Aaron Doane

Really bad :D

Revisado: 07-19-24

downright terrible. Ever heard of show dont tell? This book either. The opening is just a list of things that happened to the characters. Remember when you did this thing this thing and now you cant do this thing! oh how could I forget cause you keep doing these things! its trash

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The Summer Book Club By Susan Mallery: An Essay

Revisado: 07-16-24

While a book in this genre may seem unassuming and of no value I would beg to differ. Not just because my friend Watson asked me to write a 3 page essay about this book but for valid reasons as well! Not that writing an essay 10 years after graduating high school for a friend is not a valid reason… but I digress.
This book begins as many romance novels do. Susan Mallery’s cast of characters while unassuming are women struggling with their day to day hardships and romantic lives. First to be introduced is Laurel, the mother of two characters Jager and Ariana. Recently divorced, Laurel was left suddenly by her husband Bo before the story began. While Ariana, the youngest of the sisters is also struggling with feelings of abandonment she is nowhere near as harmed by it as Jager. Jager in class is found to be talking about how “Men cannot be trusted” that they will “Always disappoint you”. This rhetoric has alarmed her teachers and they bring it to Laurel's attention in the first chapter. Asking Laurel to seek out positive male role models for her daughters sake to give her a wider perspective on the opposite sex. Shocked by her daughter's behavior endeavors to do so.
What does this first chapter say about the author? As we see in chapters to come Susan is not a fan of the opposite sex for more than just that, Sex. This first chapter however highlights a want to find the good in men when done wrong by them. That it is important to prove to the ones closest to us that even if you have been wronged by someone that the whole group they belong to is not forsaken. Skipping over some sections and diving deeper into Laurel as a character. In her hunt for thrift store finds, she meets Colden. An upstanding man who just moved to town. While the immediate attraction is evident to all but the characters themselves the two agree to become friends and prove to Jager that not all men are bad.
Paris is introduced not long after. Paris and Laurel are the only two members of the aforementioned Summer Book Club. Paris, struggling with anger management issues, was left by her husband 10 years ago. Getting her life back in order she gets herself into therapy and works through those issues. We meet Paris post therapy. Now a changed woman, she wonders if she is ready for love just as her ex husband returns to his home after his wife died. Newly widowed Jonas attempts to reintegrate into Paris’s life. Proclaiming towards the end of the book that he always loved her. That even while he was with his new wife he had always felt that he was meant to be with Paris.
A complicated situation for Jonas for certain. He remained with his wife despite the lack of love, upon finding out about her cancer diagnosis. This grapples with the question of what is best for someone. Is the truth what people need in their final days? Or is a happy lie something to help soothe the soul in the times before we pass on? To die thinking you are loved but for it to be untrue, Does it really matter? You would have died happy certainly. But to have your opportunity to die with a true love stolen from you. That I believe is more harmful. As the love is not true, its but a facsimile of true love. They will die not feeling the real thing. Never to know what the real thing was or that they were even deceived to begin with.
Paris’s struggle as a character is that of someone recovering from childhood trauma. Manifesting as anger and while Susan portrays her as a main character the far more gripping plot is in her partner Jonas and his actions. Raising much larger questions about truth and lies, what is important to us in our final days. Paris finds love in Jonas again and proves that she can love again and be loved in turn. The exploration of her trauma shows that at some point in all of our trauma cycles we must put the past behind us and learn to trust ourselves.
The last member of the book club to be introduced is by far the most complicated and the one we spend the most time with. Twenty eight year old Cassie. Cassie's parents died when she was just fourteen. Her siblings in their twenties at the time and on their own struggled with their grief in their own way and didn't have time to help cassie through her troubles. Finding her place in being helpful to others in their time of need Cassie has struggled with control in her life. Attempting to control her remaining family members' emotional states when they were down. Transitioning into her later years Cassie's need to control manifests in attempting to “fix” her partners. She would often meet men down on their luck and get them out of debt. Attain for them furniture and expensive gadgets to raise their standard of living. But as Cassie fails to recognize in this book, once the men are “fixed” they have no need for someone who only exists to fix them. I place fixed in quotes because what Cassie does is not fix them. The men remain the same men they were before they met her just with substantially less problems. Finding that their partner Cassie has no role in their lives once the “fixing” is done they in turn leave her.
The fixing is something the book never faces. Cassie upon being dumped, moves to the same city as the other main characters to explore a property left to her by her recently departed uncle. Finding an excavator who previously agreed with the aforementioned uncle to explore the land that Cassie now owns. Cassie strikes a deal to allow him to continue while she decides how to find her place in this new town. Lucky for Cassie's this man is handsome and kind and will make for a good partner. Finding this sudden windfall of a man stops Cassie from doing any internal searching and discovering that she in fact did not need to fix any of these men in her life. That her real dissatisfaction in life was that she sought control in the lives of others.
The author covers, in Cassie's story, that we cannot seek to control the lives of others and that true happiness only comes from within us once we find how to control our own lives. When we feel safe enough to make our own choices and not rely on others to hold us up in this world. Cassie is told to move out of her remaining family members home by her brother and sister to “discover herself” and to “stop trying to fix us”. It is no coincidence that once Cassie does that she finds that she can be happy and not need to “fix” the men she meets. That she can find purpose in her own actions and not the actions of others. She endeavors to repair the property her uncle left for her and turn it into an orchard. This orchard becomes the fruits of her new self. Assisting her in becoming a more rounded person and not as stunted as when we first met her. Cassie’s change is exemplified in her speech. Early in the book she speaks in an almost childlike pleading way. Telling her brother and sister that she will hate them forever for kicking her out and calling them “meanies”. But the cassie we see at the end is a homeowner/Business owner. She gets a call from her sister asking her to return to help out and this new Cassie declines to return as she has a new found purpose in her new life. Not giving up the part of her that cares for others she offers to return for a week or so to be with her sister but insists that she must return to her new purpose.
Cassie’s character holds a magnifying glass to us. Allowing us to explore ourselves in what coping mechanisms we might have instilled in our own lives. It is noteworthy that Cassie does not deal with this issue on her own, but with the urging of her family and friends finds the strength within herself to progress in her life and become better. This book's main goal is clear. To explore a series of characters struggling with some type of change in their life. But Susan Mallery expressly chose to have these characters deal with these changes with friends and family. I believe that it was Susan's direct goal to show how important that people currently in our lives are. To highlight that the friends closest to you are, on many occasions, the instigators of great change.
This was far too much for a simple romance book. I’m extrapolating a lot cause, for real, none of this shit is blankly stated and I think Susan didn’t intend for this deep of a dive.

