zak_martell's Reviews (277)

Cormac McCarthy is a real hit or miss author for me. This title is by far a hit.
There's something about the way he writes people that just feels real. Like these people are really out there somewhere, and that quality makes his villains all the scarier for it.

This is a brilliant book that doesn't outstay its welcome. I personally preferred Blood Meridian, but this is up there with my favourites from McCarthy.

I'd heard great things about Maus, and finally got round to trying it for myself. The way it was written as a conversation -- jumping back and forth in timelines -- was perfect. It felt like I was getting a direct first hand account.
It was a genius way of telling a story that isn't easy to tell. It was definitely worth the hype for me.

Interesting mix of biography of Darwin and a more typical book on the subject of evolutionary psychology.
Linking the topics to Darwin's life worked for me in places, but in others made it feel a little bloated -- as you had to wade through a detailed passage on a time in Darwin's life, before finally getting to the part that tied it back to the topic, in a way that occasional felt like a stretch.

Definitely worth reading.

Having finished this book, I remain somewhat unconvinced that ADHD is in fact adaptive. Despite this, I think the book is worth a read and includes some interesting anecdotes at the end too.

Interesting ideas. Each chapter being devoted to a different emotion was great.

I didn't think this would be my thing. It feels like it should be quite airy-fairy and spiritual. But I enjoyed it. It feels like the methods in here could really work for people whether you're a spiritual person or not.

I found it a little tricky to keep track of all the names at first.

I enjoyed the low magic setting.

Keep a notebook handy with this one.
Fascinating all the way through.

One criticism would be that sometimes numbers from studies are referenced as ‘negligible’ etc. when I’d have preferred specific numbers.

I’m not sure if I missed something going in to this, but I was under the admittedly whimsical impression that this was non-fiction.

As fiction, it’s nothing particularly notable.

This is a very difficult book to rate. There are things I think it does well.
A standout is the way the boy is written. I don’t believe we’re given a specific age for him, but I found his dialogue very real for a child in that situation.

The main drawback for me is just how slow it is. After DNFing it multiple times over the years I ended up getting the audiobook and listening to it on almost twice the speed in order to not get bored with so little going on.
With that said, once I was getting through it at a better pace, I did begin to enjoy it much more.