Julie's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 30 Mar 2025 11:41:20 -0700 60 Julie's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Book of Elsewhere 202950650
There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.�

And he wants to be able to die.

In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.

A mind-blowing epic of ancient powers, modern war, and an outcast who cannot die. Combines Miéville’s singular style and creativity with Reeves’s haunting and soul-stirring narrative, unlike anything these two genre-bending pioneers have created before, inspired by the world of the BRZRKR comic books.]]> 352 Keanu Reeves 0593446593 Julie 3
I would have to echo what some of my friends have said before me: as a debut from Reeves, this is a fantastic piece. However, as a part of Mieville's oeuvre, it's mediocre at best (maybe on par with Iron Council, full acknowledging that this comparison might upset some fans). Don't get me wrong, the premise is pretty decent and Unute ('B') is clearly a complex, fully-formed and mesmerizing character. Which is maybe why the other ones seem to pale in comparison and come across as a wee bit flat. I should point out at this stage that I have not read the graphic novel.

I also felt the pacing had issues, which might explain why it took me just over 3 months to finish it. Would probably say that one could feel when Mieville's signature ornate prose took over, as the discrepancies between more simplistic dialogue and complex narration occasionally clash, in a slightly jarring way. And I feel that I'm missing out on quite a bit of the symbolism here, so would be really grateful if somebody could explain to me, in a 'what did the author want to say' style, what the hell was the deal with the pig. ]]> 3.26 2024 The Book of Elsewhere
author: Keanu Reeves
name: Julie
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: fantasy, magical-realism, what-did-the-author-want-to-say
review:
*possible spoilers ahead*

I would have to echo what some of my friends have said before me: as a debut from Reeves, this is a fantastic piece. However, as a part of Mieville's oeuvre, it's mediocre at best (maybe on par with Iron Council, full acknowledging that this comparison might upset some fans). Don't get me wrong, the premise is pretty decent and Unute ('B') is clearly a complex, fully-formed and mesmerizing character. Which is maybe why the other ones seem to pale in comparison and come across as a wee bit flat. I should point out at this stage that I have not read the graphic novel.

I also felt the pacing had issues, which might explain why it took me just over 3 months to finish it. Would probably say that one could feel when Mieville's signature ornate prose took over, as the discrepancies between more simplistic dialogue and complex narration occasionally clash, in a slightly jarring way. And I feel that I'm missing out on quite a bit of the symbolism here, so would be really grateful if somebody could explain to me, in a 'what did the author want to say' style, what the hell was the deal with the pig.
]]> Butter 200776812 The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Center convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer," Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.]]> 464 Asako Yuzuki 0063236400 Julie 0 3.50 2017 Butter
author: Asako Yuzuki
name: Julie
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: currently-reading, gift, japanese-literature
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 541 Suzanne Collins Julie 4 ya-dystopia, panem-universe
I feel like I'm generously rounding up here, because it feels like more of a 3.5* read. But I must confess that I've actually enjoyed it, as opposed to 'Mockingjay' (which felt like she was trying to explain a coup d'etat and not quite managing). It follows the more traditional plot line of 'The Hunger Games' and 'Catching Fire': let's have a bunch of teenagers fight to death in an arena while the grown-ups debate Locke's theory of natural law. This time, however, the plot focuses on young Coriolanus Snow - he's chosen to be one of the 24 mentors in the 10th edition of the Hunger Games. And, plot twist, it turns out that it's not just the tributes in the arena fighting for survival: in a behind-the-scenes contest, the mentors are also engaged in a battle to figure out which one of them has what it takes to succeed in eventually leading Panem. Coryo's assigned tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, somehow manages to outrun, outsmart and/or poison the other tributes, but their cheating is uncovered, which results in Coryo winning a one-way ticket to Peacekeeper training in District 12. But that also goes awry when his mate Sejanus, originally from District 2, starts getting embroiled in some rebel shenanigans.

I'm gonna stop there with describing the plot because it didn't quite go where I expected it to in terms of both Coryo and Lucy Gray's character arcs. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, and it explains a lot of President Snow's behaviour during the rest of the trilogy (without retconing very much either). I feel the Covey are a bit stereotypically modeled on travellers (which I suppose is a bit more pronounced in the movie considering the costuming), but I'm gonna let that slide. All in all, decent read, and I'm weirdly looking forward to the next prequel. ]]> 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Julie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: ya-dystopia, panem-universe
review:
*possible spoilers ahead*

I feel like I'm generously rounding up here, because it feels like more of a 3.5* read. But I must confess that I've actually enjoyed it, as opposed to 'Mockingjay' (which felt like she was trying to explain a coup d'etat and not quite managing). It follows the more traditional plot line of 'The Hunger Games' and 'Catching Fire': let's have a bunch of teenagers fight to death in an arena while the grown-ups debate Locke's theory of natural law. This time, however, the plot focuses on young Coriolanus Snow - he's chosen to be one of the 24 mentors in the 10th edition of the Hunger Games. And, plot twist, it turns out that it's not just the tributes in the arena fighting for survival: in a behind-the-scenes contest, the mentors are also engaged in a battle to figure out which one of them has what it takes to succeed in eventually leading Panem. Coryo's assigned tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, somehow manages to outrun, outsmart and/or poison the other tributes, but their cheating is uncovered, which results in Coryo winning a one-way ticket to Peacekeeper training in District 12. But that also goes awry when his mate Sejanus, originally from District 2, starts getting embroiled in some rebel shenanigans.

I'm gonna stop there with describing the plot because it didn't quite go where I expected it to in terms of both Coryo and Lucy Gray's character arcs. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, and it explains a lot of President Snow's behaviour during the rest of the trilogy (without retconing very much either). I feel the Covey are a bit stereotypically modeled on travellers (which I suppose is a bit more pronounced in the movie considering the costuming), but I'm gonna let that slide. All in all, decent read, and I'm weirdly looking forward to the next prequel.
]]> <![CDATA[The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure]]> 36556202
First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths are incompatible with basic psychological principles, as well as ancient wisdom from many cultures. They interfere with healthy development. Anyone who embraces these untruths—and the resulting culture of safetyism—is less likely to become an autonomous adult able to navigate the bumpy road of life.

Lukianoff and Haidt investigate the many social trends that have intersected to produce these untruths. They situate the conflicts on campus in the context of America’s rapidly rising political polarization, including a rise in hate crimes and off-campus provocation. They explore changes in childhood including the rise of fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised play, and the new world of social media that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade.

This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on college campuses today, or has children, or is concerned about the growing inability of Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines.]]> 352 Jonathan Haidt 0735224900 Julie 2
I had the chance to read this while travelling, so it surprisingly didn't take more than a couple of days. Compared to a number of other titles included in the podcast, it was quite palatable (maybe because it was published in 2018). As a Millennial, I don't feel called out by it, but the tagline is 'you can't even alt-right these days because of woke'. Don't get me wrong, it does make some decent points about how Zoomers (or iGen, using the old nomenclature for them) are later in achieving certain common-sense milestones that previous generations hadn't had any issues with. And yes, I think we can all agree, with the glory of hindsight, that spending an ungodly number of hours on social media is bad for you. But equating kicking Milo Yannopoulos off campus with driving a car at a crowd with the intent to kill someone to illustrate the point 'see, both sides are bad' is just downright despicable and that's where I lost all respect for the argumentation. Also probably wouldn't allow my 9 year-old to ride a NYC subway alone, but what does this helicopter parent know?]]> 4.23 2018 The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Julie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: if-books-could-kill-podcast, snowflake-gen-z
review:
Right, I'm gonna start by getting this out of the way: I'm ok with punching Nazis :) (feel free to disagree, but 'free' speech isn't 'free' when it incites to hatred and killing).

I had the chance to read this while travelling, so it surprisingly didn't take more than a couple of days. Compared to a number of other titles included in the podcast, it was quite palatable (maybe because it was published in 2018). As a Millennial, I don't feel called out by it, but the tagline is 'you can't even alt-right these days because of woke'. Don't get me wrong, it does make some decent points about how Zoomers (or iGen, using the old nomenclature for them) are later in achieving certain common-sense milestones that previous generations hadn't had any issues with. And yes, I think we can all agree, with the glory of hindsight, that spending an ungodly number of hours on social media is bad for you. But equating kicking Milo Yannopoulos off campus with driving a car at a crowd with the intent to kill someone to illustrate the point 'see, both sides are bad' is just downright despicable and that's where I lost all respect for the argumentation. Also probably wouldn't allow my 9 year-old to ride a NYC subway alone, but what does this helicopter parent know?
]]> <![CDATA[The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order]]> 413179 The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order is one of the most important books to have emerged since the end of the Cold War." --HENRY A. KISSINGER

Based on the author's seminal article in Foreign Affairs, Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order is a provocative and prescient analysis of the state of world politics after the fall of communism. In this incisive work, the renowned political scientist explains how "civilizations" have replaced nations and ideologies as the driving force in global politics today and offers a brilliant analysis of the current climate and future possibilities of our world's volatile political culture.

"An intellectual tour de force: bold, imaginative, and provocative. A seminal work that will revolutionize our understanding of international affairs." --ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

"The book is studded with insights, flashes of rare brilliance, great learning, and in particular, an ability to see the familiar in a new and provocative way." --MICHAEL ELLIOTT, THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD

"A benchmark for informed speculation on those always fascinating questions: Just where are we in history? What hidden hand is controlling our destiny?...A searching reflection on our global state." --RICHARD BERNSTEIN, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"This is what is so stunning about The Clash of Civilizations: It is not just about the future, but may actually help to shape it." --WANG GUNGWU, THE NATIONAL INTEREST]]> 368 Samuel P. Huntington 0684844419 Julie 2 if-books-could-kill-podcast
Main thesis: I'm not racist, but...*spends the next 300+ pages detailing why he's both racist and Islamophobic*. I'm not even entirely sure I have a better summary than that. The remainder of the book is spent providing examples of how, if you even have a small percentage of Muslims in your country, it will implode, engage in 'fault line wars' with its neighbours and it's somehow all the Muslims' fault? Sure, it also introduces the concepts of 'split civilizations' and talks at length about Westernizing and modernizing the non-Western world, but it just uses a few select examples (like the wars in Bosnia or the conflict between India and Pakistan) to illustrate some very broad, sweeping statements. And I'm not sure how well his predictions fare 30 years later - like Fukuyama's take, it's aged like milk (but he was right about the on-going issues in Palestine, for what it's worth). Looking forward to hearing the critique of it on the podcast. ]]> 3.76 1996 The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
author: Samuel P. Huntington
name: Julie
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1996
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: if-books-could-kill-podcast
review:
Technically cheating ever-so-slightly with this one, because I still have 10 pages left to go - however, I'm not entirely sure that they will alter my overall impression of the book. I've been chipping at it since August and I am DONE done. Like a few other titles showcased in the 'If Books Could Kill' podcast, this one is a pretty dry, academic read. Funnily enough, my Uni's library had this placed right next to 'The End of History' - I see what you did there :)

Main thesis: I'm not racist, but...*spends the next 300+ pages detailing why he's both racist and Islamophobic*. I'm not even entirely sure I have a better summary than that. The remainder of the book is spent providing examples of how, if you even have a small percentage of Muslims in your country, it will implode, engage in 'fault line wars' with its neighbours and it's somehow all the Muslims' fault? Sure, it also introduces the concepts of 'split civilizations' and talks at length about Westernizing and modernizing the non-Western world, but it just uses a few select examples (like the wars in Bosnia or the conflict between India and Pakistan) to illustrate some very broad, sweeping statements. And I'm not sure how well his predictions fare 30 years later - like Fukuyama's take, it's aged like milk (but he was right about the on-going issues in Palestine, for what it's worth). Looking forward to hearing the critique of it on the podcast.
]]> <![CDATA[Puțină speranță (În cercul fiarei, #2)]]> 152059170
Novarre Faruz a aflat că morbul, teribila molimă care sfâșie Fireniul, poate fi vindecat și are de gând să se asigure că remediul va fi la dispoziția celor care au nevoie de el. Însă ambițiosul său obiectiv intră în conflict cu planurile vechiului său dușman, urchemistul Hayat�

Vechi secrete vor ieși la iveală, trecutul va navăli cu furie din urmă, iar linia fină care despărțea minciuna de adevărar va deveni de nerecunoscut. Sângele va continua să curgă, violența va tulbura peisajul idilic al Noctiei, iar trădarea, ca și ajutorul vor sosi din cele mai neașteptate locuri.

Însă, din toate acestea, vor încolți germenii speranței într-un viitor mai bun pentru întreaga omenire.

***

Romanul „Puțină speranță� de Cezarina Anghilac e o călătorie amețitoare printr-un amalgam de emoții. Întorsături fulgerătoare de situație fac și desfac relațiile dintre personaje, și nu mai știi cine-ți e prieten și cine dușman. Să fie puii de kirb leac pentru morb? Să poată Slievi s-o controleze pe Cealaltă? Să existe oare un prunc care va face luminările mai îndurătoare?

Volumul final al duologiei „În cercul fiarei� închide cercul narativ început în romanul „Promisiuni de sânge�, dar ne dezvăluie o lume isteț și atent construită, în care coexistă națiuni și creaturi cu descrieri care ne lasă cu gura căscată. Lingvista din mine a tresărit de încântare la fiecare termen din glosar, iar dacă sunteți cititori ai genului veți descoperi referințe iscusite la lumi fantastice îndrăgite.

Lumea creată de Cezarina Anghilac, însă, este în sine un cadou. Funcții de înțeles, tradiții de asimilat, gusturi de savurat, și întunecime suficientă să fie pe placul doritorilor, fără a-i sensibiliza excesiv pe cei care se feresc de sânge.

În fond, volumul al doilea este (și) despre speranță.

Iulia Dromereschi � traducătoare, jurnalistă culturală]]> 302 Cezarina Anghilac Julie 4 fantasy, romanian-literature
Very subjective, but I enjoyed this one significantly more than its predecessor (reflected by the fact that I only took about a month to read it). The extended exposition, which I found slightly cumbersome in the first volume, is 100% not a thing here - the plot literally picks up from the moment you left it. And then keeps going at a pretty speedy pace, building relentlessly towards a slightly ambiguous (but quite nuanced) conclusion.

I think that stretching the characters to their very limits was a brave decision, and their actions, fluctuating between sheer cruelty and self-preservation, still felt *in character*, which is no easy feat to achieve. Loved the plot twists, especially the surprise deaths - while Cezarina is not quite GRRM, she does keep you on your toes.

ps: whatever happened to Rieumi in the end? (o_O)]]> 4.58 Puțină speranță (În cercul fiarei, #2)
author: Cezarina Anghilac
name: Julie
average rating: 4.58
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: fantasy, romanian-literature
review:
*possible spoilers ahead, both for this and the first installment of the series*

Very subjective, but I enjoyed this one significantly more than its predecessor (reflected by the fact that I only took about a month to read it). The extended exposition, which I found slightly cumbersome in the first volume, is 100% not a thing here - the plot literally picks up from the moment you left it. And then keeps going at a pretty speedy pace, building relentlessly towards a slightly ambiguous (but quite nuanced) conclusion.

I think that stretching the characters to their very limits was a brave decision, and their actions, fluctuating between sheer cruelty and self-preservation, still felt *in character*, which is no easy feat to achieve. Loved the plot twists, especially the surprise deaths - while Cezarina is not quite GRRM, she does keep you on your toes.

ps: whatever happened to Rieumi in the end? (o_O)
]]> The Power 29751398 The Power the world is a recognizable place: There's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; and a tough London girl from a tricky family. But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power: They can cause agonizing pain and even death. With this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets.]]> 341 Naomi Alderman 0670919985 Julie 3 magical-realism
*likely spoilers ahead*

Man, it's so disappointing to see a good idea take off with a lot of promise and then fizzle (or, even more appropriate, short-circuit). Probably the best way to summarize this, and also provide a tongue-in-cheek 1* review is as follows: Womankind short-circuits itself into Armageddon and then we restart society as a matriarchy.

The fake set-up of this book is a role reversal between a male author who pens this story of the 'before times' (the lead up to 'The Day of The Girls') and an accomplished female author, Naomi. The guy's name is Neil, and the whole name is an anagram of 'Naomi Alderman' anyway, so we're invited to read it from the perspective of now the 'weak' gender. The TL;DR is that teenage women learn they have the power to channel electricity and all chaos breaks loose: wars, cults and a thriving drug trade set in Moldova/Bessapara (a women-only separatist state). I could go on. I'm not going to. And the Cockney accent that Roxy and her family have is a bit overdome.]]> 3.75 2016 The Power
author: Naomi Alderman
name: Julie
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/10
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves: magical-realism
review:
'Ambition is nothing without execution.' - Nina Bo'nina Brown

*likely spoilers ahead*

Man, it's so disappointing to see a good idea take off with a lot of promise and then fizzle (or, even more appropriate, short-circuit). Probably the best way to summarize this, and also provide a tongue-in-cheek 1* review is as follows: Womankind short-circuits itself into Armageddon and then we restart society as a matriarchy.

The fake set-up of this book is a role reversal between a male author who pens this story of the 'before times' (the lead up to 'The Day of The Girls') and an accomplished female author, Naomi. The guy's name is Neil, and the whole name is an anagram of 'Naomi Alderman' anyway, so we're invited to read it from the perspective of now the 'weak' gender. The TL;DR is that teenage women learn they have the power to channel electricity and all chaos breaks loose: wars, cults and a thriving drug trade set in Moldova/Bessapara (a women-only separatist state). I could go on. I'm not going to. And the Cockney accent that Roxy and her family have is a bit overdome.
]]> <![CDATA[The Canterville Ghost and Other Stories]]> 45694 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780486419251

Renowned for his poetry, plays, essays, and conversational skills, Oscar Wilde also wrote scintillating works of short fiction. This volume includes four fine examples, including The Canterville Ghost, the comical tale of a spirit who terrorized the residents of Canterville Chase for three centuries. When the manor is acquired by a no-nonsense American family with no use for the supernatural, hilarity ensues.
Three other stories feature "The Sphinx Without a Secret," a tale of an enigmatic woman who carries a mystery's key to her grave; "The Model Millionaire," recounting the exploits of a "delightful, ineffectual young man with a perfect profile and no profession"; and "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime," in which an aristocrat learns that he is destined to commit murder. Rounding out the volume are Wilde's lyrical Poems in Prose: "The Artist," "The Doer of Good," "The Disciple," "The Master," "The House of Judgment," and "The Teacher of Wisdom."]]> 120 Oscar Wilde Julie 5 4.00 The Canterville Ghost and Other Stories
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Julie
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Best of Friends 60410888 From the acclaimed author of Home Fire comes the moving and surprising story of a lifelong friendship and the forces that bring it to the breaking point.

Zahra and Maryam have been best friends since childhood in Karachi, even though—or maybe because—they are different in nearly every way. They never speak of the differences in their backgrounds or their values, not even after the fateful night when a moment of adolescent impulse upends their plans for the future. Three decades later, Zahra and Maryam have grown into powerful women who have each cut a distinctive path through London. But when two troubling figures from their past resurface, they must finally confront their bedrock differences—and find out whether their friendship can survive.]]> 320 Kamila Shamsie 0593421825 Julie 4
Finding my cursor hovering over the 3* marks feels a bit unfair, considering I have recently rated 'The Game' as a that. Realistically, it's more of a 3.5*, generously rounded up this time. I'm forever grateful to my friends for helping me expand my literary horizons, as this the 2nd book by an Asian author I've read this year. The first part of the book is set in Pakistan (namely Karachi) in 1988, and I felt pretty smug about recognizing some historical events that were mentioned in 'Sparks Like Stars'.

Maryam and Zahra are 14. The former is all curves and comfortable richness, the latter is all angles and distinctly middle-class. Maryam is set to inherit her grandfather's extremely productive leather business and is as shrewd as she is manipulative. Zahra has a keen sense of justice and wants to be a lawyer - the very intelligent daughter of a TV cricket reporter and a school headmistress. This coming-of-age tale is deliberately set against the backdrop of Benazir Bhutto's ascension to power in Pakistan, inspiring an era of 'girl power', where our heroines feel that they can do anything. Spoiler alert: it turns out that they can't, as one night* and some poor decisions change the courses of their lives forever, and toss everything into disarray: Maryam is shipped off to boarding school in England while Zahra stays back, following her a few years later for Uni.

We meet them again about 30 years later, in London: Maryam is a powerful venture capitalist, with more wealth than morals, and is married to Zahra's Uni friend, Nigerian artist Layla. Zahra trained as a barrister specializing in immigration law, and now runs the Centre for Civil Liberties - she is powerful in her own ways, very different to Maryam's. But when one historic acquaintance who played a pivotal role in orchestrating that night* makes his way back into their lives, their decades-long friendship is put to test.

*I mean, they got in a car with 2 older boys. Nothing terrible happened, although it could have, but that was enough to prove to them that, in fact, teenage girls probably don't wield as much power as they would like to believe (as you're invincible at 14).]]> 3.38 2022 Best of Friends
author: Kamila Shamsie
name: Julie
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/14
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves:
review:
*possible spoilers ahead*

Finding my cursor hovering over the 3* marks feels a bit unfair, considering I have recently rated 'The Game' as a that. Realistically, it's more of a 3.5*, generously rounded up this time. I'm forever grateful to my friends for helping me expand my literary horizons, as this the 2nd book by an Asian author I've read this year. The first part of the book is set in Pakistan (namely Karachi) in 1988, and I felt pretty smug about recognizing some historical events that were mentioned in 'Sparks Like Stars'.

Maryam and Zahra are 14. The former is all curves and comfortable richness, the latter is all angles and distinctly middle-class. Maryam is set to inherit her grandfather's extremely productive leather business and is as shrewd as she is manipulative. Zahra has a keen sense of justice and wants to be a lawyer - the very intelligent daughter of a TV cricket reporter and a school headmistress. This coming-of-age tale is deliberately set against the backdrop of Benazir Bhutto's ascension to power in Pakistan, inspiring an era of 'girl power', where our heroines feel that they can do anything. Spoiler alert: it turns out that they can't, as one night* and some poor decisions change the courses of their lives forever, and toss everything into disarray: Maryam is shipped off to boarding school in England while Zahra stays back, following her a few years later for Uni.

We meet them again about 30 years later, in London: Maryam is a powerful venture capitalist, with more wealth than morals, and is married to Zahra's Uni friend, Nigerian artist Layla. Zahra trained as a barrister specializing in immigration law, and now runs the Centre for Civil Liberties - she is powerful in her own ways, very different to Maryam's. But when one historic acquaintance who played a pivotal role in orchestrating that night* makes his way back into their lives, their decades-long friendship is put to test.

*I mean, they got in a car with 2 older boys. Nothing terrible happened, although it could have, but that was enough to prove to them that, in fact, teenage girls probably don't wield as much power as they would like to believe (as you're invincible at 14).
]]> <![CDATA[The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists]]> 900 not fiction. These men really exist. They live together in houses known as Projects. And Neil Strauss, the bestselling author, spent two years living among them, using the pseudonym Style to protect his real-life identity. The result is one of the most explosive and controversial books of the year—guaranteed to change the lives of men and transform the way women understand the opposite sex forever.

On his journey from AFC (average frustrated chump) to PUA (pick-up artist) to PUG (pick-up guru), Strauss not only shares scores of original seduction techniques but also has unforgettable encounters with the likes of Tom Cruise, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Heidi Fleiss, and Courtney Love. And then things really start to get strange—and passions lead to betrayals lead to violence. The Game is the story of one man's transformation from frog to prince—to prisoner in the most unforgettable book of the year.]]> 452 Neil Strauss 0060554738 Julie 3 if-books-could-kill-podcast
To begin with, Neil Strauss is not actually a bad writer. Unlike the other books featured in the 'If Books Could Kill' podcast, this isn't all illegible, drawn-out, mind-numbingly boring book. Maybe the middle section could have done with 50-100 pages off it, but it has enough celebrity cameos to keep you going, especially when the action moves to LA. We're talking Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Andy Dick (lol, that probably won't ring any bells for people born after the year 2000), and extended appearances by Tom Cruise and Courtney Love. But enough about the style, let's talk briefly about Style.

I can't really bring myself to disagree about all of the points that he makes in his quest to pick-up women. Sure, a lot of patterns of behaviour can be predicted and manipulated to get the results you want, most of the time. The meta social commentary about men who play the game because they want to meet women versus the men who play the game because they want to gain social status in their group of other men is worth pondering. And so is the commentary about a road trip in Transnistria gone slightly awry.

I don't wholly hate this book because it does occasionally provide rather incisive takes. But I think its subsequent interpretation has grown arms and legs, and I'm curios to hear Michael Hobbs' thoughts on it too.]]> 3.74 2005 The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
author: Neil Strauss
name: Julie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/02
date added: 2024/07/02
shelves: if-books-could-kill-podcast
review:
I have many thoughts about this book: some of them good, some of them bad, hopefully some of them worth articulating.

To begin with, Neil Strauss is not actually a bad writer. Unlike the other books featured in the 'If Books Could Kill' podcast, this isn't all illegible, drawn-out, mind-numbingly boring book. Maybe the middle section could have done with 50-100 pages off it, but it has enough celebrity cameos to keep you going, especially when the action moves to LA. We're talking Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Andy Dick (lol, that probably won't ring any bells for people born after the year 2000), and extended appearances by Tom Cruise and Courtney Love. But enough about the style, let's talk briefly about Style.

