Reviews and Comments

nerd teacher [books]

whatanerd@bookwyrm.social

Joined 4 years, 3 months ago

Exhausted anarchist and school abolitionist who can be found at nerdteacher.com where I muse about school and education-related things, and all my links are here. My non-book posts are mostly at @whatanerd@treehouse.systems, occasionally I hide on @whatanerd@eldritch.cafe, or you can email me at n@nerdteacher.com. [they/them]

I was a secondary literature and humanities teacher who has swapped to being a tutor, so it's best to expect a ridiculously huge range of books.

And yes, I do spend a lot of time making sure book entries are as complete as I can make them. Please send help.

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The Labyrinth House Murders (2024, Pushkin Press, Limited) 4 stars

Definitely a Good Story, but...

4 stars

Content warning I have to spoil it to talk about the aspect that annoys me.

The Tumbling Girl (Paperback, Pushkin Vertigo) 5 stars

1876, Victorian London.

The feisty Minnie Ward is scraping a living as a scriptwriter for …

Absolutely Enjoyable

5 stars

It's been a while since I really found a book that I just gelled with. Like, really gelled with because of its sense of humour (when it's called for), structure, style, and characters. It's also a bit more distant from the police (though they still exist), including some actual critique of the police and how connections corrupt. It's still pretty minimal, but it's so much nicer in that regard than a lot of other mystery/detective fiction where they highlight how police do so little and then are promptly running to the cops to fix things, while this is more of a tenuous situation of people both using the tools they have (individual cops) and recognising that the whole thing sucks.

Again, it's not full-on anti-police, but it at least recognises aspects that other detective fiction often glosses over... And I appreciate that.

It also indicated that there'd be a romance …

Orientalism (Penguin Modern Classics) (2003, Penguin Books Ltd) 3 stars

Orientalism is a 1978 book by Edward W. Said, in which the author discusses Orientalism, …

There are two things that I'm not liking about this book.

First, I hate how many clauses within clauses Said uses. It makes it really hard to follow a sentence and understand what it's trying to say, which is already difficult as a dyslexic reader. For him being the "accessible" option to learning about Orientalism, it makes me wonder how inaccessible other works are seen to be. Even upon re-reading sentences, I often find myself lost in trying to figure out what is even meant by it. This is more than likely a me-thing, but it's just frustrating (and this is coming from someone who often gets accused of not being straightforward enough in English and using clauses within clauses).

Second, there is a ridiculous amount of untranslated text. For a book written in English, I never thought I'd need to be proficient in either German (which I'm okay with) …

Orientalism (Penguin Modern Classics) (2003, Penguin Books Ltd) 3 stars

Orientalism is a 1978 book by Edward W. Said, in which the author discusses Orientalism, …

There are two things that I'm not liking about this book, though one is something that I can find roughly forgivable even if it's infuriating.

First, I hate how many clauses within clauses Said uses. It makes it really hard to follow a sentence and understand what it's trying to say, which is already difficult as a dyslexic user. For him being the "accessible" option to learning about Orientalism, it makes me wonder how inaccessible other works seen to be. Even upon re-reading sentences, I often find myself lost in trying to figure out what is even meant by it. This is more than likely a me-thing, but it's just frustrating (and this is coming from someone who often gets accused of not being straightforward enough in English and using clauses within clauses).

Second, there is a ridiculous amount of untranslated text. For a book written in English, I never …

Orientalism (Penguin Modern Classics) (2003, Penguin Books Ltd) 3 stars

Orientalism is a 1978 book by Edward W. Said, in which the author discusses Orientalism, …

There are two things that I'm not liking about this book, though one is something that I can find roughly forgivable even if it's infuriating.

First, I hate how many clauses within clauses Said uses. It makes it really hard to follow a sentence and understand what it's trying to say, which is already difficult as a dyslexic user. For him being the "accessible" option to learning about Orientalism, it makes me wonder how inaccessible other works seen to be. This is one of the few things I cannot forgive because it creates an excessive lack of clarity, even upon multiple re-reads of sentences.

Second, and this is probably the more forgivable one for me, there is a ridiculous amount of untranslated text. For a book written in English, I never thought I'd need to be proficient in either German (which I'm okay with) and French (which I'm not okay …

The Consultant (2024, Bloomsbury) 1 star

The Consultant is very good at his job. He creates simple, elegant, effective solutions for... …

If Offered, I'd Reject It

1 star

This book really left me disappointed, especially with the promised concept. Perhaps it was the marketing team yet again, but this book was not as expected. It was excruciatingly dull beyond belief (amusingly so for the protagonist to be like "I'm sorry I'm not a funny killer" or something to that effect in the middle).

Whatever "satire" exists in this novel, it was so easy to skip over as to not really notice it.

