Tag: 3 Star Reviews

All 3 Stars Reviews In One Place

“How to Win Friends and Influence People” By Dale Carnegie Review

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You can go after the job you want…and get it! You can take the job you have and improve it! You can take any situation you’re in…and make it work for you! Since its release in 1936, How to Win Friends and Influence People has sold more than 30 million copies. Dale Carnegie’s first book is a timeless bestseller, packed with rock-solid advice that has carried thousands of now famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives.

Ive heard a lot of good things about this book, and thats why I decided to read this book. And I need to say that this book didn’t live up to all of expectations, which in a way disappointed me a little bit.

This book will for sure give you a lot of knowledge to learn from it, but at the same time some of the chapters in this book were short and I think that they should have been longer.

This book brushes against a lot of topics in psychology, like how to make people like you, how to influence other, be a good leader and how to make people feel important. And by doing so it gives us very good knowledge we can use in real life.

As I said above some of the advices were good to have in mind but other once where completely garbage and ridiculous.

The writing style here was meh to be fully honest here. Solely from the writing style you could tell that this book was written some time ago. This book was published in 1936, and the writing style pretty outdated and somehow hard to read at first if you aren’t accustomed to reading so old books.

This book is very well researched and done, but some of the tactics presented in this book are manipulative in way which makes me not applied them to real life because thats not quite ethical to be walking around and manipulating people to do what you want.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Unrequited Infatuations: A Memoir” By Stevie Van Zandt Review

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What story begins in a bedroom in suburban New Jersey in the early ’60s, unfolds on some of the country’s largest stages, and then ranges across the globe, demonstrating over and over again how Rock and Roll has the power to change the world for the better? This story. 

Ive been waiting to read this book ever since it was released back in late 2021 and finally I have read it.

Before we start this review I need to admit that I am a huge fan of Steven Van Zandt ever since I watched The Sopranos and Lilyhammer.

I had a lot of expectations for this book, which it quite didn’t live up to. And it made me sad.

But I need to admit that I didn’t know a lot about him before reading this book, and this book provides to you with his upbringing and his early days as a musician along side Bruce Springsteen. 

This book also contains some little fun facts about his life, like how he met Bruce Springsteen and how it was working on the Sopranos as well as on the Lilyhammer. Which I loved a lot.

But I personally would want to get more background and his experiences about how it was filming the sopranos and working with all of those good actors which were on the show.

This book also contains a lot of images from his life, like him with his family, behind the set of the sopranos, his parents etc.

But I need to admit that he comes of as really full of himself and bitter during a lot of moments in this book. 

At times he also come across as jealous of Bruce Springsteen’s super fame, and there were times he claimed that Bruce Springsteen getting famous was solely his doing. I need to say that I don’t know how true or false that is but still it felt like he was very very jealous and angry about Bruce Springsteen’s super fame.

There were times during this book where he claimed that the only reason Bruce Springsteen’s concert had sold out tickets to almost every concert was because of how great he was. Well I wouldn’t quite agree with that even thou I’m a big fan of his.

The writing style in this book was okay for the most part. But it was clear that he is a far better musician and actor than a writer. 

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“The Chestnut Man” By Søren Sveistrup Review

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If you find one, he’s already found you. A psychopath is terrorizing Copenhagen. His calling card is a “chestnut man”—a handmade doll made of matchsticks and two chestnuts—which he leaves at each bloody crime scene. Examining the dolls, forensics makes a shocking discovery—a fingerprint belonging to a young girl, a government minister’s daughter who had been kidnapped and murdered a year ago.

I hate to say that but the Netflix series was much better than this book.

After I finished this book I was left with almost none opinions about this book. The reason behind this is because I was very neutral about this book and I just didn’t bother to make any strong opinions about it.

The plot is good, but the way it was written and presented to us made it feel like a disappointing in a way. Which really killed the hype I had for this book.

This book has a very good premise and a creepy vibe when we get to learn more about the serial killer who was terroizring the city of Copenhagen. However I was more and more disappointed in this book as I read it more of it.

The characters here are flat and they really felt like the same person over and over again but just in different clothes. However the characters had some good moments here and there which really made me give this book some points here and there.

The writing style here was very good, it really surprised me how good it is. The writing style made me want to read more books from this author. 

The beginning of this book was really good and promising. But the further this book went the more disappointed I got in this book. Which really sucked because I wanted to gives this book a higher rating because this book was the book I was most hyped about reading last year.

The huge twist at the end was really disappointing because I was expecting this huge mind-twisting revel of who the serial killer is. But unfortunately it didn’t happen. Which really made me think what the point of this book was.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Lords of the Sith” By Paul S. Kemp Review

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Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight, is just a memory. Darth Vader, newly anointed Sith Lord, is ascendant. The Emperor’s chosen apprentice has swiftly proven his loyalty to the dark side. Still, the history of the Sith Order is one of duplicity, betrayal, and acolytes violently usurping their Masters—and the truest measure of Vader’s allegiance has yet to be taken. Until now. On Ryloth, a planet crucial to the growing Empire as a source of slave labor and the narcotic known as “spice,” an aggressive resistance movement has arisen, led by Cham Syndulla, an idealistic freedom fighter, and Isval, a vengeful former slave. But Emperor Palpatine means to control the embattled world and its precious resources—by political power or firepower—and he will be neither intimidated nor denied. Accompanied by his merciless disciple, Darth Vader, he sets out on a rare personal mission to ensure that his will is done.

