Mara

In ways that are simple and straightforward, this book stated many of the things that make me uncomfortable about budget culture. Thinking about it as just another spin on diet culture made a lot click. I think I'll continue to think about and apply things from this book for a long time.

This was a fun memoir with important larger social points. It skewed a bit religious for my taste, just a fact of the author's identity, but I do think that will make it more relatable for a lot of people.

Important topic, good to have actual numbers laid out, but all throughout you can tell this was written by a man. There's very little said about the unpaid, unseen labor (almost always of women) required for a lot of the “utopian” pasts listed, which would be the same in the utopian futures envisioned in the book. It very cursorily notes the concept in a few instances and then frustratingly dismisses it and moves on. Yes, reduce consumption and stop producing wild amounts of garbage and excess, but consider the other side of that lifestyle adjustment and who will be darning those longer wearing socks and washing those non-disposable dishes. It doesn't have to be women, but the way things are these days it usually is - what if these dudely perspectives encouraged the other environmentally minded dudes to take on those tasks themselves rather than only looking at the big picture economics of it? To make real change, both are necessary.

It's all correct and interesting information that's important to be talking about, but I also didn't necessarily learn tons - I already know most of how the systems are fucked up. It's an interesting spin on the topic, something of a reversal of how things seem to often default to being seen from the heterosexual as base assumption. I wish there had been some deeper exploration, and perhaps a few more varied perspectives from additional authors.

Fun and engaging story, kind of plays around the edges of magical realism without diving deep into it, and I liked the inclusion of the historical characters.

This is better as a movie, the book is pretty slow moving and feels a little dull.

I liked how very in her voice this was, and disarmingly direct.

The older I get, the less I believe in respecting elders just because they're old. The aged have really pushed their agenda of forced status based on smoke and mirrors for a long time, and frankly, I'm over it. Whenever I pass the age of someone I looked up to or got advice from (especially if it was a sort of “you'll understand when you're older, poppet” format) I realize that I don't know anything yet, and neither did they, it was all hollow bravado. That said, this book was refreshing, because it didn't use dumping on younger people to build up the old. It just talked about living well and doing what you can for as long as you can. Recommended for all ages.

The description lead me to believe there would be perhaps some supernatural (fine if not, but could have been interesting) or more history, but it's more of a “it turns out the bad guy is just abuse as usual” kind of tale.

Fantastic, 10 stars out of 5. Everything I wanted it to be and more. Some science, sure, but also drama, action, batshittery and hijinks.

Good series of supernatural shenanigans.

I bet this was even cuter with illustrations, but as an audiobook is an excellent short zone out session while working on a project.

I appreciate the amount of effort that went into a book centered around dragging historical figure Nathaniel Hawthorne. A masterpiece of a burn.

This book was everything I wanted it to be and more. Thanks Britney, for everything.

Mostly heartbreaking, but also funny. Made more powerful by being read by the author.

Chilling, sad, upsetting story. I was already fairly familiar with the general historical events but the book went into much more detail.

I enjoyed some of the short stories, but others were just...boring? Maybe I don't understand surrealism.

Clearly well researched, engaging read, but not my favorite Larson book.

Excellent spooky story, enhanced by being read aloud. I rolled my eyes a bit at the romance subplot, this being written by a man with a male protagonist the description of the women was a bit classically sexist, but it's not much of the book so it didn't detract much.

In general I find apocalypse scenarios in media to be wildly boring and unimaginative. This story addressed some (but certainly not all) of the standard tropes of the genre that make it feel unrealistic and dull to me. I appreciated that it went far enough into the future to be outside the panic of a pivotal moment and into the time when the “new” reality has settled in, without going full Walking Dead with making that panic level of existence last forever. The narrative managed the jumping back and forth in time well. I found most of the “twists” to be predictable but I don't usually read specifically for gotcha moments so that's fine with me.

Beautiful memoir that weaves back and forth between indigenous knowledge and “conventional” science seamlessly.

This book is a nice consolidation of all the things I like about listening to Maintenance Phase (except Mike, whom I enjoy but who is not represented here). Gordon's writing is thorough, well researched and empathetic.

I like the setting and concept of this story but it's so painfully obviously written by a man that I couldn't get in to the story. Everything is in such gendered boxes, and even though the main protagonist is a convention bucking woman he just can't muster giving her a three dimensional inner life.

I kept this on as mindless background noise far longer than I paid attention to it, so I give it some credit for that. But I kept zoning out and realizing I hadn't been listening for probably whole chapters, and when I realized I didn't care enough to go back and restart those, it was time to turn it off.

My ability to read about the trials of young white men out to find themselves seems to hover close to zero these days. Full disclosure, this review is based on only a portion of the book, I could not finish it. It does contain some beautiful descriptions of the desert, and if someone felt like creating an edited version that is only those parts I think it would be a worthwhile read. Unfortunately they're spread out between sections of eye rolling bildungsroman and rants against such offenders as old people, young people, women who are prostitutes, women who are not prostitutes, gardeners, and Native Americans. No thanks.