Reviews and Comments

Cassandra

CassandraL@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years, 5 months ago

Into lefty Christian stuff, tarot cards, tabletop roleplaying games, and…you know. Fiction and nonfiction and whatever.

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Dave Eggers, Shawn Harris: The Eyes and the Impossible (2023, Random House Children's Books)

My niece recommended this, so it's an important book. Also, I can already feel my heart being wrenched. Generally I avoid stories about animals because I am soft and easily bruised, mentally and emotionally, but MY NIECE RECOMMENDED THIS so it must be read. And four chapters in, it's pretty darn mesmerizing.

Dave Hillis: A Complicated Grace (Paperback, BitterSweet Books) No rating

A Complicated Grace is a collaborative memoir by Dave Hillis that explores the themes of …

Gosh. A LOT of thoughts and feelings about this book; it deserves a more thoughtful "review" but the one thing I feel prepared to say off the cuff is that it's remarkable how "Pacific Northwest" this feels to me. It's really rare that any work of art or literature provokes a "yes, this was made where I'm from" reaction in me but A Complicated Grace really did. I'll be ruminating on this and if anything actually interesting comes to me I'll add it here, but wanted to note it at least: this collaborative memoir is extremely Tacoma.

commented on A Complicated Grace by Dave Hillis

Dave Hillis: A Complicated Grace (Paperback, BitterSweet Books) No rating

A Complicated Grace is a collaborative memoir by Dave Hillis that explores the themes of …

Really thought-provoking and poignant. A side effect of all the poems in the book: I'm realizing I really ought to read more poetry. Just, like, in general. This is a good start.

Dave Hillis: A Complicated Grace (Paperback, BitterSweet Books) No rating

A Complicated Grace is a collaborative memoir by Dave Hillis that explores the themes of …

The intro says this book is intended to be read slowly, and I'm already failing—this is just extremely readable and propulsive. I can easily imagine returning to passages for more contemplative rereads, though.

commented on The origins of totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt (A Harvest book,)

Hannah Arendt: The origins of totalitarianism (1973, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich)

The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951, was Hannah Arendt's first major work, wherein she …

I hit 99 pages like a week or more ago, and I turned the book back into the library yesterday because it has a hold on it. My reach exceeded my grasp! I'm marking my progress so I can get The Origins of Totalitarianism back at some point and finish reading it. But for now...we're on pause.