Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

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

20 reviews

koplomps's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Genocide, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Slavery, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, and War

lukewarmthunder's review against another edition

funny hopeful informative reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Suicide

noellegrace8's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

5.0

I don't much like John Green's fiction. I don't actively DISlike it, but it always seems to be a bit too light on the plot and characterization end and too heavy handed on the philosophical end. They're fine if not a bit heady, but John Green was made for nonfiction. We love his Crash Courses, his YouTube videos, his real life advocacy, and his podcasts. And this is that. Even down to its cadence and organization, this is just John Green having a highly consumable conversation with the reader that also helps them feel more encouraged about this life, even despite the many moments that suggest we should be panicking, even despite the occasional, poorly-veiled social advocacy moments.. He delivers a peacful philosophy despite it all. This is officially a new favorite book of mine. I need to go get a physical copy now.

While I don't include audiobook performance in my star rating of a book itself, I have the unique experience here of being able to critique the same person twice. Because John Green is an incredibly gifted speaker, and because I believe that audiobooks voiced by the author themselves have the potential to be the best of their kind, there's nothing about this narration that didn't hit the mark. I give John Green reading his own book the Anthropocene Reviewed... 5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Grief, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and War

While it is a generally mild book, The Anthropocene Reviewed is written during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shutdown, making loneliness and all things pandemic-related a recurring theme. Additionally, as John Green is diagnosed and medicated for his mental illnesses, being mentally unwell is also a theme.

amschelly153's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book somehow captures the complexity of the human experience will also just capturing the beauty and every day life. I give it five stars.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

2.75

Formatting would have benefited greatly with the use of footnotes, which in turn would have helped with pacing and flow.

I found myself reading an essay or two about topics I had varying levels of interest in, and on to the next essay I would read the title and often put the book down because I had had enough of the meandering stream of consciousness associations for that session.

There were some things that I found value in, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Classism, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

bbygirl21's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective slow-paced

4.0

I was thoroughly surprised by this book. I went in open minded, but I fully expected not to enjoy this book. I don't usually read nonfiction books. I don't go out of my way to find nonfiction books and beyond that general hesitation with nonfiction, the premise of the book didn't really interest me all that much when going into it. But I surprisingly really liked it. I did start to feel a little bored with the book near the end of it. But overall I really enjoyed it and would recommend.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Antisemitism, and Alcohol

spacekee's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Colonisation

takarakei's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

THE AUDIOBOOK! John narrates it himself (I find his voice so soothing) & one of my favorite essays was an audio exclusive. I just described this book to someone as a 'pop culture' book, but I think that does it a great disservice. This book is just so much more than that. I actually have not read any of John Green's novels (yet), but I have been following him and his brother Hank (read The Carls!) for a couple years, so I knew going in that John has a way with words. You may flip through the table of contents to read the titles of the essays and think this book sounds rather ordinary, but John is able to take even the most seemingly mundane topics and weave beautiful connections to (the often brutal) humanity. There were several times when I was misty eyed.

I give John Green's book 5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content

Minor: Bullying, Cancer, Slavery, Antisemitism, Alcohol, and War

Animal death -

extinction of species, descriptions of hunting and animal cruelty (zoos, captivity, human disregard for animal well being/sentience) - all of which are told in historical context

jaychayka7777's review against another edition

funny informative relaxing slow-paced

4.0

My favourite essays were Scratch 'n' Sniff Stickers, Humanity's Temporal Range, Velociraptors, Teddy Bears, Sunsets, The Indianapolis 500, Viral Meningitis, and "New Partner"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Death

andra_mihaela_s's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

3.5 stars

This is my first book by John Green. For many years I stayed away due to the fact that many people seem to really like him as a person, but not find his work compelling. :(

When I saw he published a nonfiction title, better yet..a collection of essay mainly from the podcast he does...I thought this is my chance to see if I enjoy his writing style! ^^

I think this book is personal for him mainly because it was written in the middle of the pandemic.
The subjects he tackles are varied and unique in their own right: from sunsets to favorite bands and places, from sports to the pandemic and mental health, and from important changes at the global scale to a personal journey he needed to put on paper mainly for himself. :)

This book is beautiful, and reading it, I kept imagining his voice and fragile delivery from crash course literature.

In terms of content I loved about a third of essays, liked another, and I was mildly interested in the rest.
Here are some of my favorite chapters: 
-Humanity's Temporal Range
-Halley's Comet
-Lascaux Cave Paintings
-Teddy Bears
-Air-Conditioning
-<b>Sunsets</b>
-<b>Pinguins of Madagascar</b>
-<b>Auld Lang Syne</b>
-<b>Googling Strangers</b>
If you have a copy of the book at hand, you can see that I connected with the first part of the book more...which is not a bad thing. I just vibe with some of the subjects of interest for him, not all. ^_^

I highly recommend this collection of essays if you need something meditative, or are in the mood this reflect on serious subject matters for short periods of time.
In the end, I'm not sure I will ever read more from him, certainly not his earlier work..but a similar project as "The Anthropocene reviewed" will appeal to me.:)
One things is sure...I loved his authorial voice! If you enjoy hearing him talk, give this book a try!

Enjoy

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Grief