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Cassandra_L

Cassandra_L

Joined August 2016

Such a slow reader
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The Divine Comedy: Purgatory by Dante Alighieri, John Gordon Nichols
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Cassandra_L
The Divine Comedy: Purgatory | Dante Alighieri, John Gordon Nichols
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Time to find out what "go to hell" really means!

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Cassandra_L
We (Vintage Future) | Yevgeny Zamyatin, Jewgenij Samjatin
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Pickpick

Overdue for an update again... So glad I read this again - I hadn't realised how much it had affected my thinking all these years...

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Cassandra_L
We (Vintage Future) | Yevgeny Zamyatin, Jewgenij Samjatin
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More research. Always return to the original...

4 likes1 stack add
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Cassandra_L
Brave New World | Aldous Huxley
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Mehso-so

Bit late on the updates... This wasn't one of my favourites of the genre when I first read it back in the day and it still isn't now. Definitely hasn't aged well and feels more like a satire or a farce than a sci-fi, sewn through with a thread of arrogance. Still, worth revisiting to know where the path has been tread.

7 likes1 stack add
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Cassandra_L
Brave New World | Aldous Huxley
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Next up.... Research!

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Cassandra_L
Escape from Freedom | Erich Fromm
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Pickpick

That took me a while.... Definitely a lot to think about, and some great insights to take on - sections about the alienation of the modern workforce definitely stood out. Can be challenging for the layman, and I daresay there are parts that are outdated or since been challenged, but worth pushing through regardless.

2 likes1 stack add
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Cassandra_L
Escape from Freedom | Erich Fromm
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Great reading for the morning commute to start the workday right 👍

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Cassandra_L
Escape from Freedom | Erich Fromm
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Giving this one a shot next...

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Cassandra_L
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Mehso-so

Going to give this a So-So rather than a Pick. Inventive premise, yes. Sharp satire and geopolitical commentary, sure. Character development and insight, not so much. The stories themselves were so formulaic to be a drag - born-gifted human in interlocking, exposition-heavy narrative faces oppression and prevails via luck/gift of birth - and creativity doesn't overcome that in this instance. Anyway, if you like wierd alien sex, this one's for you.

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Cassandra_L
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Next up...

asiriusreader Welcome to Litsy! 6y
8 likes1 comment
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Cassandra_L
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Pickpick

Going to give this one a Pick rather than a So-So: even though it's outdated (written before smartphones) and there's a frustrating thread of chauvinism that keeps popping up, there's still plenty of good questions raised and varied arguments put forward. It does make me wonder how different the book and its conclusions would be if written today, I feel we may not be so optimistic.

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Cassandra_L
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Half way through, and although the book seems a little dated now there's still some interesting ideas. But this is a theme that seems to pop up a little too frequently - both expressed by the author and from his subjects. Might be ok if the hypothetical ogling was balanced, but that and the underboob on the cover makes it feel like the future is only for certain demographic....

RaimeyGallant Interesting. And a belated welcome to Litsy! #LitsyWelcomeWagon Some of us put together Litsy tips to help new Littens navigate the site. It's the link in my bio on my page in case you need it. Or if you prefer how-to videos, @chelleo put some together at the link in her bio.
6y
Cassandra_L @RaimeyGallant cheers, thanks for the tips! 6y
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Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Welcome to Litsy!!! I hope that you love it here!! 😘💕📚👏🏻❤️🎉🎊 6y
Cassandra_L @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Um, cheers, thanks! 6y
Jess7 I see you have been on here for quite a while, but you may not be following many people, so I wanted to pass along some info just in case you didn‘t see the shutdown posts. @Litsy will be offline tomorrow from about 3 am to 11 am EST for scheduled maintenance. Checkout @kgriffith for details about a chatroom you can join on LT during the downtime. 6y
4 likes6 comments
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Cassandra_L
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Next....

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Cassandra_L
The Natural Way of Things | Charlotte Wood
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Pickpick

Great read. Proof that a compelling story can outweigh stylistic distractions.

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Cassandra_L
The Natural Way of Things | Charlotte Wood
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Halfway through, and I am enjoying it, but books that constantly change tense in a simultaneous narrative make me sad. Pulls me out of the story every damn time.

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Cassandra_L
Hello America: A Novel | J. G. Ballard
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Pickpick

Both absurd and prescient. I wonder what Mr. Ballard would make of today's attempt to "make America great again"? I think he'd be amused.

