Lethem's absurdist narrative and hard-boiled detective style is always fun to read.
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Success! garrett has read 12 of 12 books.
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garrett reviewed Amnesia moon by Jonathan Lethem (A Harvest book)
Review of 'Amnesia moon' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Lethem's absurdist narrative and hard-boiled detective style is always fun to read.
garrett reviewed Amnesia moon by Jonathan Lethem (A Harvest book)
None
4 stars
Lethem's absurdist narrative and hard-boiled detective style is always fun to read.
Lethem's absurdist narrative and hard-boiled detective style is always fun to read.
garrett rated Norwegian Wood: 4 stars
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin
Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young …
garrett reviewed The gates of Europe by Serhii Plokhy
Review of 'The gates of Europe' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
When you're condensing this much history into a single book, you're likely to miss out on a lot of content. Looks likely the case, but it's still a great primer for people like me who only know of Ukraine from mass media and the shadow cast upon it by Russia throughout history.
When you're condensing this much history into a single book, you're likely to miss out on a lot of content. Looks likely the case, but it's still a great primer for people like me who only know of Ukraine from mass media and the shadow cast upon it by Russia throughout history.
garrett reviewed The gates of Europe by Serhii Plokhy
None
4 stars
When you're condensing this much history into a single book, you're likely to miss out on a lot of content. Looks likely the case, but it's still a great primer for people like me who only know of Ukraine from mass media and the shadow cast upon it by Russia throughout history.
When you're condensing this much history into a single book, you're likely to miss out on a lot of content. Looks likely the case, but it's still a great primer for people like me who only know of Ukraine from mass media and the shadow cast upon it by Russia throughout history.
garrett reviewed Messing with the Enemy by Clint Watts
Review of 'Messing with the Enemy' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
It’s fine but doesn’t really stick to any particular point throughout. It’s less of a book on technology and trustworthiness as much as the author’s own tales of engaging with them. I probably wouldn’t recommend unless you’re very bored or looking for a primer on trust in the modern era that wasn’t better found elsewhere.
garrett reviewed The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so …
Review of 'The Candy House' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
An extension of A Visit From the Goon Squad that carries those notes of worry with aging and an additional layer that seeks to make sense of memories, finality, and the idea of a person's story in within the overwhelming scale of the world. A lot of spinning parts that can sometimes be hard to track over more disparate generations yet have delicately interwoven pieces that don't necessarily need to be revelatory. Sometimes it's enough just to be, knowing when to look away and embrace that knowing everything is unnecessary.
An extension of A Visit From the Goon Squad that carries those notes of worry with aging and an additional layer that seeks to make sense of memories, finality, and the idea of a person's story in within the overwhelming scale of the world. A lot of spinning parts that can sometimes be hard to track over more disparate generations yet have delicately interwoven pieces that don't necessarily need to be revelatory. Sometimes it's enough just to be, knowing when to look away and embrace that knowing everything is unnecessary.
garrett reviewed The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so …
None
4 stars
An extension of A Visit From the Goon Squad that carries those notes of worry with aging and an additional layer that seeks to make sense of memories, finality, and the idea of a person's story in within the overwhelming scale of the world. A lot of spinning parts that can sometimes be hard to track over more disparate generations yet have delicately interwoven pieces that don't necessarily need to be revelatory. Sometimes it's enough just to be, knowing when to look away and embrace that knowing everything is unnecessary.
An extension of A Visit From the Goon Squad that carries those notes of worry with aging and an additional layer that seeks to make sense of memories, finality, and the idea of a person's story in within the overwhelming scale of the world. A lot of spinning parts that can sometimes be hard to track over more disparate generations yet have delicately interwoven pieces that don't necessarily need to be revelatory. Sometimes it's enough just to be, knowing when to look away and embrace that knowing everything is unnecessary.
garrett reviewed Messing with the Enemy by Clint Watts
None
2 stars
It’s fine but doesn’t really stick to any particular point throughout. It’s less of a book on technology and trustworthiness as much as the author’s own tales of engaging with them. I probably wouldn’t recommend unless you’re very bored or looking for a primer on trust in the modern era that wasn’t better found elsewhere.
garrett reviewed A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan's spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk …
None
4 stars
A set of short stories that wind a narrative that hits a bit harder than you'd think, interrogating youth and the process of aging in a way that had me worried about the way I'm living.
A set of short stories that wind a narrative that hits a bit harder than you'd think, interrogating youth and the process of aging in a way that had me worried about the way I'm living.
garrett reviewed A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan's spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk …
Review of 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
A set of short stories that wind a narrative that hits a bit harder than you'd think, interrogating youth and the process of aging in a way that had me worried about the way I'm living.
A set of short stories that wind a narrative that hits a bit harder than you'd think, interrogating youth and the process of aging in a way that had me worried about the way I'm living.
garrett reviewed Listeners by Brian Hochman
None
5 stars
This book provides an in depth view of wiretapping throughout the history of the United States in order to try providing a context for the issues we see today. A lens through which we should interpret the way we exist today and consider the act of listening in on someone else's contents. I was surprised that it stopped at 9/11 for being a book that came out in 2022, but I see the intention and actually appreciate the fact that it gave a deep dive into the way we perceived surveillance prior to 9/11, an undeniable seismic shift that caused most of us to have a sense of amnesia about the way things were before whether that's surveillance, travel, policing, etc. Books like this are important for the way that they give us a cultural understanding of the "dirty work" of surveillance.
This book provides an in depth view of wiretapping throughout the history of the United States in order to try providing a context for the issues we see today. A lens through which we should interpret the way we exist today and consider the act of listening in on someone else's contents. I was surprised that it stopped at 9/11 for being a book that came out in 2022, but I see the intention and actually appreciate the fact that it gave a deep dive into the way we perceived surveillance prior to 9/11, an undeniable seismic shift that caused most of us to have a sense of amnesia about the way things were before whether that's surveillance, travel, policing, etc. Books like this are important for the way that they give us a cultural understanding of the "dirty work" of surveillance.
garrett reviewed The Spoils of War by Andrew Cockburn
Review of 'The Spoils of War' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I'd recommend this for anyone trying to get a big picture of the way weapons manufacturing and finance shapes our country's war machine, something that should be scandalous to any American. The only knock on this book is the last couple chapters relating to the 2008 finance crisis, which seems disjointed from the rest of the book. The cut from military funding to speculative banking just feels a bit breakneck and not in line with the overall narrative.
I'd recommend this for anyone trying to get a big picture of the way weapons manufacturing and finance shapes our country's war machine, something that should be scandalous to any American. The only knock on this book is the last couple chapters relating to the 2008 finance crisis, which seems disjointed from the rest of the book. The cut from military funding to speculative banking just feels a bit breakneck and not in line with the overall narrative.