en-US Tue, 15 Apr 2025 03:46:08 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7490117413 Tue, 15 Apr 2025 03:46:08 -0700 /review/show/7490117413 Tobias gave 5 stars to The Jacksons' Debate: Can Fiction Help Us Thrive? (Kindle Edition) by Marqv Neves
thought provoking novella with interesting philosophical discussions. Great for readers who also want to *think* about their entertainment. There's room for more advenures in the world that the author created. ]]> Review7456296721 Wed, 02 Apr 2025 06:39:44 -0700 /review/show/7456296721 Tobias gave 3 stars to My Brother's Keeper (Kindle Edition) by Tim Powers
DNF
Wanted to like this. It's about all kinds of interesting things - werewolves, the Bronte sisters, ghosts, haunted moors and monuments... yet still somehow to me it wasn't compelling.
Read till page 190 ]]> Review2676028939 Mon, 17 Mar 2025 14:55:01 -0700 /review/show/2676028939 Tobias gave 5 stars to The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself (Paperback) by Michael A. Singer
I found this book really insightful. I've read a lot of spiritual books in my days, but this one talked about the mind, consciousness, awareness, surrendering etc in a refreshing and very clear way that I feel was helpful. (clearer, for instance, than The Power of Now).
Now and then I felt I had a glimpse, an inkling, a whiff of what could be possible and achieveable in terms of peace of mind.

March 2025, read for the second time

(for the sceptics who wouldn't touch these things with a ten foot pole: I'm quite a rational person with a low tolerance for mumbo-jumbo :) ]]> Review7411908250 Mon, 17 Mar 2025 14:52:22 -0700 /review/show/7411908250 Tobias gave 4 stars to The Morning Star (Morgenstjernen, #1) by Karl Ove Knausgård
I'm not exactly sure what's so compelling about this book, but it is - even if it has a lot of loose ends which I'm not sure will be resolved in the sequels.
I'd love to read more about the characters, but as I understand they'll only reoccur in the third part of the series, by which time I'll probably will have forgotten all about them, so not sure if I'll continue. ]]> Review7342051766 Fri, 21 Feb 2025 07:41:51 -0800 /review/show/7342051766 Tobias gave 4 stars to Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World (Paperback) by Naomi Klein
4 1/2 stars
Very insightful, engaged, humane, compassionate.

My only criticism is this:

KLein does a wonderful job of exposing what she calls the Shadow Lands—the places, people, and ecosystems sacrificed to sustain our modern global economy. These include sweatshops, polluted regions, displaced communities, precarious laborers, exploited indigenous people, and the enslaved—all who bear the hidden costs of capitalism while wealthier nations enjoy comfort and convenience. Klein pulls back the curtain on how these sacrifices are kept out of sight, allowing the privileged to remain blissfully unaware of the suffering that upholds their lifestyles and the historic injustices that made the modern global economy possible.

While I admire her analysis and support her appeal to confront our Shadow, I couldn't help but notice one glaring omission: the billions of animals trapped in factory farms. If the Shadow Lands are defined by exploitation and hidden suffering, then surely the vast, industrialized system of animal agriculture belongs there. These animals endure unimaginable cruelty, reduced to mere commodities in a system that treats them as production inputs. Yet Klein never acknowledges them—a missed opportunity in an otherwise sharp critique of our world's unseen costs. ]]> Review7342049118 Fri, 21 Feb 2025 07:41:30 -0800 /review/show/7342049118 Tobias gave 4 stars to Vasthouden aan jouw idealen: De opkomst van de Partij voor de Dieren (Paperback) by Jeroen Siebelink
Goed geschreven boek dat een heel mooie en ontroerende inkijk biedt in het ontstaan en de groei van de PVDD ]]> Review7342049118 Fri, 21 Feb 2025 07:40:41 -0800 /review/show/7342049118 Tobias gave 4 stars to Vasthouden aan jouw idealen: De opkomst van de Partij voor de Dieren (Paperback) by Jeroen Siebelink
Goed geschreven boek dat een heel mooie en ontroerende inkijk biedt in het ontstaan en de groei van de PVDD ]]> Review7275350873 Fri, 31 Jan 2025 04:20:54 -0800 /review/show/7275350873 Tobias gave 3 stars to Use of Weapons (Culture, #3) by Iain M. Banks
3 1/2
Not sure why this is so highly rated. I feel I spent most of the time waiting for the real story to start. The twist at the end is nice and I didn't see it coming. ]]> Review7205589855 Sun, 12 Jan 2025 04:28:31 -0800 /review/show/7205589855 Tobias gave 4 stars to The Year of the Locust (Trade Paperback) by Terry Hayes
3 1/2 stars
Starts very strong, as a regular, very well written spy thriller, that feels like a movie. This is till about 30% in. Then the pace slows down, and then later still, the genre shifts from spy thriller to apocalyptic SF. Very weird. The story is not really plausible, certainly not after the more normal setup. Still I wanted to see how it ended. ]]> Review7132851204 Sun, 29 Dec 2024 04:36:56 -0800 /review/show/7132851204 Tobias gave 4 stars to Downward to The Earth (Kindle Edition) by Robert Silverberg
3.5 stars
Well written and philosophically interesting (though for me could have benefitted from a more in depth exploration of its themes). Might read more of this very prolific author in the future.

(read on kindle) ]]>