This wasn’t for me. I picked it up from Amazon First Reads because it was short and nothing else that month looked interesting to me. I enjoyed the meThis wasn’t for me. I picked it up from Amazon First Reads because it was short and nothing else that month looked interesting to me. I enjoyed the memoir-ish anecdotes, but the actual self-help (which is the bulk of the book) was really surface level and I couldn’t get into it. ...more
I loved The Imperfectionists. It's one of my favorite books, so when I heard Rachman had written something new, I just had to give it a shot.4.5 stars
I loved The Imperfectionists. It's one of my favorite books, so when I heard Rachman had written something new, I just had to give it a shot.
In The Rise & Fall of Great Powers, Rachman tells the story of Tooly Zylberberg at three different stages of her life: 1988, 1999, 2011. The chapters are not sequential overall but are within their time periods (that is, we don't jump from the end of 1988 to its beginning).
In 2011, Tooly's a little lost. She owns a failing bookshop and shies away from technology. Then, a Facebook message from her boyfriend in 1999 forces her to face her past, a past she never really understood. We learn about Tooly through her past, as she uncovers information in her present.
Rachman did a wonderful job of weaving everything together--though I have to say that it was particularly difficult in the beginning to keep track of when in time we were and who all the characters were. I enjoyed the whole book, but once I got to the final third, I couldn't put it down at all.
Soft Rot is vulgar. Soft Rot is raw. Almost too raw--it needed a copy editor (like, a real one and not just a friend doing a favor who's going to missSoft Rot is vulgar. Soft Rot is raw. Almost too raw--it needed a copy editor (like, a real one and not just a friend doing a favor who's going to miss missing apostrophes). Soft Rot is bleak and beautiful. These grimy stories full of alcohol and sex are poetically told. The ideas here are great. I won't say they need refinement--based on the voice I felt behind these stories, I'm pretty sure refinement is something Findlay would scoff at--but there's just something not quite attained. Yet.
Findlay, I think you have a lot of potential. When you decide to write your next book (which I definitely think you should), send it over. I'd be happy to mark in all your missing apostrophes.
Received through Goodreads First Reads.
--Edited to remove my jab about the word "franticly" which apparently is a word.--...more
This is Sreenivasan's first novel, and I think it's a good start. The world she created was believable, and I cared about what happened to her charactThis is Sreenivasan's first novel, and I think it's a good start. The world she created was believable, and I cared about what happened to her characters. Rasika and Abhay live completely different lives with mindsets worlds apart, but you can see why they're drawn to each other. This isn't a love story that happens in a minute; they don't see each other and fall in love immediately. It's a slow, gradual thing: predictable but beautiful in its determination.
My problems with the novel were that the characters were flat, the dialogue was stilted, and the sentence structure and descriptions were on the sophomoric side. Rasika and Abhay seem to each have one main thing that drives them: for Rasika, it's being perfect in the eyes of her parents and peers; for Abhay, it's finding the perfect environment and living in it harmoniously. People should be more complex than that. The dialogue didn't feel authentic which I think had something to do with Sreenivasan's sentence structures. She recycled the same structures over and over again. People don't really talk like that. Her characters were talking like she wrote; they didn't seem to have their own voices.
This was a quick, enjoyable read, and I'm looking forward to seeing Sreenivasan's next attempt--I would expect her style to be more developed by then.
Maybe if I'd had more exposure to Burroughs, I would have rated this lower. I jumped in without having read anything of his before and was pleasantly Maybe if I'd had more exposure to Burroughs, I would have rated this lower. I jumped in without having read anything of his before and was pleasantly surprised; I had nothing with which to compare it.
I didn't like this at first, but I think I was expecting short stories. I'd heard that Burroughs was a bit like David Sedaris (whom I love), and that's what I was looking forward to. These are not short stories. It took me a while to get into because I needed to change my frame of mind.
This is not your standard book of short stories. These are short stories told through the medium of a self-help book.