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If you think this is how to live you suck

Revisado: 05-26-24

A foolish book for lost idiots. Many have said it better than me so I'll focus on only one point. Ayn Rand's A is A philosophy makes for some of the most boring characters imaginable. When there is only good and evil and no good person can have evil we are left with characters who spout what the author claims as good. As for the evil characters they are to bumbling and foolhardy to ever be believable as enemies capable of taking over the world yet they do. This book was written by someone who doesn't understand any perspective but her own and that shows deeply in this work. Shown namely in the evil her characters display by bumbling incompetence and confusion at how smart the rich are. Somehow the bad government in this book both thinks the rich are wrong for what they do and right at the same time.

Ayn was unable to reconcile that her enemy in this book didnt agree with the rich. So they end up being written as if they think the rich are the greatest but also the worst. Just an all around Flawed work that isnt worth anything in this day and age.

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This book was absurd!

Revisado: 02-14-24

I thought this was wonderful! A genuine joy in absurdity.

This book follows a finicky man who thinks now that he has received a death threat that he has joined some exclusive club of people who are worthy of such things. Being along side Melvin as he revels in his impending death is really a joy. Super funny book I highly recommend giving this hidden gem a look!

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Some funny scifi highjinx

Revisado: 12-21-23

I really enjoyed the humor of this book. Its not taking itself serious in its high concept scifi. The concept is complicated and messy but the main cast really brings it down to earth with their humor and being average joes. Give this one a read for a funny scifi time!