I can't really bring myself to disagree about all of the points that he makes in his quest to pick-up women. Sure, a lot of patterns of behaviour can be predicted and manipulated to get the results you want, most of the time. The meta social commentary about men who play the game because they want to meet women versus the men who play the game because they want to gain social status in their group of other men is worth pondering. And so is the commentary about a road trip in Transnistria gone slightly awry.

I don't wholly hate this book because it does occasionally provide rather incisive takes. But I think its subsequent interpretation has grown arms and legs, and I'm curios to hear Michael Hobbs' thoughts on it too.
]]> The Trial: A Graphic Novel 4146586
The Trial is a graphic adaptation of Franz Kafka's famous novel, illustrated by one of France's leading graphic artists, Chantal Montellier. Montellier brilliantly captures both the menace and the humor of Kafka's utterly unique masterwork. This darkly humorous tale follows Joseph K, who is arrested one morning for unexplained reasons and forced to struggle against an absurd judicial process. K finds himself thrown from one disorientating encounter to the next as he becomes increasingly desperate to prove his innocence in the face of unknown charges. In its stark portrayal of an authoritarian bureaucracy trampling over the lives of its estranged citizens, The Trial is as relevant today as ever.]]> 119 Franz Kafka 1411415914 Julie 5 This rendition is a very good, eminently readable one. The austere black and white graphics seem to accentuate many shades of gray in his universe, whereas the tiny skeleton featured throughout the pages is simply a constant reminder of everyone's own mortality. Great read. ]]> 3.48 1925 The Trial: A Graphic Novel
author: Franz Kafka
name: Julie
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1925
rating: 5
read at: 2014/06/09
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves:
review:
I guess I was in a completely different frame of mind when reading this, about 8 or so years after encountering Kafka's original. I distinctly remember how much it annoyed and frustrated me. Only later it dawned on me that his genius consisted of exactly that: making you feel just as confused and out of place as his characters.
This rendition is a very good, eminently readable one. The austere black and white graphics seem to accentuate many shades of gray in his universe, whereas the tiny skeleton featured throughout the pages is simply a constant reminder of everyone's own mortality. Great read.
]]> <![CDATA[Before We Say Goodbye (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #4)]]> 66269953 The fourth novel in the internationally bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series, following a new group of customers in a magical time-traveling Tokyo café.

The regulars at Café Funiculi Funicula are well acquainted with the whimsical ability it grants them to take a trip into the past—as well as the strict rules involved, including that each traveler must return to the present in the time it takes for their coffee to get cold. In Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s previous novels, patrons have been reunited with old flames, made amends with estranged family and visited loved ones. Now readers will once again be introduced to a new set of visitors.

The Husband with Something Important Left to Say

The Woman Who Couldn’t Bid Her Dog Farewell

The Woman Who Couldn’t Answer a Proposal

The Daughter Who Drove Her Father Away

In Last Chance to Say Goodbye, which is translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot and features signature heartwarming characters and wistful storytelling, Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: What would you change if you could travel back in time?]]> 173 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 0369747305 Julie 4
Oh boy, this one was a complete gut punch. It feels like Kawaguchi himself agreed that 'Before your memory fades' could have been a different book, so he decided to pack as many emotions as possible into this installment. I'm not a very emotional reader and very few books have managed to reduce me to tears, but this one had me full-on sobbing (while invigilating an exam, and trying very hard to blame my outburst on hay fever in a basement room with no windows).

Anyway, I digress. We've done another time-jump here, this time going back: it's been about a year since Kei's passing, and Nagare and Kazu are running Funiculi Funicula while caring for baby Miki. The structure remains the same, but the stories are heart-wrenching this time:
1. An archaeology professor who wants to see his wife one more time before she falls into a pervasive vegetative state following an accident
2. A pet owner who fell asleep during her beloved dog's last minutes (this one is the proper tearjerker, I can't even write the review without tearing up a bit)
3. A young woman who refused her boyfriend's proposal
4. Another young woman who wants to make up for the fact she was really rude to her dad.

Much better than the previous book. Now I can't wait for the next one to hit the UK shelves later this year.]]> 3.94 2021 Before We Say Goodbye (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #4)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Julie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/06/06
shelves:
review:
*possible spoilers ahead*

Oh boy, this one was a complete gut punch. It feels like Kawaguchi himself agreed that 'Before your memory fades' could have been a different book, so he decided to pack as many emotions as possible into this installment. I'm not a very emotional reader and very few books have managed to reduce me to tears, but this one had me full-on sobbing (while invigilating an exam, and trying very hard to blame my outburst on hay fever in a basement room with no windows).

Anyway, I digress. We've done another time-jump here, this time going back: it's been about a year since Kei's passing, and Nagare and Kazu are running Funiculi Funicula while caring for baby Miki. The structure remains the same, but the stories are heart-wrenching this time:
1. An archaeology professor who wants to see his wife one more time before she falls into a pervasive vegetative state following an accident
2. A pet owner who fell asleep during her beloved dog's last minutes (this one is the proper tearjerker, I can't even write the review without tearing up a bit)
3. A young woman who refused her boyfriend's proposal
4. Another young woman who wants to make up for the fact she was really rude to her dad.

Much better than the previous book. Now I can't wait for the next one to hit the UK shelves later this year.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman: The Dream Hunters]]> 166580
Like most fables, the story begins with a wager between two jealous animals, a fox and a badger: which of them can drive a young monk from his solitary temple? The winner will make the temple into a new fox or badger home. But as the fox adopts the form of a woman to woo the monk from his hermitage, she falls in love with him. Meanwhile, in far away Kyoto, the wealthy Master of Yin-Yang, the onmyoji, is plagued by his fears and seeks tranquility in his command of sorcery. He learns of the monk and his inner peace; he dispatches demons to plague the monk in his dreams and eventually kill him to bring his peace to the onmyoji. The fox overhears the demons on their way to the monk and begins her struggle to save the man whom at first she so envied.

Dream Hunters is a beautiful package. From the ink-brush painted endpapers to the luminous page layouts--including Amano's gate-fold painting of Morpheus in a sea of reds, oranges, and violets--this book has been crafted for a sensuous reading experience. Gaiman has developed as a prose stylist in the last several years with novels and stories such as Neverwhere and Stardust, and his narrative rings with a sense of timelessness and magic that gently sustains this adult fairy tale. The only disappointment here is that the book is so brief. One could imagine this creative team being even better suited to a longer story of more epic proportions. On the final page of Dream Hunters, in fact, Amano suggest that he will collaborate further with Mr. Gaiman in the future. Readers of Dream Hunters will hope that Amano's dream comes true. --Patrick O'Kelley]]> 128 Neil Gaiman 1840232048 Julie 5
I was absolutely delighted when this finally became available at the local library, after a month-long wait (PSA: please don't be overdue with your library books, especially if you can see somebody else has reserved them). And it's possibly one of my favourite books in the series.

It was written to mark the 10th anniversary of the first edition of Sandman, after Gaiman got into Japanese stories in the aftermath of adapting the script of Princess Mononoke. And I think all of the readers of this novella will be grateful that he did. He really wanted to collaborate with Yoshitaka Amano, who told him graphic novels aren't really his thing - would he mind just for him to illustrate the story? 'The Dream Hunters' almost comes across as an illustrated children's book, delicately telling us the story of a fox, a monk and the forces of evil conspiring to keep them apart (well, kinda). But it wouldn't be a Sandman series without Dream and The Hecate somehow being involved, would it? Cain and Abel also have a wee cameo, and so does Fiddler's Green.

The artwork is stunning, and probably one of the best in the entire series, on a par with 'Overture'. However, I think I actually understood the plot of this one XD]]> 4.41 1999 The Sandman: The Dream Hunters
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/05/21
shelves:
review:
*possible spoilers ahead*

I was absolutely delighted when this finally became available at the local library, after a month-long wait (PSA: please don't be overdue with your library books, especially if you can see somebody else has reserved them). And it's possibly one of my favourite books in the series.

It was written to mark the 10th anniversary of the first edition of Sandman, after Gaiman got into Japanese stories in the aftermath of adapting the script of Princess Mononoke. And I think all of the readers of this novella will be grateful that he did. He really wanted to collaborate with Yoshitaka Amano, who told him graphic novels aren't really his thing - would he mind just for him to illustrate the story? 'The Dream Hunters' almost comes across as an illustrated children's book, delicately telling us the story of a fox, a monk and the forces of evil conspiring to keep them apart (well, kinda). But it wouldn't be a Sandman series without Dream and The Hecate somehow being involved, would it? Cain and Abel also have a wee cameo, and so does Fiddler's Green.

The artwork is stunning, and probably one of the best in the entire series, on a par with 'Overture'. However, I think I actually understood the plot of this one XD
]]> <![CDATA[Before Your Memory Fades (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #3)]]> 60224365 The latest novel in the international bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series, following four new customers in a little Tokyo café where customers can travel back in time.

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafe comes another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of Café Funiculi Funicula's time-travelling offer. Among some familiar faces from Kawaguchi's previous novels, readers will also be introduced to a daughter, a comedian, a sister, and a lover, each with something they wish they had said differently.

With his signature heartwarming characters and immersive storytelling, Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?]]> 220 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 0369722698 Julie 4
Am I a glutton for a bit of emotional torment? Definitely so. I hadn't finished 'Tales from the Cafe' that long ago and this third instalment in the 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' series was available at the local library, so I thought 'why not?'.

We all know the premise by now: there is a special cafe in Japan where you can time-travel, but only under a set of very strict rules. In the first book, we are told that Nagare Tokita is not in Tokyo when *his dead wife* Kei visits from the past, and now we finally find out why: him, Kazu and Sachi (Kazu's 7 year-old daughter) have relocated to Hakodate at relatively short notice to provide time-travelling services for Cafe Donna Donna, typically run by Nagare's mother, Yukari. It turns out that all of the Tokita women have the gift of facilitating time-travel, and Sachi's services are needed to cover when Yukari decides to travel to America to try and help out a customer.

We're faced with an entire new host of characters and scenarios, most of them exploring time-travel in the context of a loved one having passed away. And while I do love the idea of discussing these hypothetical scenarios, I wish that some of them were centred on the living, hence the slight drop in stars on this occasion. My curiosity is still piqued enough to get the next book out of the library later today, because:
A. I hope we find out a bit more about what happened to Kaname
B. The ghost in this cafe is a historically-dressed elderly gentleman, so that hints at the fact this time-travelling business has been going on for quite some time and I'd like to know more :)]]> 3.90 2018 Before Your Memory Fades (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #3)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Julie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/05/20
shelves: japanese-literature, magical-realism
review:
(this would probably be a 3.5* stars rating, but I'm round it up as per usual - possible spoilers ahead)

Am I a glutton for a bit of emotional torment? Definitely so. I hadn't finished 'Tales from the Cafe' that long ago and this third instalment in the 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' series was available at the local library, so I thought 'why not?'.

We all know the premise by now: there is a special cafe in Japan where you can time-travel, but only under a set of very strict rules. In the first book, we are told that Nagare Tokita is not in Tokyo when *his dead wife* Kei visits from the past, and now we finally find out why: him, Kazu and Sachi (Kazu's 7 year-old daughter) have relocated to Hakodate at relatively short notice to provide time-travelling services for Cafe Donna Donna, typically run by Nagare's mother, Yukari. It turns out that all of the Tokita women have the gift of facilitating time-travel, and Sachi's services are needed to cover when Yukari decides to travel to America to try and help out a customer.

We're faced with an entire new host of characters and scenarios, most of them exploring time-travel in the context of a loved one having passed away. And while I do love the idea of discussing these hypothetical scenarios, I wish that some of them were centred on the living, hence the slight drop in stars on this occasion. My curiosity is still piqued enough to get the next book out of the library later today, because:
A. I hope we find out a bit more about what happened to Kaname
B. The ghost in this cafe is a historically-dressed elderly gentleman, so that hints at the fact this time-travelling business has been going on for quite some time and I'd like to know more :)
]]> <![CDATA[Tales from the Café (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #2)]]> 54373691 In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time...

From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold comes a story of four new customers each of whom is hoping to take advantage of Cafe Funiculi Funicula's time-travelling offer.

Among some faces that will be familiar to readers of Kawaguchi's previous novel, we will be introduced to:

The man who goes back to see his best friend who died 22 years ago
The son who was unable to attend his own mother’s funeral
The man who travelled to see the girl who he could not marry
The old detective who never gave his wife that gift...

This beautiful, simple tale tells the story of people who must face up to their past, in order to move on with their lives. Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?]]> 192 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529050863 Julie 4
This delightful little book (clocking in at just under 200 pages) is the follow-up to 'Before The Coffee Gets Cold', which emotionally destroyed me just after Christmas. Same premise, almost the same recurring characters, but even more emotional devastation.

We learn a lot more about Kazu's background and her very complicated relationship to the café (TBH, I would also be quite emotionally unavailable if I accidentally ended up turning my mom into a ghost during my first time-travel pour at age 7). I guess the central theme of this instalment is exploring grief and learning how to find happiness after those nearest and dearest to us pass away. The take-home message is that one shouldn't deny themselves happiness even if they thought their actions, directly or indirectly, contributed to a loved one's untimely passing - which is the central theme of most of the vignettes. It also ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger, as Kaname finally moves on to a different plane of existence (?) once Kazu realises that she still deserves happiness, so I'm curios to learn more about the new ghost in the upcoming sequels. ]]> 3.98 2017 Tales from the Café (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #2)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Julie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/26
date added: 2024/04/26
shelves: japanese-literature, magical-realism
review:
*spoilers ahead*

This delightful little book (clocking in at just under 200 pages) is the follow-up to 'Before The Coffee Gets Cold', which emotionally destroyed me just after Christmas. Same premise, almost the same recurring characters, but even more emotional devastation.

We learn a lot more about Kazu's background and her very complicated relationship to the café (TBH, I would also be quite emotionally unavailable if I accidentally ended up turning my mom into a ghost during my first time-travel pour at age 7). I guess the central theme of this instalment is exploring grief and learning how to find happiness after those nearest and dearest to us pass away. The take-home message is that one shouldn't deny themselves happiness even if they thought their actions, directly or indirectly, contributed to a loved one's untimely passing - which is the central theme of most of the vignettes. It also ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger, as Kaname finally moves on to a different plane of existence (?) once Kazu realises that she still deserves happiness, so I'm curios to learn more about the new ghost in the upcoming sequels.
]]> Sparks Like Stars 53746807
Smuggled out of the palace by a guard named Shair, Sitara finds her way to the home of a female American diplomat, who adopts her and raises her in America. In her new country, Sitara takes on a new name—Aryana Shepherd—and throws herself into her studies, eventually becoming a renowned surgeon.

New York, 2008: Thirty years after that fatal night in Kabul, Aryana’s world is rocked again when an elderly patient appears in her examination room—a man she never expected to see again. It is Shair, the soldier who saved her, yet may have murdered her entire family. Seeing him awakens Aryana’s fury and desire for answers—and, perhaps, revenge.]]> 464 Nadia Hashimi 0063008289 Julie 3 trauma-porn, afghanistan
I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. It starts off extremely promisingly, and compelled me to do a bit of a dive in a topic which I was not familiar with, namely the recent history of Afghanistan and the 1978 coup. It starts off like an Anastasia-like escape story, with beautiful 1st person narration. And then it pretty much bends over backwards to pile on more trauma onto the poor main character, Sitara.

See your family murdered by the soldiers that were meant to protect them? Check. Narrowly escape the 1979 attack on the American Embassy in Islamabad? Check, even if the timeline doesn't fit (and the author acknowledges that). Abused by ultra-Christian foster parents once you get to the US? Check. Surgery resident in NY during 9/11? Check. It almost feels like poor Sitara needs an exorcism at this stage. I'm willing to forgive it a lot, including some very shallow characters that are quite uni-faceted. I'm not willing to forgive Sitara saying she was listening to Nirvana in 1982 -_-' ]]> 4.27 2021 Sparks Like Stars
author: Nadia Hashimi
name: Julie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/21
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves: trauma-porn, afghanistan
review:
*spoiler alerts and a TL;DR version of the review: all the trauma*

I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. It starts off extremely promisingly, and compelled me to do a bit of a dive in a topic which I was not familiar with, namely the recent history of Afghanistan and the 1978 coup. It starts off like an Anastasia-like escape story, with beautiful 1st person narration. And then it pretty much bends over backwards to pile on more trauma onto the poor main character, Sitara.

See your family murdered by the soldiers that were meant to protect them? Check. Narrowly escape the 1979 attack on the American Embassy in Islamabad? Check, even if the timeline doesn't fit (and the author acknowledges that). Abused by ultra-Christian foster parents once you get to the US? Check. Surgery resident in NY during 9/11? Check. It almost feels like poor Sitara needs an exorcism at this stage. I'm willing to forgive it a lot, including some very shallow characters that are quite uni-faceted. I'm not willing to forgive Sitara saying she was listening to Nirvana in 1982 -_-'
]]> The Sandman Companion 471807 273 Hy Bender 1563894653 Julie 4
Reading the Sandman, I thought I was maybe getting 50-60%(ish) of the rich subtext or, as Hy Bender calls it, the 'metamyth'. Then I read a quote from Harlan Ellison that said he thought he maybe got 30% of the references and I instantly felt very dumb. So 'The Sandman Companion' gets into the nitty-gritty of what Neil Gaiman wanted to say by actually asking Neil Gaiman what he wanted to say. That's the reductionist version of the review. It's probably worth saying that it also contains snippets of interviews from other collaborators and bits of extremely lovely artwork. All of the chapters follow a similar format: a brief synopsis of the plot, 'some things worth noting' (ie. a polite version of saying 'these are all of the things Gaiman is trying to do here and you're probably missing a good 70% of them') and an in-depth interview with Gaiman about the collection. It's funny, witty, charming and very informative.]]> 4.36 1999 The Sandman Companion
author: Hy Bender
name: Julie
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/15
date added: 2024/04/15
shelves: graphic-novel, myths-retold, sandman-series, what-did-the-author-want-to-say
review:
The only reason this is not getting 5* is because it doesn't cover 'Sandman: Overture' (honestly, I could have done with somebody explaining that to me like I was still in high school).

Reading the Sandman, I thought I was maybe getting 50-60%(ish) of the rich subtext or, as Hy Bender calls it, the 'metamyth'. Then I read a quote from Harlan Ellison that said he thought he maybe got 30% of the references and I instantly felt very dumb. So 'The Sandman Companion' gets into the nitty-gritty of what Neil Gaiman wanted to say by actually asking Neil Gaiman what he wanted to say. That's the reductionist version of the review. It's probably worth saying that it also contains snippets of interviews from other collaborators and bits of extremely lovely artwork. All of the chapters follow a similar format: a brief synopsis of the plot, 'some things worth noting' (ie. a polite version of saying 'these are all of the things Gaiman is trying to do here and you're probably missing a good 70% of them') and an in-depth interview with Gaiman about the collection. It's funny, witty, charming and very informative.
]]> <![CDATA[The End of History and the Last Man]]> 57981 The End of History and the Last Man has provoked controversy and debate. Francis Fukuyama's prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is as essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists as it was for the end of the Cold War. Now updated with a new afterword, The End of History and the Last Man is a modern classic.]]> 464 Francis Fukuyama 0743284550 Julie 2
Now that I've gotten that tongue-in-cheek comment out of my system, it's time for a slightly more in-depth review. This 300+ page slog is trying to convince the readers that liberal democracy (alongside capitalism) is the political regime most countries will tending towards eventually. It tangentially explores other issues such as governmental legitimacy, the writings of Hegel, Kojeve and Nietzsche, utilitarianism, and the idea of a 'post-historic national' (the point being that you get to a liberal democracy and then political stuff just sorta stops happening because everybody is satisfied to some extent).

This book is very much of its time and reflects the overall optimism that was probably quite pervasive in the aftermath of the Cold War and the Soviet Union's downfall. However, ask any Millennial how they feel after having witnessed 9/11, a financial crisis, quasi-permanent instability in the Middle East, and, most recently, the war in Ukraine. All going well and not very much happening, innit?]]> 3.61 1992 The End of History and the Last Man
author: Francis Fukuyama
name: Julie
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1992
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/25
date added: 2024/03/25
shelves:
review:
*spoiler alert: history, in fact, did not end in 1992*

Now that I've gotten that tongue-in-cheek comment out of my system, it's time for a slightly more in-depth review. This 300+ page slog is trying to convince the readers that liberal democracy (alongside capitalism) is the political regime most countries will tending towards eventually. It tangentially explores other issues such as governmental legitimacy, the writings of Hegel, Kojeve and Nietzsche, utilitarianism, and the idea of a 'post-historic national' (the point being that you get to a liberal democracy and then political stuff just sorta stops happening because everybody is satisfied to some extent).

This book is very much of its time and reflects the overall optimism that was probably quite pervasive in the aftermath of the Cold War and the Soviet Union's downfall. However, ask any Millennial how they feel after having witnessed 9/11, a financial crisis, quasi-permanent instability in the Middle East, and, most recently, the war in Ukraine. All going well and not very much happening, innit?
]]> <![CDATA[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]> 17125 The only English translation authorized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union and confirms Solzhenitsyn's stature as "a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dosotevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy"--Harrison Salisbury

This unexpurgated 1991 translation by H. T. Willetts is the only authorized edition available, and fully captures the power and beauty of the original Russian.]]> 182 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Julie 4 3.98 1962 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Julie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2013/05/21
date added: 2024/03/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat]]> 897651 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is populated by a cast as strange as that of the most fantastic fiction. The subject of this strange and wonderful book is what happens when things go wrong with parts of the brain most of don't know exist... Dr Sacks shows the awesome powers of our mind and just how delicately balanced they have to be. - Sunday Times

Who is this book for? Who is it not for? It is for everybody who has felt from time to time that certain twinge of self-identity and sensed how easily, at any moment, one might lose it. - The Times

This is, in the best sense, a serious book. It is, indeed, a wonderful book, by which I mean not only that it is excellent (which it is) but also that it is full of wonder, wonders and wondering. He brings to these often unhappy people understanding, sympathy and above all respect. Sacks is always learning from his patients, marvelling at them, widening his own understanding and ours. - Punch

Cover illustration by Paul Slater after Magritte's The Betrayal of Images]]> 256 Oliver Sacks 0330294911 Julie 5
*revisited for a medical book club, 10 years later*: As reductive as the above review written by a 23 year-old might be, I'm not sure this 33 year-old has much to add. It's probably worth highlighting that some of the language used no longer reflects acceptable terms when describing neurodivergence and other impairments, but I don't think I have other critiques. Still enjoyable.]]> 3.93 1985 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
author: Oliver Sacks
name: Julie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2014/02/10
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves:
review:
Because 'Musicophilia' is the first book written by Sacks that I read, I am going to compare every subsequent piece to that one. And this is every bit as brilliant. Because he doubles up as both a psychiatrist and a neurologist, he manages not to over-medicalize, whilst striving to understand the patient's inner world(s). An amazing read.

*revisited for a medical book club, 10 years later*: As reductive as the above review written by a 23 year-old might be, I'm not sure this 33 year-old has much to add. It's probably worth highlighting that some of the language used no longer reflects acceptable terms when describing neurodivergence and other impairments, but I don't think I have other critiques. Still enjoyable.
]]> <![CDATA[Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]> 213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 Julie 4 gift, japanese-literature
This was a cracking one to start the year with, exploring in a very cute a poignant way some 'what if...?' moments in people's lives. The premise is quite a straight-forward one: one can travel through time (and not just in the past) in a small, dimly-lit basement cafe in Tokyo. There are rules, of course: you can't leave your seat, you can only meet other people who have been in the cafe, any past actions won't change the present and you have to come back before your coffee gets cold. Would you still do it?

I can easily imagine how the book evolved from the stage play. In a series of 4 interconnected stories, we explore the journeys of a host of different characters: Fumiko and Goro (The Lovers), Fusagi and Kohtake (Husband and Wife), Hirai and Kumi (The Sisters) and Kei and Miko (Mother and Child). Would you tell your boyfriend to not leave you for their dream job? What would you tell your husband, as their memory is being destroyed by Alzheimer's? Can you make amends with your sister? And, finally, what would you tell your unborn child? What if...?]]> 3.66 2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Julie
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/10
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves: gift, japanese-literature
review:
*potential spoilers ahead*

This was a cracking one to start the year with, exploring in a very cute a poignant way some 'what if...?' moments in people's lives. The premise is quite a straight-forward one: one can travel through time (and not just in the past) in a small, dimly-lit basement cafe in Tokyo. There are rules, of course: you can't leave your seat, you can only meet other people who have been in the cafe, any past actions won't change the present and you have to come back before your coffee gets cold. Would you still do it?

I can easily imagine how the book evolved from the stage play. In a series of 4 interconnected stories, we explore the journeys of a host of different characters: Fumiko and Goro (The Lovers), Fusagi and Kohtake (Husband and Wife), Hirai and Kumi (The Sisters) and Kei and Miko (Mother and Child). Would you tell your boyfriend to not leave you for their dream job? What would you tell your husband, as their memory is being destroyed by Alzheimer's? Can you make amends with your sister? And, finally, what would you tell your unborn child? What if...?
]]> The Guest Cat 17574849 The Guest Cat, by the acclaimed poet Takashi Hiraide, is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient nature of life and idiosyncratic but deeply felt ways of living. A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo; they work at home, freelance copy-editing; they no longer have very much to say to one another. But one day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen. It leaves, but the next day comes again, and then again and again. Soon they are buying treats for the cat and enjoying talks about the animal and all its little ways. Life suddenly seems to have more promise for the husband and wife � the days have more light and color. The novel brims with new small joys and many moments of staggering poetic beauty, but then something happens�.

