#i really like listening to the anthropocene reviewed podcast and i thought i’d read the book

[420hamlet]

"The Anthropocene Reviewed" Reviewed - Raúl Victoria III (#4)

By the time I bought this book I really thought it was too late. It had already come out for a few days, or something else that made me lose hope (which is the thing with feathers, by the way). But then my Nonna (grandmother in Italian) asked me what I wanted for my birthday, a question to which my entire family replied in an almost cinematic unison: “BOOKS!”

It was as obvious as they made it seem. For more than the last five years of my life I’ve been consistently and addictively buying and asking for books. Even back when I used to read none of them I asked for more. I needed to possess them; to be able to see, feel and smell them whenever I wanted to. With me, capitalism fails in almost every sense (or at least I like to believe it does), but with books I am transformed into the perfect buying machine that this society needs.

So I went online to the best place one can go to during a birthday, Amazon.com, and I eliminated, calculated; added and subtracted; converted dollars into pesos; and finally, I arrived to the perfect combination of books for my birthday. Even though I couldn’t be guaranteed a signed copy all the way here in Mexico, I ordered it. I couldn’t not read it. I’d been obsessively and lovingly listening to the podcast for what seemed my entire life now. I had to get it no matter what.

It arrived like Christmas presents do: the exact day you expect them but filled with the magic of surprise and wonder. I tore the package open and grabbed it in my hands, the front page read: “Signed Edition”. I cautiously opened it, afraid of what could be missing inside, but there it was! John’s horribly common signature smiled at me. I cried with joy. I thanked my Nonna profusely and then, I thanked John, in one of the websites set up by nerdfighteria, leaving a message which included the phrases:

“The Anthropocene Reviewed changed my life. 

I can't thank you all enough.

Love you all DFTBA and WOLO.”

And it is deeply true. John and Hank, vlogbrothers and nerdfighteria, Dear John & Hank and The Anthropocene Reviewed have changed, and continue to change my life every single day. I don’t know what life would be without all of them. But I know I wouldn’t be myself without this modern masterpiece.

I give The Anthropocene Reviewed 5 stars.

(420 words)

(420)

Instagram: @thevictoryville

#writing #dftba #nerdfighteria #nerdfighterart #vlogbrothers #anthropocene #john green #book #review #challenge #420culture #hamlet #shakespeare #escribir

[userparamore]

john green from the anthropocene reviewed

#really haven’t stopped thinking about this since i read this #don’t judge me for reading john green #i really like listening to the anthropocene reviewed podcast and i thought i’d read the book #john green #the anthropocene reviewed #poetry #language #writing #typography

[mercerislandbooks]

Try Audio Books for Book Bingo!

Thanks to the recent Seattle Times article with the reminder that listening to an audio book constitutes reading a book for the purposes of Book Bingo, I was able to use some of my recent audio book “reads” to fill in a few Book Bingo squares!

For me, audio books have been a fun way to squeeze in a few more titles per month. I listen when I work out, on my way to and from work, when I’m knitting, and, when I’m really into an audio book, on my lunch breaks. I especially like listening to YA (bonus points if they have dual narrators, so fun!), romance, and some nonfiction, which is often narrated by the author, as you’ll see below. Every so often I’ll add in a literary fiction, like Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet. The pleasure of truly excellent prose spoken aloud adds a depth to my experience of the story. I can’t listen to an audiobook as fast as I can read a book, so it gives me more time to think about the characters, what is happening in the plot and speculate about what might happen next. When I listened to The Dutch House (read by Tom Hanks) I was continually surprised by the twists of the plot. When I listened to Gold Diggers, I was able to step away long enough to remind myself these were fictional characters, because I thought they were making so many bad choices!

Island Books partners with Libro.fm, a local independent audio book platform. Readers who want to support Island Books and get downloadable audio books can purchase a monthly subscription, or buy audio books a la carte, while designating their chosen independent bookstore. Most of our staff uses the Libro.fm app, and whenever I personally mention in a recommendation card or in a blog that I listened to the audio book, it has been exclusively using Libro.fm.

Here are my recent audio book “reads” that are helping me fill in my Book Bingo!

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

I’ve read several of John Green’s YA titles, (The Fault in our Stars, Looking for Alaska, and Turtles all the Way Down) and heard he had a podcast, but never listened to it. So when I saw he had a book of essays coming out, and that he was reading the audiobook, I thought it would be a nice change of pace from all the YA rom-coms I’d been devouring. There’s something lovely about hearing an author read their personal essays aloud, knowing that they are acutely aware of the intent they are trying to convey to their reader/listener. Having no preconceptions, I found this a delightful ramble through John Green’s thoughts about things as varied as the Indy 500, Kentucky Bluegrass (which I initially thought was the music genre and was confused as to all this discussion of lawn care), and Air-Conditioning. Green gives a concise deep dive into each subject, but always circles back to his own, quite moving, personal experience. The through line in each, either explicitly or not, is the disruption of the Covid pandemic, and he imbeds in each essay a snapshot of whatever uncertainty we were all contending with at that particular time. I used The Anthropocene Reviewed for my “Poetry or Essays” square.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