Even thou it might not be my favourite star wars book I’ve read so far. I find myself still loving the star wars books written from a Sith perspective. Because finally we get to see more insights of the dark side rather than always following the Jedis.

As some of you might already know Im not the biggest fan of the Disney star wars version they are forcing us to watch and read now on days after Disney have bought star wars.

However the title of this book is very misleading. Because only 25% of this book is about Darth Vader and the emperor palpatine. And the majority of this book is about the Free Ryloth movement, which really disappointed me because after reading the title I was expecting more Darth Vader and the emperor palpatine action.

The majority of this book centered on the Star Destroyer event. In the beginning it was fun to read about the Twi’lek strategy but after awhile it got very boring because it dragged for far too long which really took the wind out of this book.

This book made emperor palpatine to a very shitty character and very out of character. In this book emperor palpatine didn’t feel like the character we all grow to love over the 6 different movies and various lore and books.

It really annoyed me because all the scenes where we actually got to see emperor palpatine, all he did was stay silent as a rock or have a weird smirk on or laugh as a lunatic.

The majority of the side characters in this book are very flat and boring. To say it simply they are very forgettable. There was nothing unique or special about them. And they didn’t have anything which would make them likeable other than the fact that they were rebels.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Wuthering Heights” By Emily Brontë Review

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At the centre of this novel is the passionate love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff – recounted with such emotional intensity that a plain tale of the Yorkshire moors acquires the depth and simplicity of ancient tragedy.

Ive heard a lot of good about this book, so I finally decided to read it. I had no expectations for this book and the book really surprised me because it was good.

The plot it this book is very unique because it is about two characters with bad temperaments. Well what can go wrong there right ? It is for sure very unique and original, which really made me like it more than I should.

The plot in this book is dark and it is more or less pretty fucked up. I personally had hard time trying to find the “romantic” part about this book. There are some very sweet lines here and there in this book but other than that there is no romance in this book.

The characters in this book, were very good and they had so much depth into them. I really liked them even thou I wasn’t the biggest fan of them. But there was a part of me which really related to them in some weird way.

The writing style in this book was very amazing here, the old writing style together with the old English really set a comfortable mood to it. And it was like the author knew exactly what words to use to grab my attention.

However there were couple of things which I didn’t like about this book. One of these things I didn’t like was Heathcliff’s obsession if you will for Catherine. 

This book is full of revenge moves, toxic relationships and misery. But in a way these things was what made me like this book, and grab my attention to the ending.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great” By Ben Shapiro Review

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Human beings have never had it better than we have it now in the West. So why are we on the verge of throwing it all away? In 2016, New York Times bestselling author Ben Shapiro spoke at the University of California–Berkeley. Hundreds of police officers were required to protect his speech. What was so frightening about Shapiro? He came to argue that Western civilization is in the midst of a crisis of purpose and ideas; that we have let grievances replace our sense of community and political expediency limit our individual rights; that we are teaching our kids that their emotions matter more than rational debate; and that the only meaning in life is arbitrary and subjective. 

This book is very interesting and quick to read. I read it in one sitting because I couldn’t pull away from it.

However it wasn’t the best work from Ben Shapiro I need to admit that. 

This book is about .History, religion, American politics, Greek philosophy but it mostly talks about all of these things in the context of Judeo-Christian society and its norms. Which really disappointed me a little bit because I wasn’t expecting something more thought proving from Ben Shapiro. 

The writing style in this book was very good. And it shows how intelligent Ben Shapiro really is. Which really made me give this book some points in credit.

And solely from the writing style you can tell how much time and effort Ben Shapiro put into writing this book.

Some of the philosophical concepts Ben Shapiro makes in this book are difficult to understand at once. So you will need to take some time to truly think about them to understand them.

I need to admit that after reading this book, like I just took an very intense class about Judeo-Christian society. Ive learned something from this book but there were moments while reading this book which really made me bored and tired.

Some of the descriptions in this book gets a little bit lengthy, and it really made me uninterested at times. I feel like the lengthy descriptions should be shorter.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Persuasion” By Jane Austen Review

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Persuasion is Jane Austen’s last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma, completing it in August 1816. She died, aged 41, in 1817; Persuasion was published in December that year (but dated 1818). Persuasion is linked to Northanger Abbey not only by the fact that the two books were originally bound up in one volume and published together, but also because both stories are set partly in Bath, a fashionable city with which Austen was well acquainted, having lived there from 1801 to 1805.

This book is quite an okay book from Jane Austen. Its not as good as some of her other books. But it is still pretty okay.

This book is short and quick to read. And it is interesting and enjoyable. If you are looking for a book to read which is slow and relaxing to read then this book is your go-to here.

