Reviews and Comments

nerd teacher [books]

whatanerd@bookwyrm.social

Joined 3 years, 8 months ago

Exhausted anarchist and school abolitionist who can be found at nerdteacher.com where I muse about school and education-related things, and all my links are here. My non-book posts are mostly at @whatanerd@treehouse.systems, occasionally I hide on @whatanerd@eldritch.cafe, or you can email me at n@nerdteacher.com. [they/them]

I was a secondary literature and humanities teacher who has swapped to being a tutor, so it's best to expect a ridiculously huge range of books.

And yes, I do spend a lot of time making sure book entries are as complete as I can make them. Please send help.

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R. F. Kuang: Yellowface No rating

Authors Juniper Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena …

I think I figured out why it is that this book keeps grating on me, and it's because the vagueness of the summary and its projected genre made me expect something entirely different. (As in, I saw "'borrowing' her identity," I was thinking it was more literal than what's portrayed.)

Also, I feel like this line from the Kirkus summary/quasi-review of it sums up another aspect that I find discomforting because I... generally try to avoid social media drama (and look into the claims myself while trying to avoid social media as much as possible): "Yes, publishing is like this; finally someone has written it out. At times, the novel feels so much like a social media feed that it’s impossible to stop reading—what new drama is waiting to unfold, and who will win out in the end?"

So while that person really finds that gripping, I find it really …

Philip K. Dick OG: The Man in the High Castle (Paperback, 2001, Penguin Random House)

The Man in the High Castle is an alternate history novel by American writer Philip …

I'm Not Sure

I didn't dislike it, but I also don't feel like I connected with it? I liked the initial structure of it feeling like multiple vignettes that had all connected somewhat to the same book. And while I understand what was happening, I felt like it wasn't quite hitting the right notes for certain characters or even the overall theme. In a lot of ways, it felt like it kept fumbling some of them. (Edit: Upon reflection, it isn't actually true that the stories were woven around the same book because three of the characters never actually engage with the book in any capacity and their stories don't even mention it from the background.)

It was fine. Not my favourite book, but it was okay.

Olga Tokarczuk: The Empusium (2024, Fitzcarraldo Editions)

In September 1913, Mieczysław Wojnicz, a student suffering from tuberculosis, arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse …

Not bad, though very slow.

This book is very much a slow burn, and it kind of needs to be in order for the "twist" to make sense. In order to prompt the reader to ask the questions they need to be asking, they really have to follow Mieczysław's thoughts, experiences, and memories.

There is a horror story somewhere, but it's not... very horrific? It kind of feels tacked on in places. It is choreographed, but I think its existence within the story doesn't do much of anything. If anything, it's a very quick catalyst that prompts Mieczysław to live in the way they want. But anything could've been that catalyst, not the horror story that sometimes feels like it's... not even there.

I think if the horror story was utilised better or wasn't there at all, I would've liked this more.

reviewed Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet, #1)

Kazu Kibuishi: Amulet (2008, Graphix)

Emily's and Narvin's mother is kidnapped and dragged into a strange and magical world where, …

Enjoyable and Also Good for Newer English Learners

This book is really cute! And it's super enjoyable on its own. I'd definitely say give it a go, but do go into it knowing that the audience is primarily aimed at younger teenagers.

Anyway, I've been reading this book with my student, and they are someone whose English fluency is very much in the middle. They have a lot of typical school-based knowledge, but they haven't really had to use English that much outside of class (and even the class is very much lacking in actually using English other than the assignments). Those complaints are slightly irrelevant, but it does contextualise what I'm going to say here since my review is mostly with regards to that element.

This book is really good for kids who are newer to reading in English, and it is one that I'd recommend to people who want to encourage kids to start reading in …

Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder, 小川洋子: The Memory Police (Paperback, 2020, Penguin Random House)

**2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST

A haunting Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance, …

Ethereal and conflicting.

I'm uncertain how it is that I feel about this book. I don't even know that I can call it enjoyable, though it is incredibly dream-like. There is so much care between the characters, but it also is hard to really enjoy.