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This is where I get off

Revisado: 12-14-23

Being this far into a series I think most people know what they are going to get. I stuck with the series cause by the time I got to book 10 I was just starting to get tired of the formula. I heard an interview that the story would end at book 15 so I decided to stick it out hoping there would be some change and more interesting devations. Sadly there were no deveations it was same old same old.

Skippy calling humans monkeys and acting like hes the best even though the humans on board are constantly coming up with things he cant

Bishop coming up with something Skippy didnt think of despite Skippy insisting it isnt possible. Skippy will then get mad say something like "I really hate you right now. Stupid monkeys coming up with ideas blah blah blah..."

Big tech explinations getting into the nitty gritty of tech that doesnt exist to explain how they did this new fantastic solution to their problem that they for some reason cant do ever again.

I'm not upset that the series has gotten this samey. I'm certain its what keeps many readers coming back. I will no longer be one of those readers. With this great cast of characters I cant sit through the same story over and over and over with such small changes. i'm tired and without any display that these are going to deviate from what Craig is comfortable with I cant stay on this train any longer.

This is my stop, i'm getting off

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Oops All Bad Guys

Revisado: 12-09-23

Wade Watts hyper geek at a new low! This installment in the series has a real "oops all bad guys" vibe to it. Now a mega billionaire almost trillionaire Wade has decided to go full tech bro and do all the usual trappings of them.

Invading privacy of his users? check! In one scene in the book he offers a billion dollars to whoever can help him find the first shard. Once informed someone knows about it he joins their private chat invisible and listens in to their conversation. But thats the tip of the iceberg its also revealed later that his company can spy into the homes of every and all of their users. Ernest Cline does not delve into why this is wrong, only writing that it would be a legal issue if the public found out.

In another section of the book Wade talks about a punk rock band that made a song calling him "a sixer Filating punk" He then describes how he bankrupted each member of the band. At no point does the book highlight how that is an insane suppresion of free speach that Wade is knowingly taking part in.

Thats not the end of this new evil Wade! Wade also releases tech that further disconnects people from reality immersing them more in this digital world while their planet rots. While all his friends sans Sam go along with it. Sam is the only person who speaks out against these actions and trys to actually save the world. Wades lesser crimes include being a little baby. Teleporting himself to users that dont like him and killing them so they lose all their levels and characters.

Sadly at no point in this book does Ernest Cline want to actually talk about the issues he brings up. Hes far more interested in this new egg hunt which is BORING as hell. The only character who was redeemable-Sam- Decides she was wrong at the end and gives in to the new evil billionaire on the block Wade Watts.

The first book thrived in its refrences and criticism of mega rich assholes and this book forgets that in favor of filating the now mega rich Wade Watts and bringing up a ton of real issues Wades money could go to solve but he never does. Why bring them up if you dont want to talk about them Ernest?

In conclusion this book is shit ass billionaire propaganda.

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Short and to the point to its own detriment.

Revisado: 11-30-23

This will have spoilers.

Nothing happens in this story. It starts at a dinner where shes trying to convince him to confess to stealing her essay while he is just ordering very expensive food and being weird clearly hes up to something. Then suddenly murder his parents are dead. Who did it? its him he confesses after 2 seconds and the girl recorded it. Ho hum nothing happened

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Really bland story. Skip it

Revisado: 10-16-23

A story by committee clearly. It feels very soulless. Like someone heard the morals of tech being abused by corporations and didnt know how to do anything with that idea. The main villain is a cartoon who proclaims his only goal is money, while our main protagonists of multicultural individuals gear up to thwart him and drop as many generic tropes into the story along the way. It all amounts to a bland story with nothing really going on thats worth talking about or listening to. Skip it

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I wanted to like this

Revisado: 10-11-23

Monroe's life sadly wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. she did essentially everything I thought she did. I had hoped to get shocked by the true events but it wasent much I didn't know. The stuff I didn't know wasent interesting.

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