As Kenzaburo Oe has remarked, Takashi Hiraide’s work "really shines." His poetry, which is remarkably cross-hatched with beauty, has been acclaimed here for "its seemingly endless string of shape-shifting objects and experiences,whose splintering effect is enacted via a unique combination of speed and minutiae."]]> 140 Takashi Hiraide 0811221504 Julie 5 gift
The best word that comes to mind when describing this is 'delicate'. Hiraide has unique talent for giving mundane occurrences an almost magical feel by reflecting on little details that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. Like the pattern and colour of the spots on the cat(s). The friendship with a dragonfly. How the zelkova tree tied everything together and how, to some extent, it felt like the centre of the universe. How the relationship between him and his wife changed when Chibi, the neighbours' cat, decides to become their routine guest. Interspersed with narrating the events of the end of 1989 and beginning of 1990 are reflective musings on life and death, growing old and being in your 30s (and that particularly struck a chord). Would 100% recommend, loved it!]]> 3.60 2001 The Guest Cat
author: Takashi Hiraide
name: Julie
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/29
date added: 2023/12/29
shelves: gift
review:
This was genuinely so cute and moving - managed to squeeze it in between late mornings and Christmas chocolate-induced comas. The fact that, at just over 100 pages long, it's more of a novella definitely helped.

The best word that comes to mind when describing this is 'delicate'. Hiraide has unique talent for giving mundane occurrences an almost magical feel by reflecting on little details that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. Like the pattern and colour of the spots on the cat(s). The friendship with a dragonfly. How the zelkova tree tied everything together and how, to some extent, it felt like the centre of the universe. How the relationship between him and his wife changed when Chibi, the neighbours' cat, decides to become their routine guest. Interspersed with narrating the events of the end of 1989 and beginning of 1990 are reflective musings on life and death, growing old and being in your 30s (and that particularly struck a chord). Would 100% recommend, loved it!
]]> <![CDATA[Inima Dragonului (Nlithia, #1)]]> 34619702
Prinși la mijloc, Lied, un bard cu talente ce depășesc cu mult o ureche muzicală, alături de banda lui de hoți de buzunare, au de înfruntat demoni străvechi, armata Umbrelor și magia neagră abil mânuită de Magiștrii regatului.

Dar dușmanul lor cel mai mare este timpul. Astfel că oameni, liandrini, zollany și dragoni legendari treziți din negura amintirilor trebuie să lupte împreună pentru a împiedica distrugerea iminentă a Nisalului.

Miza? Inima Dragonului, un artefact ce îi oferă posesorului ei putere nelimitată și capacitatea de a distruge sau de a reface lumea.

]]> 384 Mircea M. Țara 9739839460 Julie 4 fantasy, romanian-literature
Probably one of the reasons it took me a bit of time was going from one high fantasy book to another, as I had finished 'In Cercul Fiarei' (#1) before I picked this one up. So alike, and yet so dissimilar. 'Inima Dragonului' is a true (beginning of an) epic and it hits so many of the well-known and loved points of the genre: a cohort of loveable roughish chatacters? Check. Villains who can wield magical forces and use them for evil? Check. Dragons, monsters and undead spirits? Triple check. It's a fast-paced intelligent bit of story-telling which excels in world-building. From my personal perspective (or maybe because it took me such a long time to read it), I just wish some of the characters were a bit more dissimilar to one another: Asht and Lied get introduced in the same scene and, for the life of me, I kept mixing them out throughout the book (even though one is a liandrin). Same with Al Shar, Shimm, and Eshatt.

But an entertaining, adventurous read overall!]]> 4.30 2017 Inima Dragonului (Nlithia, #1)
author: Mircea M. Țara
name: Julie
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/23
date added: 2023/12/23
shelves: fantasy, romanian-literature
review:
It is a true Christmas miracle that I finished this book before the year was over - through no fault of its own. 5 months is a long time for something <400 pages, but, in my defense, I have been reading other books in parallel (including bits of the Sandman series and some titles from the 'If Books Could Kill' podcast').

Probably one of the reasons it took me a bit of time was going from one high fantasy book to another, as I had finished 'In Cercul Fiarei' (#1) before I picked this one up. So alike, and yet so dissimilar. 'Inima Dragonului' is a true (beginning of an) epic and it hits so many of the well-known and loved points of the genre: a cohort of loveable roughish chatacters? Check. Villains who can wield magical forces and use them for evil? Check. Dragons, monsters and undead spirits? Triple check. It's a fast-paced intelligent bit of story-telling which excels in world-building. From my personal perspective (or maybe because it took me such a long time to read it), I just wish some of the characters were a bit more dissimilar to one another: Asht and Lied get introduced in the same scene and, for the life of me, I kept mixing them out throughout the book (even though one is a liandrin). Same with Al Shar, Shimm, and Eshatt.

But an entertaining, adventurous read overall!
]]> <![CDATA[Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus]]> 1274
Based on years of successful counseling of couples and individuals, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus has helped millions of couples transform their relationships. Now viewed as a modern classic, this phenomenal book has helped men and women realize how different they really are and how to communicate their needs in such a way that conflict doesn't arise and intimacy is given every chance to grow!!!!]]> 368 John Gray 0060574216 Julie 1
I say almost none, because one aspect did ring true: I did have to explain to my husband once that, even if I knew what the solution to my problem was, I still felt the need to chat about it/vent. But that's pretty much it. It's filled to the brim with generalized, sweeping statements about the psyche of both men and women in the context of heterosexual relationships. It also introduces a cave myth of some sorts, possibly (unintentionally) funnier than the original cave myth. Men retreat into a cave, women go into a well. You score a number of points in your male partner's eyes for doing certain chores (more points for bigger chores). And the only reason you're not getting help around the house is because you're using the incorrect modal verb for the occasion (could vs. would). Utter ludicrous garbage with no science base to it. And, a very odd choice of repeating some sentences in bold right after you've written them out in the previous paragraph - who does that?]]> 3.59 1992 Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
author: John Gray
name: Julie
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1992
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2023/12/07
shelves: anecdotes, if-books-could-kill-podcast, questionable-science-base
review:
I would have to subscribed to the school of reviews which maintain that, while men might be from Mars and women from Venus, John Gray clearly inhabits a very different solar system because almost none of the things postulated here as complete truths make one iota of sense.

I say almost none, because one aspect did ring true: I did have to explain to my husband once that, even if I knew what the solution to my problem was, I still felt the need to chat about it/vent. But that's pretty much it. It's filled to the brim with generalized, sweeping statements about the psyche of both men and women in the context of heterosexual relationships. It also introduces a cave myth of some sorts, possibly (unintentionally) funnier than the original cave myth. Men retreat into a cave, women go into a well. You score a number of points in your male partner's eyes for doing certain chores (more points for bigger chores). And the only reason you're not getting help around the house is because you're using the incorrect modal verb for the occasion (could vs. would). Utter ludicrous garbage with no science base to it. And, a very odd choice of repeating some sentences in bold right after you've written them out in the previous paragraph - who does that?
]]> <![CDATA[Free for All: Why the NHS Is Worth Saving]]> 123271313
Britain's health service is dying. Gavin Francis shows us why we should fight for it.

Since its birth in 1948, the powers that be have chipped away at the NHS. Now, Britain's best-loved institution is under greater threat than ever, besieged by a deadly combination of underfunding, understaffing and the predatory private sector.

In the wake of the pandemic, we have come to accept a 'new normal' of permanent crisis and years-long waiting lists. But, as Gavin Francis reveals in this short, vital book- it doesn't have to be this way, and until recently, it wasn't. Drawing on the history of the NHS as well as his own experience as a GP, he introduces us to the inner workings of an institution that has never been perfect but which transformed the lives and health of millions, for free - and which has never been more important.

For those who believe in the future of the NHS and its founding principles, this is essential reading from the bestselling author of Recovery and Intensive Care .]]> 112 Gavin Francis 1800819269 Julie 5 a. Unfortunately, kinda ditch the reading challenge
b. Read multiple books at once (!!!)
c. Not be very good at keeping ŷ updated - but I am reading, I swear :)

This was the opening gambit for the medical book club scheduled for tomorrow evening - and a welcome breath of validation of some sensible opinions I have also had throughout the years as an NHS employee. I feel this particularly hit home as Dr Francis is based in NHS Lothian, where I did my Foundation Training in 2014/2016 - it feels like not much has changed for the better since then. Short and very readable in one afternoon, this short-ish manifesto articulates some pervasive problems and also makes some sensible suggestions on how to solve them. Such as stop voting Tory if you still want to have a functional NHS in the near future :) Joking aside, it does a fairly good job of exposing the chronic under-funding and shortfalls that are kept hidden to most reputable media sources because, guess what, you're not really allowed to directly talk to the press as a doctor and all official communication should be made via your local trust's PR team. Which would pretty much try to convince you that the hospital isn't on fire in spite of a visible plume of thick smoke slowly rising from it.

Food for thought for British folk, I suppose. ]]> 4.22 Free for All: Why the NHS Is Worth Saving
author: Gavin Francis
name: Julie
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/11/22
shelves: medicine, save-the-nhs, sensible-advice
review:
My theme for this year has been:
a. Unfortunately, kinda ditch the reading challenge
b. Read multiple books at once (!!!)
c. Not be very good at keeping ŷ updated - but I am reading, I swear :)

This was the opening gambit for the medical book club scheduled for tomorrow evening - and a welcome breath of validation of some sensible opinions I have also had throughout the years as an NHS employee. I feel this particularly hit home as Dr Francis is based in NHS Lothian, where I did my Foundation Training in 2014/2016 - it feels like not much has changed for the better since then. Short and very readable in one afternoon, this short-ish manifesto articulates some pervasive problems and also makes some sensible suggestions on how to solve them. Such as stop voting Tory if you still want to have a functional NHS in the near future :) Joking aside, it does a fairly good job of exposing the chronic under-funding and shortfalls that are kept hidden to most reputable media sources because, guess what, you're not really allowed to directly talk to the press as a doctor and all official communication should be made via your local trust's PR team. Which would pretty much try to convince you that the hospital isn't on fire in spite of a visible plume of thick smoke slowly rising from it.

Food for thought for British folk, I suppose.
]]> The Sandman: Endless Nights 47720 160 Neil Gaiman 140120113X Julie 5
This is going to come across as a rather biased review, but I am in utter awe of the majestic and multifaceted universe Gaiman has created in order to tell the stories of the Endless (and I just love that concept as a whole - entities that are not tied down to a specific culture or religion, that can simply be encountered in the lives of every human being). This is a short collection of stories dedicated to each of the seven siblings, uniquely illustrated, in equal measure, by some of Gaiman's long term collaborators (such as Dave McKean and P. Craig Russell) and artists who were new to the Sandman universe (Glenn Fabry's take on Destruction's story is exquisite, and Miguelanxo Prado's vision of Dream's story is almost impossibly surreal, but in an amazing way). I think my personal favourite is 'Death in Venice' (which I had already encountered in the anthology dedicated to her, but it's challenging to go wrong with such a strong character), with 'Destruction - On the Peninsula' being a close second.]]> 4.35 2003 The Sandman: Endless Nights
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/11/19
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novel, sandman-series
review:
I am still very much in my Sandman binge, thanks for asking. The last spin-off I have to finish is Dream Hunters, so I'm just waiting for that to become available at the local library.

This is going to come across as a rather biased review, but I am in utter awe of the majestic and multifaceted universe Gaiman has created in order to tell the stories of the Endless (and I just love that concept as a whole - entities that are not tied down to a specific culture or religion, that can simply be encountered in the lives of every human being). This is a short collection of stories dedicated to each of the seven siblings, uniquely illustrated, in equal measure, by some of Gaiman's long term collaborators (such as Dave McKean and P. Craig Russell) and artists who were new to the Sandman universe (Glenn Fabry's take on Destruction's story is exquisite, and Miguelanxo Prado's vision of Dream's story is almost impossibly surreal, but in an amazing way). I think my personal favourite is 'Death in Venice' (which I had already encountered in the anthology dedicated to her, but it's challenging to go wrong with such a strong character), with 'Destruction - On the Peninsula' being a close second.
]]> The Secret (The Secret, #1) 52529 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781582701707.

The worldwide bestselling phenomenon that has helped millions tap the power of the law that governs all our lives to create—intentionally and effortlessly—a joyful life.

In 2006, a groundbreaking feature-length film revealed the great mystery of the universe�The Secret—and, later that year, Rhonda Byrne followed with a book that became a worldwide bestseller.

Fragments of a Great Secret have been found in the oral traditions, in literature, in religions, and philosophies throughout the centuries. For the first time, all the pieces of The Secret come together in an incredible revelation that will be life-transforming for all who experience it.

In this book, you’ll learn how to use The Secret in every aspect of your life—money, health, relationships, happiness, and in every interaction you have in the world. You’ll begin to understand the hidden, untapped power that’s within you, and this revelation can bring joy to every aspect of your life.

The Secret contains wisdom from modern-day teachers—men and women who have used it to achieve health, wealth, and happiness. By applying the knowledge of The Secret, they bring to light compelling stories of eradicating disease, acquiring massive wealth, overcoming obstacles, and achieving what many would regard as impossible.]]> 199 Rhonda Byrne Julie 1
Disclaimer #1: I've read it because it's featured in the 'If Books Could Kill' podcast. I'm actually pretty content with my life right now, although I could do with manifesting £1,000,000 or so (but then again, couldn't everybody?).
Disclaimer #2: I've not seen the documentary. Judging by listening to the podcast, it's every bit as deluded as the book.
Disclaimer #3: I have tried, very tongue-in-cheek, so manifest some things - I tried to manifest catching a drumstick at a recent The National gig I went to, I got hit by Matt Berninger's drink instead. So is the Universe relatively well-intended, but a bit dyspraxic?
Disclaimer #4: all of the medical advice in here is utter nonsense. As far as I'm aware, one cannot manifest curing terminal cancer through laughter. I do not know enough details to have an informed opinion on Morris Goodman's recovery following C1 and C2 vertebral fractures, and I also don't know what type of surgery he had and how that could have impacted in his progress.

I'm done with the disclaimers. That's the review.]]> 3.74 2006 The Secret (The Secret, #1)
author: Rhonda Byrne
name: Julie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2006
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2023/10/08
shelves: if-books-could-kill-podcast, questionable-science-base, manifesting
review:
I laughed. I cried (due to laughter). Then I laughed some more, as this book is as deluded as it is (unwittingly) hysterically funny.

Disclaimer #1: I've read it because it's featured in the 'If Books Could Kill' podcast. I'm actually pretty content with my life right now, although I could do with manifesting £1,000,000 or so (but then again, couldn't everybody?).
Disclaimer #2: I've not seen the documentary. Judging by listening to the podcast, it's every bit as deluded as the book.
Disclaimer #3: I have tried, very tongue-in-cheek, so manifest some things - I tried to manifest catching a drumstick at a recent The National gig I went to, I got hit by Matt Berninger's drink instead. So is the Universe relatively well-intended, but a bit dyspraxic?
Disclaimer #4: all of the medical advice in here is utter nonsense. As far as I'm aware, one cannot manifest curing terminal cancer through laughter. I do not know enough details to have an informed opinion on Morris Goodman's recovery following C1 and C2 vertebral fractures, and I also don't know what type of surgery he had and how that could have impacted in his progress.

I'm done with the disclaimers. That's the review.
]]> <![CDATA[Death (Death of the Endless, #1-2)]]> 13532194
In the second story, a rising star of the music world wrestles with revealing her true sexual orientation just as her lover is lured into the realm of Death that Death herself should make an appearance. A practical, honest, and intelligent story that illuminates "the miracle of death."

This new hardcover collects the DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING and DEATH: THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE miniseries, a must have for any fan.]]> 320 Neil Gaiman 1401235484 Julie 4 a. Dream's older sister got her own stand-alone series
b. My local library actually had a copy :) [it probably was the 2012 paperback, but no complaints here]

The collection included Death: The High Cost of Living and Death: The Time of Your Life, in addition to a few other titles ('The Sound of Her Wings', 'Facade', 'Death in Venice' and 'The Wheel'). To my mind, it felt like a calculated shift in pace from Sandman's solemn, moody tone. His 'terminally perky' sister sets the tone with 'The Sound of Her Wings' and teaches us a thing or two about life in 'The High Cost of Living'. The decision to completely flip the age-old representation of a skeletal figure with a scythe into one of a young woman with an indomitable lust for life and a questionable taste in eyeliner and hats is a complete stroke of genius, as I feel it compels the reader to re-examine their own relationship with mortality and 'living'. Or something along those lines.

She also helps Mad Hettie on her quest to find her heart, which is no easy feat, mind you.]]> 4.47 2012 Death (Death of the Endless, #1-2)
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/09/30
shelves: graphic-novel, dark-humour, sandman-series
review:
I was absolutely delighted to find out that:
a. Dream's older sister got her own stand-alone series
b. My local library actually had a copy :) [it probably was the 2012 paperback, but no complaints here]

The collection included Death: The High Cost of Living and Death: The Time of Your Life, in addition to a few other titles ('The Sound of Her Wings', 'Facade', 'Death in Venice' and 'The Wheel'). To my mind, it felt like a calculated shift in pace from Sandman's solemn, moody tone. His 'terminally perky' sister sets the tone with 'The Sound of Her Wings' and teaches us a thing or two about life in 'The High Cost of Living'. The decision to completely flip the age-old representation of a skeletal figure with a scythe into one of a young woman with an indomitable lust for life and a questionable taste in eyeliner and hats is a complete stroke of genius, as I feel it compels the reader to re-examine their own relationship with mortality and 'living'. Or something along those lines.

She also helps Mad Hettie on her quest to find her heart, which is no easy feat, mind you.
]]> The Sandman: Overture 18310944 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Winner of the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story

Twenty-five years since The Sandman first changed the landscape of modern comics, Neil Gaiman's legendary series is back in a deluxe edition!

The Sandman: Overture heralds New York Times best-selling writer Neil Gaiman's return to the art form that made him famous, ably abetted by artistic luminary JH Williams III (Batwoman, Promethea), whose lush, widescreen images provide an epic scope to The Sandman's origin story. From the birth of a galaxy to the moment that Morpheus is captured, THE Sandman: Overture will feature cameo appearances by fan-favorite characters such as The Corinthian, Merv Pumpkinhead and, of course, the Dream King's siblings: Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny.]]> 224 Neil Gaiman 1401248969 Julie 5 fantasy, graphic-novel
The illustrations, hands down, deserve 5*. And I won't take any critique of that opinion. I really hope that the TV series does it justice (if it decides to incorporate it into the plot - while not critical to it, it provides yet another neat little twine to connect it to the 'A Hope in Hell' thread).

Many readers/viewers might be left wondering what Dream was up to when he accidentally got trapped in Roderick Burgess' circle. The most simple way to explain this prequel is, well, that it charts what Dream was doing before he got trapped in Roderick Burgess' circle :) I'll attempt a more complex explanation: Dream was off to investigate a star gone mad, which posed a critical threat to existence as we know it. In this process, he meets a number of parallel-universe Dream(s) who may or may not have the same agenda. We also get to meet the Endless' parents, Father Time and Mother Night, and catch a glimpse of the discord that keeps them apart.

Intrigued? One ought to be.]]> 4.03 2015 The Sandman: Overture
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/09/02
shelves: fantasy, graphic-novel
review:
*possible spoilers ahead*

The illustrations, hands down, deserve 5*. And I won't take any critique of that opinion. I really hope that the TV series does it justice (if it decides to incorporate it into the plot - while not critical to it, it provides yet another neat little twine to connect it to the 'A Hope in Hell' thread).

Many readers/viewers might be left wondering what Dream was up to when he accidentally got trapped in Roderick Burgess' circle. The most simple way to explain this prequel is, well, that it charts what Dream was doing before he got trapped in Roderick Burgess' circle :) I'll attempt a more complex explanation: Dream was off to investigate a star gone mad, which posed a critical threat to existence as we know it. In this process, he meets a number of parallel-universe Dream(s) who may or may not have the same agenda. We also get to meet the Endless' parents, Father Time and Mother Night, and catch a glimpse of the discord that keeps them apart.

Intrigued? One ought to be.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman, Vol. 10: The Wake]]> 25104
THE WAKE

In which the repercussions of the Death of Lord Morpheus are felt, and, in an epilogue, William Shakespeare learns the price of getting what you want.

This is the tenth and final volume of Neil Gaiman's Sandman, described by author Mikal Gilmore in his introduction as "nothing less than a popular culture masterpiece, and a work that is braver, smarter and more meaningful than just about anything "high culture" has produced during the same period."

Reprints issues #70-75.]]> 192 Neil Gaiman 1563892871 Julie 4 fantasy, myths-retold
Took me about a year or so (and a number of library visits), but I've finally managed to finish the original Sandman series - this was made a bit more challenging by the fact that my local library had lost their copy of 'The Wake'.

Now, where do I begin? This is a called-for corollary, and it mainly deals with the impact Dream's passing has on his family and the other characters his story had crossed paths with. The generally somber tone is punctuated by Delirium's heartfelt (and sometimes irrelevant) tangents, and snippets of what Dream's impact had been on the folk who knew him. This volume also takes a bit of time to wrap up the remaining storylines: Robert Gadling's, Shakespeare's, and Lyta's one (to some extent). I should probably signpost that it reinforces the idea of reinvention and change, stressing that Dream, as one of the Endless, can't really die, and frames Daniel as another facet of that concept. Pretty high-brow stuff.]]> 4.53 1996 The Sandman, Vol. 10: The Wake
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.53
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/08/26
shelves: fantasy, myths-retold
review:
*possible spoilers ahead*

Took me about a year or so (and a number of library visits), but I've finally managed to finish the original Sandman series - this was made a bit more challenging by the fact that my local library had lost their copy of 'The Wake'.

Now, where do I begin? This is a called-for corollary, and it mainly deals with the impact Dream's passing has on his family and the other characters his story had crossed paths with. The generally somber tone is punctuated by Delirium's heartfelt (and sometimes irrelevant) tangents, and snippets of what Dream's impact had been on the folk who knew him. This volume also takes a bit of time to wrap up the remaining storylines: Robert Gadling's, Shakespeare's, and Lyta's one (to some extent). I should probably signpost that it reinforces the idea of reinvention and change, stressing that Dream, as one of the Endless, can't really die, and frames Daniel as another facet of that concept. Pretty high-brow stuff.
]]> <![CDATA[Around the World in 80 Days (Great Illustrated Classics)]]> 221302 Adaptuota versija. Kitus lietuviškus leidimus žr. apačioje

Tada dar nebuvo lėktuvų ir kitų greito keliavimo priemonių, kai anglų džentelmenas Filijus Fogas susilažino iš 20000 svarų sterlingų, kad jis apkeliaus pasaulį per 80 dienų. Savo kelionėje jis sutinka gražuolę indų princesę, apsirinka patikėjęs pagarsėjusiu nusikaltėliu, yra persekiojamas leidimą jį areštuoti turinčio detektyvo. Pasekite jo fantastišką kelionę per keturis žemynus, drąsiai įveikiant laiko spąstus. Tai kupina veiksmo, nuotykių ir pavojų, įtempta ir labai romantiška kelionė.

***

Žr. taip pat kitus lietuviškus leidimus:
+ Martynas Yčas, 1921
+ Spaudos fondas, 1937
+ Valstybinė grožinės literatūros leidykla, 1949
+ Vaga, 1977
+ Rosma, 2008 (perdirbtas vaikams)
+ Nieko Rimto, 2014]]> 239 Marian Leighton 0866119523 Julie 2 4.02 1977 Around the World in 80 Days (Great Illustrated Classics)
author: Marian Leighton
name: Julie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1977
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2023/08/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Undoctored: The Story of a Medic Who Ran Out of Patients]]> 60297941 This is Going to Hurt was the publishing phenomenon of the century. It has been read by millions, translated into 37 languages, and adapted into a major BBC television series. But that was only part of the story.

Now, Adam Kay returns and will once again have you in stitches in his painfully funny and startlingly powerful follow-up, Undoctored: The Story of a Medic Who Ran Out of Patients. In his most honest and incisive book yet, he reflects on what's happened since hanging up his scrubs and examines a life inextricably bound up with medicine. Battered and bruised from his time on the NHS frontline, Kay looks back, moves forwards and opens up some old wounds.

Hilarious and heartbreaking, horrifying and humbling, Undoctored is the astonishing portrait of a life by one of Britain's best-loved storytellers.]]> 274 Adam Kay 1398700371 Julie 5 medicine, dark-humour, memoir
5 days has to be a record for me of late, but this was helped by the fact that I had a spell of annual leave and happened to walk past the library between running errands. This is, loosely, a sequel to 'This Is Going to Hurt' - at least chronologically, to some extent, as it features numerous flashbacks. I would strongly urge any potential reader to start there +/- also to watch the BBC adaptation so as to have an idea of what they're getting themselves into (but maybe not whilst heavily pregnant, which is why it took me quite some time and I had to take frequent palate-cleansing, RPDR-watching breaks).

