Reviews and Comments

This book feels like the good old tropes of sci-fi: optimism about humanity, a belief that we can overcome our barbarous nature, and the idea that as humans expand through the galaxy, our empathy grows with us.

It’s not a perfect story, but the ending wraps up the whole thing nicely (if somewhat hamfistedly). The love story with the protagonist, I think, needed to be fleshed out more to be believable. But the Contacts Service idea is intriguing and unique, and I liked that the futuristic elements of it weren’t made the focus of the writing.

Overall, I think this story is worth a read, especially today.

I’m so excited to finally start this!

While I’m not religious, I still found this book compelling and profound.

The first nine books are not, I think, as philosophically interesting as the last three books. Skipping over them would be a mistake. They contain some very beautiful prose about grief, his love for his mother, and his struggles with spiritual questions.

The last three books are very interesting to anyone interested in philosophy, regardless of religious affiliation. His writing about the nature of time in book 10 is especially impressive.

This was a fascinating read! I was immediately piqued by the subject matter. I had only ever gotten American and European histories in school; it wasn’t until I saw this book that I realized I had no idea about any of the history of the Pacific Islands, Asia, or Africa.

There is so much amazing history packed into this book. The settlement of the Pacific Ocean is something that leaves me in awe at the capabilities of humans.

I was surprised to get the recommendation from an older Indian man (the father of a friend), but I can’t say I regret reading this book. There was a lot of interesting information about various rituals for the plethora of deities in southern India.

There was way less judgement than I expected in a book from this period, written by a British clergyman (though what judgment is in the book is saved for the final chapter). My biggest gripe with the book is that it’s almost entirely about the rituals people perform, and not enough about the mythology of the deities.

I really enjoyed this novel. It’s so different from the movie, but that’s part of what made it so interesting. The darkness of Oz and the Wizard permeated the story, and I liked getting to know the Wicked Witch of the West as a sympathetic quasi-freedom fighter.

The writing can get almost cloying at times, but that didn’t really dampen my enjoyment of the book.

A copy of this very old, very odd (to me anyway) book was given to me by the father of a friend when he was visiting from India. I don’t know why he liked this book enough to recommend it as it seems fairly condescending towards Indian culture, but I thought I’d give it a read because how often are you recommended books that over a century old?

I went down a rabbit hole and found out that there’s a LOT more lore about Oz than I had ever imagined. It got me curious enough, and I saw the movie recently, so I thought I’d check it out. I’ve enjoyed the first few chapters so far!

This collection of articles if full of so many gems. I had no idea just how influential the Bay Area, and in particular the South Bay, has had on the world. That’s not the point of this collection, but it’s apparent when you read about who grew up here, or studied here, or lived here, and were influenced by this place.

Baldwins writing is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.

I guess better late than never to start this one.