It was a pretty short read on Audible about the Cobalt Mining trade in Africa, it's about 10 hours. It deals with some pretty sensitive subjects, such as assault, child labor, people losing the function of their legs from mine collapses, and some other uncomfortable facets about the situation there.
My main gripes with the book which caused me to remove one star was that I felt like one of the last chapters, which was 3 hours long, could have been split into two- and I was uncertain if that was a formatting mistake or intentional. Additionally, it felt like some of the chapter markers on audible were lagging behind when the narrator announced them, like for example a few half hours in I'd hear "Chapter 7" before chapter 7 or something like that.
Peter Ganim, who also narrated Orientalism by Edward Said, does a good job with their narration on Audible.
My main gripes with the book which caused me to remove one star was that I felt like one of the last chapters, which was 3 hours long, could have been split into two- and I was uncertain if that was a formatting mistake or intentional. Additionally, it felt like some of the chapter markers on audible were lagging behind when the narrator announced them, like for example a few half hours in I'd hear "Chapter 7" before chapter 7 or something like that.
Peter Ganim, who also narrated Orientalism by Edward Said, does a good job with their narration on Audible.
Orientalism is one of those books I probably should have read paperback, as it was a bit difficult taking notes on the names and french phrases without reviewing supplementary sources. So, one day I'll probably buy a physical copy. All the same, I'd like to give 5 stars to both the book and the audiobook reading by Peter Ganim.
The language of the writing was fairly accessible. In terms of looking for other subjects to research for postcolonial studies, the book gives a plethora of names, books, and I guess events to look up.
One negative I'd have about this book is that it doesn't give enough examples of what Orientalism is not, or if it does, it's obfuscated by the large number of representations of what it is. But this book has a singular focus, so that isn't too much of an issue for me.
For this review, I'd like to highlight that this book brings up some criticisms of Karl Marx in Chapter 2, part 3. In that he "-ended up justifying British Colonialism by saying that even though destroying Asia (violently), the English empire was bringing about a social revolution." in this paraphrased quotation. In my studies of different books regarding communism, I hadn't encountered something like that at least up until reading Orientalism. So that was an interesting find. Additionally, Said includes references to Marx's writing of India as part of this section, and I think after reading this book I'll probably have to investigate the full context of that later at some point.
There is show more still probably a lot more in this book I have yet to analyze and understand, and I'd say it was a fairly valuable read on that front.
(Review written on August 28, 2025) show less
The language of the writing was fairly accessible. In terms of looking for other subjects to research for postcolonial studies, the book gives a plethora of names, books, and I guess events to look up.
One negative I'd have about this book is that it doesn't give enough examples of what Orientalism is not, or if it does, it's obfuscated by the large number of representations of what it is. But this book has a singular focus, so that isn't too much of an issue for me.
For this review, I'd like to highlight that this book brings up some criticisms of Karl Marx in Chapter 2, part 3. In that he "-ended up justifying British Colonialism by saying that even though destroying Asia (violently), the English empire was bringing about a social revolution." in this paraphrased quotation. In my studies of different books regarding communism, I hadn't encountered something like that at least up until reading Orientalism. So that was an interesting find. Additionally, Said includes references to Marx's writing of India as part of this section, and I think after reading this book I'll probably have to investigate the full context of that later at some point.
There is show more still probably a lot more in this book I have yet to analyze and understand, and I'd say it was a fairly valuable read on that front.
(Review written on August 28, 2025) show less
FurScience! A Summary of Five Years of Research from the International Anthropomorphic Research Project by Courtney N. Plante
In terms of looking at this book after reading the 2023 version, there are quite a few studies here than return in the sequel, so it was cool seeing the difference.
This book is also not as dense in terms of pages, so I'd probably recommend this at a first read before looking at the next book by FurScience which covers a bit more territory, as the second book is certainly a longer reading commitment.
I did find some interesting sections, so all in all it was a good read. ^_^.
This book is also not as dense in terms of pages, so I'd probably recommend this at a first read before looking at the next book by FurScience which covers a bit more territory, as the second book is certainly a longer reading commitment.
I did find some interesting sections, so all in all it was a good read. ^_^.