As doctors, we all have numerous anecdotes to share about the daily chaos that unfolds in the NHS. And we all have at least one story which features a mauled appendage or another. It's comedy when it happens to others, and, in order to preserve some sense of sanity and keep going to work every single day, these little tragedies acquire a humorous spin. But we've all seen (+/- done) a host of terrible things - it takes a gargantuan amount of vulnerability to open up about these to anybody who picks up your book, and I greatly respect that.

The chapter about the marathon training was particularly funny :)]]> 3.88 2022 Undoctored: The Story of a Medic Who Ran Out of Patients
author: Adam Kay
name: Julie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/24
date added: 2023/07/24
shelves: medicine, dark-humour, memoir
review:
*TW: the book features descriptions of eating disorders, sexual assault, and early pregnancy loss*

5 days has to be a record for me of late, but this was helped by the fact that I had a spell of annual leave and happened to walk past the library between running errands. This is, loosely, a sequel to 'This Is Going to Hurt' - at least chronologically, to some extent, as it features numerous flashbacks. I would strongly urge any potential reader to start there +/- also to watch the BBC adaptation so as to have an idea of what they're getting themselves into (but maybe not whilst heavily pregnant, which is why it took me quite some time and I had to take frequent palate-cleansing, RPDR-watching breaks).

As doctors, we all have numerous anecdotes to share about the daily chaos that unfolds in the NHS. And we all have at least one story which features a mauled appendage or another. It's comedy when it happens to others, and, in order to preserve some sense of sanity and keep going to work every single day, these little tragedies acquire a humorous spin. But we've all seen (+/- done) a host of terrible things - it takes a gargantuan amount of vulnerability to open up about these to anybody who picks up your book, and I greatly respect that.

The chapter about the marathon training was particularly funny :)
]]> <![CDATA[Promisiuni de sânge (În cercul fiarei, #1)]]> 61771491 Cei care o întâlnesc sunt uluiți de transformarea ei. Îngroziți. Fascinați. Curioși.
Dar, în fața invadatorilor care se apropie, ea este singura lor speranță de a-și păstra libertatea.
Și totuși, Slievi este mai mult decât o fiară însetată de sânge care încearcă să-și folosească instinctele ucigașe pentru a-i proteja pe cei dragi. Dincolo de puterile și simțurile ei neobișnuite, gândurile și sentimentele i-au rămas umane, iar asta, în loc să o apropie de ai ei, o înstrăinează și mai mult.
Singură într-o lume întunecată, devastată de molimă și amenințări, va putea fi ea salvatoarea îndelung așteptată?


„În cercul fiarei � Promisiuni de sânge este un fantasy alert și plin de neprevăzut, un mănunchi de aventuri palpitante, implicând personaje mereu surprinzătoare în lucrările lor, care te va ține captiv într-un tărâm straniu, letal, dar fascinant. Dileme morale sfâșietoare, instincte primare luptându-se cu scopuri nobile, toate într-o scriitură superbă, perfect adaptată poveștii pe care o servește.� Alexandru Lamba

„Romanul Cezarinei Anghilac zugrăvește o lume tulburătoare. Sălbatică, stranie și întunecată, povestea lui Slievi ți se strecoară pe sub piele și îți rămâne acolo.� Marian Coman]]> 340 Cezarina Anghilac 6069027140 Julie 3 fantasy
I'll be reviewing this in English because, much like my parents remind me every time we chat, my Romanian is going rapidly down the drain due to disuse. Anyway, I digress.

This book is an excellent exercise in world-building, and it masterfully achieves it by showing rather than telling. It's not easy building an entire universe from scratch, and it's probably even more difficult conveying it to the reader at appropriate pace and pitch. Many of the newly-invented compound words stem from highly familiar ones (eg. 'vulpure' - probably a portmanteau of 'vulpe' [fox] and 'iepure' [rabbit]), which take on new and surprising meanings (because this creature is big enough to ride, but can also be eaten). The plot in itself is pretty cool, but I would argue that my subtracting 1* and 1/2 is due to having the feeling that a huge chunk of it is exposition - it really gets going in the last 150 pages or so. Knowing that a sequel has been recently released makes it better, because I'm dying to know what happens next.]]> 4.39 Promisiuni de sânge (În cercul fiarei, #1)
author: Cezarina Anghilac
name: Julie
average rating: 4.39
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/19
date added: 2023/07/19
shelves: fantasy
review:
Right, I really took my time with it (even though it's only about 320 pages long). It's also more of a 3* and 1/2, but I'm a picky and capricious reader.

I'll be reviewing this in English because, much like my parents remind me every time we chat, my Romanian is going rapidly down the drain due to disuse. Anyway, I digress.

This book is an excellent exercise in world-building, and it masterfully achieves it by showing rather than telling. It's not easy building an entire universe from scratch, and it's probably even more difficult conveying it to the reader at appropriate pace and pitch. Many of the newly-invented compound words stem from highly familiar ones (eg. 'vulpure' - probably a portmanteau of 'vulpe' [fox] and 'iepure' [rabbit]), which take on new and surprising meanings (because this creature is big enough to ride, but can also be eaten). The plot in itself is pretty cool, but I would argue that my subtracting 1* and 1/2 is due to having the feeling that a huge chunk of it is exposition - it really gets going in the last 150 pages or so. Knowing that a sequel has been recently released makes it better, because I'm dying to know what happens next.
]]> Daisy Jones & The Six 40597810 Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n� roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.]]> 368 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798622 Julie 3
To begin with, it's an amalgamation of every cliche regarding rock stars one could ever think of. Of course Daisy's effortlessly beautiful and has a gorgeous, raspy, untrained voice. Of course the drummer decides to buy a boat. Of course Billy's a massively talented dickhead with an ego the size of the Pacific Ocean (and with addiction issues). Of course Vietnam only gets mentioned because an early member of Billy's original band (the Dunne Brothers) dies out there. Furthermore, trying so hard to fit all of these stereotypes together almost transforms these characters into caricatures - specifically Fleetwood Mac impressions. It's no secret that Taylor Jenkins Reid based it loosely on the band's history, but Daisy reads significantly more like a Janis Joplin figure. And while I'm all for giving Janis her fictional happy ending, I can't help but feel that this book tries a bit too hard. I did enjoy it being written as a long-ass interview though.]]> 4.20 2019 Daisy Jones & The Six
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Julie
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/01
date added: 2023/05/01
shelves: the-unofficial-fleetwood-mac-story, rockstar-cliches, rock-n-roll, low-budget-fleetwood-mac
review:
I managed to read this book (about 400 pages) while travelling around Europe - it's a perfectly entertaining and easy read, but there are a couple of reasons why it only gets three stars.

To begin with, it's an amalgamation of every cliche regarding rock stars one could ever think of. Of course Daisy's effortlessly beautiful and has a gorgeous, raspy, untrained voice. Of course the drummer decides to buy a boat. Of course Billy's a massively talented dickhead with an ego the size of the Pacific Ocean (and with addiction issues). Of course Vietnam only gets mentioned because an early member of Billy's original band (the Dunne Brothers) dies out there. Furthermore, trying so hard to fit all of these stereotypes together almost transforms these characters into caricatures - specifically Fleetwood Mac impressions. It's no secret that Taylor Jenkins Reid based it loosely on the band's history, but Daisy reads significantly more like a Janis Joplin figure. And while I'm all for giving Janis her fictional happy ending, I can't help but feel that this book tries a bit too hard. I did enjoy it being written as a long-ass interview though.
]]> Ways of Seeing 2784 John Berger’s Classic Text on Art

Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and the most influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times a critic commented: "This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures." By now he has.

"Berger has the ability to cut right through the mystification of the professional art critics . . . He is a liberator of images: and once we have allowed the paintings to work on us directly, we are in a much better position to make a meaningful evaluation" —Peter Fuller, Arts Review

"The influence of the series and the book . . . was enormous . . . It opened up for general attention to areas of cultural study that are now commonplace" —Geoff Dyer in Ways of Telling.]]> 176 John Berger 0140135154 Julie 5
It's composed of 7 essays in total: 4 using words, and 3 using images only (and I think the beauty of the ones which only use images is that they allow significant room for interpretation, based on the reader's own background and ideas about art). The last essay, which discusses publicity, is really hits the nail on the head as regards the complex relationship between advertisements and the consumer: an idealized potential world for the viewer is considered a substitution for the actual reality depicted by old 'classic' painters. With it being quite short (161 pages in a tiny format), it's a text one can leisurely savour during the course of a lazy afternoon. ]]> 3.93 1972 Ways of Seeing
author: John Berger
name: Julie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1972
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/29
date added: 2023/04/29
shelves:
review:
This short little book is definitely a game-changer when it comes to understanding the ways in which one *ACTUALLY* sees the world. Yes, it's mainly about art, the relationship between the viewer and the world, and advertising, but one of the little essays is where the idea of the 'male gaze' started from.

It's composed of 7 essays in total: 4 using words, and 3 using images only (and I think the beauty of the ones which only use images is that they allow significant room for interpretation, based on the reader's own background and ideas about art). The last essay, which discusses publicity, is really hits the nail on the head as regards the complex relationship between advertisements and the consumer: an idealized potential world for the viewer is considered a substitution for the actual reality depicted by old 'classic' painters. With it being quite short (161 pages in a tiny format), it's a text one can leisurely savour during the course of a lazy afternoon.
]]> <![CDATA[How Will Capitalism End? Essays on a Failing System]]> 25733863 The provocative political thinker asks if it will be with a bang or a whimper

After years of ill health, capitalism is now in a critical condition. Growth has given way to stagnation; inequality is leading to instability; and confidence in the money economy has all but evaporated.

In How Will Capitalism End?, the acclaimed analyst of contemporary politics and economics Wolfgang Streeck argues that the world is about to change. The marriage between democracy and capitalism, ill-suited partners brought together in the shadow of World War Two, is coming to an end. The regulatory institutions that once restrained the financial sector’s excesses have collapsed and, after the final victory of capitalism at the end of the Cold War, there is no political agency capable of rolling back the liberalization of the markets.

Ours has become a world defined by declining growth, oligarchic rule, a shrinking public sphere, institutional corruption and international anarchy, and no cure to these ills is at hand.]]> 272 Wolfgang Streeck 1784784036 Julie 3 capitalism, economics
The shortest review that I can write about it is that's the anti-'Freakonomics': if the latter is a collection of poorly-researched anecdotes, this is a painstakingly-documented deep dive into how exactly capitalism ended up in its current circumstances, how the financial crash of 2008 happened and, in the wise words of Axl Rose, 'where do we go now?'. Streeck is German and even though I read the English translation, the language is so technical it makes an Ikea assembly manual feel like humorous prose. But, in spite of that, it's pretty prophetic, as it makes a series of valid points:
1. It will not be an Armageddon-type event that will put the final nail is the capitalist status quo's coffin, but a series of minor degradations which, over time, will lead to it eroding to something unrecognizable
2. Trussonomics failed so badly because, well, markets now dictate politics
3. There's no real current viable alternative (as the fall of the USSR proved)
4. We're kinda stuffed, aren't we?

It's not an easy read, nor is it a jot of sunshine. But it does help put into perspective all of the current financial woes we're experiencing as a society. ]]> 3.87 2016 How Will Capitalism End? Essays on a Failing System
author: Wolfgang Streeck
name: Julie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/24
date added: 2023/04/24
shelves: capitalism, economics
review:
Did it take me about 10 months to finish this 300-page book? Yes, it pretty much did (granted, I was reading many other things in parallel, because, well, this is not the most captivating of reads - but we'll get to that).

The shortest review that I can write about it is that's the anti-'Freakonomics': if the latter is a collection of poorly-researched anecdotes, this is a painstakingly-documented deep dive into how exactly capitalism ended up in its current circumstances, how the financial crash of 2008 happened and, in the wise words of Axl Rose, 'where do we go now?'. Streeck is German and even though I read the English translation, the language is so technical it makes an Ikea assembly manual feel like humorous prose. But, in spite of that, it's pretty prophetic, as it makes a series of valid points:
1. It will not be an Armageddon-type event that will put the final nail is the capitalist status quo's coffin, but a series of minor degradations which, over time, will lead to it eroding to something unrecognizable
2. Trussonomics failed so badly because, well, markets now dictate politics
3. There's no real current viable alternative (as the fall of the USSR proved)
4. We're kinda stuffed, aren't we?

It's not an easy read, nor is it a jot of sunshine. But it does help put into perspective all of the current financial woes we're experiencing as a society.
]]> <![CDATA[Outliers: The Story of Success]]> 3228917 Learn what sets high achievers apart � from Bill Gates to the Beatles � in this #1 bestseller from "a singular talent" (New York Times Book Review).

In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"—the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.]]> 309 Malcolm Gladwell 0316017922 Julie 2
The book's chapters are a series of loosely connected anecdotes: Canadian Junior League hockey players are born closer to the start of year because the cut-off date is January 1st (and yeah, a matter of a few months is likely to make a significant impact on the development of children at that age). Bill Gates had unlimited access to a PC terminal at a very early age, due to a series of lucky coincidences. And Joe Flom ended up being hugely successful due to similar circumstances. Do these life stories explain the 10,000 hour rule? Do they fuck. And Michael Hobbes' podcast also breaks down some of these claims, are there are some young chess grandmasters who got there without that arbitrary number of hours. The book also takes a slightly dark turn towards Gladwell's own family legacy in the final chapter.

It gets two stars because I now have even more arbitrary facts in my arsenal which will make me even more insufferable at dinner parties. ]]> 4.19 2008 Outliers: The Story of Success
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Julie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2023/04/23
date added: 2023/04/23
shelves: self-help, anecdotes, questionable-science-base, if-books-could-kill-podcast
review:
I'm not 100% certain I got this book. In fact, I'm not 100% certain this book has a point - because the 10,00o hours thing seems to be claimed without any significant scientific base. And also, The Beatles were just good - maybe their stint in German strip-clubs made them better, but it was really a fuck-ton of drugs that made Sgt. Pepper. Anyway, I digress.

The book's chapters are a series of loosely connected anecdotes: Canadian Junior League hockey players are born closer to the start of year because the cut-off date is January 1st (and yeah, a matter of a few months is likely to make a significant impact on the development of children at that age). Bill Gates had unlimited access to a PC terminal at a very early age, due to a series of lucky coincidences. And Joe Flom ended up being hugely successful due to similar circumstances. Do these life stories explain the 10,000 hour rule? Do they fuck. And Michael Hobbes' podcast also breaks down some of these claims, are there are some young chess grandmasters who got there without that arbitrary number of hours. The book also takes a slightly dark turn towards Gladwell's own family legacy in the final chapter.

It gets two stars because I now have even more arbitrary facts in my arsenal which will make me even more insufferable at dinner parties.
]]> <![CDATA[Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything]]> 1202
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much heralded scholar who studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life -- from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing -- and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.

Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives -- how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of ... well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.

What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and -- if the right questions are asked -- is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Steven Levitt, through devilishly clever and clear-eyed thinking, shows how to see through all the clutter.

Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
(front flap)]]> 268 Steven D. Levitt 0061234001 Julie 2 self-help, factoids
Riki Lindhome beautifully wrote: 'because your new girlfriend's like a pair of beige curtains: not good, not bad, just there' and, honestly, it neatly sums up how I feel about this book. I'm 32, have survived one revolution (in utero), one financial crash and one pandemic, so a tagline along the lines of 'A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything' is unlikely to elicit more of a shrug. So teachers and sumo wrestlers sometimes cheat. Cool. Drug dealers live with their mothers because the pay is shite - again, this is hardly surprising info. Both Stevens pride themselves in trying to answer questions that have never been asked - but should have they been asked in the first place? The fact that, for toddlers, pools are more dangerous than guns should surprise nobody. They chat at great lengths about how correlation does not imply causation, but the connections they identify and discuss are kind of obvious? Like how a child's chosen first name is not a direct indication of how well they're going to do in life, but it correlates with how educated their parents are. Well, duh. I just feel it shouldn't need to be pointed out.

It's not completely a bad read, and I am looking forward to hearing Hobbes' critique too. But now it feels rather outdated than innovative. ]]> 4.01 2005 Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
author: Steven D. Levitt
name: Julie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2023/03/28
date added: 2023/03/28
shelves: self-help, factoids
review:
*full disclosure - I've only read the book because Michael Hobbes told me so. He's got a new podcast out, 'If Books Could Kill', where him and Peter Shamshiri critique/deconstruct the 'airport books that captured our hearts and ruined our minds'. My reading of this may have been already influenced by its choice as the first episode of the podcast*

Riki Lindhome beautifully wrote: 'because your new girlfriend's like a pair of beige curtains: not good, not bad, just there' and, honestly, it neatly sums up how I feel about this book. I'm 32, have survived one revolution (in utero), one financial crash and one pandemic, so a tagline along the lines of 'A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything' is unlikely to elicit more of a shrug. So teachers and sumo wrestlers sometimes cheat. Cool. Drug dealers live with their mothers because the pay is shite - again, this is hardly surprising info. Both Stevens pride themselves in trying to answer questions that have never been asked - but should have they been asked in the first place? The fact that, for toddlers, pools are more dangerous than guns should surprise nobody. They chat at great lengths about how correlation does not imply causation, but the connections they identify and discuss are kind of obvious? Like how a child's chosen first name is not a direct indication of how well they're going to do in life, but it correlates with how educated their parents are. Well, duh. I just feel it shouldn't need to be pointed out.

It's not completely a bad read, and I am looking forward to hearing Hobbes' critique too. But now it feels rather outdated than innovative.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones]]> 71252 352 Neil Gaiman 1563892049 Julie 5 myths-retold
This is the chunkiest volume in the Sandman saga - and, unsurprisingly, it ties up most of the loose ends. Personally, I think it neatly corresponds to the climax, if one is to apply a classical narrative structure to the entire thing. And it's executed masterfully: you come to realize that every single panel leading up to this had been place where it had been placed for a reason.

Needless to say, it has a lot of callbacks, especially to the 'Sound of Her Wings Story' - after being hunted down by the Furies (who destroy big chunks of the Dreaming), Morpheus takes Death's hand and disappears. Their final exchange perfectly mirrors their first one, and brings the Greek tragedy storyline to its doomed conclusion. Of note, Mark Hempel's graphics are significantly more angular than his predecessor's work, and I have a sneaking suspicion this style influenced some of the early Umbrella Academy sketches). ]]> 4.60 1995 The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.60
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/18
shelves: myths-retold
review:
*some spoilers ahead*

This is the chunkiest volume in the Sandman saga - and, unsurprisingly, it ties up most of the loose ends. Personally, I think it neatly corresponds to the climax, if one is to apply a classical narrative structure to the entire thing. And it's executed masterfully: you come to realize that every single panel leading up to this had been place where it had been placed for a reason.

Needless to say, it has a lot of callbacks, especially to the 'Sound of Her Wings Story' - after being hunted down by the Furies (who destroy big chunks of the Dreaming), Morpheus takes Death's hand and disappears. Their final exchange perfectly mirrors their first one, and brings the Greek tragedy storyline to its doomed conclusion. Of note, Mark Hempel's graphics are significantly more angular than his predecessor's work, and I have a sneaking suspicion this style influenced some of the early Umbrella Academy sketches).
]]> <![CDATA[Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #2)]]> 41433634
Few mere mortals have ever embarked on such bold and heart-stirring adventures, overcome myriad monstrous perils, or outwitted scheming vengeful gods, quite as stylishly and triumphantly as Greek heroes.

In this companion to his bestselling Mythos, Stephen Fry brilliantly retells these dramatic, funny, tragic and timeless tales. Join Jason aboard the Argo as he quests for the Golden Fleece. See Atalanta - who was raised by bears - outrun any man before being tricked with golden apples. Witness wily Oedipus solve the riddle of the Sphinx and discover how Bellerophon captures the winged horse Pegasus to help him slay the monster Chimera.

Filled with white-knuckle chases and battles, impossible puzzles and riddles, acts of base cowardice and real bravery, not to mention murders and selfless sacrifices, Heroes is the story of what we mortals are truly capable of - at our worst and our very best.

Read by the author. Running time 15 hours.]]> 415 Stephen Fry 0241380375 Julie 4 greek-mythology, myths-retold 1. That the maximum number of times I can renew a library loan is 5 (15 weeks in total).
2. We need more Oracles in this day and age.
3. Women were done dirty in Greek Mythology.

And I'm kinda serious about the second one: a common theme among all of these stories is the Pythia (High Priestess) at Delphi making a relatively hard-to-understand (but nevertheless accurate) prophecy and most kings going 'well, I'm going to find a clever way to subvert this' and failing miserably. But joking aside, this is every bit as enjoyable as Fry's other classical writings (Mythos and Troy). It involves the retelling of the Greek Heroes' stories, from the trials and tribulations of Theseus to the Herculean Labours. Chapters are also dedicated to Perseus, Jason, Meleager, Bellerophon and Atalanta.]]> 4.32 2018 Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #2)
author: Stephen Fry
name: Julie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/02
date added: 2023/03/02
shelves: greek-mythology, myths-retold
review:
This book has taught me at least two things:
1. That the maximum number of times I can renew a library loan is 5 (15 weeks in total).
2. We need more Oracles in this day and age.
3. Women were done dirty in Greek Mythology.

And I'm kinda serious about the second one: a common theme among all of these stories is the Pythia (High Priestess) at Delphi making a relatively hard-to-understand (but nevertheless accurate) prophecy and most kings going 'well, I'm going to find a clever way to subvert this' and failing miserably. But joking aside, this is every bit as enjoyable as Fry's other classical writings (Mythos and Troy). It involves the retelling of the Greek Heroes' stories, from the trials and tribulations of Theseus to the Herculean Labours. Chapters are also dedicated to Perseus, Jason, Meleager, Bellerophon and Atalanta.
]]> High-Rise 70256
Within the concealing walls of an elegant forty-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on ‘enemy� floors and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for riots and technological mayhem.

In this visionary tale of urban disillusionment society slips into a violent reverse as the isolated inhabitants of the high-rise, driven by primal urges, create a dystopian world ruled by the laws of the jungle.

This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard’s works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Iain Sinclair, Ali Smith, Neil Gaiman and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs.]]> 272 J.G. Ballard 0586044566 Julie 0 to-read 3.85 1975 High-Rise
author: J.G. Ballard
name: Julie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman, Vol. 8: Worlds' End]]> 25103 160 Neil Gaiman 1563891700 Julie 4
*some spoilers ahead*

Joking and Romanian literature-induced trauma aside, this is yet another brilliant installment in the Sandman series. It's all coming together, and it's all marching towards an inevitable conclusion. The story starts when two travelers, Charlene Mooney and Brant Tucker, are caught in a freak snow storm (in the middle of summer), crash their car and seek shelter at the 'World's End' inn (after being directed there by a hedgehog). The other travelers pass the night by telling stories, and each one of these covers a different topic and is sketched by a different illustrator. The crux of the matter is that all of the strange travelers are stuck there because worlds are literally ending, and they all get to see a funeral procession (most likely Orpheus'). I am very excited for the next book.]]> 4.47 1993 The Sandman, Vol. 8: Worlds' End
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/02/15
shelves:
review:
Singurul motiv pentru care incep recenzia asta in romana e ca sa ma pot plange ca in gimnaziu am suferit profund citind 'Hanul Ancutei' pentru a ilustra 'povesitrea in rama'. Dar 'Worlds' End' ce avea?

*some spoilers ahead*

Joking and Romanian literature-induced trauma aside, this is yet another brilliant installment in the Sandman series. It's all coming together, and it's all marching towards an inevitable conclusion. The story starts when two travelers, Charlene Mooney and Brant Tucker, are caught in a freak snow storm (in the middle of summer), crash their car and seek shelter at the 'World's End' inn (after being directed there by a hedgehog). The other travelers pass the night by telling stories, and each one of these covers a different topic and is sketched by a different illustrator. The crux of the matter is that all of the strange travelers are stuck there because worlds are literally ending, and they all get to see a funeral procession (most likely Orpheus'). I am very excited for the next book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, and Selected Essays (Everyman's Library)]]> 11988
The Plague–written in 1947 and still profoundly relevant–is a riveting tale of horror, survival, and resilience in the face of a devastating epidemic. The Fall (1956), which takes the form of an astonishing confession by a French lawyer in a seedy Amsterdam bar, is a haunting parable of modern conscience in the face of evil. The six stories of Exile and the Kingdom (1957) represent Camus at the height of his narrative powers, masterfully depicting his characters–from a renegade missionary to an adulterous wife –at decisive moments of revelation. Set beside their fictional counterparts, Camus’s famous essays “The Myth of Sisyphus� and “Reflections on the Guillotine� are all the more powerful and philosophically daring, confirming his towering place in twentieth-century thought.]]> 656 Albert Camus 1400042550 Julie 1 4.34 2004 The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, and Selected Essays (Everyman's Library)
author: Albert Camus
name: Julie
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2004
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2023/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read [and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did]]]> 42348818 This book is about how we have relationships with our children, what gets in the way of a good connection and what can enhance it


The most influential relationships are between parents and children. Yet for so many families, these relationships go can wrong and it may be difficult to get back on track.

