Reviews and Comments

This book ran aground on my bookshelves around three years ago, and I’m finally rescuing it. Looking forward to the stories it has to tell.

The first of at least two books I'll read this year to help educate myself about totalitarianism and it's effects on citizens existing under it's thumb. It's also the book for which this Nobel Prize winner is most well-known.

A short but oh so great collection, including the historic poem which gives the book it's name. In this reread, I discovered that I liked the penultimate poem ('Wild Orphan') almost as much as Howl itself. A nice read to finish up the year.

Beautiful, serene prose. The poems in this collection are largely spiritual / religious in nature, and that mutes my attraction to them as I'm not particularly inclined to believe in a higher power. I know that he wrote other poems and songs, so I might do some research to see what else is available.

An excellent education on the recent history of class struggle and popular / indigenous movements in Latin America, charting their effects, their interaction with the leftist governments they helped elect and ultimately their absorption into and emasculation by the state apparatus. Chapters taking deep dives into Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Venezuela provided great detail, and the literary criticism of George Ciccariello-Maher's 'We Created Chavez' convinced me to acquire that text as well to further my understanding.

Reading again, not for the last time.

Chekhov is revered, and I'm sure he wrote many wonderful, compelling things. But the title of this book is a misnomer. I'd say that three were worthwhile, though perhaps all three had endings that left me wanting. And the other two were meh, at best. So maybe read some Chekhov, just not this particular collection.

Quite good I thought, if short. It kept my attention, describing the social life of a small town, the marriage of a daughter to a charming if mysterious man, and the events which followed, culminating in a death which everyone knew was coming. Except for the person who was to die.

A good primer on the history of modern democracy worldwide, it's various flavors and external events which propelled it to happen. Lots of info on the evolution of voting rights in each country which I hadn't been aware of. The author writes in a very approachable style. Recommended.

Quite the book. I can see why it is revered in Portugal. It has passages that are beautiful, enchanting. There are sections, it must be said, which I found tedious, even boring and hard to get through. But then his words will part the clouds and all is beautiful again, even when it is sad. A silent, tortured soul wrote in anonymity, of dreams and so much more. I may have to read this again at some point. Thank you, Fernando.

A really enlightening read. The author takes the reader through many different types of bias, partly as he described coming to terms with his own bias. He also contrasted racist power, policies and ideas with antiracist power, policies and ideas. A good education, can recommend.

just arrived.

Excellent. Crucial. A MUST READ.