Five stars is my highest possible rating. It means a book that is life-changing, amazing, beautiful, intriguing, and engrossing.
Even by that metric MFive stars is my highest possible rating. It means a book that is life-changing, amazing, beautiful, intriguing, and engrossing.
Even by that metric Meet the Neighbors deserves more than five stars.
This book is beautifully and wonderfully written, and it is engaging from the very first word. It makes you face your biases about animals and ecosystems and reevaluate your assumptions. It is full of delightful anecdotes, enchanting facts, and fascinating characters both human and otherwise.
I can't wait until more people have read it so I can discuss the ideas in it. It is a masterpiece and everyone needs to read it. ...more
I loved this book so much. It had wonderful characters, optimism, great non-human characters (primarily mammoths and a dog), fantastic world-building,I loved this book so much. It had wonderful characters, optimism, great non-human characters (primarily mammoths and a dog), fantastic world-building, and was compulsively reasonable.
Is there a plot hole you could drive a Mars mammoth through? Well, yes, but I couldn't possibly care less. I can't wait to reread this book and I would like a dozen more just like it as soon as possible, please....more
A re-imagined (and much, much better) Ender's Game
I don't know how universal this experience is, but I feel like a lot of people around my age found A re-imagined (and much, much better) Ender's Game
I don't know how universal this experience is, but I feel like a lot of people around my age found reading Ender's Game a pivotal experience.
When I was young, there was no Harry Potter. YA wasn't a real genre yet, and so books for that audience few and far between. (My mother recalls me standing in the library sobbing when I was 8 or 9 that there was "nothing to read." We laugh about it now, but, honestly, once you were done with the Soup books and Little House on the Prairie but not yet ready for the adult section, there were not an abundance of books that hit the right level.)
Ender's Game hit me light a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky. It was smart, it didn't talk down to me, the kids were centered and important, it was dark, and it was mind blowingly original.
Much like Harry Potter, it hasn't aged all that well. Reading it now, the violence feels sickening, there is a lot of superfluous nudity, the morals are questionable, the ethics are VERY sketchy, and the author's problematic attitudes really spoil the book for me.
I feel like Sanderson also had this experience. Because he cherry-picked the very best parts about Ender--the friendships, the realism, the space combat, and gave them a new and shiny setting here, like resetting the diamonds from your grandmother's brooch.
One scene, in particular, brought that book forcefully to mind.
(view spoiler)[Remember when Ender is about to fight his toughest battle, and he's alone in the dark thinking he has an impossible task ahead of him? And then he hears his friend's voices coming out of the dark to show him he's not alone, they're here, they're a team. Spensa got to have that same moment, but she made a different choice when it came to genocide. (Of course, Ender thought it was a game, but I would argue Spensa would 1) have cottoned on a lot sooner to the situation and 2) wouldn't have decided on genocide, even if she thought it were a simulation.) (hide spoiler)]
Anyway. This is a miracle of a book. I love it so much. Please read it. ...more
This was a fascinating book. I was worried about the length. I feel like a lot of science non-fiction books are longer than they need to be. Not this This was a fascinating book. I was worried about the length. I feel like a lot of science non-fiction books are longer than they need to be. Not this one. It was fascinating and novel all the way through. The Weindersmiths make abstruse issues (like international space law) as riveting as any thriller. I highly recommend this book. To everyone....more
This book is just phenomenal. It is packed full of fascinating observations and dazzling information. I'm not saying that it will work for everyone, bThis book is just phenomenal. It is packed full of fascinating observations and dazzling information. I'm not saying that it will work for everyone, but it actually helped me with my anxiety. Being able to go outside, no matter what else is going on, and look up at the sky and understand a tiny fraction of what the clouds are doing and why is very calming. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. ...more
Sometimes a book comes along that just sweeps you off your feet. This book is one such for me. I'm always careful of hyperbole, but I think I liked thSometimes a book comes along that just sweeps you off your feet. This book is one such for me. I'm always careful of hyperbole, but I think I liked this book and these characters as much as Howl’s Moving Castle. There is the same heart of a fairy tale here with interesting interpretations and flips, gorgeous relationships of all sorts, witty dialog, and just general brilliance....more
Have you ever read a nonfiction book that you just couldn't put down? I have, but not very many of them, and this was definitely one. Every page brougHave you ever read a nonfiction book that you just couldn't put down? I have, but not very many of them, and this was definitely one. Every page brought more fascinating insights and tidbits and I just couldn't get enough. I was sad it was over and immediately wanted a new book just like it.
I highly recommend this book for any human living in, or aware of the existence of, cities. It's absorbing, fascinating, full of completely new information that contradicts a lot of what we were taught in school, and oddly optimistic.
Oh my word. This book is amazing! You really need to read it right away. It is a staggeringly original (and optimistic!) take on first contact, a visiOh my word. This book is amazing! You really need to read it right away. It is a staggeringly original (and optimistic!) take on first contact, a vision of a livable and hopeful future, and an inventive, inclusive, and just wonderfully rich world.
There were so many cool thoughts and ideas in here! But so many Idea books lack characters. This one did not! Everyone was vividly drawn, three-dimensional and just so interesting! The world was beautiful and so fun to just spend time in.
This is very close to a perfect science fiction book.
I loved it so much. I really just cannot say enough good things about it. I read it as slowly as possible, like someone walking very slowly through a garden, admiring each plant for its own unique, quirky beauty....more
I just finished reading this book, which felt better than yoga & a massage & an hour of meditation & a hot bath all together. And now I have crows cawI just finished reading this book, which felt better than yoga & a massage & an hour of meditation & a hot bath all together. And now I have crows cawing on my roof. (I mean, that maybe has something to do with all the peanuts I left outside by the feeders, but I'm choosing to interpret their presence as a benediction.)
Anyway. I loved this book. I used to take real umbrage with the George Bernard Shaw quote "The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time." I read it as being anti-fantasy, anti-SF, anti-historical fiction, as if you can only write about your lived reality. And if that's how he meant it, I do object. But I think I was mistaken.
This is, indisputably, a fantasy book that takes place in a world and time that's not my current lived reality.
It is also, indisputably, an extremely timely and pertinent book that speaks directly, courageously, and strongly to the current political, social, and cultural moment. (It was published on March 8, 2022.)
It is a long meditation on the parable of the good Samaritan without being, in any way, Christian. It's about humanity and what we owe each other. It's about our culture and what our role is in a changing and evolving society.
It is the exact thing that people are talking about when we talk about fantasy not being "fake."
It's about racism and the importance of education and empty, hungry, small people using big talk and shiny gold to brainwash otherwise-decent people to behave appallingly and torpedo communities. It's about the good that's in all (most) of us. It's important to read and will be an excellent way to talk about current events with kids.
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