In The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad that You Did), renowned psychotherapist Philippa Perry shows how strong and loving bonds are made with your children and how such attachments give a better chance of good mental health, in childhood and beyond.

She'll help you to:
- Understand how your own upbringing may be impacting upon your parenting style
- Contain, express, accept and validate your own and your child's feelings
- Understand that all behaviour is communication
- Break negative cycles and patterns
- Accept that you will make mistakes and what to do about them

Almost every parent loves their children, but by following the refreshing, sage and sane advice and steps in this book you will also find yourselves liking one another too.

]]> 240 Philippa Perry Julie 4 parenting, self-help
I should probably start by saying that this book was part of a very lovely Christmas parcel my mother-in-law sent over. I had seen it in many a bookstore, but I've tried to stay away from a lot of literature aimed at new parents because some of it is, to put it bluntly, frankly atrocious. However, it feels like Philippa Perry's credentials are pretty good: she's been a psychotherapist for 20 years. What makes it even more relatable is that she's roughly my parents' age and her daughter is roughly my age. So it is very relevant to this generation gap.

The advice here is sensible. It talks about all of the things I want to do differently with my child (or possibly children). It's more about seeing the world from their perspective and giving them sensible life skills (such as being able to deal with frustration, be flexible and brainstorm solutions for their problems) rather than being focused on bringing up a 'happy' child. Deffo worth a read.]]> 4.10 2019 The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read [and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did]
author: Philippa Perry
name: Julie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/01/28
shelves: parenting, self-help
review:
*of note, I will be continuing with the PopSugar reading challenge for 2023, but I currently have multiple books on the go, which is a bit unusual for me*

I should probably start by saying that this book was part of a very lovely Christmas parcel my mother-in-law sent over. I had seen it in many a bookstore, but I've tried to stay away from a lot of literature aimed at new parents because some of it is, to put it bluntly, frankly atrocious. However, it feels like Philippa Perry's credentials are pretty good: she's been a psychotherapist for 20 years. What makes it even more relatable is that she's roughly my parents' age and her daughter is roughly my age. So it is very relevant to this generation gap.

The advice here is sensible. It talks about all of the things I want to do differently with my child (or possibly children). It's more about seeing the world from their perspective and giving them sensible life skills (such as being able to deal with frustration, be flexible and brainstorm solutions for their problems) rather than being focused on bringing up a 'happy' child. Deffo worth a read.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables & Reflections]]> 25106
The critically acclaimed THE SANDMAN: FABLES AND REFLECTIONS continues the fantastical epic of Morpheus, the King of Dreams, as he observes and interacts with an odd assortment of historical and fictional characters throughout time. Featuring tales of kings, explorers, spies, and werewolves, this book of myth and imagination delves into the dark dreams of Augustus Caesar, Marco Polo, Cain and Abel, Norton I, and Orpheus to illustrate the effects that these subconscious musings have had on the course of history and mankind.

A new edition of this title collecting issues #29-31, 38-40, 50 and SANDMAN SPECIAL #1 with recolored pages.]]> 264 Neil Gaiman 1563891069 Julie 4
Very similar to 'Dream Country', this volume collects 9 stories that depict events which don't necessarily forward the main plot of the series, but add a number of elements which I'm certain will recur. The ones that particularly stand out are 'Thermidor' (which, as much as I want to see it on screen, has already given me massive heeby-jeebies) and 'The Song of Orpheus'. These two stories also explain how, with the aid of Lady Johanna Constantine, Orpheus' head found its way back to the island of Naxos - and that's where 'Brief Lives' starts.

'Three Septembers and a January' is also an interesting one, as we get to find out more about the relationship between Dream, Desire and Despair, which ties in neatly with Despair's actions in 'The Doll's House'. So far, the series is an amazing exercise and world-building and plot, and I regret not having discovered it as a teenager. Better late than never, right?]]> 4.44 1993 The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables & Reflections
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/11/25
shelves:
review:
*some spoilers ahead*

Very similar to 'Dream Country', this volume collects 9 stories that depict events which don't necessarily forward the main plot of the series, but add a number of elements which I'm certain will recur. The ones that particularly stand out are 'Thermidor' (which, as much as I want to see it on screen, has already given me massive heeby-jeebies) and 'The Song of Orpheus'. These two stories also explain how, with the aid of Lady Johanna Constantine, Orpheus' head found its way back to the island of Naxos - and that's where 'Brief Lives' starts.

'Three Septembers and a January' is also an interesting one, as we get to find out more about the relationship between Dream, Desire and Despair, which ties in neatly with Despair's actions in 'The Doll's House'. So far, the series is an amazing exercise and world-building and plot, and I regret not having discovered it as a teenager. Better late than never, right?
]]> <![CDATA[Fire & Blood (A Targaryen History, #1)]]> 39943621
Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen—the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria—took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire and Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.

What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why did it become so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What is the origin of Daenerys’s three dragon eggs? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential chronicle, as related by a learned maester of the Citadel and featuring more than eighty all-new black-and-white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley. Readers have glimpsed small parts of this narrative in such volumes as The World of Ice & Fire, but now, for the first time, the full tapestry of Targaryen history is revealed.

With all the scope and grandeur of Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Fire and Blood is the ultimate game of thrones, giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, and always fascinating history of Westeros.]]> 706 George R.R. Martin 152479628X Julie 4
The last book I read by GRRM was 'A Dance with Dragons' - that was back in 2012 (it originally came out in 2011, but it took me about a year to catch-up with the previous volumes). It's now 10 years later - in the meanwhile, I started dating a guy, we're now married, have a child, bought a house and THE WINDS OF WINTER STILL HASN'T BEEN PUBLISHED!

But I digress. I have to confess I got into it after starting to watch 'House of the Dragon' - I was so disappointed with how 'Game of Thrones' ended that I wanted to read the original story before complaining how badly the adaptation fucked up. It was then, and only then, that I kinda realized I missed GRRM's writing. 'Fire and Blood' reads like a Medieval history - learning all about infamous kings and their court intrigue. But it's infinitely cooler than any Medieval history because:
a. it has dragons
b. the Lords Tully are named Grover, Elmo and Kermit
c. fewer descriptions of food feature here, compared to the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series
d. did I mention the dragons?

Thoroughly enjoyable read, even if slightly over 700 pages long. It only covers the time frame between Aegon I's conquest and Aegon III (Rhaenyra's son), so I'm keen to see if more will follow.]]> 4.03 2018 Fire & Blood (A Targaryen History, #1)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Julie
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/11/13
shelves:
review:
*some spoilers ahead*

The last book I read by GRRM was 'A Dance with Dragons' - that was back in 2012 (it originally came out in 2011, but it took me about a year to catch-up with the previous volumes). It's now 10 years later - in the meanwhile, I started dating a guy, we're now married, have a child, bought a house and THE WINDS OF WINTER STILL HASN'T BEEN PUBLISHED!

But I digress. I have to confess I got into it after starting to watch 'House of the Dragon' - I was so disappointed with how 'Game of Thrones' ended that I wanted to read the original story before complaining how badly the adaptation fucked up. It was then, and only then, that I kinda realized I missed GRRM's writing. 'Fire and Blood' reads like a Medieval history - learning all about infamous kings and their court intrigue. But it's infinitely cooler than any Medieval history because:
a. it has dragons
b. the Lords Tully are named Grover, Elmo and Kermit
c. fewer descriptions of food feature here, compared to the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series
d. did I mention the dragons?

Thoroughly enjoyable read, even if slightly over 700 pages long. It only covers the time frame between Aegon I's conquest and Aegon III (Rhaenyra's son), so I'm keen to see if more will follow.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman, Vol. 5: A Game of You]]> 25102 The Doll's House, who here finds herself a princess in a vivid dreamworld. collecting The Sandman #32�37]]> 192 Neil Gaiman 1563890933 Julie 5
This is the fifth installment of The Sandman and, much like 'Seasons of Mists' before it, it features a number of plot points that were initially introduced in 'Preludes and Nocturnes' and 'The Doll's House'. Remember how Judy from the diner had a girlfriend named Donna? We finally get to meet her. Remember how Barbie's dream featured her as a princess in some faraway land, accompanied by a creature called Martin Tenbones? This installment is a direct continuation of that storyline, and it's brilliant to see how little details, sprinkled here and there, become fully fleshed out stories. Now that the converging themes have all been set in motion, I'm dying to see where the story goes next.

Also, for a book published in 1993, it features great LGBTQ+ representation. Well done, Mr Gaiman. I'm excited to see the TV adaptation of this season because, finally, folk will be able to pronounce and spell my daughter's name (she's called Thessaly). ]]> 4.43 1992 The Sandman, Vol. 5: A Game of You
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/10/28
shelves:
review:
*spoilers ahead*

This is the fifth installment of The Sandman and, much like 'Seasons of Mists' before it, it features a number of plot points that were initially introduced in 'Preludes and Nocturnes' and 'The Doll's House'. Remember how Judy from the diner had a girlfriend named Donna? We finally get to meet her. Remember how Barbie's dream featured her as a princess in some faraway land, accompanied by a creature called Martin Tenbones? This installment is a direct continuation of that storyline, and it's brilliant to see how little details, sprinkled here and there, become fully fleshed out stories. Now that the converging themes have all been set in motion, I'm dying to see where the story goes next.

Also, for a book published in 1993, it features great LGBTQ+ representation. Well done, Mr Gaiman. I'm excited to see the TV adaptation of this season because, finally, folk will be able to pronounce and spell my daughter's name (she's called Thessaly).
]]> Ariadne 54860614
When Theseus, the Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne's decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind?

Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer Saint's Ariadne forges a new epic, one that puts the forgotten women of Greek mythology back at the heart of the story, as they strive for a better world.]]> 308 Jennifer Saint 125077358X Julie 3
It's worth mentioning that I'm reading this during a proper Greek mythology binge. After Fry's 'Mythos' and 'Troy', I've sunk my teeth into Madeline Miller's 'The Song of Achilles' and 'Circe', so Jennifer Saint's 'Ariadne' almost felt like a natural transition. And, in all honesty, I'm happy modern-day female writers are giving a new, feminist voice to less well-known characters (such as Patroclus, Circe, and, well, Ariadne). But must that voice be really whiny?

Don't get me wrong: I'm trying to understand and sympathize with the first-person perspective of a highly emotional narrator. After all, a vast chuck of the Olympian mythos can be summed up by the sentence '*insert name of bloke* was a dick'. For instance:
- The Iliad: Paris was a dick
- The Odyssey: Ulysses was a dick (according to Circe)
- Circe: Helios was a dick and Hermes was also a bit of a dick
- Ariadne: Minos was a dick, but so were Theseus, Dionysus and Perseus.

Joking aside, it does cast light on how Ariadne, daughter of the fabled King Minos, may have felt: should she have stayed loyal to her family and allow innocent Athenians to keep dying as sacrifices to her brother, the Minotaur? Or did she do the right thing in helping out charming Theseus slaughter him? Turns out, helping somebody avoid almost certain death at the hands of a beast doesn't necessarily mean they won't leave you for dead on an abandoned island. So I can understand why Ariadne's first-person narrative is over-the-top emotive, but her character arc gets a bit grating after a while.]]> 3.77 2021 Ariadne
author: Jennifer Saint
name: Julie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/10/14
shelves:
review:
*some spoilers ahead*

It's worth mentioning that I'm reading this during a proper Greek mythology binge. After Fry's 'Mythos' and 'Troy', I've sunk my teeth into Madeline Miller's 'The Song of Achilles' and 'Circe', so Jennifer Saint's 'Ariadne' almost felt like a natural transition. And, in all honesty, I'm happy modern-day female writers are giving a new, feminist voice to less well-known characters (such as Patroclus, Circe, and, well, Ariadne). But must that voice be really whiny?

Don't get me wrong: I'm trying to understand and sympathize with the first-person perspective of a highly emotional narrator. After all, a vast chuck of the Olympian mythos can be summed up by the sentence '*insert name of bloke* was a dick'. For instance:
- The Iliad: Paris was a dick
- The Odyssey: Ulysses was a dick (according to Circe)
- Circe: Helios was a dick and Hermes was also a bit of a dick
- Ariadne: Minos was a dick, but so were Theseus, Dionysus and Perseus.

Joking aside, it does cast light on how Ariadne, daughter of the fabled King Minos, may have felt: should she have stayed loyal to her family and allow innocent Athenians to keep dying as sacrifices to her brother, the Minotaur? Or did she do the right thing in helping out charming Theseus slaughter him? Turns out, helping somebody avoid almost certain death at the hands of a beast doesn't necessarily mean they won't leave you for dead on an abandoned island. So I can understand why Ariadne's first-person narrative is over-the-top emotive, but her character arc gets a bit grating after a while.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman, Vol. 4: Season of Mists]]> 25101
Collects THE SANDMAN #21-28.]]> 224 Neil Gaiman 1563890356 Julie 5
The narrative returns to its main threads after the 'Dream Country' digression and, finally, we get to go back to some characters which were only briefly introduced in the first two installments. However, I think I can summarize the beginning of 'Season of Mists' with the following paraphrased dialogues:

Destiny - I've been told by the Fates to organize this family meeting.
The other 5* Endless - Yes, so? What for?
Destiny - No, that's it.
The other 5 Endless - (-_-)'
...
Dream - I'm wondering if I was a dick.
Death - You imprisoned this lady in hell for 10,000 years because she refused your advances.
Dream - I may have been a dick. Well, best make amends...

And then literally all Hell breaks loose and stays out because Lucifer quits. And it ain't be kind of quiet quitting either. He literally throws everybody out of Hell and locks it, handing Dream the key. Needless to say, Hell is a pretty coveted territory, so Dream finds himself inundated with requests from various factions (including ancient Egyptian, Japanese and Northern gods, the faeries and some ex-lords of Hell) to hand it over. Oh yeah, and some angels have been sent to oversee that entire decision-making process.

I won't add any more spoilers, but the twist is as clever as it is, well, unforeseen. Loving this series, wish I had read it earlier.

*One Endless is missing. ]]> 4.54 1991 The Sandman, Vol. 4: Season of Mists
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.54
book published: 1991
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/09/13
shelves:
review:
*spoilers ahead*

The narrative returns to its main threads after the 'Dream Country' digression and, finally, we get to go back to some characters which were only briefly introduced in the first two installments. However, I think I can summarize the beginning of 'Season of Mists' with the following paraphrased dialogues:

Destiny - I've been told by the Fates to organize this family meeting.
The other 5* Endless - Yes, so? What for?
Destiny - No, that's it.
The other 5 Endless - (-_-)'
...
Dream - I'm wondering if I was a dick.
Death - You imprisoned this lady in hell for 10,000 years because she refused your advances.
Dream - I may have been a dick. Well, best make amends...

And then literally all Hell breaks loose and stays out because Lucifer quits. And it ain't be kind of quiet quitting either. He literally throws everybody out of Hell and locks it, handing Dream the key. Needless to say, Hell is a pretty coveted territory, so Dream finds himself inundated with requests from various factions (including ancient Egyptian, Japanese and Northern gods, the faeries and some ex-lords of Hell) to hand it over. Oh yeah, and some angels have been sent to oversee that entire decision-making process.

I won't add any more spoilers, but the twist is as clever as it is, well, unforeseen. Loving this series, wish I had read it earlier.

*One Endless is missing.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country]]> 25100 160 Neil Gaiman 156389226X Julie 5
So far, I think I've enjoyed this volume the most. Not because it's a departure from the main story-line, but because all of the four shorts in this (Calliope, A Dream of a Thousand Cats, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Facade) are fleshed-out enough to become perfectly self-contained stories and subsequent adaptations. I think the 11th episode of the series proves this - the animation in 'A Dream of a Thousand Cats' is pretty close to the source material, but I digress.

Morpheus only plays a minor role in all of these tales, but we get to learn more about his endeavors throughout the ages (fathering a son to Calliope, instigating humans to revolt against their cat overlords and striking a bargain with William Shakespeare). Death plays a more important role in the last story, and it further solidifies her compassionate nature - I have been told that all of these shorts end up becoming important plot points later on, so I'm keen to keep going through the series. ]]> 4.26 1990 The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/09/07
shelves:
review:
*some spoilers ahead*

So far, I think I've enjoyed this volume the most. Not because it's a departure from the main story-line, but because all of the four shorts in this (Calliope, A Dream of a Thousand Cats, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Facade) are fleshed-out enough to become perfectly self-contained stories and subsequent adaptations. I think the 11th episode of the series proves this - the animation in 'A Dream of a Thousand Cats' is pretty close to the source material, but I digress.

Morpheus only plays a minor role in all of these tales, but we get to learn more about his endeavors throughout the ages (fathering a son to Calliope, instigating humans to revolt against their cat overlords and striking a bargain with William Shakespeare). Death plays a more important role in the last story, and it further solidifies her compassionate nature - I have been told that all of these shorts end up becoming important plot points later on, so I'm keen to keep going through the series.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll's House]]> 25099 The Doll's House, after a decades-long imprisonment, the Sandman has returned to find that a few dreams and nightmares have escaped to reality. Looking to recapture his lost possessions, Morpheus ventures to the human plane only to learn that a woman named Rose Walker has inadvertently become a dream vortex and threatens to rip apart his world. Now as Morpheus takes on the last escaped nightmare at a serial killers convention, the Lord of Dreams must mercilessly murder Rose or risk the destruction of his entire kingdom.

Collecting issues #9-16, this new edition of The Doll's House features the improved production values and coloring from the Absolute Edition.

]]> 232 Neil Gaiman 1563892251 Julie 4
And it's for the above reason the book is getting 4* from me: I loved Clive Barker's foreword, I loved the creepy illustrations (which I feel translate very well into the show, without being frame-by-frame snapshots of the novel) and I loved the plotline. The challenge of juggling so many subplots is my biggest criticism of the both the first two books and of the TV adaptation so far: within the space of 10 episodes/2 volumes we have: the imprisonment subplot (or exposition, I guess), the quest for the symbols of power (which introduces Johanna Constantine/Lucifer/John Dee/Cain & Abel, and about one episode is dedicated to each), the meeting with Death (and the other siblings), and the vortex plot. While some of them have a neat resolution, I've got the feeling that these introductions simply pave the way for more content in the subsequent volumes - I need to keep on reading to find out ;)]]> 4.44 1990 The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll's House
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/08/31
shelves:
review:
I'm continuing my Sandman binge because it's significantly easier to read between the little one's nap times (and because it requires a bit less brain power than a complex analysis of modern economics, at least for the time being - I have been assured that the plot becomes significantly more convoluted and that minor characters that one may have overlooked end up playing important parts).

And it's for the above reason the book is getting 4* from me: I loved Clive Barker's foreword, I loved the creepy illustrations (which I feel translate very well into the show, without being frame-by-frame snapshots of the novel) and I loved the plotline. The challenge of juggling so many subplots is my biggest criticism of the both the first two books and of the TV adaptation so far: within the space of 10 episodes/2 volumes we have: the imprisonment subplot (or exposition, I guess), the quest for the symbols of power (which introduces Johanna Constantine/Lucifer/John Dee/Cain & Abel, and about one episode is dedicated to each), the meeting with Death (and the other siblings), and the vortex plot. While some of them have a neat resolution, I've got the feeling that these introductions simply pave the way for more content in the subsequent volumes - I need to keep on reading to find out ;)
]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes]]> 23754
In PRELUDES & NOCTURNES, an occultist attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his 70 year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On his arduous journey, Morpheus encounters Lucifer, John Constantine, and an all-powerful madman.

This book also includes the story "The Sound of Her Wings," which introduces us to the pragmatic and perky goth girl Death.

Includes issues 1-8 of the original series.]]> 240 Neil Gaiman 1563892278 Julie 4
But I digress. This is a strong opening for a series. I am reading it while watching its Netflix adaptation and, I must say, I'm loving the way in which the concepts translate in both media. While the artwork verges on disturbing at times (I mean, I know one can go crazy on visual depictions of hell, but this one's pretty chilling to say the least), the storyline is amazing and one can't help but form a love/hate relationship with Dream. Also, did 'Preludes and Nocturnes' predict the 'sad Keanu' meme? I guess we'll never know.

ps: 'The Sound of Her Wings' hits straight in the feels.]]> 4.25 1988 The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/08/29
shelves:
review:
I love jumping on trendy bandwagons. Needless to say, the local library has been struggling to meet the unexpected new demand for this book (and the rest of the series), but I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy. Reading 'The Sandman' will be interspersed with trying to make progress on 'How will capitalism end?' - which, as interesting as it is, can be a read well saturated with technical terms.

But I digress. This is a strong opening for a series. I am reading it while watching its Netflix adaptation and, I must say, I'm loving the way in which the concepts translate in both media. While the artwork verges on disturbing at times (I mean, I know one can go crazy on visual depictions of hell, but this one's pretty chilling to say the least), the storyline is amazing and one can't help but form a love/hate relationship with Dream. Also, did 'Preludes and Nocturnes' predict the 'sad Keanu' meme? I guess we'll never know.

ps: 'The Sound of Her Wings' hits straight in the feels.
]]> Circe 35959740
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.]]> 393 Madeline Miller 0316556343 Julie 3
I will try my best not to bring up too many comparisons with Madeline Miller's previous book ('The Song of Achilles', which I've also recently finished). But I just can't help it, because they do follow a relatively similar narrative thread:
- an emotional and slightly untrustworthy first-person narrator? - check
- a plot loosely based off Greek mythology, but also adding some new twists and turns to it? - check
- the idea that an immortal should choose love over eternal life? - also check

For all of its narrative shortcomings, the quality of the narration is overall beautiful. And, even with the aforementioned tropes, the plot itself is very gripping, as it spans a number of centuries (as Circe is immortal) and notable events (such as the creation of Scylla, the Iliad and the Odyssey). Let's look on the bright side of life: at least all readers will now know what is meant by the expression 'between Scylla and Charybdis'. ]]> 4.22 2018 Circe
author: Madeline Miller
name: Julie
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2022/08/15
date added: 2022/08/15
shelves:
review:
*some potential spoilers ahead - but do they really count as spoilers when her story is mentioned as early as the 8th century BC?*

I will try my best not to bring up too many comparisons with Madeline Miller's previous book ('The Song of Achilles', which I've also recently finished). But I just can't help it, because they do follow a relatively similar narrative thread:
- an emotional and slightly untrustworthy first-person narrator? - check
- a plot loosely based off Greek mythology, but also adding some new twists and turns to it? - check
- the idea that an immortal should choose love over eternal life? - also check

For all of its narrative shortcomings, the quality of the narration is overall beautiful. And, even with the aforementioned tropes, the plot itself is very gripping, as it spans a number of centuries (as Circe is immortal) and notable events (such as the creation of Scylla, the Iliad and the Odyssey). Let's look on the bright side of life: at least all readers will now know what is meant by the expression 'between Scylla and Charybdis'.
]]> Redcoat 564535
On both sides, loyalties are tested and families torn asunder. The young Redcoat Sam Gilpin has seen his brother die. Now he must choose between duty to a distant king and the call of his own conscience. And for the men and women of the prosperous Becket family, the Revolution brings bitter conflict between those loyal to the crown and those with dreams of liberty.

Soon, across the fields of ice and blood in a place called Valley Forge, history will be rewritten, changing the lives and fortunes of these men and women forever.]]> 485 Bernard Cornwell 0060512776 Julie 3
It charters the American adventures of private Sam Gilpin - a member of the Redcoat (British) army who finds himself stationed in British-controlled Philadelphia during the fall and winter of 1777 - 1778. Needless to say, the book introduces a whole host of characters allied to one side or the other. On the Patriots' side, Sam finds himself befriending Jonathon Becket and his sister, the influential widow Martha Crowl. However, on the British side, he is in the service of Captain Christopher Vane and the unscrupulous Sergeant Scammell. Needless to say, a couple of love triangles are thrown in the mix, centring around the rebel Caroline Fisher and Maggie, a camp follower Scammell 'married', but who piques the interest of Sam's twin brother Nate (also a Redcoat). It's an entertaining read in a soap-opera kind of fashion, and the historical background gives it a bit more gravitas. Perfect for lazy summer afternoons in the sun. ]]> 3.88 1987 Redcoat
author: Bernard Cornwell
name: Julie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at: 2022/07/25
date added: 2022/07/25
shelves:
review:
This might sound a bit unfair, but because 'Hamilton' made such a huge impact (at least to my mind) when it comes to chronicling the American Revolution, every book/play/movie set in that time will be subconsciously compared to it. This book is not Hamilton - but it was a perfectly enjoyable read nonetheless.

