Tag: 3 Star Reviews

All 3 Stars Reviews In One Place

“Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World” By Tom Wright & Bradley Hope

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The dust had yet to settle on the global financial crisis in 2009 when an unlikely Wharton grad was setting in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude–one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. Billion Dollar Whale will become a classic, harrowing parable about the financial world in the twenty-first century.

Ive been wanting to read this book ever since it was published back in 2018, and finally I did. I gotta say that it lived up to my expectations which doest happen very often for me. 

This book the author a lot of time to research the case and all the schemes Jho Low. The case of Jho Low involves a lot of people, companies, banks and even parties to write a book about this case in a month or so. Because at the same time because all the people, companies, banks and parties we are told about in this book the entire case becomes so much confusing and hard to keep track of.

This book makes you realize how ridiculous the entire thing was and how schemes it must have taken for the whole thing to not be exposed for so long as it did.

However this book could have used better timeline than it did. Because it keeps skipping back and forward in time without any specific reason other than telling us as much of the story as possible. 

The writing style in this book is pretty simple and easy to understand. But at times it throws at us the big fancy financial words which no one really understands who isn’t working at wall street or some other financial institutions.  

However if you liked the Jordan Belfort story, you will also enjoy this book. Because the story Jho Low involves famous people like DiCaprio, Jordan Belfort and other people from Hollywood. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“It Ends with Us” By Colleen Hoover Review

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Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up — she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true. Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

I gotta say that this book surprised me a lot because its the only Colleen Hoover book I’ve read so far that I actually liked. But before we get into this review I gotta give you a warning that this book talks about abuse and have some very hard moments like pushing someone down the stairs or rape attempt. 

The plot in this book is very interesting which really surprised me because the books I’ve read in the past by Colleen Hoover were pure torture for me. But this book and the plot of this book is actually interesting and somehow good written.

If you have read some of my past reviews of Colleen Hoover’s books you might know that she is the author I hate the most because of how bad her books are. And I don’t understand why her books are so overhyped while being so trash as they are. But this book made me think more lightly about Colleen Hoover, and that maybe I’m being to harsh on her other books.

This book turned out to be very quick read for me because of how interesting it was for me. I personally didn’t expect this book to be so interesting because of my experiences with Colleen Hoover’s books. 

The characters in this book were actually pretty good and I liked them a lot. The characters in this book are very well written and are very decent characters to follow for the entire book.

The ending was very good as well. At the same time it is very satisfying and really makes this book a little bit better.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day” By Jay Shetty Review

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Shetty grew up in a family where you could become one of three things—a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure. His family was convinced he had chosen option three: instead of attending his college graduation ceremony, he headed to India to become a monk, to meditate every day for four to eight hours, and devote his life to helping others. After three years, one of his teachers told him that he would have more impact on the world if he left the monk’s path to share his experience and wisdom with others. Heavily in debt, and with no recognizable skills on his résumé, he moved back home in north London with his parents.

So I heard a lot of good about this book, but after reading this book I needed to say that the internet have fooled me again because this book is way overhyped when you look at the quality of this book.

The majority of this book talks about the author’s experience of being a monk and his life after returning to normal life. We get some self help advice here and there in this book but the majority focuses on the author’s thoughts, experience and challenges. I personally think that this book should be more a biography about the author rather than a self help book. I know it might be a very unpopular opinion here but thats my opinion.

The writing style in this book was very simple and easy going. Which really makes this book for everyone and not only people with a degree in psychology. Which really made me give this book some extra points.

But because of the majority of this book being about the author’s experience I didn’t like this book as I wanted to. Because before reading this book I had no idea who the author was so of course I didn’t have any interested in the author and still don’t have after reading this book. 

For the most part this book recycles what other self help books talked about, but it doesn’t do it in its own unique way but rather in a very generic way. So because of the recycling of information and basically the same topics as other self help books I took away some points from this book. 

