mrfroggy's reviews
265 reviews

Galatea by Madeline Miller

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5.0

I hate men forever and always!!! I support womens wrongs!!!
Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel by Shahnaz Habib

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4.0

A little all over the place, jumping from a history of tourism, personal anecdotes as an immigrant, tourist, and person, political alliances, state formation, indentured labor, etc etc.
I thought this was very informative, especially as it was written with the personal exp of the author at the forefront, making the history digestable and applicable to the real world. I love when history is discussed this way, as memoir. I think the overall structure of the book couldve been a bit more explicit in how it organized its narrative, but the content itself was well deliver. The transitions between them were just a bit jarring and hard to follow at first
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

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5.0

Still one of my fav books of all time!!! Bawled my eyes out as i reflected on how different i am since the last time i read this and how despite leaving childhood i feel more trapped than ever.... i really love the audio production for this edition, i genuinely love when audio adaptations add their own unique features to make it stand apart from plain text. 

Reflecting on my exp running parallel and hidden to the pandemic and the desire to connect with others through a different medium like letters or calls but being unable to meet irl bc of the risk that would put me through......being manipulated,,,,stomping on boundaries,,,,,but being unable to explain what's "wrong" w you.......
Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson

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5.0

I loved all the different aspects if polynesian culture this touched on that really rounded out my understanding of the current research of their "origin", from conceptions of time, reality and myth, desire for movement, and inter-island navigation.

The book steadily unravels the history of european contact with polynesia and the cycles of rediscoveries made by european researchers and polynesian descendents over time. 

I wouldve liked to hear more images and diagrams explained, especially when describing the bodily methods of navigation at sea, but overall this stayed compelling throughout, making good on the narrative of the "mystery"
Picture This: How Pictures Work by Molly Bang

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5.0

Great visual examples of composition principles!
Carrie by Stephen King

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5.0

AMAZING!!!!!!! Blew me outta the water holy shit....... 
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

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4.0

A good consolidation of America's propensity towards cultish fervor from doomsday religions to fitness classes! There wasn't anything new for me in here and i wouldve liked to hear a more radical solution for cultish inclinations other than "be part of lots of cults!" in our capitalist hellscape, but overall this is a good overview of how language and community draws us into exploitative relationships that i think every american should be familiar with. 
Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class by Dean MacCannell

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 22%.
Ugh i canNOT with all the academic jargon and clumsy sentence organization sorry..... he speaks perfectly clearly in his interviews so idk whats going on here, even as someone whose had exp reading philosophy and linguistics papers....
Native Tours: The Anthropology of Travel and Tourism by Erve Chambers

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4.0

I particularly liked the overview of tourism development in history and the inclusion of nonwestern perspectives when it comes to domestic tourism, though i couldnt help but feel like it was still too sympathetic and not critical enough of the current systemic exploitation of "tourism as a means of economic development" by western powers :/

It was still a really great entry point into the anthropology of tourism as it referenced multiple authors that ive been meaning to read but struggled to get through on my own. It also pointed me in a few more directions of domestic tourism in east asia that ive been trying to find, so thats just a personal plus for my own research :)
The Nature of Spectacle: On Images, Money, and Conserving Capitalism by Jim Igoe

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4.0

Summed up its argument very well towards the very end about the phenomenon of neoliberal virtue marketing and western consumerist guilt and disconnect from their imperialist histories

There was a lot of summaries of the authors personal field work in ecotourism in Tanzania that doesnt suuuuper add much to my preexisting understanding on indigenous land exploitation as an extension of flattening colonial occupation, but ig itd be a good visualization for people new to the concept of ecotourism in particular