The plot here talks about the main character being in love man who happens to be captain. Which is the plot for every book written by Jane Austen. But her books are cringey as the modern day romance book. Which is the reason why I like Jane Austen so much. But the main character is forced to marry someone else. And when she meets the captain again years later all her feelings for him come to live again.

There was something unique about this book which made me give this book some extra points. This book really became clued to my mind after I finished it. 

The characters here was pretty good, even thou it they weren’t the best character I’ve seen, I still had some good time with them.

The writing style here was pretty good and I love it. Jane Austen was a very good author and you can truly see it in her writing style the most.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“The Last Wish” By Andrzej Sapkowski Book Review

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Geralt the Witcher—revered and hated—is a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent.  But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good… and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

Its important to mention before we start this review that this book isn’t the first book published in The Witcher series, but this book is the one to start this The Witcher book series with.

This book isn’t a typical novel because it is a collection of 6 short stories which introduces you as a reader to the world in the series and to various characters in the universe which Geralt have or had some kind of relationship with at some point through out the life span of the book series. 

I personally am not a fan of a book which is basically a collection of short stories like this book is. Which may explain why I give this one the rating I give. 

The writing style is pretty okay but there are times where the writing goes down hill for awhile. As well as there are times when the writing style feels like a cross between Harry Potter and A Song of Ice and Fire Series.

I had high expectations for this book because of the bad as games. But unfortunately this book didn’t leave up to my expectations. 

However this book needs to get points for the fun fairytale vibe which it has. But also for the fun way the author have mixed seriousness and humor in this book.

The characters are pretty okay. There are some good characters and there are some annoying characters. Which you can pretty much expect from a book series. 

If you want me to be honest with you then you got to know that this book is more or less a load of dated,  men-centered together with male-gazey nonsense mixed together with dubious logic and no understanding of morality or human nature.

Yeah the book the book didn’t go well with me. 

There were times when you got the vibe that the author mostly had no idea what he is talking about, especially when it came to women being involved.

The world which we get in this book is incredible and I would love to know more about it and get some different stories out of it. But this book really doesn’t use the potential of the characters nor the world. 

I need also give this book points for the cool and different approach to high fantasy which is very distinct from Tolkien books and stories. 

I need to mention that there were some generic epic fantasy issues especially when it comes to mundane sexism. But of course I cant mention them because this is a spoiler free review.

When it comes to the dialogues in this book. The dialogue were pretty uneven kindly said. There were times where the dialogues had probably way too much exposition and varied very wildly in tone to each other.

The whole mythology behind this book was pretty impressing when it comes to all the things which wasn’t so great in this book.

I give this book 3 / 5

“Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” By Oscar Wilde Review

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‘He was not blind to the fact that murder, like the religions of the Pagan world, requires a victim as well as a priest…’ Wilde’s supremely witty tale of dandies, anarchists and a murderous prophecy in London high society.

This book had really surprised me a lot because I haven’t expected this book to be as good as it actually was.

The book is very short but there is a lot of things happening in this book, which will make you interesting and even chuckle at times because of how bad luck the main character has in his actions.

The plot here is pretty strange, because it feels like there is a little happening but at the same time it feels like there is a lot of things happening.

The ending has a strange turn of the events which I personally liked a lot. The ending itself made me give this book an extra star. 

The characters here are pretty flat, and all of the characters seems pretty boring and uninteresting.

The writing style here was pretty okay, even thou it had the potential to be better Oscar Wilde haven’t used it.

It was my first book written by Oscar Wilde so I can say what type of author he was or anything about his other work because I haven’t read any of them at the time of writing this review.

I Give This Book 3 / 5

“Great Expectations” By Charles Dickens Review

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Great Expectations charts the progress of Pip from childhood through often painful experiences to adulthood, as he moves from the Kent marshes to busy, commercial London, encountering a variety of extraordinary characters ranging from Magwitch, the escaped convict, to Miss Havisham, locked up with her unhappy past and living with her ward, the arrogant, beautiful Estella. Pip must discover his true self, and his own set of values and priorities. Whether such values allow one to prosper in the complex world of early Victorian England is the major question posed by Great Expectations, one of Dickens’s most fascinating, and disturbing, novels.

This book really surprised me a lot because I was expecting to not like this one, but I found to actually be a pretty decent book. Even thou I am not the biggest fan of this book I still found it enjoyable and interesting at times.

It’s important to say that this book is far from Charles Dickens’s best work, however it isn’t the worst.

The plot here was quite interesting to be fully honest here, and there was something unique about it which really caught my attention. Even thou I need couple of breaks from this book while reading it, I still found it to be pretty good read.

The characters here were pretty good to be honest. I needed up liking some of them but at the same time there were characters which I totally didn’t care about. Which I can accept if there were some good characters as Philip “Pip” Pirrip, Estella and Miss Havisham. 

The writing style was very good in this one. I didn’t expect it to be that good but it was. This fact made me interested in reading more of Charles Dickens books.

After reading this book I understand why people love this book so much even thou I am far from loving this book.

I found this book to be very enjoyable and interesting at times which I haven’t expect happening but of course it did.

I Give This Book 3 / 5