The Noh Mask Murder (2024, Pushkin Vertigo) 5 stars

This ingeniously constructed masterpiece, written by one of Japan's most celebrated crime writers and translated …

Charming and Enjoyable

5 stars

I have become really enamoured with a lot of the translations of Japanese detective and mystery fiction that have been coming out as of late, and it's more because a lot of them seem to be grounded both in a passion for other novels that I've enjoyed (a common occurrence in some is mentioning at least one Western classic detective author) while also putting their own spin on it to make it wholly their own, grounding it in very specific aspects of Japan and Japanese culture (not all of it, obviously, but definitely some of it). It's this kind of playing with elements and building upon their own obvious interests in works that came before that I genuinely enjoy.

I also really like how refreshing this specific novel is. I can't comment on why without spoiling it and its structure, which I think would greatly decrease a person's experience. But …

The better angels of our nature (2011) 1 star

From Goodreads: Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of …

Surprisingly, Books Written By Grifters Are Garbage.

1 star

Steven Pinker, like many of his ilk, is nothing more than a grifter pretending to have been widely read in a specific (and too broad) topic, and this book proves that he really needed to shut up for a second and actually engage in a wider range of discussions and explorations in order to better understand "violence." He does not understand violence in any capacity, and he does not understand anything beyond a very narrow view of the world that only further benefits people like him.

My initial problem with the book is that he never outlines what he considers "violence" to be, and that should immediately position someone to ask the same handfuls of questions over and over again while they read this. He keeps saying things like "violence has decreased," but he never seems to recognise what violence is and often hems and haws over what to include. …

The better angels of our nature (2011) 1 star

From Goodreads: Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of …

SO. CLOSE. TO FINISHING.

But like, this guy literally references the "work" done by some of the most bigoted people (Charles Murray, Francis Fukuyama, Satoshi Kanazawa) and doesn't even ask questions about what they're saying. Like... Wow.

Also interesting that he can't define violence, so we're supposed to assume it's interpersonal violence only. He doesn't want to explore the violence of bureaucracy, which also leads to genocides. And it hasn't aged well considering he keeps claiming we "lived in a time of peace" when we didn't live there IN THE FIRST PLACE, and we certainly don't live there now.

reviewed Yellowface by R. F Kuang

Yellowface 3 stars

Authors Juniper Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena …

Conceptually interesting, deeply discomforting in presentation

3 stars

This wasn't a book that I could particularly feel okay reading; I'm fine with being made uncomfortable by topics within books, but there are rarely ways material is presented that makes me want to crawl in a hole until it stops. That is how this book felt because the constant focus on the social media landscape made me want to look away, especially when I just kept repeating to myself all the things that June should've done (as if she were a real person).

The concept is really interesting, though I find the initial premise harder to believe in the setup (maybe it's simply that I wouldn't steal a manuscript from the apartment of someone who I'd just watch choke to death on mostly cooked pancakes, as that would never be my first thought). Everything that comes after, however, is mostly believable. (Well, except for some nitpicks, like June not …

The Empusium (2024, Fitzcarraldo Editions) 3 stars

In September 1913, Mieczysław Wojnicz, a student suffering from tuberculosis, arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse …

Not bad, though very slow.

3 stars

This book is very much a slow burn, and it kind of needs to be in order for the "twist" to make sense. In order to prompt the reader to ask the questions they need to be asking, they really have to follow Mieczysław's thoughts, experiences, and memories.

There is a horror story somewhere, but it's not... very horrific? It kind of feels tacked on in places. It is choreographed, but I think its existence within the story doesn't do much of anything. If anything, it's a very quick catalyst that prompts Mieczysław to live in the way they want. But anything could've been that catalyst, not the horror story that sometimes feels like it's... not even there.

I think if the horror story was utilised better or wasn't there at all, I would've liked this more.

Amulet. (2008, Graphix) 4 stars

Emily's and Narvin's mother is kidnapped and dragged into a strange and magical world where, …

Enjoyable and Also Good for Newer English Learners

4 stars

This book is really cute! And it's super enjoyable on its own. I'd definitely say give it a go, but do go into it knowing that the audience is primarily aimed at younger teenagers.

Anyway, I've been reading this book with my student, and they are someone whose English fluency is very much in the middle. They have a lot of typical school-based knowledge, but they haven't really had to use English that much outside of class (and even the class is very much lacking in actually using English other than the assignments). Those complaints are slightly irrelevant, but it does contextualise what I'm going to say here since my review is mostly with regards to that element.

This book is really good for kids who are newer to reading in English, and it is one that I'd recommend to people who want to encourage kids to start reading in …

The Memory Police (Paperback, 2020, Penguin Random House) 5 stars

**2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST

A haunting Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance, …

Ethereal and conflicting.

4 stars

I'm uncertain how it is that I feel about this book. I don't even know that I can call it enjoyable, though it is incredibly dream-like. There is so much care between the characters, but it also is hard to really enjoy.

It's impossible to really discuss it without spoiling all of it, and I don't particularly feel like writing more. But I can say that the book left me feeling somewhat empty, which I think is honestly the point considering the story itself (an island where things 'disappear', where people who remember are arrested by the Memory Police).