I chose this book for the 2024 Read Harder Challenge, for the Sci-Fi novella, specifically, Story of Your Life, the basis for the movie Arrival. I verI chose this book for the 2024 Read Harder Challenge, for the Sci-Fi novella, specifically, Story of Your Life, the basis for the movie Arrival. I very much enjoyed this collection. The first stories are good especially Story of Your life. The Novella is an interesting perspective of telling us what will happen in the main character's life while also describing humanity's first contact. The story differs a little from the movie if you have seen the movie (which I rewatched after reading the book), but not enough that it detracts from the story. I really enjoyed the mathematic concept in the story about Fermat's theorem which postulates that a photon will reach a destination based on the shortest path, but goes on to talk about refraction and predisposition. Which is inherently what the aliens use to communicate, knowing their whole sentence ahead of time to show in pictural form. The basis of people's life of free choice versus predisposition, and if you know your future will you choose to follow that future, thus negating free will. It is pretty deep for a novella.
The remainder of the stories in the collection are intriguing too, however, I felt that the last couple kind of petered out. This may just be my not enjoying steampunk style stories, which is the basis for Seventy-Two Letters, a confusing story about Golems and nomenclature at the end of humanity.
Overall, I enjoyed the collection. I enjoy finding new authors and I especially enjoy short stories. I recommend the book especially to those that like stories about science and math that make you think.
As part of the 2024 Read Harder Challenge, I chose Ibram X. Kendi's "How to be an Antiracist", to cover the History by a BIPOC author. This is a deep As part of the 2024 Read Harder Challenge, I chose Ibram X. Kendi's "How to be an Antiracist", to cover the History by a BIPOC author. This is a deep and difficult read. It makes the reader really think about how they fit into a racist or antiracist thinking. Do you support those that support antiracist legislation and ideals the promote equality, or do you support racist legislation and ideals? Does you inaction promote one of those ideals. How deep does racism really reach in America? How do you as a person wrestle with this ideology? I realize that as a white male in a society that has provided me all the benefits that comes from that racial and sexual identity it is even harder for me to come to grips with this. Do I actively support those that promote antiracist ideals? I try to promote equality in all that I do, but I realize, especially after reading this book, that we sometimes will fall into racist ideals without meaning to. Ultimately, if the goal of the Read Harder challenge is to increase our depth of knowledge, or to further our understanding of how others live, then this has been a success. This book makes me want to learn more, take classes, work toward that more ideal, equal society that helps not just an elite few but all, for the greater good of society. This should be a required reading for anyone that wants to live a better future....more
I read this one for the Read Harder 2024 challenge. This book is a middle reader horror challenge. I chose this because it is a short story collectionI read this one for the Read Harder 2024 challenge. This book is a middle reader horror challenge. I chose this because it is a short story collection and I am a sucker for a good short story collection (Thanks Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark). It was a fun little read, and probably just spooky enough if you are in that 9-14 year old range, where stories about vanishing on your walk home, or disappearing into a stain at the cafeteria at school might spook you. As an adult, they are just a fun reminder of what used to spook you as a youth....more
Read this book for the 2024 Read Harder Challenge. I would rate this 3.5 stars if I could, but I rounded down. The book is about a black girl learningRead this book for the 2024 Read Harder Challenge. I would rate this 3.5 stars if I could, but I rounded down. The book is about a black girl learning that her biological father is a white man and not her black father that raised her and had been involved her whole life. One night after a football game she gets a text from her brother that Momma wants to talk to her, so she comes rushing home to find a mystery box has been delivered containing mementos of her life collected by someone outside her family. This uncovers the secret that her biological dad is white. So she upends her life to discover the secrets being kept for her.
This book was frustrating in that the main character decides to just blow up her life, the stable relationship she has with her family to learn about her other dad. She shuts people out while trying to forge new relationships. And, while I can say that I haven't been in this situation so I don't know how I would have reacted, potentially all teenagers would just decide to run off to be with the new parent, I think that the main character acted quite irrationally. Considering that she is in a very stable, wealthy household, the decision to upend that to live with her bio dad is very strange. To me, she could have had a normal conversation with her parents, and worked the situation out in a less chaotic way. So while the story is good from the aspect of learning to adapt to new situations, forge new relationships, and still thrive, I was annoyed that the character who seems rational and level-headed acts against her nature almost immediately.
The other thing that bugs me about books like this, is that the writing can feel choppy. It can feel like we are having one discussion, and the author feels the need to insert an aside to give more information, but then rather than get back to a point in the discussion, we leap to another place or time.
I absolutely loved this book. A profound, thought provoking book that asks "What is it like for the dead person when they die?" The book is a reflectiI absolutely loved this book. A profound, thought provoking book that asks "What is it like for the dead person when they die?" The book is a reflection on Wallace Price's life as he experiences the 5 stages of grief after his death. He is taken to Hugo, the ferryman, who will guide him to the next stage of his life after death. The character development, the story arcs of the main characters, and the grand idea of what awaits us all in the afterlife made this a truly amazing book.
(view spoiler)[Be prepared to cry since the subject matter does cover death in its many facets from early life to suicide. (hide spoiler)]...more
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