Katherine

Well, the movie is a classic for a reason. It’s so silly and ridiculous you can’t help but enjoy it. The book is very much the same, though it makes even more snide remarks in the asides (however, some things didn’t age too well- what’s with all the fatphobia Goldman??). Goldman is a master of committing to the bit- the version I read had two introductions plus the introduction to the book, and he very much dedicated himself to The Bit of Morgenstern being a real guy. Very amusing way to start the book. Overall, it’s a fun read. It’ll make you laugh and brighten your day. Sometimes, we all need a little absurd comedy, and that’s exactly what The Princess Bride provides.

Well written, researched, and very respectful to the families of the 29 crewmen who went down with the ship. I learned a lot about the history of shipping on the Great Lakes and how a culmination of factors led to an inevitable disaster. Even if it wasn’t the Fitzgerald, a ship was going to sink eventually from relaxing safety standards and the corporations’ greed for just a little more iron, just a bit more speed. My heart goes out to those who were lost on the ship and to their remaining families and friends.

Honestly? I chose to read this for a book challenge as a bit (published in year ending in ‘26).

It really wasn’t what I expected! I knew it was sold as a children’s book and that the protagonist got shipwrecked a million times and found giants and tiny people and that was about it. Turns out Gulliver’s Travels is actually a long-winded political satire based on the (popular at the time) travel memoir, and especially based on throwing shade at Robinson Crusoe, since it wasn’t revealed that book was fictional! So Swift decided to make fun of everyone by writing a “true” travel memoir that is absolutely ridiculous and has many, MANY conversations about the absurdity of government and how awful ~~humans~~ Yahoos are.

From the tiny Lilliputans where Gulliver learns about the corruption of ministers and princes, to the giants of Brobdingnag that criticize European politics, to the Laputans who quite literally have their head in the clouds, and lastly the Houyhnhnms, civilized talking horses, and Yahoos, wild men, that highlights once again how corrupt and awful humanity is. There some really funny moments, like when Swift essentially tells philosophers that they should enjoy pondering about Gulliver’s description of what he had to do “when nature called” in each of these odd lands. Other passages with humor come from Gulliver ranting about lawyers, the stupidity of war, lying, and greed, and describing English history in the last century as “only a heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishments, the very worst effects that avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice, and ambition, could produce.”

Now, there are some things that haven’t aged particularly well (not surprising, given it’s been THREE HUNDRED YEARS). For one, the writing style is extremely verbose, with an excessive use of commas and semicolons accompanying long lists of nouns pertaining to the current topic (see the above quote- many, many passages follow a similar pattern). It’s not impossible to read, but it takes some adjustment to understand it. At times it gets very tedious to read, especially because there is some repetition of ideas in each new society.

There are some odd passages where Swift *seems* to be comparing certain aspects of whatever society Gulliver is in to slavery or race relations, but it doesn’t explore this topic like it does… pretty much everything else. It does somewhat address colonialism and driving natives away from their homeland out of greed, so there is that. The amount of misogyny is astounding. I honestly cannot tell how much of it is exaggerated (some of it HAS to be… right? It’s so over the top) and how much is reflective of the time.

Overall, I liked it more than I thought I would! It’s pretty good as a political satire, if you are able to look past the aged views on some aspects of society. And it did make me laugh a few times with its absurdity and how cleverly Swift came up with insults. So, maybe give it a try? It is an interesting read for purely historical reasons, and it’s more entertaining than some of the classics I had to read for school.

I seem to have a penchant for picking up some WEIRD books lately. The Library at Mount Char. definitely fits that. It requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief. The plot? Insane. The characters? Definitely more insane. But if you go along with all of the insanity it’s a book about what happens when someone gains too much power and knowledge, but not enough wisdom. A person so hell bent on their goals that they don’t consider the others they will destroy in their wake. Do the ends actually justify the means?

I can’t say this is an incredible book. I think it’s good, but there are some things that happen that I find too hard to believe even in a book this crazy. It’s certainly captivating, but I’m not sure all of it works well together. It’s also FULL of extremely graphic violence, SA, torture, cannibalism, suicide, animal death and abuse… was all of that necessary to get the book’s message across? I really don’t think so.

The plot is complex and intriguing, though hard to follow at times and you have to accept you will NOT understand until later on. And even then you might not know why. The characters other than Carolyn are mostly shallow and exist to fulfill their role, sometimes to their detriment. Would that character *really* go along with all of this?

Overall, weird but good book. Not sure why it had to be so violent and parts of it are way too unbelievable for my tastes.

It’s hard to review a book this late in a series without spoilers. However, I really, really enjoyed this one. It took a step back from the nonstop action of the rest of the series, which it really needed. Dresden books are fun because of the action, but what keeps me coming back are the characters. They’ve changed and grown so much over the course of this (frankly ridiculously long) series. This book gave them the room to show how great these characters are while dealing with heavy themes of grief, loss, depression, and even PTSD from previous books. Some may say this book is boring or too slow, but it was *needed* to transition into the next chapter (ha). I genuinely teared up several times reading this. Can’t wait for the next book- I’m sure it’ll be right back to the action, but I kinda hope some of the slower moments that this book had remain.