Ninett
The cover lured me into reading a book that belongs to two genres I'd normally never read: a short story collection, and a crime one at that...
But I'm glad it did. I have been meaning to open up my reading a bit recently. I liked the classic twists in each little story and the image of an era that it left imprinted on my brain (both this era of crime fiction writing and the era the stories were set in in general). The writing was excellent - flowing well and reflecting astute observations about what we're like as humans.
The second installment of the Cradle series picks up exactly where the previous left off - almost as seamless as if they weren't separate books. This series is lamentably a bit predictable, but the light reading entertainment it provides nonetheless is sometimes exactly what's needed. Eithan in particular is an interesting character, and I'm pleased we're following him into the next book.
Excellent writing for a science book. Lots of evidence-backed information and an engaging narrative throughout. I found myself adding unprecedented quantities of new words to my vocabulary bin, and really enjoyed the shake-up of traditional exercise advice and the evolutionary perspective. As a sedentary person in a job best described as a complete sinecure, I have certainly been inspired to exercise, but can I keep it going and turn it into a habit?
Great review of the current state of the neuroscience and psychology around learning. Dehaene initially spends a considerable amount of time making comparisons of the brain to modern AI, which might put some readers off. There are lots of valuable insights in the book about the impacts of various factors on learning and retention - some I already knew from previous reading and a long academic journey, but some novel.
I really liked the book! The magic system is fresh because it has infinite variety - something that I suspect is more realistic in our analogue world as compared to the strict binary/tertiary/etc. magic systems in other books. The worldbuilding isn't as extensive as other fantasy novels, though, and a downside is that every trick our main character attempts, he wins! He defeats everyone he fights and always succeeds in all his plans. This makes a lot of the outcomes predictable. Regardless, the book is immersive enough to have kept me reading. There is a largely unexplored aspect of the book that I suspect will open up more in later installments. The book cannot be read as a complete story - there is no real ending and it was written with sequels in mind.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book at first. I struggled to read the first chapter and had to have a few goes at it before I got into it. The language is very poetic, sentences long and twisty-turny. The storyline is a little bit like the Odyssey in that it follows a series of travels of the main character to various places - while he searches for someone else. The ending for me was a little bit disappointing because Remfrey didn't go out in a spectacular way, the Lucidor died with a whimper and didn't even get to kill Remfrey, the big bad guy that started the invasion wasn't vanquished (or we didn't see or know it if it was), and even the shatterling storyline went out with a dim blinker rather than a bang. Regardless, I enjoyed the ride itself and the unique and unusual world so much that the shortcomings of the plot haven't deterred me from giving it 4.5 stars.
When I chose this book, I had in mind a story about a plague and people surviving in it. I would say that this is a book about a character philosophising about human nature, which happens to eb set during a time of plague. The main element is the philosophy and the by-the-way element is the plague. I'm not usually a fan of a book in which the central theme is flowery language around abstract social commentary-type concepts. I can see how others will like this book, but it just was not what I expected and it took me a long time to slowly chug through it. I kept forgetting who each character was and didn't really care enough about the story to even google it.
A great introduction to the world of emotions. I am someone who leans far and heavily into a pure rational interpretation of the world, often neglecting or discounting my own and by extension the emotions of others. It's incredibly hard for me to understand why people do certain things, as well as why I feel the way that I do. This book is seeing the world through a different lens, finding out that there is a different, equally important perspective that I've been dismissing. It doesn't help too much in the way of actionable points, but definitely can serve as a lucid and compelling eye-opener for the completely uninitiated.
I had a lot of gripes with the first half of the book. It read like a play. There was not much narration and the plot was advanced solely via dialogue. The characters are not fleshed out, they are just plot devices, and their copious dialogue is empty too. This section of the book is the reason I can't conscionably give it more than 3 stars overall.
But after the first plodding, disjoined half was over, the story really came into its own and I'm glad I persevered. The plot become interesting and twisty-turny. It even managed to go out with a bang.
I will also say the book needs an editor. Grammar errors, discontinuities of character and plot holes abound. Fair warning if you can't get past that kind of thing.
Good book. Every aspect of it was thoroughly revolting. I did find that the descriptions of the deaths of everyone Grenouille left behind gave him a kind of mystical aura through no action of his own. He's almost like an unwitting ominous talisman. It's a good thing books cannot physically convey smells, some of the things described were truely disgusting.
The unnamed main character is prone to lengthy reveries that are invariably misguided and clichéd. The book is slow. The women all defer to the men in their lives. A man gets away with murdering his wife. An overwhelming majority of the characters are loathsome. But it's not simple. The book is complex, the reader feels the plot shrouded in fog until the very end, never knowing for certain what's coming next. I loved it.
PS. I'd never call this a romance.
Good novel. My boyfriend bought it for me because he thought it was a nonfiction book about chemistry (I feel there's irony there, with the subject matter of the book being what it is), and it turned out to be a novel instead. Not a genre I'd choose for myself to read, with it straddling the line between romance, tragedy and drama, none being genres I generally read.
