An interesting premise - the lives of eight young female boxers at a two-day boxing tournament in Reno, each fight is a chapter. At first, I found theAn interesting premise - the lives of eight young female boxers at a two-day boxing tournament in Reno, each fight is a chapter. At first, I found the mix of boxing and introspective descriptions of the girls' thoughts and lives (including a view into their futures) captivating, but by the third chapter or so it got a little samey. All the girls seemed to have the same voice and there weren't any stakes - it felt like a collection of rather repetitive short stories, less a novel. Even though it's a short book, reading it felt like work....more
After I was a little dissapointed by "Beautiful World, Where Are You", Rooney's latest book is a somewhat-return to form. I didn't mind the stream of After I was a little dissapointed by "Beautiful World, Where Are You", Rooney's latest book is a somewhat-return to form. I didn't mind the stream of conciousness -style or the fact that both main characters, the brothers at the core of the novel, are hard to root for and like at times. What I did mind: some of this felt very constructed and artificial. The women they meet and how formulaic they are. The way the love triangle is "solved" so neatly. Some of the more dreadful sex scenes. Some overwritten dialogue that runs in circles. The way mathemetical logic and chess is dealt with so inauthentically. Sometimes it feels like someone trying to merge YA/Fan fiction style with literary ambitions.
On the other hand: I was sucked into this book and felt for the brothers. I breezed through the book in one day. I don't mind the 'lack of plot' because I'm all for books that are primarely character and relationship-driven. Some of Rooney's themes are very repetitive and somehow I doubt she'll reach the heights of "Normal People" ever again - or surprise the readers with a completely different type of novel. But she is undoubtedly a great writer, and I'm sure she has tons of other books in her that will entertain, irritate and touch me....more
A really absorbing coming of age memoir about a painful relationship (and lack thereof) with Gilmour's father and in turn becoming a "father" to a youA really absorbing coming of age memoir about a painful relationship (and lack thereof) with Gilmour's father and in turn becoming a "father" to a young magpie and nurturing the bird to adulthood. Since I breezed through it, I felt it could have been even a little more detailed - on all things really, memoir and bird raising. ...more
Easy to read, informative and fascinating. I've had a few moments reading this book where my world view was shaken a little, because the facts appear Easy to read, informative and fascinating. I've had a few moments reading this book where my world view was shaken a little, because the facts appear to be so far away from what is generally assumed about migration. On the negative side: since this book is written in a myth-busting style, it is a little repetitive. I feel the structure could be more elegent. I also thought while some things were repeated a lot, other things would have done well with some more background and were too quickly explained away. There were even some parts that I found contradictory, probably because the reality was a little more complex than this sort of pop science book allows, and I felt there is some cherry-picking going on.
One part I found irritating was that the author will say something like "oh, yeah, this isn't a problem because it solves itself within 2-3 generations after migration first occurs". Well, that's interesting and important, for sure, but also a little dismissive because that is a long and relevant timeline for the people within these generations. The author definitely tends too zoom out a little too much at times. Still, overall I really enjoyed the book and if you consider it as an intruction to the topic, I think it does well....more
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