Court
It's a mix of narrative and factual account, I mostly enjoyed it, but found that I wanted more information on somethings and less on others.
It's interesting (most of the time), yet dense, but I feel that it was misleading. Little time is spent on the actual colorblindness, which is the primary reason for picking up this book, the secondary reason was that is was by Oliver Sacks. It was misleading in that I thought that book was going to fixate on the colorblind, or at least their island, but it's only a third (roughly) of the book, we then wander to Guam to learn about a mystery disease, and then on to Rota for the cycads. At times these additional subjects were fascinating, occasionally getting bogged down in jargon – although that was partially expected – and at times I just reached my limit for caring, my interest for the additional subjects were not of his depth.
Spoilers
there was the repetitive nature of Jone Boleyn being haunted and “volia” got a little old, but bigger than that was it was said that they thought that Katherine was pregnant and then it was never mentioned again. That's supposed to be a pretty big concern.
Additionally, I felt that I never got an accurate sense of what Anne of Cleaves looked like.
Other than that it was as expected
The basis is decent, although casts many doubts. I can get over most of the content – but my biggest issue was I found a majority of the prose to be garbled. I kept having to reread things, it was frustrating and it took the enjoyment out of most of it. I did like the passage about Ralph's longing for grooming though, very good imagery.
Additional complaints:
It was very hard for me to have a idea of the passage of time. I understand that some of that may have been purposeful, but I'd like to think that a group of British boys could keep from becoming full-fledged savages within the space of a few weeks and especially (excuse the classism) if some of them were from families that were well enough off to have them be choir boys (or really anything that requires uniforms).
I don't have a sense of historical setting, so I am left to assume – the 1940's? It was said fighting was going on...so, sometime then?
Why were they on a plane anyway? I know that Britain sent its children out to the country during times of war when the major cities were being bombed, but off the island? That's far-fetched (unless there's backstory). So there must be a reason for a plane with mostly children on it (it surely was mostly children, because only minors survived).
Maybe it was my copy, but I found it incongruous for it to use Britishisms, but not British spellings (e.g. mold, instead of “mould”).
3.5
A little repetitive, but that's the style. Not quite sure if she was merited the title if Cleverest woman of France or Europe, but how often are people completely deserving of titles that others give them.
Good pacing, some good wit, although not as much as I was expecting, some romance that bordered on sappy, but wasn't too much. It was the excellent time period and concept that got me to pick it up.
It's closer to a “3.5” but it's still really good, I just wasn't in love with the art or the degree to which the language was changed. Of corse all the highly quotable lines are still in there, but it still feels like something is missing. It's a great way to quickly get in a Shakespeare story that isn't Cliffnotes or an outright summary, but it's definitely “Shakespeare-lite”. Now I'm going to try his version of King Lear.
I bought this without looking at the cover too closely, I was under the impression that this was a collection of Davis Sedaris' short stories, which biases my review; the collection merits a 2.5, normally for the goodreads stars I round up. I did enjoy the introduction written by him, but it also made me expect more from the collection.
Many of the stories weren't to my interest, or they were written in a style that I disliked. However, some bore either amusement or something thought provoking, but not enough to make the collect as a whole shine.
I loved the topic, but I was disappointed in the delivery. The writing style was clunky and clumsy. Things like Shahrazad's father not having a name until the middle of the book, which made it confusing for me, or how the author referred to the queen's lover was awkward and I had to reread his identity several times to distinguish that it was NOT the vizier, but rather one who had the potential to become the vizier. At other times the writing was overly sentimental (for my taste), as well as slightly jarring due to poor pacing, it was hard for me to discern the passage of time in certain places. Shahrazad is supposed to tell a story to the king, which is suppose to take the course of 1001 nights, or at least that's the usual myth, but she only tells him a partial story (over the course of what I presume is three nights) and a full story during a single afternoon. The rest of the time (the amount of which I have no clue) is spend in jail and is called the Days without Light.
The tone was inconstant, at times it was that of the classic fairy tale (good), at others you could tell the it was a ‘modern' retelling (not so good), but that the tone wavers is a sign that the writing could stand to improve.
Additionally, I found it annoying that Shahrazad only referred to her mother by her first name.
Very informative; great for those who are tech savvy as well as those who are less so. I loved the anecdotes and the personal stories, which gave the information heightened relevance and loaned it strong(er) character.
I enjoyed the parts about the news and copyright (and of course the Pirate Party!) very interesting. And I found the part about e-readers rather compelling.
There's so much to this book, and it relates to so many, especially if you're reading this review.
The book was good, although, I would have liked this a bit more had I been able to read it as a physical copy when I was younger (I read this online at: https://archive.org/stream/storylandstars00chagoog#page/n2/mode/2up). It's an older book, but I like how it was aimed at younger people to teach them about the sky and about concepts that we take for granted, perhaps even more so now. The stories in the end were also good.
2-2.5 stars. It had a good message and I loved the premise of a philosophical café, but the writing style was a little hackneyed and overly simple in an annoying manner (such as the obvious food metaphor, and the ‘how does she know what I'm thinking' trope that's poorly done). However, I did appreciate the golf anecdote. Also, I was familiar with the fisherman's tale, although I prefer Jutta Bauer's little book called ‘Selma' about a sheep who has found contentment.
I'm not currently in a place in my life where I needed this book, but maybe it will be a better fit for others.
Couldn't find the actual physical book that I read, but I believe this to contain most, if not all, the content that I read. I bought the book in Thailand.
It was a good read, done in a manner of Q&A. Good pacing - not too much of an informational overload, good writing style for conveying history and information, and a tone that seemed unbiased.
Please let me know if ISBN 9786167423104 ever pops up and I will place this review in the more correct spot.