I liked Elizabeth because I identify with her in many ways. The cooking show theme of the book is an interesting invention from the author, but I found it to be quite left-field. I suspect this was the central idea around which the book was built.
This was a good book, just not aimed at me, someone who has already implemented a lot of the suggestions outlined within. Some of the internal triggers solutions we too vague to be put into practice, and I'm not sold on scheduling every moment (waking AND sleeping) of my day. I did put some of the advice to use though, especially the distraction tracker and the scheduling of the work day.
Sleep is my religion (I guess it's Dr. Walker's, too). I was an excellent sleeper before I read this book. Now, I lay awake thinking about needing to sleep, and I wake up in the night regularly when before I never once did. Have I gone against the popular adage of “don't fix what ain't broken”? Will this phase pass? Do I need to purchase an air conditioning unit??
Very good book, on the whole. I spend lots of time in academic circles myself, so the clear use of language and the scientific detail was very much appreciated - though I can see why it might be dense for a newcomer to scientific language. I found every morsel of information delicious.
My mom was reading this on holiday, so I decided to get a copy myself and read along at the same time. I wonder what the intention of the publisher was for this book. The author is so self absorbed, so grandiose, so insufferably self-congratulatory that I am forced to think that the publication of this work is a joke played on the author by the publisher. The inner voice of this woman is vapid. She has no redeeming qualities. Her emotional life is sterile and pitiful.
It isn't a novel for entertainment purposes. This is the voice of a woman without knowledge of how her life may present to others - she has no ability to understand that this would come across as repulsive to non-psychopaths, and writes in a gloating tone of her inability to connect with anything. I suppose if I knew I was missing an essential piece in me, I'd try to make it look like a win, too.
Either way, I hated this woman. I felt some kind of primal, instinctual revulsion to this memoir. My mom said that all voices are worthy and we can't judge people for what they can't help, but I wouldn't want to be within a km radius of this lady either way. The idea that this novel serves as a window into the life of someone devoid of humanity, and this being an important window to peer in through, even for just a bit, is what kept me from giving it a 1 star rating.
So in depth. I would never have thought that salt was such an important catalyst for trade and the movement of people. I did find it hard going to read in some sections, because the writing can be very bland. The author takes no pains to make a series of facts into an engaging narrative.
Still, I liked learning about how closely intertwined human societies have always been with an innocuous mineral.
I went into this book blind. I didn't read the tags, the spoilers, the blurb, or anything. I just wanted to read a book that was recently hyped and see if it met expectation.
It was well written, with a real sense of a deep mystery throughout, keeping me reading and turning those pages. I don't think it'll go down and a classic, but it was definitely worth the time to read it, and the cover and binding (ha!) are beautiful.
As a last word, the story is quite unique, with a very specific kind of magical realism, and some interesting social dynamics as a result of that magic are explored.
I'm happy with this ending for this trilogy. The incorporation of religion as a means of control and manipulation is apt, and I have always been of the opinion that that is exactly how religion came to be in the real world as well. The story was a bit predictable, which is unavoidable in this paradigm of fantasy writing which over-utilises the chosen one trope. Otherwise enjoyable and ties off nicely. I did like the saints element, it is strongly reminiscent of Eastern European culture, as the author intended. We have a saint for each day of the year, and then some.
The three books flow into one, so I don't have much of a comment on this book specifically. The criticism about the first person writing stands. I am not really a fan of Mal's. He is too self-sacrificing, too perfect a character for me to get any purchase on him as a fully rounded personality. Kind of reminds me of Peeta in the hunger games. No fun.
Recommended by a friend.
I'll say right off the bat that the first person writing may not have been the best choice. The story is expansive, and the worldbuilding ambitious, and the author had to work overtime against the limited window offered by a single, young character's perspective.
I was pretty close to telling my friend that the Darkling-Alina romance is far too cliche for my tastes, and that I can foretell exactly where this is going, but then the romance turned out to be a ploy that the darkling played on Alina, and this actually saved it for me. I started liking him afterwards.
I'm a fan of the Russian template that Ravka is built on, but I do hope Bardugo checks her cultural integrations next time with someone from that background.
I found the lack of agency and completely helpless acceptance of emptiness to be very difficult to connect with. I realise this was groundbreaking openness and honesty for its day, but it gave me tumblr sad girl so much that I just couldn't appreciate it at all. The awful notions and opinions on display made me dislike her even more. The younger me may have liked it, especially when I did go through a very dark phase, but now I find it harder to empathise with this tone of romanticised melancholy. Maybe I never sank this deep, but more likely this type of glamorous desolation is just not compatible with my personality.
If the reader is able to defeat the seamingly insurmountable disconnectedness of the first 50 pages where the mains are children, the characters' internal ruminations and conciousnesses do become intersting and worthwhile. Woolf peers into the human soul and pulls out what is not often said, and shows us the motivations behind each character's actions. Sometimes it is hard for us to be as honest with ourselves about our reasons for doing things as Woolf is with her protagonists' reasons.
The two stars I knocked off were because of the protracted, often repetitive sentences, and for the part in the beginning where we are thrust into the random, scattered thoughts of children (that nearly put me off the whole book altogether).