“After all, the only way to be certain of one's model is to expose it to cold, hard reality to see whether it sinks or swims.” - Chapter 4
There were a couple of graphs that I didn't quite understand how to interpret, and in some sense it was quite overwhelming how much data was covered by this book. For the most part though, a lot of it (with some exceptions) was written in an accessible language for someone new to reading research like this.
A lot of data in this book can be used for discussions. As of the month that I finished reading, quite a few pages are cited as a reference on the Wikipedia article for "Furry fandom".
I really liked this book, as I learned some information that I wasn't expecting about the fandom. I'm kind of curious to see what else was written in 'A Summary of Five Years of Research...'. Additionally, I hope more books like this are written about the furry fandom.
There were a couple of graphs that I didn't quite understand how to interpret, and in some sense it was quite overwhelming how much data was covered by this book. For the most part though, a lot of it (with some exceptions) was written in an accessible language for someone new to reading research like this.
A lot of data in this book can be used for discussions. As of the month that I finished reading, quite a few pages are cited as a reference on the Wikipedia article for "Furry fandom".
I really liked this book, as I learned some information that I wasn't expecting about the fandom. I'm kind of curious to see what else was written in 'A Summary of Five Years of Research...'. Additionally, I hope more books like this are written about the furry fandom.
Drawing 17 Fantasy Manga Furries: A detailed guide of how to draw furries and anthropomorphic characters by Ernest K. Ryles
There isn’t much text to guide the reader along with this art book, so for many of the pages you will be following along with snapshots of the artists process for drawing the characters.
One of the positive aspects of this book is that the poses as well as clothing designs are dynamic and unique, so it is fairly helpful in that regard.
It’s a relatively short book, so if you are interested in practicing you can go through each of the drawings in a day.
I didn’t find it helpful for the long term, but maybe I will find more value in the book when I reach an intermediate level. I’m not sure. This isn’t a very beginner friendly book, but maybe that is just my perspective.
If I were to sum up my review: I wish there was more text explaining the process, as the experience of reading this book is like following an art timelapse on YouTube with no commentary, but I still found it as good practice to get into the headspace of thinking of dynamic poses.
One of the positive aspects of this book is that the poses as well as clothing designs are dynamic and unique, so it is fairly helpful in that regard.
It’s a relatively short book, so if you are interested in practicing you can go through each of the drawings in a day.
I didn’t find it helpful for the long term, but maybe I will find more value in the book when I reach an intermediate level. I’m not sure. This isn’t a very beginner friendly book, but maybe that is just my perspective.
If I were to sum up my review: I wish there was more text explaining the process, as the experience of reading this book is like following an art timelapse on YouTube with no commentary, but I still found it as good practice to get into the headspace of thinking of dynamic poses.
Rating: 3.5 (4)
Performance
I picked up this book on Audible with one of my monthly free credits. I enjoyed the voice over performance, but there were noticeable moments where the audio would restart and redo a sentence in later chapters. There were also some words that I think were mispronounced, although I'm not really sure if that's the case, as I can't remember which ones they were specifically.
Content
The language of this book is fairly accessible and sometimes blunt, and I found the 7hr and 30m book to go by fairly quickly. In terms of the value of this book, there were a lot of elements I already knew as someone in the fandom, but only at a surface level. The author goes in depth somewhat in these areas, and I think that is a point of interest.
The author does do interviews with key individuals, and I think that is partly the selling point of what I thought made this book interesting overall.
There's also mentions of media attention on furry's, and this book talks about a lot of news articles and segments from TV that I had never heard of, so I might look into that someday to learn more.
(Originally reviewed on December 12, 2025)
Performance
I picked up this book on Audible with one of my monthly free credits. I enjoyed the voice over performance, but there were noticeable moments where the audio would restart and redo a sentence in later chapters. There were also some words that I think were mispronounced, although I'm not really sure if that's the case, as I can't remember which ones they were specifically.
Content
The language of this book is fairly accessible and sometimes blunt, and I found the 7hr and 30m book to go by fairly quickly. In terms of the value of this book, there were a lot of elements I already knew as someone in the fandom, but only at a surface level. The author goes in depth somewhat in these areas, and I think that is a point of interest.
The author does do interviews with key individuals, and I think that is partly the selling point of what I thought made this book interesting overall.
There's also mentions of media attention on furry's, and this book talks about a lot of news articles and segments from TV that I had never heard of, so I might look into that someday to learn more.
(Originally reviewed on December 12, 2025)