Fully engrossing. Especially towards the end, I was quite attached to this book considering how heavy it was to carry around. Does a great job of tying their lives to cultural events. Also gets into the history of mental illness treatment and dinstitutionalization. Gets a lil slow on some chapters on literary theory and 70s culture for me, but loved all around.

This shit is Heavy. Didn't realize just how brutal it would be when I started it as an audiobook with my sister on a roadtrip. Fascinating account of benzo addiction and thoroughly educational. But real brutal stuff. Her whole life just crumbles over the course of the book, but she writes about it beautifully. Not sure I loved the audio but prob just me.

Lil slow ar the beginning but eventually was pretty engrossed. Shocked by the twist at the end. Really struck by how this narrator made me more sympathetic to my mom, a woman of thr same age. Seems like a book that's all about metaphors for big things. And per usual, interesting reading a book that's been translated from another language (polish). Rec from a reg at work, woogee.

Hella nostalgic for college. Funny he spent a brief stint in childhood in Richardson or wherever. Really cool lil snapshot of his life and one of the events that shapes it.

Lowkey kinda hard to follow over the course of the book at times. Enjoyed the thought trains she follows and overall concepts. Also references endless interesting sources and art pieces. At times felt like I was in an art theory class in college. Makes me wanna get into bird watching and meet my neighbors tho.

Absolutely flew through this. Each chapter covers a different person's life and mental illness. She includes lots of different perspectives so you begin to understand all the narratives that can exist around one experience. Loved. The parts where Aviv includes her own experiences and thoughts on both eating disorders and using antidepressants are fascinating. Would recommend to anyone.

Def sciencey but also super fascinating. So many incredible factoids and lab studies on all types of creatures. Absolutely widened my worldview.

This one drew me way in. Started reading in oaxaca and literally barely put it down on the six hour flight home. Incredible characters, so original and each so fascinating. Loved how they wove together, but certain I missed some of the connections by the last part of the book. V enjoyable. Cool probing into weird futuristic memory sharing sci fi and philosophy and stuff. Def gonna read her first now.

Interesting format, just his journal from a week-long trip slightly edited. V enjoyable and quick. Funny little insights here and there. Useful reading ahead of my trip. Learned about things like tomb 7, milpa, and cochineal insects all before seeing them there. P tight.

Lil bit YA fiction vibes plus real crazy science writing. Always been so interested in the Noah and the whale story. Glad someone finally delved into that. Fucking gripping.

So disturbing and interesting. Added a real weird light to my time in BA. Every single one was so engrossing.

Lol absurd. Totally original. Can't believe how long it took me to get through this lil book. Some of the math/physics/philosophy sections dragged, while the plot and human elements were so engaging. Very enjoyable and funny.

Really lovely graphic novel. Does a good job of showing nuanced views of a variety of complex issues. Liked the animation style.

Love this author from chasing the scream. This one is just as interesting, with a bit more autobiographical perspective. Will def make you rethink why you can't read or focus on TV anymore.

Picked this up on a whim off the new nonfiction shelf at the library. Honestly engrossing af cause she includes real life anecdotes from her friends, clients, and her own life. Even if you're having great sex, worth reading. Pretty much everyone could stand to get better at communicating about sex in our puritanical ass society.

Didn't finish this but read about half. Very useful and insightful information on the full spectrum of folks with autism and other types of neurodivergence. Worth a read for anyone looking to be a more empathic, kinder human in the world.

Such an interesting narrative format, such a unique look at mental illness. Timely, set during the 2016 election, but works well. Not distracting. Made me cry so many times. Dark but still not depressing. Loved it. Made me want to read more.

Yo, so glad I finally took the plunge and got this. Was highly intimidated to attempt such an academic sounding book, but honestly hella approachable. Great way to dip my toes back into gender philosophy since graduating college. Every essay has a focus but covers so many fascinating parts of culture and philosophy. Fucking dope.

So so damn good. Hilarious and accessible and relatable and beautiful. Fuck. Would reread every five years.

Such interesting female narrators. Perfect amount of surrealism. Love the short story format to get me back into fiction. The yeti lovemaking one was my fave. Need to read her first book.

Reread. Love. Fave parts are all the asterisks and the chapters on swearing and gendered forms of speech. Just watched an Irish movie set in the 1920s and they really did use like like valley girls. Amazing.

Finally finally finished this trilogy. Definitely struggled to hold me at many points but I powered through all three. Gd I want to like sci fi more than I do. The final book was cool jumping between characters' perspectives. No satisfying explanation of course but not that mad at it.

Picked up on a whim off a table in the library featuring books that had been banned at some point. The protagonist is so impactful and funny and heartbreaking. True reminder of how difficult childhood is, even without any major tragedy. P impressive how the author wove in the grandparents' history during WWII. The different manifestations of grief across characters were fascinating. So good.

So poignant and beautiful but gripping and super realistic. Feels like dropping into the protagonist's life at random moments. Had me crying at different point from its understated beauty.

Totally engrossing. Fascinating characters. Good pace for nonfiction. Makes me wanna watch the series on it.

Enjoyed the mix of personal history and non fiction. Really enjoyed the analysis of how different cultures approach sadness (US ain't doing it best) and the different types of sadness. Cool realizing how every emotion makes life fuller.

So beautiful and sorrowful and immersive and self-aware. Covers so many topics but weaves them together beautifully. Kind of bleak, especially the ending, but almost in a transcendental way. Like nothing matters, but that's what's so cool. Love this author.

