Kirill Yasko · EN

Reviews

2022-12-17EN
Books read in 2016
The file with this list has been in Drafts for 6 years… Why doesn’t this surprise me?
2020-01-03EN
Books read in 2019
Recently I came across a similar article about books that I read in 2015. It turned out that even a microdescription is enough to recall an almost forgotten plot. You can literally refresh a huge amount of information (albeit not very important) in your memory in just 10 minutes. Inspired, I quickly sketched out my reading list for the past…
2016-03-03EN
Books read in 2015
Why did I make this list? First, to brag. Second, so I would not forget. And of course to toss you an idea of «what to read». The score next to each book is less about how I feel about the work and more about how readily I would recommend it to friends.
2014-09-24EN
Zuckerbrins won’t work?
Pelevin’s new book «Love for the Three Zuckerbrins» did not arouse any particular literary enthusiasm in me. That is, there was no mystical awe, seething joy or other strong emotions. But I liked the idea, dryly and clearly stated by Pelevin at the end of the book. An individual journey to another world through inner work. It’s almost Hinayana (the…
2014-09-12EN
10 books that were close
Today, the baton was passed to me… No, this is not about the Ice Bucket Challenge that is fashionable this season — we already have enough cold water in our lives, there is no feat here. I got a book relay race — to write about the 10 most-most literary works in my life. By the way, not so long…
2014-08-25EN
musical hunger
Life is not always full of joy and pleasure. Moreover, many of the pleasures tend to turn into addiction and a source of suffering. I’ve been literally staggering from musical hunger for the last half a year. There was a terrible lack of a fixed song, a good hit that would sit in the brain and set the rhythm of…
2013-12-25EN
Books by Jasper Fforde
«It’s harmful to work a lot» — I decided for the tenth time in the evening, interrupted the heroic writing of the tour in Peru for a second and went to check the blogs of famous writers. Akunin and Pelevin were silent, but Lukyanenko pleased. And by no means by his arguments about the «Ukrainian loan», but by a tip…
2012-02-20EN
How to make a Stone from Svetlakov?
The film Stone failed to pass the quality check (according to the method already known to you). I did not believe in what was happening on the screen, did not turn off the inner critic. Perhaps this is partly due to the fact that my phone required attention every 10 minutes, and thus did not allow me to dissolve into…
2011-08-15EN
TV shows are convenient
I used to think that people watch TV shows because they don’t have a choice. Like, it’s cheaper for greedy TV channels to buy one soap opera and close the issue of evening prime time than to constantly look for suitable feature films, risk being misunderstood and spend millions on it.But now the era of mass and high-speed Internet has…
2011-08-13EN
The secrets of our brain — the wrong book
The book «Secrets of our brain. Or why smart people do stupid things» (authors Sandra Amodt and Sam Wong) I read easily and with interest. And only now, having sat down for a review, I realized that the book is wrong and teaches bad things.At first glance, everything is cool — an entertaining story about the work of the human…
2011-03-20EN
The film «City of Thieves»
Bandits in America also wear tracksuits! This is the main piece of news I learned from Ben Affleck’s «City of Thieves». Films about bank robbers and other criminal characters make up a significant part of the film distribution, and they probably showed clothing typical of the criminal environment more than once. But I had to put on a tracksuit and…
2011-03-09EN
The film «Radio Wave» — readiness for a miracle.
«Radio Wave» (Frequency) is an ordinary film about the «butterfly effect» or «paradox of the murdered grandfather» (it’s almost the same thing — just time replaces space). The hero miraculously changes the past — problems begin in the present — he solves them again and again changing history.Good movie with good actors. But it’s a very standard story. And this…
2011-02-13EN
127 hours — a film about a climber
Of course, the hero of the film «127 hours» was not exactly a climber. What he was doing before getting stuck in the crevasse could be more like canyoning or even multisport (given his bike ride and swimming in an underground reservoir). But the conversation is not about terminology.Talking about what I (as a viewer and as a tourist) was…
2011-02-13EN
Movie «What Men Talk About»
«What Men Talk About» is definitely a good movie. Praise him (or scold) is not very interesting. But while I was watching this movie, I wondered what the nature of humor is. When does a person laugh? How to «make» a joke?If we consider «What Men Talk About» from this point of view, then everything is quite simple — I…
2011-02-01EN
The film «Gosford Park» — an unusual detective story
It’s not often that my family manages to get me out for a movie screening. This time I bought into the promise of the classic English detective story. I was hoping to enjoy the atmosphere of good old England and practice a little (after all, everyone is interested in guessing the killer before the brilliant detective in the final scene…
2011-01-15EN
Dolphinarium Nemo in Kyiv (at VDNKh)
How Harry Potter rescued Santa Claus from underwater captivity… A damn promising start, isn’t it?Dolphinarium Nemo in Kyiv has existed for quite a long time and my child has already been there several times. But I myself went there for the first time, not least in order to shoot a video and write a short note about the performance.I hope…
2010-12-25EN
Tourist — Jolie and Depp in one … Venice
I usually try not to read other people’s reviews before I write about the film myself. This time, I specifically climbed into the Internet to understand whether the film «Tourist» seemed to me alone to be extremely uninteresting. And yes — sales statistics and a few reviews say that the movie is a failure.I even got the impression that all…
2010-12-22EN
Viktor Pelevin — Operation Burning Bush
Last night I sat down and in a couple of hours I read the first story from Pelevin’s new book «Pineapple Water for a Beautiful Lady». Consider this (sat down and read) the first compliment to the work. And today, in just an hour and a half, I retold «Operation» Burning Bush «in detail to my wife, who generally does…
2010-11-22EN
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie review
I used to read reviews to see if a movie is worth watching (reading a book, etc.). But in the case of films about Harry Potter and the elf, it is clear that everyone will watch it anyway. Why then write a review of the Deathly Hallows?I am doing this to help you get in the right mindset before watching…
2010-08-14EN
Boris Akunin — F.M.