I personally wouldn’t recommend this book because there are much better self help this book than this one. But for the most part this book way okay and not the worst I’ve seen in self help genre of books.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“The Idiot” By Fyodor Dostoevsky Review

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Returning to Russia from a sanitarium in Switzerland, the Christ-like epileptic Prince Myshkin finds himself enmeshed in a tangle of love, torn between two women—the notorious kept woman Nastasya and the pure Aglaia—both involved, in turn, with the corrupt, money-hungry Ganya. In the end, Myshkin’s honesty, goodness, and integrity are shown to be unequal to the moral emptiness of those around him. In her revision of the Garnett translation, Anna Brailovsky has corrected inaccuracies wrought by Garnett’s drastic anglicization of the novel, restoring as much as possible the syntactical structure of the original story.

I gotta say that I didn’t have a lot of expectations for this book, and after reading this book I am glad that I didn’t have expectations for this book because if I had I think I would have enjoyed this book much less than I actually did.

To be very honest reading this book didn’t take me too much time, if I remember correctly I have read this book in 6 or 7 days which isn’t that long if you look at the fact that this book has over 700 pages (at least my copy of this book was over 700 pages long).

The plot here is okay. It talks about corruption and a guy who had fallen in love with two women who are up to no good. My problem with the plot in this book is that it drags for too long fir the majority of this book which really made me so demotivated to continue reading this book.

The characters here were okay. I don’t have any strong or any thoughts or feelings towards the characters in this book because I simple didn’t care about them enough to have any opinions about them. They weren’t bad because if they were bad characters I would have gotten negative opinion about them.

The writing style as you can expected from Dostoevsky is very chunky and heavy. Which shouldn’t surprise you if you read any of his books in the past. 

Yes Dostoevsky’s books are hard to read because of the chunky and heavy writing style combined with the big plots. 

Even thou this book isn’t my favorite book from Dostoevsky, its pretty far from it. I’m in a way happy that I read this book even thou I wouldn’t be recommending this book to anyone looking to get started reading books from Dostoevsky.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Kenobi” By John Jackson Miller Review

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In this original novel set between the events of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi comes to the aid of the residents of Tatooine during his exile. But he struggles with his new mission when he realizes that protecting Luke Skywalker-the last hope of the galaxy-means setting aside his compassion and his Jedi warrior training, for the future of the galaxy lies not with Obi-Wan Kenobi, but with a mystical desert recluse known only by the name of Crazy Old Ben.

I gotta admit that this one isn’t the best star wars books I’ve read. This book is okay and somehow fun to read because we get to see more of what Obi-Wan was doing on Tatooine after the events of Episode 3. But other than that it has some other fun moments but for the most part. However I gotta admit that this book had disappointed me in a way.

The thing I found most disappointing in this book is that I thought it will be about Obi-Wan, since its named “Kenobi” and it has Obi-Wan on the cover but the majority of this book isn’t even about him. He is in the book yes, but he pops up every couple of pages. And I gotta say that he was in around 20% of this book but the remaining 80% of this book was not about him. But Obi-Wan being at Tatooine is critical to the events in this book but we don’t get to know his thoughts and opinions about the actions unfolding in this book. Because we as the readers we only get very few and short passages from his point of view. Which really got me angry on this book and on the author in a way because I bought and read this book to read about Obi-Wan and not some Tatooine hillbillies.

I gotta admit that this book is more like a desert western rather than a star wars book, even thou it has a lightsaber moment at the end of this book. But I gotta admit that a part of me liked this in a way because for me it was like taking a unique approach to the Star Wars universe, even thou I don’t want to see that happening often when it comes to Star Wars universe.

The pacing in this book was over odd for me personally in this book. Because it was like the first half of this book was building into this big climax and then when we get into the second half of this book we get a new path and the book and the plot itself builds back up again for a new climax and for the real conclusion of the book.

The characters here are meh to be honest, even Obi Wan in this book feels more like a watered down version of himself from Episode 3 which happened very short time before the plot in this book begins. 

