Caleb's Updates

Caleb's Updates en-US Wed, 07 May 2025 07:41:14 -0700 60 Caleb's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7550350184 Wed, 07 May 2025 07:41:14 -0700 <![CDATA[Caleb added 'The Not Yet']]> /review/show/7550350184 The Not Yet by Moira Crone

Caleb gave 3 stars to The Not Yet (Paperback) by Moira Crone
Really interesting book. I think the concept was fresh and worked well on a speculative fiction level; a lot of sci-fi media has been based on the idea of body modification and life extension but I think this may be my favorite take on it (much better than “The Substance�� for example lol).

The thing I’m sort of undecided on is the prose/writing style. It’s kind of disjointed in a way that gives the book a unique and surreal kind of feeling, but that surreal feeling put too much emotional distance between me and the story and it was hard for me to get invested. It was missing some moments of real humanity that could have broke through and made it work better as a novel, but as it stands it was conceptually unique and thought provoking social commentary that maybe could have just been a novella. ]]> Rating846782356 Sun, 13 Apr 2025 07:41:14 -0700 <![CDATA[Caleb Zerger liked a review]]> /

Caleb liked Olivia Zerger's review of Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert:

"Cool concept but writing style was not my fave. A lot of similes that kind of took me out of the moment. Every feeling was ‘like�� something else "

]]> Rating846782334 Sun, 13 Apr 2025 07:41:06 -0700 <![CDATA[Caleb Zerger liked a review]]> /

Caleb liked Olivia Zerger's review of The God of the Woods:

"I lovedddd the majority of this book but I was a bit let down by the ending "

]]> Rating846782221 Sun, 13 Apr 2025 07:40:32 -0700 <![CDATA[Caleb Zerger liked a review]]> /

Caleb liked Navdeep Kaur's review of And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer:

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman

"3.5/5

Sweet book that showed the perspective of a person living with dementia and its impact on loved ones well. Some parts were a bit confusing though with who was talking and was being talked to (maybe that was the point, to show the confusion of a person with dementia��?). The images were a cute addition, and I liked how they showed that sometimes ppl with dementia remember random, but personal, objects even if they’ve forgotten the bigger things.

Also this part was so cute:

“Do you remember what you said, when we firs fell in love, that sleeping was a torment?��

“Yes. Because we couldn’t share our sleep. Every morning when I blinked awake, the seconds before I knew where I was were unbearable. Until I knew where you were.��

😭😭&��ܴǳ�;

]]> Review7448158750 Sun, 30 Mar 2025 13:00:08 -0700 <![CDATA[Caleb added 'Utopia']]> /review/show/7448158750 Utopia by Thomas More

Caleb gave 3 stars to Utopia (Paperback) by Thomas More
This book is really interesting, seeing what a thinker foresaw as the problems with the still nascent capitalist system that England was beginning to dive into. There’s also a lot of interesting stuff regarding how freedom of religion was regarded by in some ways liberal minded but still very religious figures. So it’s definitely really enjoyable from a historical perspective, but I was kind of expecting a little bit more of a narrative, more in line with later philosophical-political-thought-experiment in book form like “Candide,�� and this was really devoid of any plot. ]]> Review7369937385 Sun, 02 Mar 2025 16:25:09 -0800 <![CDATA[Caleb added 'Where the Line Bleeds']]> /review/show/7369937385 Where the Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward

Caleb gave 4 stars to Where the Line Bleeds (Paperback) by Jesmyn Ward
Im a huge Jesmyn ward fan but you can tell that this is one of her earlier books in some ways. In particular the dialogue is a little stilted, and also she writes about basketball in a slightly weird way that I think a bigger name editor might have caught lol. That said it is in most ways an amazing book. Great story that is familiar but doesn’t slip into tired tropes, and some of the best character narration I’ve read; for example, the ways that each of the main characters experiences anxiety differently (dissociating and daydreaming vs. becoming hyper aware of physical sensations) is done subtly but in a way that clearly delineates the twins when they in other ways can bleed into one another. So yeah definitely recommend but doesn’t quite reach the Bois Sauvage standard set by Salvage the Bones ]]> Review7369920742 Sun, 02 Mar 2025 16:24:42 -0800 <![CDATA[Caleb added 'Hyperion']]> /review/show/7369920742 Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Caleb gave 4 stars to Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1) by Dan Simmons
Hyperion is a great example of slowly and purposefully revealed world building, with each new story showing a different element of the political, historical, or supernatural character of the universe Simmons created. But what I really appreciated about it is that Simmons can really write: his characters are nuanced, his prose can be moving, and the way the book plays with the connection between the personal and the world-history defining is pretty brilliant. It does occasionally lapse into pretty dated or corny tropes but most of it is good enough that I’ll give it the “it was ahead of its time�� pass.

The main other reason it doesn’t quite get a 5 is that it isn’t totally satisfying as a single story, but if I love the second installment I may come back to give it a 5 ]]> Review7369920742 Sun, 02 Mar 2025 16:17:55 -0800 <![CDATA[Caleb added 'Hyperion']]> /review/show/7369920742 Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Caleb gave 4 stars to Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1) by Dan Simmons
Hyperion is a great example of slowly and purposefully revealed world building, with each new story showing a different element of the political, historical, or supernatural character of the universe Simmons created. But what I really appreciated about it is that Simmons can really write: his characters are nuanced, his prose can be moving, and the way the book plays with the connection between the personal and the world-history defining is pretty brilliant. It does occasionally lapse into pretty dated or corny tropes but most of it is good enough that I’ll give it the “it was ahead of its time�� pass.

The main other reason it doesn’t quite get a 5 is that it isn’t totally satisfying as a single story, but if I love the second installment I may come back to give it a 5 ]]> Comment284911304 Mon, 30 Dec 2024 14:55:10 -0800 <![CDATA[Caleb commented on Fiona's review of Babel]]> /review/show/6791179687 Fiona's review of Babel
by R.F. Kuang

the footnotes were such a bad idea lol was there really no editor who told her to take those out? ]]> Review7136650024 Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:49:15 -0800 <![CDATA[Caleb added 'The Savage Detectives']]> /review/show/7136650024 The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño

Caleb gave 4 stars to The Savage Detectives (Hardcover) by Roberto Bolaño
Went into this without knowing much about it and when I realized what part ii was—a fictionalized/embellished autobiography told through vignettes from the standpoint of the many people who interacted with him—I was more worried than excited. Seems like a self-indulgent premise. But by the end I was fully into it; much of it was less about the author and more about exploring the possibilities, impact (and lack thereof) of literature, poetry, art and language. Also many of the narrators, especially the recurring ones, were still fully developed and had stories of their own that I got very into (Amadeo and Quim were my favorite). That said it also worked as an autobiography in a really interesting way, seeing the author (and his friend Ulises Lima, another real life insert) from many very incomplete angles. I also really liked part I and III which were diary entries of another “side character�� in the world of visceral realism. Very different to anything else I read but totally enjoyable.

I didn't give it 5 stars because a lot of the commentary on poetry requires much more familiarity with the genre than I have, so a lot of that went over my head. Still enjoyed it a lot though. ]]>