John Green (1) (1977–)

If you’ve seen John Green talk about his book or about his friend Henry Reider, you’ll know what to expect from Everything Is Tuberculosis. In his earnest, thoughtful, and compassionate way, he presents the history of tuberculosis, its sociocultural impacts, and the toll it takes on human lives, all grounded in the story of his friend Henry, whom he met in Sierra Leone at a hospital for patients with tuberculosis. It is also, in a way, about how we think about public health in terms of show more cost-benefit analysis rather than in terms of human suffering, about how problems become “out of sight, out of mind” until they resurge to bite us in the ass. This book is also a sad and timely testament to how cruel and short-sighted the current administration’s hacking away at U.S. aid for international health programs is. show less

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 show more 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. show less

I’ve had mixed results when it comes to John Green’s books, The Fault In Our Stars I loved, Looking For Alaska I struggled through, and Paper Towns fell somewhere in between, so I went into Turtles All The Way Down with some trepidation, and fortunately, it landed in the loved category.

When an extremely wealthy man runs away to elude arrest, seventeen year old Aza and her best friend Daisy think they have an inside track to earning the reward for his capture since Aza’s childhood show more friend, Davis, happens to be the missing man’s son. However, if you’re here for the mystery, it should be noted that the mystery doesn’t really play a huge role, it’s mostly in the background with the exception of how it emotionally affects Davis and his brother, which I thought was really well conveyed.

One of the chief complaints you tend to see with John Green’s writing is there’s a certain pretentiousness to it, an unreal quality to his characters in how they spout quotations and philosophy and things of that nature. I think what makes it more palatable and more believable here is that Davis is the only character like that and it’s mostly relegated to his blog. The author isn’t asking you to believe that the book is entirely populated with people who say things that aren’t common knowledge, things that wouldn’t come up naturally in most conversations, it’s just an occasional quirk found in Davis rather than in every character. Of the four John Green books I’ve read, this one has done the best job of making its characters feel like individuals who have their own way of talking and thinking.

It’s tricky for Aza to date given her mental health so pairing her with someone who responded to her with sensitivity as Davis does made for a sweet romance, I particularly liked the realistic way it was handled at the end of the book.

That said, the most important relationship here (aside from the relationship with her mom and her doctor) is the one Aza shares with her friend Daisy, I loved how perfectly imperfect it is, I loved that they saw each other as worth the struggle.

More than the mystery, the romance, the friendship, Turtles All The Way Down deals with Aza’s mental health, much of it, the spiraling thoughts, harming herself, it’s difficult to read because every bit of it feels so achingly authentic, the book doesn’t at all pretend that there are easy answers for Aza’s issues, it makes it clear she’ll be working through this and living with it for her entire life. It’s subject matter that might be too much for some readers, but it’s a story told with care and honesty and glimmers of hope. show less

John Green has the acute ability to write teen characters and situations in ways that are both authentic and profoundly meaningful. He ‘gets it’ which must be deeply comforting to his readers. Here he gives us Aza Holmes, a high school junior with pretty severe OCD which is not some trivial need to be organized (nod to E.A. for this point!) but a sometimes debilitating mental illness. While her friends eat lunch and chatter, appreciating the break in the school day, she is worried about show more potential microbes she has ingested with her lunch and how they might already be infecting her. Same goes double for when she is kissing a boy. Her best friend Daisy is a force and understands and supports Aza as best she can, but she doesn’t really know what it’s like inside her head. This is all brought to the forefront and tested when Daisy brings up a news brief about a missing billionaire and the $100,000 reward for info about his disappearance, which they both could desperately use for college. She recognizes that Aza once knew his teenage son, Davis Pickett. In true fearless Daisy style, she engineers a way for them to meet up with him again, and pushes Aza to get romantically involved with Davis, all the while with eyes on the prize and some cyber sleuthing. That is the main external plot construct, but becomes wallpaper for Aza’s illness and her recursive spiral. Her relationship with Davis, while founded on ruse, becomes very real and they both help each other in ways no one else can. Set in a stark, dark Indiana winter, there is indeed a downward spiral (turtles all the way down) for everyone, but hope for light at the end of the tunnel . ;). Great writing - Green never patronizes his readers - and lots of thoughtful, relevant literary references. Lots to think about and discuss. show less