It's not quite a self-help book. It's not quite short stories. But whatever they are, they are lovely. I laughed out loud at least a half dozen times. I almost cried. It was a creative, new way of telling stories, and Burroughs gave a fresh perspective on quite a few issues from dealing with depression to the loss of a loved one. The issues are heavy, but he talks about them with care and love.
This is not the book you pick up to read on the plane ride to Vegas.
Onika lays out memory techniques to becoming a better poker. This is not a quick This is not the book you pick up to read on the plane ride to Vegas.
Onika lays out memory techniques to becoming a better poker. This is not a quick tips kind of book. You'll need to read it, practice his memory exercises, let it sink in, then move on to the next chapter to memorize more things.
I'm a casual poker player. I'll play a few hold 'em games every time I'm in Vegas (which is annually for a family trip), and I play a bit of free online poker for fun. I can definitely see Onika's tips coming in handy, but I haven't yet dedicated the time to put them to use. I would expect it would take a good few days of solid studying to get to the point where I could actually use what Onika teaches here.
Despite that, I found the book really interesting. I'm a numbers kind of girl, and this really breaks poker down into the numbers. It goes far beyond straight hand strength and into statistical strategy. He talks about real poker strategy, and it was fascinating to get into the head of a poker player. The most fascinating part of the book was the section on VPIP (how often a Player Voluntary puts money Into the Pot), Chapter B (yes, that says "Chapter B" not "Chapter 9"). By knowing another player's VPIP, you can get a good idea of how strong your hand is compared to theirs which is invaluable. This is the part that really got me going and the one I'm the most excited to try out.
Does wisdom fret at what's in store And boggle at what's gone before-- Or rather does it not, like us, Do what it must, and nothing more? And is there creDoes wisdom fret at what's in store And boggle at what's gone before-- Or rather does it not, like us, Do what it must, and nothing more? And is there credo any know More sound than that--to just adjust, adjust, adjust, adjust, adjust, And every trouble, worry, woe, Ignore, ignore, ignore, ignore?
That's the second stanza of Coen's first poem (titled "We Sheep") in this short collection and not at all what I had expected. I thought it beautiful, Eliot-esque even.
From there it degenerates ("degenerates" sounds more negative than what I was going for) into coarser language for crasser subjects. The difference between the first and second poems is particularly shocking. My initial reaction was distaste, but once I got over the shock, I quite liked it. The sentiments expressed (and oftentimes the words used) were not beautiful, but the total product was--in an odd, twisted way. Coen covers such broad, bawdy subjects as picking up chicks, bestiality, and farts. Lots of farts. Also included are over a dozen pages of limericks. The cadences are sometimes a little off, but they had me giggling.
Between all of that roughness, there's the occasional beautiful poem whose unexpectedness just takes your breath away.
Poetry doesn't haven't to be stuffy. Poetry doesn't have to be so highbrow all the time. This is accessible poetry, rhythmic (and rhyming) poetry, poetry with something genius trying to get out, and I would recommend this collection to anyone who won't offend easily or take it too seriously.
This is a short, readable collection of stories. I thought they would be all about trying to find love, but they're really about relationships--all kinds of relationships. Yes, there are a lot of stories about men, but they're not all about dating. There are a couple about neighbors, one about a best friend, and even one about Shannon's father. Shannon also writes quite a lot about her husband and the difficulties you can encounter in marriage.
I definitely don't share the perspective of the authors. I didn't appreciate their generalizations of women (like "In the end though, rationality can’t win out. Not with women. Not with me. Because there’s something my gender always wants more than truth: love.") or their negative characterizations of men (and how it's all right for a guy to ditch his best friend for his girlfriend), but you know what? I still thought it was funny. Some of the stories were even touching. Despite our different points of views, I thought I could be friends with Shannon and Megan. I've experienced some of the things they wrote about, and I've felt a lot of the feelings they expressed. I connected with them. You don't need to agree with everything someone says to be affected by her stories.
They bared their souls and took a risk, and this novel is a charming, hilarious product that they should be proud of.
I will definitely read whatever they decide to write next.
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