Catarina

Great book to get a sense of Thailand today, through a dozen assays on political, sociological, and cultural themes which showcase a view of Thailand that is not the one typically seen by the Western world. Always informative, sometimes quirky and at others just very difficult to read because of the dark topics tackled, I found all the assays very interesting and well exposed. The book includes great photographs and illustrations that bring an extra dimension to it.

First, thank you very much to Netgalley and ­­the author for providing me with a free copy in exchange of an honest review; I don't think this book would have crossed my radar otherwise, and that would have been a shame - this book was just a really fun read.

The novel opens to explain how our main character, Nick, found himself broke after falling for a pyramid scheme engendered by his brother-in-law. In a desperate attempt to get his family back and get out of bankruptcy, Nick decides to fly to Mexico to try to get an interview with one of the most notorious cartel leaders, Antonio Espinar, known for making reporters “disappear”. This is how Nick later finds himself with 10 million dollars' worth of weed and no plan to transport it across the border or turn it into cash. 

This is not a novel about themes or the accurate representation of cartels; rather the author takes all the known preconceptions and just runs wild with them. This book is over the top, with characters that mostly lack a sense of ridicule and have a flair for the extravagant, and that get themselves in really outlandish situations. The type humour and the overall vibe of the novel just reminded me a lot of the movie “The Hangover”, even if the plot was very distinct and more violent (some scenes are dark). 

Get Idiota made me laugh out loud many times and I ended up enjoying this book much more than what I was expecting; I started reading it during an international flight and it did a brilliant job at making time go by faster. I'm now looking forward to get to other works from Nate Granzow when I'm in the mood for something funny. 

 Disclamer: copy provided by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

This is a coming of age story which focuses on the life of Mark Prewitt during the summer of 1987, when Mark becomes acquainted with George Farrow, one the sisters of a pariah and shunned family in a small town. While Mark gets to know George he's also navigating relationships with childhood friends, and adjusting to life with a new stepmom, and in this setup we are guided through the life and secrets of a small town.
 
Coming of age stories don't always work for me because I don't tend to enjoy following the point of view of teenagers or younger people. However, this is a novel with young characters but written with an adult audience in mind and I really enjoyed this book and was fully engaged from the very beginning. 
As an reader in my late 30s I could easily relate to some of the dilemmas that Mark was facing at this stage of his life and the setting in the 80s felt very nostalgic.
There's a sense of unease throughout the book and of dark secrets. The plot kept me intrigued and I was looking forward to picking the book up whenever I had a chance.
A lot of themes are covered in this short novel: discrimination, bullying, abuse, loss, and others, and at the core the book focus on the impact of ones choices.
I really enjoyed the writing and the strong focus on character development.

In short, I definitely enjoyed my time with this book, and unless for those that require constant action scenes and stories that moves at a very fast pace, this is novel that I think will work for wide audience.

For me this was a very enjoyable read. This is a compilation of three novellas of the Legion series and for me the first sentence, of the first chapter, of the first novella, sets the tone for all that is to come: “My name is Stephen Leeds, and I am perfectly sane. My hallucinations, however, are all quite mad.”. At its core these are mystery novellas, and I felt it was like reading a Sherlock Holmes book (granted I read those many many many years ago), but as if Sherlock got is deductive powers from his imaginary friends.
The first novella in the trilogy starts in a more light tone, the second goes into full mystery-thriller mode, and  finally the third takes on a more serious and introspective note. Typically in Sanderson fashion (i think) there are speculative elements to all the stories which I found quite interesting but many of those are not fully explained by the end of the three novellas - so if this bothers you, just know it before hand. Also not surprising is the amount of time dedicated to character development, real and imaginary ones, which is something I always appreciate. By the end of the third novella I was very attached to many of the characters which definitely enhanced my reading experience. One of the most interesting aspects of this book for me, was the way Sanderson was able to depict the interactions between Stephen Leeds and his “aspects”, how real they felt, and showcasing the fine line that Leeds was always treading between real and imaginary.
As a whole, I'm a fan of these novellas and if more are published, I'll read them. Just a final note: I read the first novella and them set the book aside for about a month before picking it up again - I don't advise it; there are a lot of characters in the first novella and some resurface in the next novella and it took me a while to remember who had done what in the first one (of course this may just have a been a me thing).

This one just wasn't for me. I don't tend to like the SFF classics and this one was not an exception. This trilogy started strong but my enjoyment just decreased with every additional book in it. 
This book just suffers from all the typical things I don't really like about classical Sci-fi; it's heavily plot based, with the focus all on the ideas and none on the characters, the latter serving only to carry the story along - while this was also true for the previous books, specially in the first one, the ideas were interesting enough that this didn't bother me as much. The representation of women is also not great in this book - yes, published in the 50s, but it still annoys me; again not as bad in the first book since there were no woman characters. Finally the prose; while this is not something that usually dampens by enjoyment (unless I really, really, dislike it), it can enhance it - sadly, the prose is also not what the Foundation trilogy is known for.
While I was expecting all of the above in this book (as said, typical of classical Sci-fi) my expectation is that the plot and ideas would compensate for it, however the end of the book was a disappointment. There were all these twists and turns, and while the conclusion “fits” and makes sense, I felt that anything else could as well, since very little was foreshadowed in the previous books. It's possible that is not the case, and that I just didn't pay enough attention while reading books two and three because I was a slightly bored... In the end, I'm glad I read this trilogy since it has had a big impact on the genre, but I don't really intend on reading more of the Foundation books.

This book just didn't fully work for me. There are a lot of war and fight scenes which is just not my thing, since I tend to find them boring (which I did). For me to enjoy and be engaged by military influenced books, I need the character work to balance it out, and for me, the characters were kind of flat. I didn't really like or relate to any of them, and they all just seem to be mainly driven by revenge, which again is not my thing. If these are not points that usually dampen your reading experience, you may enjoy this book. I found the world and overall plot very interesting and if the character work had been more to my liking I would continue reading this series. As is, my journey in this world ends here.

I really loved this book, more than I was expecting and I hope this is the start of a great love affair with Silvia Moreno-Garcia's works. 
This book follows two timelines, one set in the present, when our MC, Meche, is coming back to Mexico after years of living abroad, to attend her father's funeral; and the second, set in the 80's, where we follow Meche, and her two best friends when they were all fifteen, and get to discover the events that led to their current status in life. The book is told from multiple perspectives including some secondary characters, and for me, there wasn't once a feeling of “let's get quickly through the point of view of this character so that I can get back to that other one” (a sign that i really enjoyed this book).
This is a character focused, slow paced book, which tend to be positive points for me, but why did I like it so much?
1. The writing style: I thought it was clear and beautiful, but sprinkled with humor and sarcasm, which is a combination I love.
2. The character work; there's a lot of page time dedicated to the characters, their interactions, motivations and I really got attached to these characters. I really enjoyed seeing how different the three teenagers were but equally accepting of each others differences. 
3. The story is set in Mexico and the culture is everywhere in this book.
4. The setting in the 80s was a blast from the past :) Although I was a teenager a decade later some of the things really resonated with me; i think for younger readers some of the references, such as a Walkman, will not bring such fondness, but for me they did.
5. I found the plot very engaging. 
6. Music is a constant in this novel, and there are references to bands across the wold but also to a lot of Mexican artists and musics - i found a Spotify playlist with the name of the novel that pretty much follows the entries in the book - If you like listening to music while reading, I highly recommend putting the playlist as your background music. This definitely enhanced the experience for me.