Reviews: The Anthropocene Reviewed (5)

This was an absolutely fantastic reading experience. Some of the reviews were emotional and serious but there were also many joyful and funny moments. I was comforted by many of the essays, I was impressed by the connections he was able to make and I was moved by the life lessons he presented through these reviews. John Green is just really good at articulating things in a way that stays with you. Also if you love learning random facts that you will probably never need, you will get a lot of that here.

Hilarious at point and heartbreaking at others the books is a pleasure to read. The short chapters make it a perfect book to pick up and put down. Green encourages you to look at the world from the epic to the mundane with a sense of appreciation and wonder. If you think John Green is “just” a YA author then think again. I give The Anthropocene Reviewed five stars.

Hilarious at points and heartbreaking at others the books is a pleasure to read. The short chapters make it a perfect book to pick up and put down. Green encourages you to look at the world from the epic to the mundane with a sense of appreciation and wonder. If you think John Green is “just” a YA author then think again. I give The Anthropocene Reviewed five stars.

I've never cried reading a book - a fact that tends to bring some degree of horror to a lot of my bookseller and book loving friends. That being said, John Green's latest offering has provoked tears in me often - and not just a tasteful, single-drop-in-the-corner-of-my-eye type of tear, but rather, breathless, chest aching, streams down my face as I listened to this on my way to work. A great look for my morning commute.

Told through a collection of essays, rooted in personal anecdotes, research, and humanity's endless need to categorise that which can't be categorised, The Anthropocene Reviewed is both easily digestible, and the sort of book where the ideas sit in your gut for hours after consuming, repeating on you long into the night, week, month after you've read it. It's equally parts amusing and moving, and there were concepts I had never come into contact with, or considered. If you're looking to Green to solve all of humanity's great problems, you'll be disappointed, but that might be the beauty of it. One man's experience and reviews will not be a one-size-fits-all, but there are human experiences we can all relate to - fear, joy, pain, apathy, loneliness...to name a few - and John Green manages to present all of that in a way that you can identify with, even if you yourself have never taken part in an Academic Decathalon during your stint at boarding school, or been dragged to Disneyworld against your will.

Some books come at the right time. I can honestly say, on a personal level, this book brought a great deal of relief, comfort, and joy to me, and I'll come back to it at various points in my life. It's only June and I know that it will be next to impossible for another book to knock this off my spot for top read of 2021. I'm already annoyingly recommending it to everyone I meet. I give it...five stars.

Nothing makes me happier at twenty-four than to read and love work by an author I loved at fourteen. I've followed John Green's writing and internet content since before I had a smartphone and I am thrilled to feel connected to the raw emootion and astute observations found in THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED today. What arguably makes this book all the more fun, however, is my confidence that I could had this to someone who knows nothing about John Green and they would leave the book not just getting him but with a larger appreciation for the world around us.

Green's personal and intimate writings instigate both a sense of loneliness and comfort to a reader. He writes essays about the opening to an animated film and turns it into a commentary on documentaries, and invokes a wonderful feeling of maturity and pain throughout. For his first non-fiction, it's a stunning debut with stories never heard from Green, honest opinions about his family, friends and the world around him. For this book about rating stuff on a five star scale, I give it five stars for its intimate, melancholy essays about the world around us.

This book is comforting, funny, thought provoking and profound, but that is not surprising given John Green is the author. An incredible book, and a must read.

John Green writes short essays about the significant (ie Haley’s Comet) to the trivial (ie scratch n sniff stickers) things that fill our life, giving each the attention and importance of a major life changing event.
He writes about Mario kart telling his own experiences of the game but also giving it meaning and comparisons to life that I could have never imagined.
This is a book that will help you see how small you are but how great it is to be alive in this anthropocene. It will help you attune your eyes to the wonder around your.
I give The Anthropocene Reviewed five stars

John’s writing is clever and poetic, and I was consistently impressed by his perspective and the way in which he articulates his ideas. The book is a collection of essays about human life, ranging from Mario Cart to Sunsets, all built on history, facts, and his personal experiences. This book was thought provoking, but also quirky and humorous. Each of the essays take about 5-10 minutes to read, and as a result the pace of the book is perfect and very digestible. This was an absolute delight to read, and I recommend it to all.