It charters the American adventures of private Sam Gilpin - a member of the Redcoat (British) army who finds himself stationed in British-controlled Philadelphia during the fall and winter of 1777 - 1778. Needless to say, the book introduces a whole host of characters allied to one side or the other. On the Patriots' side, Sam finds himself befriending Jonathon Becket and his sister, the influential widow Martha Crowl. However, on the British side, he is in the service of Captain Christopher Vane and the unscrupulous Sergeant Scammell. Needless to say, a couple of love triangles are thrown in the mix, centring around the rebel Caroline Fisher and Maggie, a camp follower Scammell 'married', but who piques the interest of Sam's twin brother Nate (also a Redcoat). It's an entertaining read in a soap-opera kind of fashion, and the historical background gives it a bit more gravitas. Perfect for lazy summer afternoons in the sun.
]]> <![CDATA[Troy (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #3)]]> 53443339
In Troy you will find heroism and hatred, love and loss, revenge and regret, desire and despair. It is these human passions, written bloodily in the sands of a distant shore, that still speak to us today.]]> 414 Stephen Fry 0241424585 Julie 4
Much like Mythos, it is a retelling of the classical story of the fall of Troy, complete with acerbic wit and a few other modern takes. It does explain the Greek and Trojan genealogies in detail, but its saving grace is a compendium of all of the protagonists and their lineages, in case one forgets which god is rooting for whom. It also delves into slightly more detail on how the story of the Iliad was passed on from generation to generation until Homer actually wrote it down, and what the connections between myth and reality are (because Troy did exist as a city-state, and archaeologists are still not 100% certain what caused its collapse, but war is deffo among the possible reasons listed). The only this I would add is that what happens after the Greeks leave is only touched upon tangentially - personally, I would have liked the eventual fates of Agamemnon, Odysseus and Menelaus covered, even briefly. ]]> 4.36 2020 Troy (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #3)
author: Stephen Fry
name: Julie
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/16
date added: 2022/07/16
shelves:
review:
I would say I enjoyed this just as much as I did one of its predecessors, Mythos (am I the process of getting my hands on Heroes, but the library which currently keeps the one copy is at the other end of town =\).

Much like Mythos, it is a retelling of the classical story of the fall of Troy, complete with acerbic wit and a few other modern takes. It does explain the Greek and Trojan genealogies in detail, but its saving grace is a compendium of all of the protagonists and their lineages, in case one forgets which god is rooting for whom. It also delves into slightly more detail on how the story of the Iliad was passed on from generation to generation until Homer actually wrote it down, and what the connections between myth and reality are (because Troy did exist as a city-state, and archaeologists are still not 100% certain what caused its collapse, but war is deffo among the possible reasons listed). The only this I would add is that what happens after the Greeks leave is only touched upon tangentially - personally, I would have liked the eventual fates of Agamemnon, Odysseus and Menelaus covered, even briefly.
]]> <![CDATA[Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)]]> 35074096
This stunning book features classical artwork inspired by the myths, as well as learned notes from the author. Each adventure is infused with Fry's distinctive wit, voice, and writing style. Connoisseurs of the Greek myths will appreciate this fresh-yet-reverential interpretation, while newcomers will feel welcome. Retellings brim with humor and emotion and offer rich cultural context

Celebrating the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, Mythos breathes life into ancient tales—from Pandora's box to Prometheus's fire.

This gorgeous volume invites you to explore a captivating world with the brilliant storyteller Stephen Fry as your guide.]]> 416 Stephen Fry 0718188721 Julie 4
Joking aside, this is, as advertised, a retelling of classic Greek mythology, complete with a side of characteristically acerbic humour and I would not have expected anything less of Stephen Fry. Going from the original myth of creation and the first generation of gods (such as Gaia and Ouranos) to some well-known fables (such as the stories of Midas and Narcissus), this is a tour-de-force of the origin stories and (in)famous adventures of the Olympian pantheon. The footnotes provide the reader with interesting asides: I was today years old when I learned that Lord Byron prided himself in having swam across the Dardanelles. Would thoroughly recommend. Also, of note, it requires absolutely no prior knowledge of the Greek deities, and I think this is one if its greatest strengths. ]]> 4.27 2017 Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #1)
author: Stephen Fry
name: Julie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/08
date added: 2022/07/08
shelves:
review:
This was a thoroughly enjoyable and light-hearted read (at least for somebody who doesn't mind tales of imaginary rage, jealously and messed up romantic liaisons).

Joking aside, this is, as advertised, a retelling of classic Greek mythology, complete with a side of characteristically acerbic humour and I would not have expected anything less of Stephen Fry. Going from the original myth of creation and the first generation of gods (such as Gaia and Ouranos) to some well-known fables (such as the stories of Midas and Narcissus), this is a tour-de-force of the origin stories and (in)famous adventures of the Olympian pantheon. The footnotes provide the reader with interesting asides: I was today years old when I learned that Lord Byron prided himself in having swam across the Dardanelles. Would thoroughly recommend. Also, of note, it requires absolutely no prior knowledge of the Greek deities, and I think this is one if its greatest strengths.
]]> The Periodic Table 427282 The Periodic Table by Primo Levi is an impassioned response to the Holocaust: Consisting of 21 short stories, each possessing the name of a chemical element, the collection tells of the author's experiences as a Jewish-Italian chemist before, during, and after Auschwitz in luminous, clear, and unfailingly beautiful prose. It has been named the best science book ever by the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and is considered to be Levi's crowning achievement.]]> 233 Primo Levi 0805210415 Julie 5 a. centred around properties of chemical elements (I should probably make it clear that this is not by any means an academic text)
b. which touches on Levi's experience of the Holocaust (as he was a prisoner in Auschwitz).

And yet. And yet the stories are so beautifully told, peppered with introspections about man and his character, about the fleeting and yet permanent nature of the elements which surround us (poignantly so in the last entry of the book, dedicated to carbon) and, funnily enough, about the day-to-day implications of chemistry gone wrong (turns out I now know what 'livering' means when used in relation to paint). Cannot recommend this enough, although it can be an emotional read at times. But it's simply stunning. ]]> 4.17 1975 The Periodic Table
author: Primo Levi
name: Julie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1975
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/15
date added: 2022/06/15
shelves:
review:
The first words that spring to mind when describing this collection of short stories are 'delicate' and 'compelling'. Which are not necessarily the first words one would expect when describing a book:
a. centred around properties of chemical elements (I should probably make it clear that this is not by any means an academic text)
b. which touches on Levi's experience of the Holocaust (as he was a prisoner in Auschwitz).

And yet. And yet the stories are so beautifully told, peppered with introspections about man and his character, about the fleeting and yet permanent nature of the elements which surround us (poignantly so in the last entry of the book, dedicated to carbon) and, funnily enough, about the day-to-day implications of chemistry gone wrong (turns out I now know what 'livering' means when used in relation to paint). Cannot recommend this enough, although it can be an emotional read at times. But it's simply stunning.
]]> The Song of Achilles 13623848 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062060624.

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.]]> 408 Madeline Miller Julie 3
The best way I can describe this book is LGBTQ+ YA. And I'm not using these terms in a derogatory manner. It came out in 2011 - would I have enjoyed it more then? Highly unlikely - without drawing too many parallels between it and what I perceive to be similar literature (with the closest example I can think of being 'The Fault in Our Stars'), these stories deffo need to be enjoyed at a specific age, before a parade of failed relationships make one very cynical about falling in love with 'the one'. It's a retelling of The Iliad from Patroculs' perspective, even after his death (stylistic choice were made there). And, with it being a Greek tragedy, everybody succumbs to their hubris and everyone dies. The one thing that puzzled me slightly was describing the death of Achilles as an arrow to the heart as opposed to his heel - again, choices were made. Would recommend this book for teenagers, older folk probably won't find it as enjoyable. ]]> 4.30 2011 The Song of Achilles
author: Madeline Miller
name: Julie
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/06
date added: 2022/06/06
shelves:
review:
*possible spoilers ahead, but The Iliad was written in the 8th century BC, so they really shouldn't come as a surprise*

The best way I can describe this book is LGBTQ+ YA. And I'm not using these terms in a derogatory manner. It came out in 2011 - would I have enjoyed it more then? Highly unlikely - without drawing too many parallels between it and what I perceive to be similar literature (with the closest example I can think of being 'The Fault in Our Stars'), these stories deffo need to be enjoyed at a specific age, before a parade of failed relationships make one very cynical about falling in love with 'the one'. It's a retelling of The Iliad from Patroculs' perspective, even after his death (stylistic choice were made there). And, with it being a Greek tragedy, everybody succumbs to their hubris and everyone dies. The one thing that puzzled me slightly was describing the death of Achilles as an arrow to the heart as opposed to his heel - again, choices were made. Would recommend this book for teenagers, older folk probably won't find it as enjoyable.
]]> The City & the City 4703581
Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives.

What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.

Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.]]> 312 China Miéville 0345497511 Julie 5
Disclaimer: I have a soft spot for China Mieville's writing. The first book I read was 'Perdido Street Station' - everything that followed was, more or less overtly, compared to that. Some have met the mark (such as 'Kraken'), some have fallen short (mainly 'Iron Council'). But 'The City and the City' is pretty damn good - I would summarise it as a police novel with a twist.

Detective Tyador Borlu is tasked with investigating a murder on his home turf of Beszel. The thing that sets Beszel apart from other Eastern European cities is its connection with/to Ul Qoma - these twinned city-states exist in an intertwined fashion, governed by a strict set of rules and regulations to avoid illegally crossing from one into the other (known as 'breach'). When it turns out the victim (Mahalia Geary) aired some fairly controversial opinions that made her unpopular in both cities, the circle of suspects widens, forcing Borlu to extend his investigation into Ul Qoma. Mahalia may or many not have believed another city (Orciny) existed in the liminal space between Beszel and Ul Qoma - but was this the real reason for her murder?

Progressing at a good pace, this is an atypical murder mystery: much like 'Kraken', approaching it with an open mind will help you figure out what's going on and who the potential suspects might be. This, coupled with Mieville's distinct flavour of 'the new weird' make for an engaging read. Would recommend. ]]> 3.90 2009 The City & the City
author: China Miéville
name: Julie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/31
date added: 2022/05/31
shelves:
review:
*possible spoilers ahead*

Disclaimer: I have a soft spot for China Mieville's writing. The first book I read was 'Perdido Street Station' - everything that followed was, more or less overtly, compared to that. Some have met the mark (such as 'Kraken'), some have fallen short (mainly 'Iron Council'). But 'The City and the City' is pretty damn good - I would summarise it as a police novel with a twist.

Detective Tyador Borlu is tasked with investigating a murder on his home turf of Beszel. The thing that sets Beszel apart from other Eastern European cities is its connection with/to Ul Qoma - these twinned city-states exist in an intertwined fashion, governed by a strict set of rules and regulations to avoid illegally crossing from one into the other (known as 'breach'). When it turns out the victim (Mahalia Geary) aired some fairly controversial opinions that made her unpopular in both cities, the circle of suspects widens, forcing Borlu to extend his investigation into Ul Qoma. Mahalia may or many not have believed another city (Orciny) existed in the liminal space between Beszel and Ul Qoma - but was this the real reason for her murder?

Progressing at a good pace, this is an atypical murder mystery: much like 'Kraken', approaching it with an open mind will help you figure out what's going on and who the potential suspects might be. This, coupled with Mieville's distinct flavour of 'the new weird' make for an engaging read. Would recommend.
]]> <![CDATA[Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men]]> 41104077
Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women�, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.]]> 448 Caroline Criado Pérez 1419729071 Julie 5
And this affects every mundane aspect of our lives: from things such as car design (very few companies use female-proportioned crash-test dummies, and, when they do, the safety rating of the vehicle drops markedly) to mobile phones (and any other tool that's meant to fit into a smaller hand, such as a piano). Not collecting sex-disaggregated data impacts on everything else: from city planning and transport routes, to disaster relief responses and the use of certain medication (not to mention that women are more likely to present with 'atypical' heart attack symptoms, just to quote one well-researched example). It's a must-read from my perspective, a real eye-opener of the biased world that we live in.]]> 4.35 2019 Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
author: Caroline Criado Pérez
name: Julie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/16
date added: 2022/05/16
shelves:
review:
If you identify as a woman and you've managed to get to the end of this book without absolutely raging, then you haven't been paying attention. Because, spoiler alert. this is a brilliant (and well-referenced) explanation of why the world we live in simply hasn't been built for women.

And this affects every mundane aspect of our lives: from things such as car design (very few companies use female-proportioned crash-test dummies, and, when they do, the safety rating of the vehicle drops markedly) to mobile phones (and any other tool that's meant to fit into a smaller hand, such as a piano). Not collecting sex-disaggregated data impacts on everything else: from city planning and transport routes, to disaster relief responses and the use of certain medication (not to mention that women are more likely to present with 'atypical' heart attack symptoms, just to quote one well-researched example). It's a must-read from my perspective, a real eye-opener of the biased world that we live in.
]]> Femlandia 58158570
Miranda Reynolds always thought she would rather die than live in Femlandia. But that was before the country sank into total economic collapse and her husband walked out in the harshest, most permanent way, leaving her and her sixteen-year-old daughter with nothing. The streets are full of looting, robbing, and killing, and Miranda and Emma no longer have much choice—either starve and risk getting murdered, or find safety. And so they set off to Femlandia, the women-only colony Miranda's mother, Win Somers, established decades ago.

Although Win is no longer in the spotlight, her protégé Jen Jones has taken Femlandia to new heights: The off-grid colonies are secluded, self-sufficient, and thriving—and Emma is instantly enchanted by this idea of a safe haven. But something is not right. There are no men allowed in the colony, but babies are being born—and they're all girls. Miranda discovers just how the all-women community is capable of enduring, and it leads her to question how far her mother went to create this perfect, thriving, horrifying society.]]> 336 Christina Dalcher 0593201108 Julie 1
This ended up being my choice for the PopSugar reading challenge prompt 'a book about or set in a non-patriarchal society'. To be honest, it wasn't even my first pick: the branch of the public library I went to didn't stock Naomi Alderman's 'The Power', so I thought this would do. It's not an intense read, so got it over and done with in one weekend. And that's probably the best thing I can say about this book (sorry, not sorry).

You know how Weird Al covered Nirvana's 'Smells like teen spirit' and some of the lyrics in the parody are 'What's the message I'm conveying? Can you tell me what I'm saying?'? This is how I felt while reading this. The year is 2022 or 2023 (lol, this part might end up being prophetic), and 41 year-old Miranda and her 16 year-old daughter Emma are on the run. Civilization in the States has collapsed in the aftermath of a major economic crash, and Miranda's husband, Nick, drove their posh car off a cliff when it became apparent that things would not be getting better any time soon. Broke, starving, and facing many other perils, Miranda makes the decision that the two of them should seek shelter in Femlandia, her mother Win's utopian female-only colony (on the outskirts of Virginia). Initially greeted with open(ish) arms by Miranda's 'adopted' sister Jen Jones, they soon realise that life in Femlandia is not quite the feminist paradise that had been advertised. And that's all you need to know about the plot.

The book is very heavy-handed at trying to provide foreshadowing: 'All utopias are dystopias - the term ''dystopia'' was coined by fools that believed a ''utopia'' can be functional' is used verbatim in a conversation between two characters. The main antagonist is named Jen Jones. JEN JONES. Let that sink in. And if that weren't enough, the Kool-Aid (or Flavour-Aid) is MENTIONED. The inhabitants of Femlandia are TERFs. I'm sorry, was the reader at any stage meant to believe that there wasn't something rotten in the state of Denmark (not that they teach about Shakespeare in Femlandia)? Is the message of the book perhaps: a misandrist utopia is just as dysfunctional as a poorly run patriarchy? Any totalitarian system is bad, perhaps? Feels like Dalcher is a bit late to this specific party. ]]> 3.36 2021 Femlandia
author: Christina Dalcher
name: Julie
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2021
rating: 1
read at: 2022/05/09
date added: 2022/05/09
shelves:
review:
*some spoilers ahead*

This ended up being my choice for the PopSugar reading challenge prompt 'a book about or set in a non-patriarchal society'. To be honest, it wasn't even my first pick: the branch of the public library I went to didn't stock Naomi Alderman's 'The Power', so I thought this would do. It's not an intense read, so got it over and done with in one weekend. And that's probably the best thing I can say about this book (sorry, not sorry).

You know how Weird Al covered Nirvana's 'Smells like teen spirit' and some of the lyrics in the parody are 'What's the message I'm conveying? Can you tell me what I'm saying?'? This is how I felt while reading this. The year is 2022 or 2023 (lol, this part might end up being prophetic), and 41 year-old Miranda and her 16 year-old daughter Emma are on the run. Civilization in the States has collapsed in the aftermath of a major economic crash, and Miranda's husband, Nick, drove their posh car off a cliff when it became apparent that things would not be getting better any time soon. Broke, starving, and facing many other perils, Miranda makes the decision that the two of them should seek shelter in Femlandia, her mother Win's utopian female-only colony (on the outskirts of Virginia). Initially greeted with open(ish) arms by Miranda's 'adopted' sister Jen Jones, they soon realise that life in Femlandia is not quite the feminist paradise that had been advertised. And that's all you need to know about the plot.

The book is very heavy-handed at trying to provide foreshadowing: 'All utopias are dystopias - the term ''dystopia'' was coined by fools that believed a ''utopia'' can be functional' is used verbatim in a conversation between two characters. The main antagonist is named Jen Jones. JEN JONES. Let that sink in. And if that weren't enough, the Kool-Aid (or Flavour-Aid) is MENTIONED. The inhabitants of Femlandia are TERFs. I'm sorry, was the reader at any stage meant to believe that there wasn't something rotten in the state of Denmark (not that they teach about Shakespeare in Femlandia)? Is the message of the book perhaps: a misandrist utopia is just as dysfunctional as a poorly run patriarchy? Any totalitarian system is bad, perhaps? Feels like Dalcher is a bit late to this specific party.
]]> The Impostor: A True Story 37511063 From the award-winning author of Soldiers of Salamis, a propulsive and riveting narrative investigation into an infamous fraud: a man who has been lying his entire life.

Who is Enric Marco? An elderly man in his nineties, living in Barcelona, a Holocaust survivor who gave hundreds of speeches, granted dozens of interviews, received important national honors, and even moved government officials to tears. But in May 2005, Marco was exposed as a fraud: he was never in a Nazi concentration camp. The story was reported around the world, transforming him from hero to villain in the blink of an eye. Now, more than a decade later--in a hypnotic narrative that combines fiction and nonfiction, detective story and war story, biography and autobiography--Javier Cercas sets out to unravel Marco's enigma. With both profound compassion and lacerating honesty, Cercas takes the reader on a journey not only into one man's gigantic lie, but also--through its exploration of our infinite capacity for self-deception, our opposing needs for fantasy and reality, our appetite for affection--into the deepest, most flawed parts of our humanity.]]> 384 Javier Cercas 1524732818 Julie 2
Javier Cercas carefully chronicles the rise and fall of Enric Marco. Who is Enric Marco, one may ask? He's now 101, and in 2005 he was exposed as having lied about his experience as a prisoner in a Nazi camp. He had previously been awarded the Creu de San Jordi by the Catalan government (the highest civil honour one can get), but that was returned following the scandal.

Why did I find this book slightly boring? Firstly, even though the choice of topic is pretty interesting and Cercas does an amazing job at putting together all of the minutiae of Marco's real and imagined life stories, the prose doesn't really flow all that well (and I'm uncertain if this is an issue with the translation, knowing fully well how long-winded Latin sentences are a nightmare to convey into English). Secondly, Cercas goes on a lot of tangents: some very relevant (the comparisons with an equally delusional Don Quixote), some less so (his own internal trials and tribulations while writing this novel, and the light in which he chooses to portray Marco). For a non-fiction book, this is highly topical (especially in light of the recent Anna Sorokin case), but I did not find it all that entertaining. Unsure if I'd recommend, unless this kind of biography is right up your street. ]]> 3.52 2014 The Impostor: A True Story
author: Javier Cercas
name: Julie
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2022/05/08
date added: 2022/05/08
shelves:
review:
After going through my 'to read list' and the PopSugar 2022 reading challenge at a sporting pace (making the most of maternity leave before the baby arrives), I definitely took my time with this one. To begin with, neither myself not my husband could remember how a copy of it ended up in our bookcase - as much as he enjoys a WWII-inspired novel, the blurb didn't ring any bells. Then we remembered we must have picked it up as a runner-up prize during a book quiz: the copy I have is an advanced reader copy, with the typos and weird formatting standing testament to that.

Javier Cercas carefully chronicles the rise and fall of Enric Marco. Who is Enric Marco, one may ask? He's now 101, and in 2005 he was exposed as having lied about his experience as a prisoner in a Nazi camp. He had previously been awarded the Creu de San Jordi by the Catalan government (the highest civil honour one can get), but that was returned following the scandal.

Why did I find this book slightly boring? Firstly, even though the choice of topic is pretty interesting and Cercas does an amazing job at putting together all of the minutiae of Marco's real and imagined life stories, the prose doesn't really flow all that well (and I'm uncertain if this is an issue with the translation, knowing fully well how long-winded Latin sentences are a nightmare to convey into English). Secondly, Cercas goes on a lot of tangents: some very relevant (the comparisons with an equally delusional Don Quixote), some less so (his own internal trials and tribulations while writing this novel, and the light in which he chooses to portray Marco). For a non-fiction book, this is highly topical (especially in light of the recent Anna Sorokin case), but I did not find it all that entertaining. Unsure if I'd recommend, unless this kind of biography is right up your street.
]]> <![CDATA[Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot, #10)]]> 853510
One of the passengers is none other than detective Hercule Poirot. On vacation.

Isolated and with a killer on board, Poirot must identify the murderer—in case he or she decides to strike again.]]> 274 Agatha Christie 0007119313 Julie 3
Full disclaimer: I had watched the movie (the new Kenneth Branagh one) before reading the book. Further disclaimer: this was the first Hercule Poirot novel I've read - it's been a massive blind spot on my literary horizon, and one I thought I should address sooner rather than later. The movie left me with a frustrating feeling, and the book did very little to improve on that.

To my mind, a good crime novelist/script writer meticulously scatters some salient clues about: enough to give an engaged reader a hunch and help them form a hypothesis, without making it a complete giveaway. I do have utmost respect for Christie pretty much becoming synonymous with the genre and for creating Poirot, who is just as emblematic as Holmes (if not more so). My biggest issue with this novel, and with the movie, is that the reader is unable to figure out the secret identity of the victim before being told by Poirot who he really was. And it all falls into place from there - the motive, the orchestration of the crime, Miss Debenham's anxiety at missing the train etc. Maybe other readers won't be as irked about this as I have been - it's lively prose, and the explanation proposed by Poirot comes together beautifully, complete with examining the red herrings strewn by the murderer(s). Dunno, the entire thing feels a bit deus ex-y (but it might just be me). ]]> 4.22 1934 Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot, #10)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Julie
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1934
rating: 3
read at: 2022/04/25
date added: 2022/04/25
shelves:
review:
*some spoilers ahead*

Full disclaimer: I had watched the movie (the new Kenneth Branagh one) before reading the book. Further disclaimer: this was the first Hercule Poirot novel I've read - it's been a massive blind spot on my literary horizon, and one I thought I should address sooner rather than later. The movie left me with a frustrating feeling, and the book did very little to improve on that.

To my mind, a good crime novelist/script writer meticulously scatters some salient clues about: enough to give an engaged reader a hunch and help them form a hypothesis, without making it a complete giveaway. I do have utmost respect for Christie pretty much becoming synonymous with the genre and for creating Poirot, who is just as emblematic as Holmes (if not more so). My biggest issue with this novel, and with the movie, is that the reader is unable to figure out the secret identity of the victim before being told by Poirot who he really was. And it all falls into place from there - the motive, the orchestration of the crime, Miss Debenham's anxiety at missing the train etc. Maybe other readers won't be as irked about this as I have been - it's lively prose, and the explanation proposed by Poirot comes together beautifully, complete with examining the red herrings strewn by the murderer(s). Dunno, the entire thing feels a bit deus ex-y (but it might just be me).
]]> Girl, Woman, Other 41081373
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.

Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.]]> 453 Bernardine Evaristo 0241364906 Julie 5
Loved this book - 400+ pages in 4 days is not bad for me, but the prose is relatively atypical and flows really well (Evaristo's readers will likely be familiar with the 'novel-in-verse' approach she's employed before). It's a book made up of 12 short vignettes about (mostly) Black women in Britain. A veritable tour-de-force, it touches on many constructs that contribute to the wider definition of 'womanhood': feminism, relationships (and their boundaries, or lack thereof), gender, motherhood, sisterhood, immigration, self-sufficiency etc. These women's lives are richly interconnected, even though, on the surface of it, they've all been randomly brought together by the premiere of a play at the National Theatre in London. Amma wrote and directed it, Yazz is Amma's daugther, Dom and Shirley are Amma's old schoofriends, Carole used to be Shirley's pupil, Bummi is Carole's mom, Penelope is also a teacher at Carole's school... (you get the idea).

Enough to say that I laughed out loud at the paragraph describing what happened when the inhabitants of a squat in London in the 70s-80s tried to organise it (and how the Marxists disagreed with the hippies, who disagreed with the punks, who disagreed with the vegetarians, who disagreed with the vegans, who disagreed with the feminists, who disagreed with the lesbian feminists, who disagreed with the Black lesbian feminists, who disagreed with the radical feminists while the anarchists just didn't engage) ;) ]]> 4.27 2019 Girl, Woman, Other
author: Bernardine Evaristo
name: Julie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/04/21
date added: 2022/04/21
shelves:
review:
Controversial opinion ahead: there should have one been one Man Booker Prize winner in 2019, and that ain't 'The Testaments' (I do have a separate review of it on my page, so I'm not going to dedicate it a lot of space here).

