angelfoodcakes's reviews
119 reviews

I can appreciate how the author takes into account queer identity and people of color and dismisses the notion of gender identity and presentation being strictly binary for a much more intersectional look at the action genre and its depictions of masculinity.

Billy Summers by Stephen King

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life. by Robin S. Sharma

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informative reflective slow-paced

1.5

This is a wannabe inspirational speech formatted as a book. Every character in it is a one dimensional vehicle for buzzwords, catchphrases and quotes. Speaking of quotes, this book is absolutely dripping with them, not only does each chapter begin with one but each character seems to have memorized thousands of quotes. What quotes aren’t memorized are printed on their personal belongings, written down as notes to themselves or others, or even tattooed on their bodies. Many of them are absurdly wordy (to the point where I zoned out in the middle of some of them) and some of them are even just made up.

On top of this, this book is chock full of extraneous details to the point where they get in the way of my understanding of the chapter. I don’t need to know that there was a dog walking past our main characters or the exact music playing in a restaurant thirty feet away from them, just tell me the fucking information.

The book spends the majority of the first half going on and on about how sad the characters are that most people these days are victims and sheeple following the herd to the point where I don’t think there’s really anything of value until about chapter 8 or 9 in this 17 chapter book (I would even argue that the only worthwhile chapters start around chapter 13) and, like I said before, it’s so fucking wordy and full of unnecessary material that gleaning any actual advice from it becomes a nightmare.

Not to mention the content of the actual framing device itself is unnatural at best (the groan I let out whenever the billionaire started doing pushups mid-conversation or the entrepreneur said she had “fatherless daughter syndrome”) and borderline culty at worse. The prose felt like the author hadn’t written anything since a middle school creative writing assignment.

It also feels extremely self-worshipping, when the characters aren’t bemoaning how sad the average person in modern society is, they’re going on about how fantastic and life changing the 5am club is and how they’ve really turned their life around since joining. The billionaire and spellbinder characters are worshipped throughout the story, everyone loves them and constantly talk about how much they love them despite the billionaire’s weird eccentricities to the point where it feels weird (re my “culty at worse” point). It’s obvious these characters are supposed to be a stand-in for the author, too, they’re the ones teaching everyone about the author’s principles.

That isn’t to say there is no good advice to be gleaned from this, but I wouldn’t recommend reading the actual book, there are videos on YouTube that summarize the worthwhile points in here which are only about 10 minutes long minus the annoying framing device.

Content Warnings

Snotgirl, Volume 2: California Screaming by Leslie Hung, Bryan Lee O’Malley

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Tokyo Aliens 01 by NAOE

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

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informative medium-paced

3.0

Interesting if you want to learn about things like the science behind and ethical debates surrounding habits and habit formation. I enjoyed the read, however, I can understand why people looking for books on how to form better habits or change old ones might not. If you’re looking for straightforward advice in this case you’d be better off reading Atomic Habits, but that’s not to say there’s nothing to be learned from this.

Content Warnings

Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World by William H. McRaven

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inspiring slow-paced

1.5

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angelfoodcakes's reviews 119 reviews

angelfoodcakes's reviews
119 reviews