Hilarious is the word that describes the book. Every bit as funny as his comic strips and the book totally lives up to its title. The ingenuity which author used to describe the most arcane of things is just amazing.
It is fun to read, especially when you have no scientific idea about the thing being described. In fact, knowing the jargon of space and Physics in general actually hampered me, and at times reading in the most layman language I had to think for a minute which scientific object did author really meant.

The thing is, you won't read the entire book in one sitting. I don't think you actually can. Even though it is written in the lamest of language, the science stuff is still heavy. Don't get me wrong. That doesn't mean that the book is dense, quite the opposite. It is just that you don't want to go through all that information in one go. So sit with the book and a friend, every once in a while, choose a topic and laugh your ass off as you encounter the author's brilliance and innovation! :D

There is absolutely no doubt that Islam needs reform right now. The need is far more urgent than it has ever been. And the book does an interesting job of advocating exactly that, book, though a bit extreme at times, and over the line.
There is plenty in Islam which needs correction, and plenty of things in Quran which we can do away with. That much is true. And yes it is true too that violence, in some ways (specially in terms of call for Jihad), is condoned by the religion and the Quran. In fact, at times, it demand violence. But saying that every terrorist become so mostly because of the religious teachings, with little or no impact of the surrounding, the society, the economic and the educational background is grossly misleading. True, there are Muslims who have lived a privileged life in West and yet has gone to Syria and Iraq to join the extremists group, but that number is all by all means a small one. And Muslims living in West are certainly much less likely to join groups like Boko Haram and IS, as compared to those already living in the Middle-East.
Also, the author blames every wrong practice in any Islamic country directly on Islam itself (almost in all but one or two cases), with complete disregard of the fact that those practices reflect more of the regional cultural traditions and activities than Islam itself. Though Islam did prove to be a fertile ground for such ideas and actions, and in order to present a complete picture, I believe that is necessary to present too.
Also, the book feels like going in circles and honestly is a bit repetitive. The author conveyed her points in first 50 or so pages of the book. Rest 150 pages were just conveying the exact same idea after mentioning a different incidence which amplified how much is wrong with the Islam being practiced today.
Everything said and done, though I might disagree with some of the points the author mentioned in the book, and her blatant desire to avoid citing the statistics which won't support her point of view, on a broad level I absolutely agree with her. The Islamic world needs a "Renaissance" and can certainly do with more than one Voltaire.

Well, it was okay. It was stupid to even think this book will be as good as The Martian. Of course it wasn't. Starting from the story line, to the plot development, cliffhangers (I don't think there were any in this book) and the final delivery. And may be everything described in the book was scientifically and technically correct, I had hard time following some of the stuff. Whereas The Martian was easy to follow for anyone with high school science knowledge, this book extends that a bit further. At places went a bit arcane. Another thing, at the start of the book Andy Weir was really trying convey that the story is happening on moon. He mentioned like a million times that the gravity is 1/6th of that of Earth. Yeah, we got that first 10 times you mentioned it. Don't have to say in every chapter of the book! He had a few guidelines as to what a body of law will look like on a city established on moon, but I just refuse to accept that a place like that would have such off the hand kind of law. Felt it depended too much on the mob justice. Really not the best way to govern a city on an inhabitable moon.

In any case, it is an okay book. Read it if you don't have either Martian or any other Asimov book lying around!

Meh, of course it was never going to be as good as "To Kill a Mockingbird", but it wasn't that bad either. It was just okay.
I felt that the author portrayed the new dynamics of an adult life fairly well, at the same time though didn't appreciate the new light in which Atticus Finch was portrayed, or how certain characters had just disappeared.

Was okayish. I guess I read it just for the sake of it. Because her previous one was so good!

The book is beautiful. And after reading it becomes even harder to not like Joe Biden. His recounting of days when Beau Biden was diagnosed with cancer is so emotional and heartfelt. And being a resident of Delaware and from the same university as his alma mater, it feels even more relatable when he mentions some of the incidences.
When it comes to politics of things which were going on during that time and certain things which Obama administration did, like anyone else, of course he had his own prejudice to comply to and feels like his administration could do no wrong, whether it was in regard to foreign or domestic policy. But then that is not what the book was about, even if discussion of politics did take a great part of it. More than what I liked.

Overall it is a beautiful book, if sad!

Guess what, we have traveled too far in time for this book to have any meaning!

The story is fascinating, and the symbolism used in the book is intriguing. The book is a classic, so there is that. However I think it will be fair to assume that no matter how long humanity survives, it won't end up the way Wells imagined in his book. To be fair though, he wrote this book when we barely had any idea that atoms existed, didn't understand time at all, Einstein was still in school and far from revolutionizing our understanding of time and space and it won't be for another 18 years that mankind would know for sure flying was possible. So we could cut him some slack for presenting us with such a lame picture of future.
Asked, if I will recommend this book to anyone, I probably won't. I think in the last century or so, this book has pretty much lost all its charm or the fascination in regard to predicting the future. Sure it was a brilliant book in 1895 and is be respected for not only popularizing time travel, but also for the coining of term time machine, it is not worth it in 2018!

I will be honest about it. The only reason I bought this book was because this was written by someone I barely knew. There was a curiosity and it needed to be sedated. And given that I gave it 4 stars, it should go without saying that I did like it.

The first part of the book comprise of poems about love. And funnily it has no page numbers. May be that's intentional, you know with love being timeless and all. ;) So as I started reading them, I found my concentration drifting away after a few pages. And then it hit me, it is not a novel and I stopped gobbling up pages and took it slow. One poem at a time. Part of the reason why it took me 4 days to finish the book, even though it is a really small book.

There are some hidden gems in those lines, things about unconditional love and it's failures. It's inevitability and the consequences of that unavoidable emotion. The strife and the pleasure of falling in love. And the randomness of it all.

The next section is about pain. And about love too, for why else would there be pain without it? Liked this section most, probably because I could relate with those poems, those heartbreaks and all. There were lines which literally made me go wow. Some made me think, "Dang, I know that feeling. Exactly what the author meant." It was beautiful. And so contemporary. So much in 21st century and the struggle we face when we love in this era.

The last section was a collection of random poems, some had love or pain as their theme, most had their own theme. Really liked the one titled "Three". Was a small poem but liked the juxtaposition of three contrasting things or the randomness of it.

All in all, if you are not in mood for a Rumi or Frost, but some poetry nevertheless, it is a perfect book to pick up for some light reading! :)

So another magical world of Brandon to explore. I think this was his first graphics novel and he did a decent job of it. Story line and all. Though as of now it didn't add anything to the whole Cosmere plot but as the next book comes I am sure it will add something valuable to it.

This was the second book of the series and I have been waiting for a long time for this. Partially because of that and partially because I just finished reading Absolute Sandman (the masterclass by Gaiman) that I was not impressed much by this. Specially the art of of the book. It felt constricted and shoddy at places. As places too much color when a few would have done the work. I understand that the point of it was to show the culture of the place and how different people live. But still there are elegant ways to do that not just filling colors. And honestly I think for the third book (which I believe will come eventually) Branson need to get someone who is better at pencil art than the guy who is doing it right now.

Now as for the story itself, it was interesting. New Mastrell learning the politics of the place, convincing people of power to vote so that he can save the Diem was fascinating to see. The rule which accompanies how and when to carry out an assassination was another interesting feature.

Overall, won't recommend spending $16 for the book, but if you are into Cosmere then you kind of HAVE to buy the book to get the complete story. For me it was certainly worth the money I spent on it, thought probably not worth the amount of time I spent brooding over when it will be released, which was more than 3 months later than the first release date!