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nerd teacher [books]

whatanerd@bookwyrm.social

Joined 3 years, 10 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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My Friend Dahmer (2012, Abrams Comicarts) 1 star

You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer—the most notorious serial killer …

This book is astonishingly horrible from the very beginning. I cannot for the life of me understand all of the praise it has ever received because it is just a ridiculous amount of historical revisionism on the personal level, trying to build blame for Dahmer's actions on everyone else... and ignoring the implications of literally every decision made.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2016) 1 star

On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, young sorceress Sabrina Spellman finds herself at a …

This is... so messy and kind of boring.

1 star

I got this book a long time ago in some Humble Bundle sale around comics; I forget when that was, but I've had it sitting in my calibre library for ages. Finally getting around to, at least, reading the graphic novels and comics, I started reading this.

I do not at all feel enticed to read anymore of it. It's paced far too quickly, even for a collected volume of comic books. The story doesn't feel cohesive, with much of it feeling entirely random. I don't even feel a connection with any of the stories (except maybe Ambrose and Salem? who I feel more about... and I feel nothing for anyone else at all).

Nor do I like the implication that is made about how it's easy to recruit oppressed people into an organisation (using Nancy, one of the few Black characters). It was... certainly a choice. Definitely not a …

Bitch (Hardcover, 2022, Basic Books) 4 stars

A fierce, funny, and revolutionary look at the queens of the animal kingdom

Studying zoology …

We've only read the introduction, and I'm really enjoying her style of writing. Though I doubt it was really effortless, it does feel like she's got a very unique voice and style that just comes naturally and with so much ease. And goddamnit, there was a great alliteration in her writing with something like 'meerkat matriarchs are the most murderous mammals on the planet'. Just... her writing is very engaging.

Bitch (Hardcover, 2022, Basic Books) 4 stars

A fierce, funny, and revolutionary look at the queens of the animal kingdom

Studying zoology …

We've only read the introduction, and I'm really enjoying her style of writing. Though I doubt it was really effortless, it does feel like she's got a very unique voice and style that just comes naturally and with so much ease. And goddamnit, there was a great alliteration in her writing with something like 'meerkat matriarchs are the most murderous mammals on the planet'. Just... her writing is very engaging.

The Selfish Gene (Paperback, 2016, Oxford University Press) 3 stars

Had I not read this with someone, I would've thrown it out sooner.

1 star

Starting with the least egregious first: I have to say is that Dawkins' editors (across all the editions) definitely did not do their job, if they even tried to in the first place. There are areas where the book does nothing but repeat the same sentence over and over in consecutive lines, and it's like no one noticed that he wrote the same thing. I was starting to feel déjà vu when reading it out loud to my partner, and it was really pissing me off.

Next, his examples are almost entirely hypothetical, and I do not care if something is "mathematically sound." Does it actually work that way? Should I really be thinking of it in that framework? In a lot of parts, I really get the feeling that I shouldn't be and like he tried his best to tip-toe around the things he "shouldn't say but really wants …

The Selfish Gene (Paperback, 2016, Oxford University Press) 3 stars

I am really fucking stuck on him giving examples of apparently real things using hypothetical situations as often as he does? And most of them are incomprehensible because they start to read like boring ass math word problems where you zone out halfway through.

One of them involves HYPOTHETICAL SEAWEED. Like, what. Why?! Just... why?

I hate this man.

The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou (2024, Head of Zeus) 3 stars

They have told so many lies about me.

London, 1954. Zina Pavlou, a Cypriot grandmother, …

I feel like I've slowed on reading this because I just... am frustrated with the way the story is written. Like, it's not bad. It's just annoying that some characters don't seem to know what they're on about.

I still have a lot of book left, but I'm still trying to work out how this one narrative thread is being used? Because the author, in the press for the book, keeps pointing at a historical case that this fiction is based on... and it's just making me go "Yeah, but you said there wasn't a lot of press on this case. And that was a core feature of why the court was able to get away with treating her so badly... because what press was there wasn't sympathetic and there wasn't much of it at all, including from Cypriot press. So why not build that instead of... this form of …

The Premonition (2023, Faber & Faber, Limited) 3 stars

Yayoi lives with her perfect, loving family – something ‘like you’d see in a Spielberg …

A Little Torn...

3 stars

Content warning The thing I'm torn about is basically a spoiler for much of the purpose of the story.

Stepford Wives (Paperback, 2011, Corsair) 4 stars

The Stepford Wives is a 1972 satirical novel by Ira Levin. The story concerns Joanna …

Interesting Concept, Mediocre Execution

4 stars

The absolute worst part of this specific version of this specific novel is Chuck Palahniuk's introduction. I don't know why you'd ask him, of all people, to write a 'feminist intro' (or maybe he did that of his own accord, who knows)... But he failed miserably and engaged in misogynistic insult throwing while failing to understanding how structures of patriarchy, classism, and white supremacy intersect. (And he couldn't even recognise varying elements of queerphobia that were at play, either.)

Which is confusing considering Levin does a decent job at highlighting the horror of the 'feminist backlash'. Because it's much easier to see the backlash coming from the people in the middle- and upper- classes, this book is positioned well. It's still interesting to see that at least two of the women feel safe and secure with their "supportive" husbands, even though they have been steadily walking towards a tighter patriarchal …

commented on Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Stepford Wives (Paperback, 2011, Corsair) 4 stars

The Stepford Wives is a 1972 satirical novel by Ira Levin. The story concerns Joanna …

Reading Chuck Palahniuk's introduction... and it feels off because it doesn't seem to recognise an accurate directionality of oppression.

In the end of it he says:

Nevertheless, it's odd how the bookshelves are filling with pretty dolls. Those glazed pretty dolls wearing their stylish designer outfits—Prada and Chanel and Dolce—swilling their martinis and flirting, flirting, flirting in their supreme effort to catch a rich husband. Always a rich husband. Instead of political rights, they're fighting for Jimmie Choos. In lieu of protest, they express themselves through shopping. And men, they're no longer the oppressors—these days other women are, older women. In The Nanny Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada and Confessions of a Shopaholic, in this new generation of 'chick lit' novels, men are once more the goal. It's successful women who torment our pretty, painted narrators. Brassieres are back, as are girdles, eyelash curlers, perfumed and meticulously shaved …

The ABC Murders (2013, HarperCollins) 4 stars

There's a serial killer on the loose, bent on working his way through the alphabet. …

An Enjoyable Mystery

4 stars

Content warning The end of the review is marked again with the spoiler in question.