The characters are very not memorable, and really I didn’t remember their names after I finished this book which really shows me personally at least how mediocre and average “Joe”s the characters were in this book. 

We follow the plot from the new characters point of view in this book, and because of this a lot of this story isn’t spend on the Obi-Wan we know and love but rather the local people seeing the new guy in town and wondering who is and where he came from. And of course the new guy in town is “Ben Kenobi” which might explain what I said above about Obi-Wan having a feeling like he is a watered down version of himself.

The writing style in this book was very average and not a lot to talk about. It didn’t feel like it was a good choice for a star wars book, because the writing style felt like it would do better in a western themed book rather than a star wars book. It focused heavily on the gun action and the schemes aspects rather than what you would expect from a Star Wars books. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Moby-Dick” By Herman Melville Review

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The crew of the whaling ship the Pequod is bound by its Captain Ahab to a single, bloody goal: the killing of the whale Moby-Dick, the giant albino that has taken his leg and on which he has sworn vengeance. Driven, perhaps doomed, by his dangerous monomania, they sail in pursuit of the monster.

I gotta say that I was afraid of reading this book, because I have heard a lot of good about this book but I know that the more good I read about a book on the interest than the chances that the book is overhyped are very high. But after reading this book I gotta say that this book is okay. 

I need to admit that this book is much longer than I expected it to be. And after reading the entire book, I need to get a little bit honest here and say that at times this book drags for far too long. A lot of parts could have easily been removed and it would make this book so much better and shorter.

This book gives a lot of fun and in depth depiction of sea navigation and how it was like being a sailor back in 1820s and 1830s. But the aspect of whale hunting in this book made me really take away some points of this book. 

This book took awhile to read, because I needed to take some days long breaks from this book. Because a lot of parts of this book drags for too long and it kept making me uninterested but I wanted to finish this book. So when I was getting very close to DNF-ing this book I took some days long breaks before returning back to it. 

The writing style in this book was okay. I wasn’t taken back by it or anything like that. To be honest I am very neutral about the writing style in this book. I don’t have any strong feelings or thoughts about the writing style in this book. 

The characters in this book were okay to be honest. Im writing this review 2 days after I finished this book and I don’t remember any of the characters in this book. That’s because they weren’t memorable or very likable which would make me remember them. The characters in this book felt like different versions of the the same character which really didn’t help me with liking the characters in this book. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“FCBD 2018: Amazing Spider-Man/Guardians of the Galaxy #1” By Nick Spencer & Ryan Ottley &  Cliff Rathburn & Laura Martin Review

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New creative teams. New series. New directions. New beginnings. Fans will be able to read the first Amazing Spider-Man story from Nick Spencer and Ryan Ottley in this very issue

I gotta admit that this comic book was much more than I expected it to be. But I had a few problems with this one a few times during reading this one. But I’m gonna explain everything in this review of course. 

This comic of course gives us some of the OG trademark humor associated with Spider-Man, but at times it felt a little forced like the author was trying way too hard to remind us about the Spider-Man Comic books which the readers loved.

One of my main issues with this comic book is that it doesn’t go deep into the plots or character, which was sort of like a decent “meh” for me. Because I know how good Spider-man comic books can get but this one is very far from being a “good spider-man comic book“ for me personally. 

I was interested in the Spider-man story part of this comic book, but not so much the guardians of the galaxy part of this comic book. Because I gelt like it was a little bit forced and didn’t have the same vibe and depth as the other comic books about guardians of the galaxy.

Guardians of the Galaxy part of this comic book (but also the spider-man part to some extend) feels like it lacks a gripping storyline, which really didn’t made me happy to say honestly. Because to feels somehow superficial and makes it hard for me at least to connect and fully engage with the plot.

I feel personally that the plot line in both stories in this comic book felt at times very rushed, like the author didn’t care for to give us a good story but instead he wanted to be done with the comic book as fast as possible to get the paycheck from publishing it.

