Reviews and Comments

wrul (pre‐2023)

wrul@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years, 7 months ago

2023 Update: Although I may still finish up quoting and reviewing a few books through this account if they are already partly documented here, new book‐readin–posting is now going on through wrul@book.snailhuddle.org. See you there! 😊

they (en), yel (fr), etc. Nairm & Birrarung-ga, Kulin biik gopher://breydon.id.au | gemini://breydon.id.au | https://breydon.id.au/reading

Testing out a stenography system by remarking on the odd good sit-down. Sometimes nicking vocab from non-ficcy bits.

Let me know if we know each other from elsewhere, and please feel free to say hi (or not) either way!

My user avatar is a rainbow lorikeet feeding on orange gum blossoms.

Ratings, roughly: “Half” stars (to approximate zero) seemed almost pure harm and were poorly written. 1s were slogs and wastes. 2s I would have refused publication pending thorough rounds of redrafts, reframing, and/or reresearch. 3s read neither fantastically nor awfully, or they did both just enough that it cancelled out — unless they delighted but I barely began, so couldn’t reliably say. 4s held something, substantial, of distinct interest or especial enjoyment, which might richly reward a deliberate revisiting. 5s may not ring perfect to me, but I would gift or receive with unhesitating gladness.

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The Space Between Worlds (Paperback, 2020, Hodder & Stoughton) 5 stars

Eccentric genius Adam Bosch has cracked the multiverse and discovered a way to travel to …

structurally and emotionally accomplished

5 stars

I had wanted something to read where I did not feel obligated or compelled to take notes, but then there were so many phrases buttressing the plot worth noting down, that I quickly ran out of bookmarks — even despite abandoning a majority of Johnson’s sharpest constructions to the depths of pages read. So, by a third in, I guessed that regardless of how I was to find this novel in any other respects, The space between worlds was at least a four star piece for revisitability. The word-to-word texture remained more prosaic than I fully take to in fiction, but there is much to appreciate in what Johnson has built, and how.

All Boys Aren't Blue (AudiobookFormat, 2021, Penguin Random House Children's UK) 4 stars

This powerful YA memoir-manifesto follows journalist and LGBTQ+ activist George M. Johnson as they explore …

spoilt by middle

4 stars

Really great from the get-go, but sagging several chapters in. The blithe affluence becomes grating, especially as Johnson repeatedly presents the showering of children with trendy consumer goods, televisions, video game consoles, amusement-park– and hotel–filled vacations, resented summer camps, ongoing sports team expenses, college costs, and other eye-popping luxuries as the epitome of Black familial love. Lauding a sibling for not being awful, and raiding private moments from the life of a deceased transfeminine cousin — after somewhat shunning her in life, forcing her to be refigured as inspiration porn for publication — complete the spoiling of a memoir that is otherwise imbued with transformative potential well beyond the bland story it relates.

started reading Books as History by David Pearson

Books as History (Paperback, 2011, The British Library and Oak Knoll Press) 3 stars

Books have been hugely important in human civilisation, as instruments for communicating information and ideas. …

Four months after first starting to seek out a copy of this to borrow, I have forgotten who it was who piqued my interest in it. There was a bookish conversation on BookWyrm crossing my feed some intriguing titles came up in, but when is there not? Anyway, thanks, people!