It's impossible to really discuss it without spoiling all of it, and I don't particularly feel like writing more. But I can say that the book left me feeling somewhat empty, which I think is honestly the point considering the story itself (an island where things 'disappear', where people who remember are arrested by the Memory Police).

Trang Thanh Tran: She Is a Haunting (2023, Bloomsbury)

Jade Nguyen has always lied to fit in. She's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough …

Really Great Until It's Not

I really love what this book is trying to do, and I really enjoyed so much of the story up to the very end of it because... it was just meh?

Not sure what the editing process was for this book or what conversations took place during it, but it feels very much like Alma was going to play a much stronger role than she did. There was so much choreography in the beginning about Alma being the colonialist monster, trying to revitalise and support colonialism within Vietnam, and trying to exploit Vietnamese people, and trying to rewrite that colonial history to support European histories...

... and then that ball was just kind of dropped for the focus on the house being parasitic. Sometimes the 'Alma' ball was picked back up, but I don't think it was used very well. And I have to wonder if parts of that were …

commented on Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet, #1)

Kazu Kibuishi: Amulet (2008, Graphix)

Emily's and Narvin's mother is kidnapped and dragged into a strange and magical world where, …

My student's pretty quick at reading this. For her English level (she's more in the "intermediate" level with regards to school-based fluency tests but still struggles with using the language as she would normally use it), this is really good.

There've been a lot of new words for her (words like ravine, creek, cavern), but the images also really help her to get an understanding of what they mean.

It's also age-appropriate for a 12-year old, especially one who likes magic-based fantasy. This has been one of the biggest difficulties that I've had in finding books for students, honestly. Most suggestions for 'new readers in English' are for really young kids, and a lot of younger teenagers just don't want to read stories intended for kids between the ages of 6-8 (and, if we're honest, a lot of books 'made for' young children are also things young children tend to …

Steven Pinker: The better angels of our nature (2011) No rating

From Goodreads: Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of …

I don't actually remember what percent we're at, but I do remember that the book finishes at 68%. So we have to be halfway through this mess.

Things I need to remember:

  1. This book has aged miserably, especially with regards to Israel-Palestine (and I need to find a fake speech he wrote to point that out).
  2. He doesn't know the difference between fiction and reality.
  3. PREDICT THE PAST?
Fannie Flagg: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Paperback, 2016, Ballantine Books)

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a 1987 novel by Fannie Flagg. …

Incredibly Enjoyable, Even If Problematic

This book is really well-written, and the structure employed in it really has the feel of both talking to a grandparent (whether or not they're actually your own) and/or the local town gossip. I love this about this book because it makes it just so easy to read through.

I also love that one of the core elements of the story (one that, if people know about Fried Green Tomatoes, is the most well-known) is just kind of... tossed out there a couple times and in ways that make a person go "Wait, did she just say what I think she said?"

But I do find it incredibly difficult to recommend. Part of it is because I know people can find its use of racist and ableist slurs frustrating and bothersome (which I also can completely understand). While it's understandable that sometimes the perspectives match with the characterisation, there are …

This book addresses the tensions of existing theories and practices of inclusive education from an …

I don't have a lot of hope for this book because it's already off to a bad start with improper historiography and some questionable choices of phrasing.

Fuminori Nakamura: My Annihilation (Paperback, 2022, Soho Press, Inc.)

Turn this page, and you may forfeit your entire life. A confessional diary implicates its …

Discomforting Depictions of Mental Health

I cannot say that I enjoyed this novel, but I found the writing compelling enough to continue reading. However, the nagging feeling about how awful the representation of mental health is and its implications in acts of violence is a bit...

In a lot of ways, it is obvious that this negative perspective is the point of the perspectives these men have, but there's a lot of... I just can't square the circle, if I'm honest. I don't need an explicit statement telling me something is 'bad' or 'inappropriate', but it feels like very little was done within the narrative to speak to that fact? When it does happen, it seems to immediately flip back to stereotypical understandings and misrepresentations.