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Cassandra_L
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Pickpick

There's a wierd dinosaur on my book about wierd dinosaurs :-(

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Cassandra_L
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I loved the story of the female-led Polish expeditions in Mongolia in the 60s & 70s and the 'unusual terrible hands' they found - I found it unexpectedly moving to know only one was able to see the final fruits of their work while the other died never knowing.

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Cassandra_L
Geek Love | Katherine Dunn
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Pickpick

Well that was a wild ride...

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Cassandra_L
The Heart of a Dog | Mikhail Bulgakov
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Pickpick

Reread this after recommending it to a classmate despite not having read it since I was a teenager. God, I still love Bulgakov.

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Cassandra_L
The Heart of a Dog | Mikhail Bulgakov
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Turns out soylent green isn't people.

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Cassandra_L
Who Fears Death | Nnedi Okorafor
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Mehso-so

A refreshing take on a familiar plot line. Would rate it between So-So and Pick if I could.

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Cassandra_L
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Pickpick

Intense, harrowing, exhaustive (and at times, exhausting). The final 150 pages or so as things ramp up to their inevitable conclusion were particularly gripping.

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Cassandra_L
The Birdman's Wife | Melissa Ashley
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Won this one in Writers Victoria's subscribathon. I'm a total bird-nerd, so best prize ever as far as I'm concerned, and that wren wrapping paper is amazing!

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Cassandra_L
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Book 2 of 2 in today's non-fic book haul.

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Cassandra_L
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Book 1 of 2 in today's non-fic book haul. I loved this guy's coursera course so I can't wait to get into this one.

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Cassandra_L
This post contains spoilers
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Mehso-so

I wanted to like this more than I did. I loved Yeong-hye's story and its effect on those close to her, and I adored the strangeness and medical brutality of it, but the structural choices with tense/pov were a distraction and a mood-killer. And if anyone can tell me what happened to Ji-woo at the end, I'd love to know. I'm worried about the kid.

KikiLovesBooks LOL. I just finished this today and I'm in perfectly alignment with your review regarding EVERYTHING you mentioned: the structure, the ending, etc. and the poor kid. Just too weird. 7y
Cassandra_L @KikiLovesBooks - yeah, I don't know if it's something that doesn't translate well or if it needed room for clarity but it definitely got muddy there. I kinda feel the too-wierd wasn't the subject or the content but the construction. 7y
Cassandra_L @Sherry The second last page suggests that In-hye abandons her child and it was a 'crime' she could never be forgiven for. That seemed to come from nowhere - I thought Ji-woo was being looked after by a neighbour. 7y
Sherry I thought that he was being looked after by a neighbor too and she was just feeling guilty about not being there when he got home from school. But after reading what you wrote, I went back and read it again and now I don't know. 7y
2 likes4 comments
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Cassandra_L
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Pickpick

Such a warm portrait of a fascinating individual. Deserves a wider readership than just those concerned with animal rights, plenty of wisdom there for those involved with other issues too.

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Cassandra_L
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Animal liberation, sure - but who's going to liberate the books from the animals?

Anyway, reading this as an antidote to the helplessness felt in seeing the daily news.

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Cassandra_L
High-Rise | J. G. Ballard
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Pickpick

Reread a dear old favourite to get the taste of the film out of my mouth. Not that the film was all that bad, it just wasn't High-Rise. Kinda heartbroken that so many people will come to this with tainted impressions and pre-convcieved ideas.

Sparkin I read High-Rise this summer on a whim (love a bit of Ballard, I do), and only now do I learn about Ben Wheatley's film adaptation. Was it not grimy enough? I imagine the pacing would be difficult to achieve in a film version. (edited) 6y
Cassandra_L @Sparkin I'd say the feel was very different, and the film stopped short of that final dissolution at the end. It didn't have that same bleakness and was too obviously comedic. Sure it was fun, but it missed the spirit of the book to me. (edited) 6y
2 comments
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Cassandra_L
The Natural Way of Things | Charlotte Wood
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Book 2 of 2 in today's new haul.

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Cassandra_L
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Book 1 of 2 in today's new haul.

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Cassandra_L
High-Rise | J. G. Ballard
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". . . . [they were the] people who were content with their lives in the high-rise, who felt no particular objection to an impersonal steel and concrete landscape, no qualms about the invasion of their privacy by government agencies and data-processing organisations, and if anything welcomed these invisible intrusions, using them for their own purposes."