en-US Fri, 02 Aug 2024 04:22:40 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Friend1401955316 Fri, 02 Aug 2024 04:22:40 -0700 ReadStatus7842371974 Sun, 21 Apr 2024 02:49:04 -0700 /review/show/6444833955 Jos wants to read You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue
]]> Review6057719749 Sun, 17 Dec 2023 16:02:46 -0800 /review/show/6057719749 Jos gave 3 stars to On the Trail of the Serpent: The Life and Crimes of Charles Sobhraj (Kindle Edition) by Richard Neville
]]> Review5117187599 Sun, 17 Dec 2023 16:02:19 -0800 /review/show/5117187599 Jos gave 4 stars to The Guest (Hardcover) by Emma Cline
]]> Review5117187599 Sun, 17 Dec 2023 16:01:51 -0800 /review/show/5117187599 Jos gave 4 stars to The Guest (Hardcover) by Emma Cline
]]> Review5351635723 Sun, 17 Dec 2023 16:00:50 -0800 /review/show/5351635723 Jos gave 4 stars to Rouge (Kindle Edition) by Mona Awad
bookshelves: to-read
]]> Review2169928305 Wed, 06 Dec 2023 20:04:36 -0800 /review/show/2169928305 Jos gave 4 stars to Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (ebook) by David Grann
bookshelves: crime-and-punishment, history-4-dummies
Haunting. An overview of a particular family's involvement in the Osage Murders of the 1920s, both as victims and perpetrators. As well, Grann explores the then Bureau of Investigation's attempts to curtail these murders, and the court cases that followed. A deeply upsetting book. ]]> Review6030134159 Wed, 06 Dec 2023 19:58:05 -0800 /review/show/6030134159 Jos gave 5 stars to City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai (Hardcover) by Paul French
bookshelves: history-4-dummies, china
Fascinating history written in a readable narrative-focused way. Depicts the rise of two parallel figures, Jack Riley and Joe Farren, who rose through the ranks of the underbelly of pre-World War II Shanghai and their ultimate downfall as the city falls to the Japanese invasion. Really fascinating stuff, highly recommended. ]]> Review3458741551 Wed, 06 Dec 2023 19:50:49 -0800 /review/show/3458741551 Jos gave 5 stars to The Harmony Silk Factory (Paperback) by Tash Aw
bookshelves: adult, history-4-dummies, malaysia
Really strong. From the early 1920s in Colonial Malaya, to the 1980s in Malaysia, Johnny Lim was a man who wore many hats; a self-made man, a criminal, a textile merchant, a communist, an upstart [spoilers removed] The narrative is broken into three different sections, with each narrator giving a different perspective of Johnny, first his son, then his wife's journal immediately prior to the Japanese invasion of Malaya and then in the late 80s his former friend Peter Wormwood. Really interesting and about a very interesting time. ]]> Review6030085113 Wed, 06 Dec 2023 19:36:21 -0800 /review/show/6030085113 Jos gave 3 stars to The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (Paperback) by Philip K. Dick
bookshelves: adult, alternate-history, mid-century-madness, dystopian
Another Phillip K Dick. As we all know, in 2016 the planet had become almost uninhabitable as temperatures soared. The UN shanghais conscripts to terraform various other planets in the solar system. The luckless colonialists scratch out a living in hovels attempting to learn to farm. To make life more bearable, everyone takes a drug called CAN-D which allows them to go to a quasi-spiritual, somewhat erotic state of bliss and shared revelation. The framework of this drug experience is supplied by -- essentially -- dollhouse miniatures. Back on earth, the only viable business seems to be the creation of these miniatures, and corporate espionage involving precogs considering the new trends. But a new drug is on the way back from Proxima Centuari, shepherded by the mysterious figure Palmer Eldritch, which offers a more revelatory and numinous tripping experience than CAN-D and possibly a more dangerous one.
Anyway, there's a lot going on here, some of the ideas quite interesting, and some of them feel like something undergraduates would think after a big night at 3am. I find Phillip K Dick increasingly unpleasant to read as a I get older. He really didn't much care for women, hey? There's also a lot of flashes of his weird revelatory gnostic Christianity peeking through which is always weird. Anyway, I found this a bit of a chore to read, and I would say is certainly not one of Dick's best, although there are some interesting ideas about consumerism etc ]]>