Reviews and Comments

In the end, Cal makes good points, explains them clearly, and provides examples. Take want you want and leave the rest, but there's a lot worth taking (e.g. no phone in the bedroom, no social apps on phone, use browser extensions to limit access to social media to certain times, cultivate "hands-on" hobbies that bring a sense of meaning and worth, focus on longer form and ideally in-person communication over likes and comments, etc).

Less great parts: the dude is a well-off white man and it shows. No compelling ideological orientation towards society to be found here, and too many throw-away examples that assume an audience who shares most/all of his privilege. He's got a few mentions of women here and there (largely that they've been fucked, historically) but it's in no way fundamental to his argument. If you've done any reading in the productivity realm you're used to this, …

Really like the slow movement from red and black to full color. It was great. The translation felt a little bit stilted, but it didn't impact how relatable or enjoying I found this. Lucy reviewed it on her Instagram, which is how I found out about it. 

Just a weird little tale. Liked it, but not overwhelmingly so.

This was great. It made me cry. Yeah, it's a may/december romance between a 70-something and a thirty-something, but it's also just about loneliness, nostalgia, modernity, and being outside the flowing stream of society. The sex is one throwaway vague sentence, which suited me just fine. I'm here for the quiet vulnerability and the power of eating and drinking between humans. ¯

_(ツ)_/¯ can't explain why I liked it so much, but there it is. 

DNF. Don't know if it's the writing or the translation, but the prose is so stilted and lifeless. The first chapter was especially painful. Gave up at the 50% mark. I just didn't care about the characters or the setting.

We start with an almost unbearably diverse and accepting world. The kind
of checks-every-box utopia that strains credulity in 2020. I almost
closed the book because it felt a little contrived. The world is a bad
hard place and it is kind of a struggle to read otherwise right now. But in the end, the cynicism of the present was the perfect lens for taking in this little book!

I was primed to look for cracks in the
facade of this seemingly perfectly safe and perfectly diverse world,
just as Jam, the main character, resists seeing them herself. It’s a
great juxtaposition. Jam’s optimism and resilience played against the
brutal realism of Pet’s quest left me, by the end, hoping to one day
have a future worth protecting-one that’s imperfect but still full of
love and care, as Lucille is. All the characters were richly drawn and a joy to …

John le Carré makes smooth writing look easy. It's not needlessly florid, nor is it noticeably sparse and hardboiled. It it very Smiley-like: unassuming but effective. 

As others have said, this isn't a spy novel, it's a mystery George Smiley happens to be in. But a good mystery! 

I enjoyed a nice meander through class politics and academic culture alongside the murder mystery. My only gripe is that the ending wrapped up a bit too quickly. All the build up was great, and then a three page "so here's what actually happened" speech and it was over. 

Excited to plough ahead to the actual spy novels!

I love the subtle character work and small small dramas of post-war English life in Barbara Pym novels. Mildred is such a self-deprecating but lovable narrator, and so well rendered. I loved this slow and in some ways unexciting book. Strongly recommend!

I am not a romance reader (fic does it better and is queerer), but enough people suggested Courtney Milan as a well-written exception that I gave it a shot. 

I thought I was getting regency cishets, and I did, but with a big dose of labor rights and unionization. Hell yeah!

Still not my genre, but this surpassed my (low) expectations. Well written, tolerable sex scenes, healthy relationships and communication. Probably better than 90% of romance novels. 

May or may not care enough to continue the series. 

Good magic system and world building, mediocre writing, above-average at non-linear storytelling, and meh on characterization. I have hope that the good parts of built here will be joined by better character work in the next book.