Shadib Bin's Updates en-US Tue, 08 Apr 2025 15:39:45 -0700 60 Shadib Bin's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg ReadStatus9287142069 Tue, 08 Apr 2025 15:39:45 -0700 <![CDATA[Shadib Bin wants to read 'Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America']]> /review/show/7473655180 Confidence Man by Maggie Haberman Shadib Bin wants to read Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America by Maggie Haberman
]]> Rating844502525 Sun, 06 Apr 2025 16:42:43 -0700 <![CDATA[Shadib Bin Newaz liked a review]]> /
Shadib Bin liked CJ Alberts's review of Stag Dance:
Stag Dance by Torrey Peters
"Loved itttttt!!"
]]> Review7466827587 Sun, 06 Apr 2025 07:16:36 -0700 <![CDATA[Shadib Bin added 'Theory & Practice']]> /review/show/7466827587 Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser Shadib Bin gave 3 stars to Theory & Practice (Hardcover) by Michelle de Kretser
Review: Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser

Finally a decent book from 2025, as I have had a streak of books from 2024-2025 that I haven’t really enjoyed.

I was drawn to this books central premise - what we believe in versus what our true desires and actions are actually centered around. There has been disconnect at times in my life, so to read a book that could help unpack this dilemma really drew me in.

While the protagonist navigates her education life along with being in a relationship with Kit, who is in a “deconstructed relationship� with Olivia, the story permeates a lot of internal monologues that I really found searing, and cathartic. For example, there was a point at which she was being mean and difficult to her mother, and she knew it intellectually and morally, yet couldn’t stop herself from doing it. Or when she’d uncomfortably sit around with Olivia - noticing Olivia’s discomfort in not being able to ask point blank if the protagonist is sleeping with Kit - yet didn’t give her that aid that could have helped Olivia. These uncomfortable yet very real moments brighten this otherwise simple book.

Reason I am saying simple is because - I wish there was more of the former tone and voice and instead, a large chunk of the book can veer into safe spaces - which was tad bit frustrating.

Yet, given her age, and drawing parts of her own life in this book, I have to give credit - it was an absolute breath of fresh air. No moralism thrusted upon the readers, instead her inner voice as it would feel when she was younger. And where she is now.

The books ending encapsulated many years after, including demise of her mother and Olivia, is peppered with wisdom and care, that may at times feel cold, but feels real - you can’t always make meaning of things - even when they are difficult things. Best to just let it be. Which this book argues as the central principle- theory may veer off from practice- but the latter may sometimes benefit from being just that - practical. ]]> ReadStatus9277161376 Sun, 06 Apr 2025 06:29:49 -0700 <![CDATA[Shadib Bin wants to read 'A Lover's Discourse: Fragments']]> /review/show/7466734475 A Lover's Discourse by Roland Barthes Shadib Bin wants to read A Lover's Discourse: Fragments by Roland Barthes
]]> ReadStatus9276933852 Sun, 06 Apr 2025 05:02:11 -0700 <![CDATA[Shadib Bin wants to read 'Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam']]> /review/show/7466573161 Kill Anything That Moves by Nick Turse Shadib Bin wants to read Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam by Nick Turse
]]> Rating843907445 Fri, 04 Apr 2025 22:16:11 -0700 <![CDATA[Shadib Bin Newaz liked a review]]> /
Shadib Bin liked Geordana Richardson's review of The Wedding People:
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
]]> Rating843907414 Fri, 04 Apr 2025 22:15:56 -0700 <![CDATA[Shadib Bin Newaz liked a review]]> /
Shadib Bin liked ZeeMi's review of The Origins of Totalitarianism:
The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
"Wow. What a monumental, incisive, chilling and eerily relevant book. It's beyond timely. Other readers on here have done such a great job of summarizing and highlighting the work � I'll only add that for me the prose wasn't as unapproachable as some found, and indeed much of it was utterly gripping. So if you're feeling daunted by the book's size and scope, I'd say give it a shot. Sadly since it was published in 1951, there may never have been a more urgent time to crack this one."
]]> ReadStatus9272524903 Fri, 04 Apr 2025 22:12:40 -0700 <![CDATA[Shadib Bin wants to read 'Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend']]> /review/show/7463510635 Jane Austen's Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney Shadib Bin wants to read Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend by Rebecca Romney
]]> Review4252972061 Fri, 04 Apr 2025 01:33:07 -0700 <![CDATA[Shadib Bin added 'The Argonauts']]> /review/show/4252972061 The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson Shadib Bin gave 4 stars to The Argonauts (Hardcover) by Maggie Nelson
3rd time reading it / April 2025: I believe with age, I understand this book more easily, versus when I first came around it and I couldn’t stop raving about it. To be frank, it feels one of her weakest against On Freedom, or even Like Love, but still a very tender collection of her being so brutally honest about rendering a queer family, her becoming a mother, her worries, joys, etc. Maggie surely still remains an author I keep visiting, and it’s almost always a delight.





First Review:

—â¶Ä�

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

I wanted to read this book to celebrate Pride month, and it did not disappoint. It was a beautiful, cathartic memoir in a way I don’t think I know how to explain - this book is hard to categorize. It tells such personal considerations of Harry (Maggie’s partner) - his transition, Maggie’s own childbirth, reckoning what it means to be a mother and a daughter (extends some deep emotions and memories with her own mother that is at times devastating but loving, in the same paragraph).

I think the part that moved me so much is Maggie’s own understanding that Iggy, her child, may not really remember the care and tenderness brought forth, since children can often recall the tougher memories, the heartbreaking ones, more clearly. Yet, Maggie’s reckoning with it, that whatever Iggy remembers, cannot take away from her own devotion and care is stunning, and deeply human in the face of deep fears - what if my child grow to question my parenthood?

Aren’t those similar fears that I too feel / have? Am I a good son? A good leader? A good team player? A good partner? But this book turns these questions upside down. What if instead I choose to focus on what I think and understand is good? What if I adjust my thoughts if they aren’t grounded in being inclusive? What if we embrace the facets we bring and iterate and not just force ourselves to binaries of good and bad? What would happen then? The answer the book gives me - is the rare confidence to move forward - head and chin, held up.

“For this reason I am tempted to call it a lasting happiness, but I know I won’t take it with me when I go. At best, I hope to impart it to Iggy, to allow him to feel that he created it, which in many ways, he has.�

What a great book. Highly recommend. ]]> ReadStatus9260798812 Tue, 01 Apr 2025 19:26:27 -0700 <![CDATA[Shadib Bin wants to read 'Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth']]> /review/show/7455297105 Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth by Maggie Nelson Shadib Bin wants to read Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth by Maggie Nelson
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