With great reluctance, I start writing about books I read a month and a half ago. During this time, so much has happened that not only literary impressions — I hardly remember the titles of books. But who said everything has to be easy?I listened to Akuninsky Fyodor Mikhailovich (F.M.) while driving a bicycle. I listened very enthusiastically, apparently that’s…
2010-08-07EN
Heavy metal a cappella
For a couple of months now, I have been suffering from musical hunger. I urgently need an album that can sit in my head on its own, without any special tricks, and worthy of the title «soundtrack to life» (well, at least for a couple of weeks). In search of such a miracle, I listen and re-listen to both the…
2010-06-09EN
Leonid Kaganov — Charisma
Finally, I came across an easy and absolutely standard book. No surprises (even the last chapter did not surprise), everything is predictable and familiar. I immediately remembered the late Strugatskys — «The Powerless of This World» and «The Search for a Destiny», Akunin’s «Fantasy», and Lukyanenko also seems to have written something in this vein.But Pelevin (he considers Kaganov, Strugatsky…
2010-06-07EN
Hunter Thompson — Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Honestly, I did not deliberately select books and the order in which they were read. But somehow, over the past month, I have read a whole bunch of «non-format» works with only a slight mistake with the chronology. «Fear and disgust» — adequately continued the selection, fully revealing the topic of dangerous drugs and drugs.For me, as a person who…
2010-06-07EN
Ken Kesey — One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One of those cases when you read a book «after the movie» (I think I’m not the only one who had exactly this order).True, I saw the Oscar-winning adaptation of Mlosh Forman only once and a very long time ago, but as it turned out during the reading of the book, I remembered all the main plot twists. Therefore, the…
2010-06-05EN
Lev Gumilyov — The end and the beginning again
Gumilyov’s book interested me from the very first pages (I started reading it at the top Olympus ). I’ve heard about theories of passionarity and, in principle, guessed what the author would be talking about. But it’s one thing to guess, and it’s quite another to hear for yourself that … an awl in the ass is from God and…
2010-06-05EN
Henry Miller — Tropic of Cancer
Another book with a «prestigious» title and merry, as it turned out, content. If this continues, then sooner or later I will start reading the Old Testament in the original language — there is also probably a lot of interesting things hidden there.I read (listened to) Tropic of Cancer in travel around Turkey. Naturally, the tourists were interested in what…
2010-06-04EN
Milan Kundera — The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Choosing which book to read next, I am often guided by such an obscure concept as the prestige of a book, which usually manifests itself in «non-pop» and «alternativeness». Such books often resemble serious author’s cinema — frankly boring and understandable to few. Sometimes, on the contrary, a fascinating story is hidden behind a frightening name (this was the case…
2010-05-11EN
Vlad Malenko — Cheese fell out
If anyone doesn’t know, Vlad Malenko writes fables (and also plays in the theater and talks on TV. I listened to the audio collection of his fables «The Cheese Fell Out» and was surprisingly imbued. I used to think that fables are a dull and irrelevant thing. Now I began to understand this genre a little better and even singled…
2010-05-10EN
Stephen King — 1408
King loves to write about writers and does it regularly (I still haven’t read Misery!). «1408», a story about a writer who exposes ghosts, was included in my playlist for two reasons.Firstly, I repeatedly started watching the film adaptation of this work, but for various reasons, I never watched it to the end. Second, King used examples from «1408» in…
2010-05-10EN
V. Kunin — Ivanov and Rabinovich, or «Ai go to Haifa!»
«Ai go to Haifa!» — light, emphatically entertaining reading matter. Unlucky heroes constantly find themselves in unrealistically bad situations, but their good hearts and pure thoughts help to find friends and get out of any troubles. An endless kaleidoscope of hits and a fast change of scenery is somewhat reminiscent of Akunin’s books about Nikolas and Pelagia.The plot isn’t engaging,…