seemed to change each chapter. 

Like I said, kinda jarring, and I almost took half a star off of my rating, but then I just thought back on the whole reading experience and I just couldn't. It was magical!

By the way, I knew pretty much nothing about Trevor Noah before reading this book. I'd listened to one podcast episode which features him being interviewed about The Daily Show's creative process and then I've watched a handful of short Daily Show clips.

This book was a lot more enjoyable than I remembered and, surprisingly to me, I enjoyed it more than the first one. I think it's because the first one is slower and more of an introductory/"let's set everything up" novel.

I used to call out Chamber of Secrets as my least favourite one, but I think being older and knowing the whole story makes it shine more. Also, I was surprised by how much I laughed out loud at this one.

Fun fact: When I originally read the HP novels, I read Chamber of Secrets first! It was the only one in the library after I'd heard about them and my dad told me it didn't matter. "Read that one for now and we'll get you the rest after." So I read book 2, then book 1, before getting onto book 3. Older me (complete with a whole bunch of reading preferences and a high sensitivity to spoilers) is horrified that this happened, and maybe this did affect my enjoyment of this book back then. So yeah, this is the very first time I'm reading the books in their intended reading order. 😅 

My first ever reread.

I had to remind myself that these were written for children at times. 😅

There was such a strong emotional and nostalgic pull, and it was fun spotting early signs of things to come!

I didn't hate this book, but it's also one of those that didn't need to exist.

I didn't love or care for any of the characters and, upon reflection, the reader isn't given enough to justify or understand the whole hostage situation, the reactions of the people involved, or the ending.

3 ⭐️ is still a good, solid read for me. And the book was close to that because I can't deny that I was hooked at points, eagerly turning the pages to see what happened next. The main reason I docked points was because of the way the whole thing ended up. It left me going: huh?

Interesting trivia — this, and not Carrie, was King's first novel, since he wrote it in high school in 1966. On top of that, it's really hard to track down a copy of Rage these days. After a copy was found in the locker of a 1990s high school shooter, King demanded that the book be taken out of print!

This book made me sad. Mainly because it got me thinking about all of the people who get caught and die at the hands of terrible diseases like cancer, especially those unfortunate to die so young.

I really appreciated Paul Kalanithi's descriptions of what his body went through post his freak lung cancer diagnosis at the age of thirty-six. If you're fortunate enough to never have suffered from anything like this, or to have had a close family member or friend go through it, it's eye-opening and important to have some form of understanding of what sort of things can happen when your body starts to break down from the inside.

I also appreciated the exploration around identity and how someone chooses to spend the time they have left when faced with impending death.

My rating reflects my personal reading experience of the book. I struggled to connect with Kalantihi's voice and storytelling. It seemed rather cold or clinical a lot of the time. For me, the tone didn't match the weighty subject matter and that led to a disconnect as I read.

Similar to my rating for Marshall Rosenberg's "Nonviolent Communication" book, Matthew Walker's "Why We Sleep" joins my "everyone should read this book" 5⭐️ pile.

Yes, the book is slow and dense at times, but overall very readable. I spent the book in a state of fear mixed with fascination.

Walker touches on how our sleep has developed, different stages of sleep, the affects of caffeine and alcohol, sleep across a human's lifetime, sleep's link to Alzheimer, cancer, and other diseases, and a lot more.

I've been made aware that the book likely contains factual inaccuracies or overblown claims — e.g. https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/#no-two-thirds-of-adults-in-developed-nations-do-not-fail-to-obtain-the-recommended-amount-of-sleep — but I'm not yet convinced that Matthew's book will cause overall harm. 

I think that the more people that read this book, the more of us that will try and eek out an extra 30-60 minutes in bed, leading to happier and healthier people that are a lot more productive and pleasant to be around.

Let me know if you do think the claims in Walker's book are potentially incredibly damaging. I'm open and willing to have my mind changed on this one!