Quite the tome so proud I made it through. Loved the character setups in the beginning. The way Powers describes each gives all the details you want and need and no unnecessary ones. Fell in love with each of them. The second 2/3 of the book felt a bit draggy but overall v powerful. Def made me start paying hella more attention to the trees in my environment, which alone is a huge bonus.

Lil dense at the beginning when he's going into tales revolving around strangers in Greek mythology/literature. Definitely skipped over that but enjoyed the stories of the beginnings of the word xenophobia. Delved a bit too deep into mid-20th century philosophy for me as well, but powered through nonetheless. Not quite the pop non fiction I was hoping for but still had some cool parts.

Such a beautiful and moving graphic nonfiction. Definitely had some pages that grabbed me and just about pulled my heart out. Also loved the insight into American media depictions of loneliness in men (the cowboy) and women (the romcom heroine), and what aspects make loneliness cool or pathetic. Such a fitting read for my covid quarantine. Want to read her other work now.

Such a captivating look into Amazon's history and how we got to its current stranglehold on American society. Really personally engaging for me cause of my tenures living in DC and now Seattle. Fascinating insight into Seattle's fight to address the homelessness crisis. MacGillis does an excellent job of telling the broader narrative through individual stories. Rec from mom of course.

Took me a while to get through this cause the prose is thick and I picked it up during a very transitory period of my life. Glad I read it though - the characters are fascinating. The magical realism elements are interesting are sparse but beautiful.

Enjoyed how the chapters alternate between time periods in the narrator's life. The characters and scenery are vivid. Rare that I read a mystery, but glad I got this one.

So dope reading about an Asian American experience after reading about a black American one. Really lovely writing and extremely sad but moving af. Not often I read about grief but I'm glad I did. She incorporates the food element so well - determined to dig into some Korean recipes soon.

Impressively bounces from insightful and poignant to fucking hilarious and back again all within a single page. So many powerful perspectives on white supremacy, being black in America, and rape culture. Learned a lot and would def recommend.

I know this is foundational af for sci-fi, essentially coining cyberpunk, but I think I really learned I'm not a huge sci-fi person. Some of the philosophical elements were cool and I did appreciate the way Gibson left descriptions of cyberspace often vague, allowing the book to remain undated way longer those most sci-fi. Wish there was more than one female character. Doesn't pass the Bechdel test lmao.

Writing this review a week or two late, but I really loved this book. The autobiography/fiction mashup hooked me hard. Each little vignette pulls you in deep with just enough fascinating human detail to feel like a really good tv show. Shines a nuanced light on the extremely complex and contradictory experience of being a Muslim American and a second generation immigrant. Would love to reread in a year or two.

Read the full book, not the novella. It was interesting. Definitely delves into the inner lives of women with an unflinching gaze. Parts were beautiful (eggs cracking over their heads in the kitchen, the ferris wheel scenes). But it was fairly long and I definitely struggled to finish it. A worthwhile read though.

So so mind-blowing. Like Chasing the Scream but for psychedelics. About time I had a good history lesson on psychedelics in America. His ability to put ineffable feelings into language is pretty impressive. Definitely plan on rereading sometime in the near future.

Some beautiful and fascinating character studies. Love how each chapter dives into one character's little world, and then ties them all together throughout but especially at the end. Keeping with the theme of seeing into the lives of people who I would never have the chance to know in real life. What an interesting slice of humanity, this secluded russian peninsula.

Some of the most gorgeous prose I've ever chosen to read for fun. Fascinating characters with just the right amount of depth, no unnecessary detail given. Really beautiful and dark.

Love the idea of books/shows/movies/whatever media being there to introduce us to people we'd never have the chance to meet in real life. This totally covers that.

Fascinating dive into drug use in the third reich. The general public, the army, and the fuhrer himself were all under considerable chemical influence for much of wwii. Will note this definitely reads at points as if it's been translated (which it has), with a bit less snap and forward motion than I suspect the original german version has. Still very worthwhile!

Sometimes you pick up fiction after reading non-fiction for so long and you remember what it's like to truly devour a story. I enjoyed this in that way! The characters did feel a bit pedestrian, rather predictable though the storyline was not. It does parse complex issues of family ties, motherhood, race, and community, which was cool.

Borrowed from Brynn during quarantine.

Super original non fiction style, very well delineated, easy to follow, cool intro/overview of mckenna. Felt personally connected a bit more to both the author and the incredible world around me after reading. Totally matched the vibe of chasing the scream, emphasizing the complexity of drug use but also highlighting the transformations they can bring about in us.

Second or third time reading but as good as ever. Took notes this time to discuss and remember better.

Lewis is honestly such an entertaining writer. The story and characters are fascinating too, so that helps. Really provided insight into so many different fields. Cool intro to behavioral economics.

Read while driving from dc to seattle. Mom gave to me from her collection.

The most impactful book I've read this year for sure. Started on a wild note with an essay about a pandemic that sweeps the US. Appropriately bizarre note for this book to start on. Such a clear voice and minimal embellishment but sets the vibe impeccably. Would love to see this on the curriculum for a gender studies lit class.

A little too flowery at times and def slightly dated, but still a really beautiful and fascinating delve into the beauty and insanity of living.

Read partially with grace. Found at mom's house.

Cool view into a totally different world but with themes and ideas that felt tangible and relevant. A much needed escape rn.

Interesting intersection of philosophy and psychology and historical fiction. Also interestingly found out it's Ari's favorite book. Enjoyed the insights into each character's mind and worldview.

First book of quarantine.