Loved this book - 400+ pages in 4 days is not bad for me, but the prose is relatively atypical and flows really well (Evaristo's readers will likely be familiar with the 'novel-in-verse' approach she's employed before). It's a book made up of 12 short vignettes about (mostly) Black women in Britain. A veritable tour-de-force, it touches on many constructs that contribute to the wider definition of 'womanhood': feminism, relationships (and their boundaries, or lack thereof), gender, motherhood, sisterhood, immigration, self-sufficiency etc. These women's lives are richly interconnected, even though, on the surface of it, they've all been randomly brought together by the premiere of a play at the National Theatre in London. Amma wrote and directed it, Yazz is Amma's daugther, Dom and Shirley are Amma's old schoofriends, Carole used to be Shirley's pupil, Bummi is Carole's mom, Penelope is also a teacher at Carole's school... (you get the idea).

Enough to say that I laughed out loud at the paragraph describing what happened when the inhabitants of a squat in London in the 70s-80s tried to organise it (and how the Marxists disagreed with the hippies, who disagreed with the punks, who disagreed with the vegetarians, who disagreed with the vegans, who disagreed with the feminists, who disagreed with the lesbian feminists, who disagreed with the Black lesbian feminists, who disagreed with the radical feminists while the anarchists just didn't engage) ;)
]]> <![CDATA[The Steep Approach to Garbadale]]> 886104 400 Iain Banks 0316731056 Julie 4
The only other book I had previously read by Iain Banks was 'The Wasp Factory', and, although highly enjoyable, it was anything but a light read. So I felt slightly apprehensive picking up 'The Steep Approach to Garbadale', because I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The pleasant surprise was this: it can be seen as a family saga, exploring the intricate lives of the Wopuld clan and the many secrets swept under the rug.

It all starts when our protagonist, 35(-ish) year-old Alban McGill, wakes up on the outskirts of Perth to his younger and posher cousin, Fielding, makes him an offer he can't refuse: as the family board game, 'Empire!', is being eyed up for purchase by an American company, the clan has summoned an EGM on the eve of matriarch Winifred's 80th birthday party. The proceedings are due to take place at Garbadale, the family's lavish estate in north-west Scotland and Fielding (sorta) offers him a lift there. Alban had left the family business some years previously, and had recently held a job in forestry, until an occupational disease rendered him 'invalid' in that field. Alban reluctantly accepts to join him, but both men have other agendas: Fielding is trying to persuade as many of the family members who still hold shares to vote against the takeover, while Alban is hoping/dreading he might end up reconnecting with Sophie, his first cousin and the object of a short-lived romance that ended rather poorly. Stopping en route in Glasgow to pick up aunts Beryl and Doris, Alban finds out that there might have been more to the circumstances surrounding his birth that he had bargained for. We're also introduced to his current 'other half': mathematician Verushka Graef, who is a colourful delight of a character, with a penchant for quips and hillwalking.

What unfolds is a convoluted tale of dysfunctional family dynamics, punctuated by trips down memory lane, which explore Alban's challenging early years and the dynasty's much darker secrets. Really enjoyable read, as the prose flows marvellously, without being too cumbersome with the descriptions of the gloomy Scottish Highlands.]]> 3.70 2007 The Steep Approach to Garbadale
author: Iain Banks
name: Julie
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2022/04/17
date added: 2022/04/17
shelves:
review:
*some spoilers ahead*

The only other book I had previously read by Iain Banks was 'The Wasp Factory', and, although highly enjoyable, it was anything but a light read. So I felt slightly apprehensive picking up 'The Steep Approach to Garbadale', because I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The pleasant surprise was this: it can be seen as a family saga, exploring the intricate lives of the Wopuld clan and the many secrets swept under the rug.

It all starts when our protagonist, 35(-ish) year-old Alban McGill, wakes up on the outskirts of Perth to his younger and posher cousin, Fielding, makes him an offer he can't refuse: as the family board game, 'Empire!', is being eyed up for purchase by an American company, the clan has summoned an EGM on the eve of matriarch Winifred's 80th birthday party. The proceedings are due to take place at Garbadale, the family's lavish estate in north-west Scotland and Fielding (sorta) offers him a lift there. Alban had left the family business some years previously, and had recently held a job in forestry, until an occupational disease rendered him 'invalid' in that field. Alban reluctantly accepts to join him, but both men have other agendas: Fielding is trying to persuade as many of the family members who still hold shares to vote against the takeover, while Alban is hoping/dreading he might end up reconnecting with Sophie, his first cousin and the object of a short-lived romance that ended rather poorly. Stopping en route in Glasgow to pick up aunts Beryl and Doris, Alban finds out that there might have been more to the circumstances surrounding his birth that he had bargained for. We're also introduced to his current 'other half': mathematician Verushka Graef, who is a colourful delight of a character, with a penchant for quips and hillwalking.

What unfolds is a convoluted tale of dysfunctional family dynamics, punctuated by trips down memory lane, which explore Alban's challenging early years and the dynasty's much darker secrets. Really enjoyable read, as the prose flows marvellously, without being too cumbersome with the descriptions of the gloomy Scottish Highlands.
]]> The Second Cut 58478532
Jojo liked Grindr hook-ups and recreational drugs - is that the reason the police won't investigate? And if Rilke doesn't find out what happened to Jojo, who will?

Thrilling and atmospheric, The Second Cut delves into the dark side of twenty-first century Glasgow. Twenty years on from his appearance in The Cutting Room, Rilke is still walking a moral tightrope between good and bad, saint and sinner.]]> 372 Louise Welsh 1838850872 Julie 4
Set in Glasgow shortly after lockdown, it follows the adventures of the ambivalently charismatic auctioneer Rilke, who finds himself embroiled in yet another mystery. One of Rilke's friends, Jojo, always had a certain 'joie de vivre' - so much so that he's floating from party to party. He points Rilke towards a particularly fruitful business endeavour hours before he is found dead in an alley. A massive estate in Galloway needs cleared sharpish after its owner is relocated to a care home, but the Forrester cousins, the heirs of the estate, literally have a few skeletons in their ancient trunks. What unravels from here is a thrilling narrative, exploring Glasgow's sordid underworld and, alongside Rilke, the reader finds themselves unable to escape without figuring out what exactly killed Jojo (and why).

Finished it in a bit over a week, and would recommend - highly captivating. Really nice to be able to add the background to the narrative, as Glasgow is not unfamiliar territory. Also, the roads in D&G are juts as lethal as described :/]]> 3.96 2022 The Second Cut
author: Louise Welsh
name: Julie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/04/10
date added: 2022/04/10
shelves:
review:
I'm struggling to remember why I awarded 'The Cutting Room' only 2 stars about 10 years ago (unfortunately, I no long own a physical copy of that book because my husband's possessions were badly damaged during the Great Mould incident if 2013). Its sequel, 'The Cutting Room', is a solid 4* read at least.

Set in Glasgow shortly after lockdown, it follows the adventures of the ambivalently charismatic auctioneer Rilke, who finds himself embroiled in yet another mystery. One of Rilke's friends, Jojo, always had a certain 'joie de vivre' - so much so that he's floating from party to party. He points Rilke towards a particularly fruitful business endeavour hours before he is found dead in an alley. A massive estate in Galloway needs cleared sharpish after its owner is relocated to a care home, but the Forrester cousins, the heirs of the estate, literally have a few skeletons in their ancient trunks. What unravels from here is a thrilling narrative, exploring Glasgow's sordid underworld and, alongside Rilke, the reader finds themselves unable to escape without figuring out what exactly killed Jojo (and why).

Finished it in a bit over a week, and would recommend - highly captivating. Really nice to be able to add the background to the narrative, as Glasgow is not unfamiliar territory. Also, the roads in D&G are juts as lethal as described :/
]]> <![CDATA[The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)]]> 2429135
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.]]> 480 Stieg Larsson 0670069019 Julie 3
Again, this had been one of the books sitting in my bookcase (well, bedroom floor, because we had to disassemble the bookcase in order to get the painters to cover-up the water damage caused by the rain getting in after some tiles were blown from the roof of our 300 year-old building by storm Arwen back in November...) since about 2016. The fact that it took me 6 days to power through a 500+ page book is pretty damn good: the murder mystery aspect of the story is well-written. But my issues are mainly with the portrayal of its female characters.

Some male authors just can't write women. I might have to read the rest of the original Millennium trilogy before I 100% make up my mind if Stieg Larsson belonged to that category, but it surely seems like that after the 1st instalment. Lisbeth Salander just feels... dunno ...odd? I guess her being neurodivergent is hinted at (sometimes subtly, sometimes less so) throughout the book, but some of her actions (much like Harriet Vanger's or even Erika Berger's) just don't make any damn sense in the context of the character's arc. Mikael Blomkvist feels relatively well fleshed-up in comparison to her, and the fact that we get some background on him helps shape where his moral compass lies and how he fits into this incredibly complex narrative. And it feels like various plot points involving Salander are picked up and then abandoned with no satisfying resolution (especially the abuse bit - it added precisely NOTHING to the plot, and yet it's a gruesome scene that the author felt had to be included ?!?).

My conclusion is that it's worth reading for the murder mystery, but that the character drama needs to be take with a pinch of salt. I may have to read the rest of the trilogy now.]]> 4.17 2005 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Julie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2022/04/02
date added: 2022/04/02
shelves:
review:
*some spoilers and CW/TW for abuse*

Again, this had been one of the books sitting in my bookcase (well, bedroom floor, because we had to disassemble the bookcase in order to get the painters to cover-up the water damage caused by the rain getting in after some tiles were blown from the roof of our 300 year-old building by storm Arwen back in November...) since about 2016. The fact that it took me 6 days to power through a 500+ page book is pretty damn good: the murder mystery aspect of the story is well-written. But my issues are mainly with the portrayal of its female characters.

Some male authors just can't write women. I might have to read the rest of the original Millennium trilogy before I 100% make up my mind if Stieg Larsson belonged to that category, but it surely seems like that after the 1st instalment. Lisbeth Salander just feels... dunno ...odd? I guess her being neurodivergent is hinted at (sometimes subtly, sometimes less so) throughout the book, but some of her actions (much like Harriet Vanger's or even Erika Berger's) just don't make any damn sense in the context of the character's arc. Mikael Blomkvist feels relatively well fleshed-up in comparison to her, and the fact that we get some background on him helps shape where his moral compass lies and how he fits into this incredibly complex narrative. And it feels like various plot points involving Salander are picked up and then abandoned with no satisfying resolution (especially the abuse bit - it added precisely NOTHING to the plot, and yet it's a gruesome scene that the author felt had to be included ?!?).

My conclusion is that it's worth reading for the murder mystery, but that the character drama needs to be take with a pinch of salt. I may have to read the rest of the trilogy now.
]]> <![CDATA[Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine]]> 31434883 No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she'll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.

Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

the only way to survive is to open your heart.]]> 336 Gail Honeyman 0735220689 Julie 4
It took me a bit of time and reflection to figure out whether or not I enjoyed this book - in hindsight, powering through it in less than a week is a good sign, right? And I did decide I liked it in the end.

The issue with 1st person narratives that employ an unreliable narrator is that you really have to make it to the end of the story before being able to form an overall opinion. Eleanor is an unpleasant character to begin with - however, the carefully paced plot which explores her trauma in a lot of depth gives you clues along the way (with without spoiling the significant twist way too early). The themes of loneliness, interpersonal relationships and social norms are also explored in quite a bit of detail. Eleanor herself reflects at one stage, while re-reading 'Sense and Sensibility', that very few literary heroines are named Eleanor - I would like to think that Eleanor Rigby is the first pop-culture reference that comes to mind since our own protagonist does live in a dream. Anyway, would recommend it, but please come emotionally prepared for a bit of a roller-coaster. ]]> 4.21 2017 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
author: Gail Honeyman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/28
date added: 2022/03/28
shelves:
review:
*some spoilers ahead*

It took me a bit of time and reflection to figure out whether or not I enjoyed this book - in hindsight, powering through it in less than a week is a good sign, right? And I did decide I liked it in the end.

The issue with 1st person narratives that employ an unreliable narrator is that you really have to make it to the end of the story before being able to form an overall opinion. Eleanor is an unpleasant character to begin with - however, the carefully paced plot which explores her trauma in a lot of depth gives you clues along the way (with without spoiling the significant twist way too early). The themes of loneliness, interpersonal relationships and social norms are also explored in quite a bit of detail. Eleanor herself reflects at one stage, while re-reading 'Sense and Sensibility', that very few literary heroines are named Eleanor - I would like to think that Eleanor Rigby is the first pop-culture reference that comes to mind since our own protagonist does live in a dream. Anyway, would recommend it, but please come emotionally prepared for a bit of a roller-coaster.
]]> <![CDATA[Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses]]> 15801685 IN THE LONG RUN, WE’RE ALL DEAD. But for some of the most influential figures in history, death marked the start of a new adventure.

The famous deceased have been stolen, burned, sold, pickled, frozen, stuffed, impersonated, and even filed away in a lawyer’s office. Their fingers, teeth, toes, arms, legs, skulls, hearts, lungs, and nether regions have embarked on voyages that crisscross the globe and stretch the imagination.

Counterfeiters tried to steal Lincoln’s corpse. Einstein’s brain went on a cross-country road trip. And after Lord Horatio Nelson perished at Trafalgar, his sailors submerged him in brandy—which they drank.

From Mozart to Hitler, Rest in Pieces connects the lives of the famous dead to the hilarious and horrifying adventures of their corpses, and traces the evolution of cultural attitudes toward death.]]> 329 Bess Lovejoy 1451654987 Julie 4
Comprised of a series of short-ish anecdotes, this book is a mini-compendium dedicated to recording what happened to the bodies of some (very) famous folk after they died. It follows the exact same format for each person: a brief summary of how they perished, followed by what happened to their corpse (or the most likely hypothesis - needless to say, the author explains that she only included stories she could fact-check and tried not to over-indulge in unwarranted speculation). As expected, it features a lot of stories about grave-robbers, unusual post-mortem requests (such as Jeremy Bentham's) and political hot-potatoes (who knew laying Evita Peron to rest would give rise to so many issues?). If anything, this is brilliant pub-quiz knowledge and has a lot of interesting anecdotes that can be shared during polite (and less macabre) dinner table conversation - the best example I can think of is that, technically, no-body got convicted for JFK's murder. Deffo worth a read.]]> 3.82 2013 Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses
author: Bess Lovejoy
name: Julie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/22
date added: 2022/03/22
shelves:
review:
I genuinely enjoyed this book - read during a London holiday, this was the perfect kind of entertainment whilst travelling.

Comprised of a series of short-ish anecdotes, this book is a mini-compendium dedicated to recording what happened to the bodies of some (very) famous folk after they died. It follows the exact same format for each person: a brief summary of how they perished, followed by what happened to their corpse (or the most likely hypothesis - needless to say, the author explains that she only included stories she could fact-check and tried not to over-indulge in unwarranted speculation). As expected, it features a lot of stories about grave-robbers, unusual post-mortem requests (such as Jeremy Bentham's) and political hot-potatoes (who knew laying Evita Peron to rest would give rise to so many issues?). If anything, this is brilliant pub-quiz knowledge and has a lot of interesting anecdotes that can be shared during polite (and less macabre) dinner table conversation - the best example I can think of is that, technically, no-body got convicted for JFK's murder. Deffo worth a read.
]]> <![CDATA[Fake Law: The Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies]]> 49941494
Most of us think the law is only relevant to criminals, if we even think of it at all. But the law touches every area of our lives: from intimate family matters to the biggest issues in our society.

Our unfamiliarity is dangerous because it makes us vulnerable to media spin, political lies and the kind of misinformation that frequently comes from other loud-mouthed amateurs and those with vested interests. This 'fake law' allows the powerful and the ignorant to corrupt justice without our knowledge - worse, we risk letting them make us complicit.

Thankfully, the Secret Barrister is back to reveal the stupidity, malice and incompetence behind many of the biggest legal stories of recent years. In Fake Law, the Secret Barrister debunks the lies and builds an hilarious, alarming and eye-opening defence against the abuse of our law, our rights and our democracy.]]> 400 The Secret Barrister 1529009944 Julie 4
For those familiar with The Secret Barrister and their previous book (in addition to their social media), 'Fake Law' feels like a logical sequel to 'The Secret Barrister'. The volume is dedicated to thoroughly dissecting some 'hot' legal cases from the recent past (eg. the Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans cases, Shamima Begum, Brexit etc) and discussing the legal frameworks underpinning them. Each chapter is dedicated to a theme and how various media outlets (normally the usual tabloids, such as the Daily Fail and the Torygraph) present controversial topics, only for their extravagant claims to be demolished, argument by argument, and shine some light on what really happened. The only reason why this book is getting 4* is because it feels it's preaching to the folk who have converted a long time ago: I feel the next challenge for The Secret Barrister is to widen their readership, and hopefully their next book will do just that.]]> 4.18 2020 Fake Law: The Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies
author: The Secret Barrister
name: Julie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/21
date added: 2022/03/21
shelves:
review:
Going on holiday means that I normally end up reading more than I would otherwise (however, it seems that my car sickness has come back with a vengeance, so I'm no longer able to read on buses :/). I powered through this book during the self-isolation period (thanks, Covid-19) and during the first couple of days of a trip to London - well- deserved, mixing the renewal of travel documentation with a lot of geeking around museums.

For those familiar with The Secret Barrister and their previous book (in addition to their social media), 'Fake Law' feels like a logical sequel to 'The Secret Barrister'. The volume is dedicated to thoroughly dissecting some 'hot' legal cases from the recent past (eg. the Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans cases, Shamima Begum, Brexit etc) and discussing the legal frameworks underpinning them. Each chapter is dedicated to a theme and how various media outlets (normally the usual tabloids, such as the Daily Fail and the Torygraph) present controversial topics, only for their extravagant claims to be demolished, argument by argument, and shine some light on what really happened. The only reason why this book is getting 4* is because it feels it's preaching to the folk who have converted a long time ago: I feel the next challenge for The Secret Barrister is to widen their readership, and hopefully their next book will do just that.
]]> The Complete Maus 15195
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father’s story. Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity and succeeds in “drawing us closer to the bleak heart of the Holocaust� (The New York Times).

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek’s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century’s grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors. Maus studies the bloody pawprints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us.]]> 296 Art Spiegelman 0141014083 Julie 5
There are some silver linings to having caught a virus which means you're not allowed to leave the house for at least 6 days (in Scotland) - one of them is making sensible progress with the 'to read pile'. Even though Maus is by no means a difficult read (about 200 pages, graphic novel panels), it's a very challenging read due to the topics it tackles.

It's told as a dialogue between Art (Arthur) Spiegelman and his father Vladek - the former trying to write his dad's Holocaust survival story, and the latter trying to come to terms with the limitations of old age and poor health. Jumping between the events of '39 - '45 and '80s New York, Maus paints a vivid picture of both the horrors of war and of a complex father-son dynamic, while each of them struggles to come to terms with Anja's (Vladek's wife and Art's mother) suicide some 10 years earlier.

I would have to subscribe to the school of thought that believes Maus is a powerful read simply because it carries on where Anne Frank's diary finishes abruptly. With the latter, there is a shard in you that deliberately blanks out what its pages don't describe - Maus is especially poignant because it fills those gaps, and they look worse than imagined. Its recent banning by some schools in the US have brought this graphic novel back into the spotlight and it's well worth a read, especially in the current political climate. ]]> 4.57 1980 The Complete Maus
author: Art Spiegelman
name: Julie
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/07
date added: 2022/03/07
shelves:
review:
*spoiler alerts and TW for Nazis, Holocaust and suicide*

There are some silver linings to having caught a virus which means you're not allowed to leave the house for at least 6 days (in Scotland) - one of them is making sensible progress with the 'to read pile'. Even though Maus is by no means a difficult read (about 200 pages, graphic novel panels), it's a very challenging read due to the topics it tackles.

It's told as a dialogue between Art (Arthur) Spiegelman and his father Vladek - the former trying to write his dad's Holocaust survival story, and the latter trying to come to terms with the limitations of old age and poor health. Jumping between the events of '39 - '45 and '80s New York, Maus paints a vivid picture of both the horrors of war and of a complex father-son dynamic, while each of them struggles to come to terms with Anja's (Vladek's wife and Art's mother) suicide some 10 years earlier.

I would have to subscribe to the school of thought that believes Maus is a powerful read simply because it carries on where Anne Frank's diary finishes abruptly. With the latter, there is a shard in you that deliberately blanks out what its pages don't describe - Maus is especially poignant because it fills those gaps, and they look worse than imagined. Its recent banning by some schools in the US have brought this graphic novel back into the spotlight and it's well worth a read, especially in the current political climate.
]]> <![CDATA[The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music]]> 57648017
Having entertained the idea for years, and even offered a few questionable opportunities ("It's a piece of cake! Just do 4 hours of interviews, find someone else to write it, put your face on the cover, and voila!") I have decided to write these stories just as I have always done, in my own hand. The joy that I have felt from chronicling these tales is not unlike listening back to a song that I've recorded and can't wait to share with the world, or reading a primitive journal entry from a stained notebook, or even hearing my voice bounce between the Kiss posters on my wall as a child.

This certainly doesn't mean that I'm quitting my day job, but it does give me a place to shed a little light on what it's like to be a kid from Springfield, Virginia, walking through life while living out the crazy dreams I had as young musician. From hitting the road with Scream at 18 years old, to my time in Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, jamming with Iggy Pop or playing at the Academy Awards or dancing with AC/DC and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, drumming for Tom Petty or meeting Sir Paul McCartney at Royal Albert Hall, bedtime stories with Joan Jett or a chance meeting with Little Richard, to flying halfway around the world for one epic night with my daughters…the list goes on. I look forward to focusing the lens through which I see these memories a little sharper for you with much excitement.]]> 384 Dave Grohl 0063076098 Julie 5
The main reason why this is getting 5* is because he did it all by himself (granted, with a lot of help). See, most rock star autobiographies insert the little magic word 'with' when citing the authors (eg. Slash with Anthony Bozza, Anthony Kiedis with Larry Sloman, etc). And that makes it even more challenging when it comes to separating the fact from the fiction, and the inner voice of the narrator (their persona, if you will) from that of their helpers. Arguably, the best memoirs are those where this voice isn't at all muddled, and you get just one narrator. I have enjoyed this as much as I have Duff's 'It's So Easy' a few years ago, if not more.

I think this can be read and interpreted in a number of ways, depending on where the reader themselves is in their life. Sure, it's a collection of surreal anecdotes chose from a 30+ year career, and there's plenty of them (from getting a conviction in Australia for accidentally DUI-ing on a scooter to Joan Jett reading his daughter a bedtime story). But it's also a practical parenting manual: I might be projecting, but it sounds like one of the reasons he's both survived and thrived in the music industry is his upbringing. I think her memoir 'From Cradle to Stage' might be nexr on my list!]]> 4.44 2021 The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music
author: Dave Grohl
name: Julie
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/26
date added: 2022/02/26
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed this book. Like, REALLY.

The main reason why this is getting 5* is because he did it all by himself (granted, with a lot of help). See, most rock star autobiographies insert the little magic word 'with' when citing the authors (eg. Slash with Anthony Bozza, Anthony Kiedis with Larry Sloman, etc). And that makes it even more challenging when it comes to separating the fact from the fiction, and the inner voice of the narrator (their persona, if you will) from that of their helpers. Arguably, the best memoirs are those where this voice isn't at all muddled, and you get just one narrator. I have enjoyed this as much as I have Duff's 'It's So Easy' a few years ago, if not more.

I think this can be read and interpreted in a number of ways, depending on where the reader themselves is in their life. Sure, it's a collection of surreal anecdotes chose from a 30+ year career, and there's plenty of them (from getting a conviction in Australia for accidentally DUI-ing on a scooter to Joan Jett reading his daughter a bedtime story). But it's also a practical parenting manual: I might be projecting, but it sounds like one of the reasons he's both survived and thrived in the music industry is his upbringing. I think her memoir 'From Cradle to Stage' might be nexr on my list!
]]> Manifesto: On Never Giving Up 58690669 From the bestselling and Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo's memoir of her own life and writing, and her manifesto on unstoppability, creativity, and activism

Bernardine Evaristo's 2019 Booker Prize win was a historic and revolutionary occasion, with Evaristo being the first Black woman and first Black British person ever to win the prize in its fifty-year history. Girl, Woman, Other was named a favorite book of the year by President Obama and Roxane Gay, was translated into thirty-five languages, and has now reached more than a million readers.

Evaristo's astonishing nonfiction debut, Manifesto, is a vibrant and inspirational account of Evaristo's life and career as she rebelled against the mainstream and fought over several decades to bring her creative work into the world. With her characteristic humor, Evaristo describes her childhood as one of eight siblings, with a Nigerian father and white Catholic mother, tells the story of how she helped set up Britain's first Black women's theatre company, remembers the queer relationships of her twenties, and recounts her determination to write books that were absent in the literary world around her. She provides a hugely powerful perspective to contemporary conversations around race, class, feminism, sexuality, and aging. She reminds us of how far we have come, and how far we still have to go. In Manifesto, Evaristo charts her theory of unstoppability, showing creative people how they too can visualize and find success in their work, ignoring the naysayers.

Both unconventional memoir and inspirational text, Manifesto is a unique reminder to us all to persist in doing work we believe in, even when we might feel overlooked or discounted. Evaristo shows us how we too can follow in her footsteps, from first vision, to insistent perseverance, to eventual triumph.]]> 198 Bernardine Evaristo 0802158900 Julie 4
I am lucky enough to have attended its launch in Edinburgh (in person and with a signed copy of the book, which means I now own books autographed by both the 2019 Man Booker Prize Winners *cultural self-five*). This is the first novel I've read by Evaristo, and it's certainly piqued my curiosity enough to go hunting for 'Girl, Woman, Other' in my next outing.