I know this has already been one of the big books of the summer, especially among the late teens and early twenties readers. I had it in my to listen queue when I found it listed on the Seattle Public Library’s “Peak Picks” page - perfect way to fill in that square! I listened to the bulk of it on a recent road trip and, for me, the audio book was the perfect way to submerge myself in the story without overthinking the moments that slightly strained my credulity. August has recently moved to New York City as a way to hopefully finish college, extract herself from her mother’s obsession with a particular cold case, and be alone without feeling lonely. She stumbles into an apartment situation with a handful of quirky characters, a job as a waitress at a pancake restaurant, and a commute on the Q train to school. Which is where she meets Jane. August has a crush at first sight, especially after Jane rescues August with a scarf to cover her coffee ruined shirt. But August starts to realize there’s something different about Jane - she listens to cassettes on a Walkman, she’s always wearing the same outfit, and she’s always, always on the Q train whenever August gets on. This is certainly a romance, and there’s plenty of steamy moments, but the relationships between August and her roommates moved me the most as they slowly break down her protective shell. August struggles to let herself love others, and to let herself be loved, so listening to her gradual change was tender and sweet. I loved seeing her find her people, a place where she felt like she belonged, and realize how full and good her life could be. One Last Stop would also work for Romance, QTBIPOC and Coming of Age Book Bingo squares.

The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta

This one I didn’t start for any particular Book Bingo square, but The View Was Exhausting would work for Romance, Beach Read, QTBIPOC, or Recommended by a Local Bookseller (me!).  All I knew going in was it was a romance with the fake dating trope and set in the upper echelons of Hollywood society. I figured it would be a fun escapist look behind the scenes of a lifestyle a million miles away from my own. Whitman “Win” Tagore is an A-list British Indian actress chasing after a coveted role in a Hemingway film adaptation when scandal erupts in her personal life. She retreats to Saint-Tropez to do damage control by calling in her on again off again “boyfriend”, society darling/male model Leo Milanowski. The world thinks that Win and Leo have a love story for the ages, but since the moment they met at age 20, it’s been about public image - fake dating on a global stage. First I was captured by narrator, Tania Rodrigues, and her precise English accent that she molds to fit every character. Her voice reading Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta’s words made me feel like I was in each exotic location. Second, the whole concept raised really interesting questions about the double standard for men and women in the film industry, and especially for women of color. Win feels like she has to faultlessly maintain her image in order to have the career she wants, and so as not to make it harder for any other British Indian actresses coming up behind her. She goes to great lengths, with her loyal publicist, to craft the image she thinks the public wants, the producers and directors want, and is exhausted by the effort. I found myself wondering if Win could just refuse to play the game? This is an audio book I raced through because I couldn’t wait to see what would happen!

I hope everyone is finding something fun to read or listen to this summer. If you want to sign up for a Libro.fm membership, go to the sidebar on our website, islandbooks.com and click on the link. Time for me to pick my next listen!

— Lori

#island books #lori robinson #BookBingoNW2021 #Librofm #audiobooks #summer reading #john green #the anthropocene reviewed #casey mcquiston #one last stop #mikaella clements #onjuli datta #the view was exhausting

[cookinguptales]

The anthropocene reviewed and 99 percent invisible are both pretty good! Anthropocene is John Green’s podcast where he does a history on and reviews concepts of the anthropocene era, and 99 percent invisible is a PRX podcast with a new story/analysis each week of design. Also how did you feel about limetown? I’ve tried listening to it a couple of times but I’m always so disappointed that the actual plot is so different from the way they describe it in the synopsis

Ooh, 99% Invisible particularly looks interesting to me. I’ll give them a look!

With the caveat that I listened to Limetown years ago and haven’t listened to any of the new content (and don’t really feel the need to do so), I liked it? I just looked up the synopsis and it seems fairly accurate. It says it’s about an investigative reporter finding out why a bunch of people disappeared, and that’s what it’s about. I think you’d have to be a little more detailed about your criticism there because I’m not following you. (I’m not arguing with you about quality! I’m just a little confused about what you mean and I’d like to understand.)

I liked Limetown a lot because when it was made, it wasn’t exactly something people had done before. I liked the fact that it was made to sound like it was yet another one of those true crime podcasts, but it becomes obvious very quickly that she was dealing with something paranormal/science-fiction-y and that this is clearly fiction. Kind of like a horror mockumentary like Lake Mungo or something, y’know? I thought it was a cool way to explore the story while also being an interesting criticism of the investigative trend podcasts were going through back then. (See also: American Vandal.)

It came out right after Serial and felt like a very pointed rebuttal in some ways, while also playing with methods of storytelling in a way I thought was interesting. Plus, I thought the sci-fi/ethical aspects were fairly engrossing, once they got into them. I do think it wandered a little bit at the end, but I think that’s because they were setting up a sequel that it took them far too long to make. By the time they actually made a second season, I wasn’t interested anymore. (And I’ve heard the new content isn’t great...)

Passenger List felt kind of similar in some ways, I guess? I mostly started listening because hello, Kelly Marie/Loan Tran, but it also had that same sort of investigative vibe where you weren’t really sure if the mystery was a conspiracy or paranormal or the journalist just kind of losing her mind. I also loved that parts of it were in Vietnamese and you had to read the transcripts if you wanted translations. It came out shortly after she wrote the Tran Loan article and talked about how she’d sort of had to translate herself and her identity to make it in a racist America, so it felt refreshing to hear her speak Vietnamese with her parents in the show and put the onus of understanding on the non-Vietnamese speaking audience. idk, I just thought it was a cool decision.

#limetown #podcasts #I had a lot of ethical problems with serial and all its copycats tbh #so I do like fictional stories that tease out the ethical quandaries there #Anonymous #replies