A review by nere
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

challenging emotional funny fast-paced

4.75

Monday, December 20, 2021 
"And so I try to turn toward that scattered light, belly out, and I tell myself: This doesn’t look like a picture. And it doesn’t look like a god. It is a sunset, and it is beautiful, and this whole thing you’ve been doing where nothing gets five stars because nothing is perfect? That’s bullshit. So much is perfect. Starting with this. I give sunsets five stars."

I’ve never cried so much while reading something (Yes that includes what you’re thinking of, The Fault in Our Stars, obviously.) This book taught me a lot, among them the existence of the word Anthropocene and how the hell to spell it. It provided what I think is essential after reading something: a new perspective and feeling just a little bit changed by it.
 
Each essay was deeply specific but also felt like each encompassed the entirety of the human experience. And if there is any genre I adore, its books inspecting the frailty of the human condition. I recommend it honestly to anyone. Everyone. And since John said he probably had a tendency to over-quote in the book I will also over-quote it. In one of my favorite essays in the book, Sycamore Trees, he writes “What kind of mouth-breathing jackass looks at the state of human experience and responds with anything other than absolute despair?” But he doesn’t instill despair with this book, he instills wonder and the motivation to do the work that awe requires.
 
I give The Anthropocene Reviewed 4.75 stars.