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Mysteriarch 📖

mysteriarch@bookwyrm.social

Joined 4 years, 4 months ago

Interested in history, philosophy, social criticism, weird-fiction, sci-fi

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Mysteriarch 📖's books

Emily Nagoski: Come As You Are (Paperback, imusti, Scribe UK)

Review of 'Come As You Are'

There's some great stuff in here, both for women and men. I really liked the women-as-default approach Nagoski took - not just because it's primarily a book on female sexuality but also the implied similarities with male sexuality. There's a combination of psychology, mindfulness, media literacy and open body positivity that's absolutely worthwhile, where there's room for everyone in a respectful way.

Andrew Boyd: I Want a Better Catastrophe (Paperback, 2023, New Society Publishers, Limited)

An existential manual for tragic optimists, can-do pessimists, and compassionate doomers

With global heating projected …

Review of 'I Want a Better Catastrophe'

I really appreciated the pessimistic premise and I recognise many of the thoughts and predicaments that Boyd is struggling with. Ultimately, I don't even mind the lack of answers. There's only a direction. It's not a bad book for people who are struggling with the climate crisis. But I, personally, missed some focus and maybe more forceful, combative attitudes.

Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan (1991)

As the first novel opens, Titus, heir to Lord Sepulchrave, has just been born: he …

Review of 'Titus Groan'

Low fantasy novel full of descriptive scenes set in a sprawling, dripping, ancient castle complex, Gormenghast. Full of idiosyncratic characters, with their own patterns of speech, mannerisms and roles to play in the complex ritual existence of the castle and the Groan lineage, the story is a labourous study in pure conservatism in its strictest meaning. While the concept is sound, the whole exercise in describing the minute changes cascading through the book didn't do that much for me. There's no real conclusion to the book (although it's the first in a trilogy) and I get that it's part of the ideas about stand-still, but this makes it of limited interest to a wider audience.

At the back of their personal troubles, hopes and fears, this less immediate trepidation grew, this intangible suggestion of change, that most unforgivable of all heresies.