Because of the plot lines in both stories being very rushed at times, it leaves little room and time for a good character exploration but also to give us the characters we actually like from previous comic books or even movies.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“This Book Is On Fire!: A Funny And Interactive Story For Kids” By Ron Keres & Arthur Lin Review

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Meet Finn the Frog, who takes immense pride in his extraordinary book. But even more than that, Finn is renowned for his world-famous kitchen and his exceptional culinary skills. With his self-proclaimed greatness as a chef, he believes he can conquer any cooking challenge. Little does he know, he’s about to face one of the most formidable challenges in the culinary world—cooking for a picky kid.

I gotta say that this book is my favorite of all the books in this series I’ve read so far. The previous 2 once where decent 2 star rating but still was actually much better than the previous books I’ve read.

One of the main problems with this book is that this book isn’t really made to read on a kindle, since the cover looks not great, its hard to read and even harder to navigate without the entire book glitching.

But overall this book is a good and simple book for maybe first and second grade aged children. And I believe the children will have a fun time reading this book.

The premise of this book is a frog teaching a lesson about having clean hands, and the importance of having a clean house and room. Which is a good lesson for children.

But if you are reading this book as an adult then well I gotta say that it is less impressive for you then than I guess it would have been for children this book is meant for.

This book is simple and easy to read. And I gotta say that this book has its fun parts which makes this book fun to read.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back” By Elizabeth Schaefer Review

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On May 21, 1980, Star Wars became a true saga with the release of The Empire Strikes Back. In honor of the fortieth anniversary, forty storytellers recreate an iconic scene from The Empire Strikes Back, through the eyes of a supporting character, from heroes and villains to droids and creatures. From a Certain Point of View features contributions by bestselling authors and trendsetting artists.

So this book is a collection of 40 short stories which is released what we saw in The Empire Strikes Back.

If you want me to be very honest here, most of those stories in this book were good but they were okay. But surprisingly there were 2-3 very good shorties which really made me be kinder to the stories I didn’t like as much in this book. 

Its important to say that each short stories comes from a less known character from that movie. And we don’t get Luke’s, Leia’s or Han’s perspective but rather from the side characters from the movie. With actually worked very well for this book. Because we get to see the iconic trio through different perspectives rather from their own perspectives. 

To be honest I cant talk about the writing style of this book, because almost all 40 short stories in this book have been written by different authors which of course their own witting styles. 

I think that this book is a nice book to read if you want to expend your star wars knowledge and see the events of The Empire Strikes Back from different perspectives than the iconic trio’s perspectives. But of course this book is very far from being a “must read” in the star wars book universe. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“The Count of Monte Cristo” By Alexandre Dumas Review

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Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to use the treasure to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas’ epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.

I gotta say that I’ve heard a lot of good about this book before getting into. But at the same time I didn’t have any expectations for it personally. And that might be the reason why I liked it so much. 

This book is long let me tell you that. The copy I have of this book has over 1200 pages, and after reading the entire thing I feel like this book should be at least 400 pages shorter and it would have made this book so much better.

The plot is is actually very interesting. But there are a lot of moments in this book where the plot drags for way too long. There were a lot of moments in this book where one situation could go for like 50 or more pages. And when it happened I began so overwhelmed by it since the author would give us way too long descriptions and the characters would randomly go onto 5 pages long monologues. 

The characters here were okay for the most part. The main character is the best character in the entire book. Since we get to know him the best in this entire book. But the side characters here were way too noble for me. Because of their need to be the most noble in the room they had zero personality and it felt like every single character tried to be more noble than the rest of the room. 

I gotta say that reading this book have taken me 5 months to read it front to back. Because during reading this book I needed to take long breaks because this book would drag for too long and I just couldn’t handle to read this book in a short time. And I didn’t want to end with the biggest reading demotivation over this book. 

The writing style in this book was actually very charming and good. Which is the reason why I gave this book a higher rating than I wanted to at the beginning. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5