But I digress. Evaristo's memoir is a tale of growing up in 1960s London - a markedly racist society where her large, mixed-race family stood out (and not always for the right reasons). With heartfelt humour, she chronicles her childhood experiences and her teenage rebellion, sharing her views on everything from Black theatre to how to set your self up for success and 'unstoppability'. It's a powerful tale of ambition and self-reflection, and the ride it takes you on is thoroughly enjoyable. ]]> 3.93 2021 Manifesto: On Never Giving Up
author: Bernardine Evaristo
name: Julie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/08
date added: 2022/02/08
shelves:
review:
This memoir was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

I am lucky enough to have attended its launch in Edinburgh (in person and with a signed copy of the book, which means I now own books autographed by both the 2019 Man Booker Prize Winners *cultural self-five*). This is the first novel I've read by Evaristo, and it's certainly piqued my curiosity enough to go hunting for 'Girl, Woman, Other' in my next outing.

But I digress. Evaristo's memoir is a tale of growing up in 1960s London - a markedly racist society where her large, mixed-race family stood out (and not always for the right reasons). With heartfelt humour, she chronicles her childhood experiences and her teenage rebellion, sharing her views on everything from Black theatre to how to set your self up for success and 'unstoppability'. It's a powerful tale of ambition and self-reflection, and the ride it takes you on is thoroughly enjoyable.
]]> <![CDATA[Kay's Marvellous Medicine: A Gross and Gruesome History of the Human Body]]> 58349386
The olden days were pretty fun if you liked wearing chainmail or chopping people's heads off but there was one TINY LITTLE problem back then . . . doctors didn't have the slightest clue about how our bodies worked.

It's time to find out why Ancient Egyptians thought the brain was just a useless load of old stuffing that might as well be chucked in the bin, why teachers forced their pupils to smoke cigarettes, why hairdressers would cut off their customers' legs, and why people used to get paid for farting. (Unfortunately that's no longer a thing - sorry.)

You'll get answers to questions like:
Why did patients gargle with wee?
How did a doctor save people's lives using a washing machine, a can of beans and some old sausages?
What was the great stink? (No, it's not what doctors call your bum.)

If you're sure you're ready, then pop a peg on your nose (there was a lot of stinky pus back then), pull on your wellies (there was a lot of poo there too), wash your hands (because they certainly didn't) and explore this gross and gruesome history of the human body!

]]> 405 Adam Kay 0241508525 Julie 5 a. his depiction of life as a doctor in the NHS is the most accurate one I've read so far
b. he liked one of my tweets that was addressed at him
c. he's really funny at his book signings
d. The Amateur Transplants were amazing

So this book gets 5 stars too. To my surprise, I did end up learning a few things which are not routinely covered in the medical curriculum. You learn very little about female representation (or lack thereof) in medicine, and I think the snippets highlighting the contributions of female doctors and scientists fly the flag of representation and inclusivity. And it's funny. Deffo a book I'll recommend to my kids one day!]]> 4.28 2021 Kay's Marvellous Medicine: A Gross and Gruesome History of the Human Body
author: Adam Kay
name: Julie
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/23
date added: 2022/01/23
shelves:
review:
I have said this before, but I'm n0t an objective critic when it comes to Adam Kay's writing because:
a. his depiction of life as a doctor in the NHS is the most accurate one I've read so far
b. he liked one of my tweets that was addressed at him
c. he's really funny at his book signings
d. The Amateur Transplants were amazing

So this book gets 5 stars too. To my surprise, I did end up learning a few things which are not routinely covered in the medical curriculum. You learn very little about female representation (or lack thereof) in medicine, and I think the snippets highlighting the contributions of female doctors and scientists fly the flag of representation and inclusivity. And it's funny. Deffo a book I'll recommend to my kids one day!
]]> <![CDATA[Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern]]> 57423872 From the bestselling author of SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, the fascinating story of how images of Roman autocrats have influenced art, culture, and the representation of power for more than 2,000 years

What does the face of power look like? Who gets commemorated in art and why? And how do we react to statues of politicians we deplore? In this book--against a background of today's "sculpture wars"--Mary Beard tells the story of how for more than two millennia portraits of the rich, powerful, and famous in the western world have been shaped by the image of Roman emperors, especially the "twelve Caesars," from the ruthless Julius Caesar to the fly-torturing Domitian. Twelve Caesars asks why these murderous autocrats have loomed so large in art from antiquity and the Renaissance to today, when hapless leaders are still caricatured as Neros fiddling while Rome burns.

Beginning with the importance of imperial portraits in Roman politics, this richly illustrated book offers a tour through 2,000 years of art and cultural history, presenting a fresh look at works by artists from Memling and Mantegna to the nineteenth-century African American sculptor Edmonia Lewis, as well as by generations of now-forgotten weavers, cabinetmakers, silversmiths, printers, and ceramicists. Rather than a story of a simple repetition of stable, blandly conservative images of imperial men and women, Twelve Caesars is an unexpected tale of changing identities, clueless or deliberate misidentifications, fakes, and often ambivalent representations of authority.

From Beard's reconstruction of Titian's extraordinary lost Room of the Emperors to her reinterpretation of Henry VIII's famous Caesarian tapestries, Twelve Caesars includes some fascinating detective work and offers a gripping story of some of the most challenging and disturbing portraits of power ever created.

Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC]]> 392 Mary Beard 0691222363 Julie 4
Now, let me explain how I got to this conclusion: this beautifully-illustrated book undertakes a mammoth task of trying to piece together a history of Roman Emperor representation in any media. It dwells very little on movies (as I'm sure that would be a hefty title all by itself), but it covers everything else: coins, literature, paintings, sculptures, tapestries, stained glass, and that sarcophagus Andrew Jackson didn't want to be buried in. And this is the thing: I particularly found it a fascinating deep dive into how the current image pop culture has about the Twelve Caesars came to be, following it painstakingly from ancient coins to Ridley Scott's 'Gladiator'. The second sentence in my review stems from the sudden realisation that, to my mind, human nature can be perennial: we all love to put up posters of various celebrities we admire, for whatever reason. And our predecessors did the same, but more lavishly - and it's this fasciation with the Ancient World that is so enthralling to read about. I've only subtracted one star because I found flicking back and forth to the many notes a tad tedious. However, this is a quasi-academic text, so not the easiest read.]]> 3.68 2021 Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern
author: Mary Beard
name: Julie
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/02
date added: 2022/01/02
shelves:
review:
Mary Beard is a British national treasure and I will fight anybody who states otherwise. Also, my take of this book: the Twelve Caesars were the world's first rock stars.

Now, let me explain how I got to this conclusion: this beautifully-illustrated book undertakes a mammoth task of trying to piece together a history of Roman Emperor representation in any media. It dwells very little on movies (as I'm sure that would be a hefty title all by itself), but it covers everything else: coins, literature, paintings, sculptures, tapestries, stained glass, and that sarcophagus Andrew Jackson didn't want to be buried in. And this is the thing: I particularly found it a fascinating deep dive into how the current image pop culture has about the Twelve Caesars came to be, following it painstakingly from ancient coins to Ridley Scott's 'Gladiator'. The second sentence in my review stems from the sudden realisation that, to my mind, human nature can be perennial: we all love to put up posters of various celebrities we admire, for whatever reason. And our predecessors did the same, but more lavishly - and it's this fasciation with the Ancient World that is so enthralling to read about. I've only subtracted one star because I found flicking back and forth to the many notes a tad tedious. However, this is a quasi-academic text, so not the easiest read.
]]> White Noise 28251250
White Noise tells the story of Jack Gladney, his fourth wife, Babette, and four ultra­modern offspring as they navigate the rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism. When an industrial accident unleashes an "airborne toxic event," a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladneys—radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings—pulsing with life, yet suggesting something ominous.

Part of the Penguin Orange Collection, a limited-run series of twelve influential and beloved American classics in a bold series design offering a modern take on the iconic Penguin paperback

Winner of the 2016 AIGA + Design Observer 50 Books | 50 Covers competition]]> 320 Don DeLillo 0143129554 Julie 2
It's just because I found it dull and disjointed. For context, it was published in 1985 and has won a number of accolades (including the US National Book Award for Fiction), but I'm struggling with how to explain the premise of the novel to a human that's lived through the year 2020 and our humanity's airborne toxic event.

Set in a quaint little college town, the book follows the life of academic Jack Gladney, who is a pioneer in Hitler studies. We meet his all-over-the-shop family (wife Babette, and children Denise, Steffie, Heinrcih and Wilder). Their lives are all thrown into chaos by a chemical spill of a mysterious substance called Nyodene-D, and the Gladneys have to temporarily flee their homes. Jack's contact with the substance compels him to comfort his own mortality - and by becoming gradually obsessed with this, he finds out that Babette has been cheating on him in order to gain access to a fictional drug, Dylar, which is meant to treat the fear of death. Makes sense, right?

I completely understand how this novel is meant to explore a number of ideas which were at the forefront of the American collective psyche in the mid-1980s. I'm also struggling to see its role in the current socio-political climate, except as a time capsule of how certain issues were perceived nearly 40 years ago. In conclusion, it's probably worth reading as a historic artefact, but it's not the most enjoyable book. ]]> 3.88 1985 White Noise
author: Don DeLillo
name: Julie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1985
rating: 2
read at: 2021/11/07
date added: 2021/11/07
shelves:
review:
Oh boy, did I take my time with this - 3 months for a book that's just a bit over 300 pages long doesn't bode well, does it?

It's just because I found it dull and disjointed. For context, it was published in 1985 and has won a number of accolades (including the US National Book Award for Fiction), but I'm struggling with how to explain the premise of the novel to a human that's lived through the year 2020 and our humanity's airborne toxic event.

Set in a quaint little college town, the book follows the life of academic Jack Gladney, who is a pioneer in Hitler studies. We meet his all-over-the-shop family (wife Babette, and children Denise, Steffie, Heinrcih and Wilder). Their lives are all thrown into chaos by a chemical spill of a mysterious substance called Nyodene-D, and the Gladneys have to temporarily flee their homes. Jack's contact with the substance compels him to comfort his own mortality - and by becoming gradually obsessed with this, he finds out that Babette has been cheating on him in order to gain access to a fictional drug, Dylar, which is meant to treat the fear of death. Makes sense, right?

I completely understand how this novel is meant to explore a number of ideas which were at the forefront of the American collective psyche in the mid-1980s. I'm also struggling to see its role in the current socio-political climate, except as a time capsule of how certain issues were perceived nearly 40 years ago. In conclusion, it's probably worth reading as a historic artefact, but it's not the most enjoyable book.
]]> An Abundance of Katherines 49750 Katherine X just wanted to be friends
Katherine XVIII dumped him in an e-mail
K-19 broke his heart

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun--but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.]]> 229 John Green 0525476881 Julie 3
See, when most teenagers find a dating pattern that seems to be incompatible with a long-term relationship, they decide to throw in the towel and look for something else. Trust me, I should know this. I dated 3 Andrews in a row, before realising:
a. what's in a name?
b. maybe it's time you stepped away from the Andrews.

Colin Singleton, however, has just been dumped by Katherine-19. And, you know, one shouldn't be a prodigy to figure out that maybe it's not meant to be. While going on a soul-searching road trip, him and his best friend, Hassan, get 'stuck' in Nowehere, USA (aka Gutshot, Tennessee). And Colin finally breaks the curse, while working on the ultimate mathematical theory of 'Underlying Katherine Predictability'.

The thing is, this book is so painfully tropey. Every other line is a quip, and every other character is a lightly-fleshed parody (the jock, the nerd, the overweight sidekick, the hot girl etc). Would have I enjoyed this book as a YA? Maybe. Did I enjoy this book as a GCA (grumpy, cynical adult)? Not really. ]]> 3.54 2006 An Abundance of Katherines
author: John Green
name: Julie
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/07
date added: 2021/08/07
shelves:
review:
(3* is being very kind, probably closer to the 2.5 mark and, by far, the least enjoyable of Green's novels to date) - some spoilers ahead

See, when most teenagers find a dating pattern that seems to be incompatible with a long-term relationship, they decide to throw in the towel and look for something else. Trust me, I should know this. I dated 3 Andrews in a row, before realising:
a. what's in a name?
b. maybe it's time you stepped away from the Andrews.

Colin Singleton, however, has just been dumped by Katherine-19. And, you know, one shouldn't be a prodigy to figure out that maybe it's not meant to be. While going on a soul-searching road trip, him and his best friend, Hassan, get 'stuck' in Nowehere, USA (aka Gutshot, Tennessee). And Colin finally breaks the curse, while working on the ultimate mathematical theory of 'Underlying Katherine Predictability'.

The thing is, this book is so painfully tropey. Every other line is a quip, and every other character is a lightly-fleshed parody (the jock, the nerd, the overweight sidekick, the hot girl etc). Would have I enjoyed this book as a YA? Maybe. Did I enjoy this book as a GCA (grumpy, cynical adult)? Not really.
]]> Bridge of Clay 7767276
At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge—for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle.

The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome?]]> 464 Markus Zusak 0385614292 Julie 4
See, they always say to never judge a rest of a writer's oeuvre based on the first novel you've read - however, it's very difficult not to do so when that first novel is 'The Book Thief'. I vividly remember trying to gain some composure after finishing that book in a clinic corridor somewhere in Dunfermline, with a lot of nurses asking if I was ok and wanted to go home (it was an Oncology block, so their concern was totally justified). And that's the thing: one can tell that, to some extent, 'Bridge of Clay' is a skeleton for 'The Book Thief': foreshadowing galore, alternating timelines and Death being featured as a character (although much less prominently). And one can also tell the book has had many iterations - Zusak himself compared writing it to 'The Odyssey', in the sense that it took him nearly two decades.

From the outset, the book is peppered with symbolism and recurrent themes: in one the opening chapters, Matthew Dunbar (the oldest of the five Dunbar boys on whom the novel focuses) sets out to dig an old typewriter buried in a backyard in rural Australia, alongside the skeletons of a snake and a dog. Needless to say, one becomes quite curious to find out how that motley collection got there. Enter a description of the remaining four brothers and their house (which somehow is the stomping ground for a mule), now being (?) broken into by a (?) Murderer. Enough to get you going? Certainly. Enough meandering timelines to still keep you hooked after 400 pages? Yes, to some extent.

There are some plot twists and turns that are very gut-punching, and the reader can slowly see the timelines converging. But it can be an arduous process. And I could probably spend pages upon pages delving into the symbolism of certain leitmotifs: the bridge (obviously), the river, Clay(ton), Greek mythology... (and that's just scratching the surface). Suffice it to say that it's a gripping read, but I do wonder if the constant process of revising the book has somehow added layers of complexity that can become daunting to break down.]]> 3.76 2018 Bridge of Clay
author: Markus Zusak
name: Julie
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/13
date added: 2021/07/13
shelves:
review:
More like 3.5/5, but leaning close to 4 - some spoilers ahead.

See, they always say to never judge a rest of a writer's oeuvre based on the first novel you've read - however, it's very difficult not to do so when that first novel is 'The Book Thief'. I vividly remember trying to gain some composure after finishing that book in a clinic corridor somewhere in Dunfermline, with a lot of nurses asking if I was ok and wanted to go home (it was an Oncology block, so their concern was totally justified). And that's the thing: one can tell that, to some extent, 'Bridge of Clay' is a skeleton for 'The Book Thief': foreshadowing galore, alternating timelines and Death being featured as a character (although much less prominently). And one can also tell the book has had many iterations - Zusak himself compared writing it to 'The Odyssey', in the sense that it took him nearly two decades.

From the outset, the book is peppered with symbolism and recurrent themes: in one the opening chapters, Matthew Dunbar (the oldest of the five Dunbar boys on whom the novel focuses) sets out to dig an old typewriter buried in a backyard in rural Australia, alongside the skeletons of a snake and a dog. Needless to say, one becomes quite curious to find out how that motley collection got there. Enter a description of the remaining four brothers and their house (which somehow is the stomping ground for a mule), now being (?) broken into by a (?) Murderer. Enough to get you going? Certainly. Enough meandering timelines to still keep you hooked after 400 pages? Yes, to some extent.

There are some plot twists and turns that are very gut-punching, and the reader can slowly see the timelines converging. But it can be an arduous process. And I could probably spend pages upon pages delving into the symbolism of certain leitmotifs: the bridge (obviously), the river, Clay(ton), Greek mythology... (and that's just scratching the surface). Suffice it to say that it's a gripping read, but I do wonder if the constant process of revising the book has somehow added layers of complexity that can become daunting to break down.
]]> Women & Power: A Manifesto 36525023 Women & Power, she traces the origins of this misogyny to its ancient roots, examining the pitfalls of gender and the ways that history has mistreated strong women since time immemorial. As far back as Homer’s Odyssey, Beard shows, women have been prohibited from leadership roles in civic life, public speech being defined as inherently male. From Medusa to Philomela (whose tongue was cut out), from Hillary Clinton to Elizabeth Warren (who was told to sit down), Beard draws illuminating parallels between our cultural assumptions about women’s relationship to power—and how powerful women provide a necessary example for all women who must resist being vacuumed into a male template. With personal reflections on her own online experiences with sexism, Beard asks: If women aren’t perceived to be within the structure of power, isn’t it power itself we need to redefine? And how many more centuries should we be expected to wait?]]> 115 Mary Beard 1631494759 Julie 5
Or even better summed up by a quote from Disney's recent 'Cruella': 'Let me give you some advice. If you have to talk about power, you don't have it'. And it's pretty clear that, on the whole, women don't.

Mary Beard does a beautiful job of adapting two lectures (from 2014 and 2017) into a short manifesto format. It essentially explores how women have been systematically silenced for the good part of nearly two millennia (even going back to the example of Telemachus 'the wise' literally telling his mother, Penelope, to STFU). It touches on various, often tragi-comical, instances of women being denied a voice, or, even worse, being straight-up depicted as monsters (see the Trump vs. Clinton 2016 campaign). I think this is a brilliant read for men and women alike - women need to claim a position on the inside of power or try to redefine it altogether. But we might need a helping hand here.]]> 4.02 2017 Women & Power: A Manifesto
author: Mary Beard
name: Julie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2021/07/01
date added: 2021/07/01
shelves:
review:
If you're a woman who's not angry, then you haven't been paying attention.

Or even better summed up by a quote from Disney's recent 'Cruella': 'Let me give you some advice. If you have to talk about power, you don't have it'. And it's pretty clear that, on the whole, women don't.

Mary Beard does a beautiful job of adapting two lectures (from 2014 and 2017) into a short manifesto format. It essentially explores how women have been systematically silenced for the good part of nearly two millennia (even going back to the example of Telemachus 'the wise' literally telling his mother, Penelope, to STFU). It touches on various, often tragi-comical, instances of women being denied a voice, or, even worse, being straight-up depicted as monsters (see the Trump vs. Clinton 2016 campaign). I think this is a brilliant read for men and women alike - women need to claim a position on the inside of power or try to redefine it altogether. But we might need a helping hand here.
]]> On This Day in History 42190547 432 Dan Snow 1473691273 Julie 4 Abridged? Yes - that's the whole point.
Do either of these come as a surprise? No - if you're the kind of person who reads the introduction.
Worthwhile? Totally - it's a summarised tour de force through history, providing you with a neat little chronology at the end. Personally, I found this book a neat short read, and there's nothing from stopping folk who want to learn more about certain events to look up academic sources (again, with some useful pointers given at the end).]]> 3.74 2018 On This Day in History
author: Dan Snow
name: Julie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/20
date added: 2021/06/20
shelves:
review:
Anglo-centric? Yes - but important European and American events are also discussed, in addition to some key moments which took place in Asia and Africa (oh, and the Moon).
Abridged? Yes - that's the whole point.
Do either of these come as a surprise? No - if you're the kind of person who reads the introduction.
Worthwhile? Totally - it's a summarised tour de force through history, providing you with a neat little chronology at the end. Personally, I found this book a neat short read, and there's nothing from stopping folk who want to learn more about certain events to look up academic sources (again, with some useful pointers given at the end).
]]> Dominion 15770927
In Britain, Winston Churchill's Resistance organisation is increasingly a thorn in the government's side. And in a Birmingham mental hospital an incarcerated scientist, Frank Muncaster, may hold a secret that could change the balance of the world struggle forever. Civil Servant David Fitzgerald, secretly acting as a spy for the Resistance, is given by them the mission to rescue his old friend Frank and get him out of the country. Before long he, together with a disparate group of Resistance activists, will find themselves fugitives in the midst of London’s Great Smog; as David’s wife Sarah finds herself drawn into a world more terrifying than she ever could have imagined. And hard on their heels is Gestapo Sturmbannfuhrer Gunther Hoth, brilliant, implacable hunter of men . . .]]> 593 C.J. Sansom 0230744168 Julie 4
As far as alt-histories go, this is not a bad one - not quite 'Nazi Literature in the Americas', but it's well-written, clearly meticulously planned out and makes for an entertaining read (the testament to that is that it only took me 2 months to get through 700 pages, which is not bad for me). The year is 1952, the month is November and Britain had previously decided to make peace with Germany, who kinda won WW2. Hitler's still alive (barely), the campaign in Russia is raging on, and Jews are still being persecuted. David is a Civil Servant in the Dominions Office and he's married to Sarah, who descends from a family of pacifists. Sarah's sister, Irene, is married to Steve, who has strong Fascist inclinations. David's mates from University, Geoff and Frank end up getting him embroiled in a plot to help smuggle Frank out of the UK and into the States, as he's been party to a secret the Nazis want to get their hands on - spoiler alert, it's about how to build an atom bomb. Frank has a mental breakdown, so David, Geoff and Slovak femme fatale Natalia (probably not her real name) have to break him out of the asylum, in a manoeuvre orchestrated by The Resistance, Churchill's outlawed opposition movement. In the meanwhile, the Germans are hot on their trails, and our motley crew pick up a Communist Scottish spy working in the asylum (Ben, definitely not his real name) while a dense fog takes its grip on London. Clear?

And that's just a summary of the core plot. There are many little side-plots which are both picked up and abandoned with startling ease, in addition to an ill-placed love triangle. I would also argue that the book struggles to pass the Bechdel test, but only because Sarah and Mrs Templeman talk about toys at one point. Anyway, I digress. My biggest issue is the fact that all of the character's motivations seem to be defined by exactly 1 key event that preceded the current ones:
1. David is sad because him and Sarah lost their child
2. Sarah is sad because she thinks David doesn't love her anymore
3. Geoff is sad because he couldn't be together with a woman he met in Africa
4. Frank is sad because he was bullied in school
5. Natalia is sad because she lost her brother and husband
6. Ben is sad because he ended up in prison for being gay
7. Gunther Hoth (one of the Germans hunting them) is said because his ex-wife took their son to Crimea

(['ve realised that the deeper I dig into what I disked about the book, the angrier I get, so I might stop here...)

The other thing that annoyed me was the completely unwarranted post-scriptum maligning the SNP and trying to persuade Scots to vote 'No' in the first Indy Ref. I get it - you think extreme nationalism is a bad thing and that the SNP are substance-less. You're part Scottish and live in Sussex. Pardon me while I completely disagree with everything, in light of being dragged out of the EU by the xenophobic Midlands. ]]> 3.81 2012 Dominion
author: C.J. Sansom
name: Julie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/24
date added: 2021/04/24
shelves:
review:
*some spoilers ahead, both about the plot and the writer's political views which I don't strictly agree with*

As far as alt-histories go, this is not a bad one - not quite 'Nazi Literature in the Americas', but it's well-written, clearly meticulously planned out and makes for an entertaining read (the testament to that is that it only took me 2 months to get through 700 pages, which is not bad for me). The year is 1952, the month is November and Britain had previously decided to make peace with Germany, who kinda won WW2. Hitler's still alive (barely), the campaign in Russia is raging on, and Jews are still being persecuted. David is a Civil Servant in the Dominions Office and he's married to Sarah, who descends from a family of pacifists. Sarah's sister, Irene, is married to Steve, who has strong Fascist inclinations. David's mates from University, Geoff and Frank end up getting him embroiled in a plot to help smuggle Frank out of the UK and into the States, as he's been party to a secret the Nazis want to get their hands on - spoiler alert, it's about how to build an atom bomb. Frank has a mental breakdown, so David, Geoff and Slovak femme fatale Natalia (probably not her real name) have to break him out of the asylum, in a manoeuvre orchestrated by The Resistance, Churchill's outlawed opposition movement. In the meanwhile, the Germans are hot on their trails, and our motley crew pick up a Communist Scottish spy working in the asylum (Ben, definitely not his real name) while a dense fog takes its grip on London. Clear?

And that's just a summary of the core plot. There are many little side-plots which are both picked up and abandoned with startling ease, in addition to an ill-placed love triangle. I would also argue that the book struggles to pass the Bechdel test, but only because Sarah and Mrs Templeman talk about toys at one point. Anyway, I digress. My biggest issue is the fact that all of the character's motivations seem to be defined by exactly 1 key event that preceded the current ones:
1. David is sad because him and Sarah lost their child
2. Sarah is sad because she thinks David doesn't love her anymore
3. Geoff is sad because he couldn't be together with a woman he met in Africa
4. Frank is sad because he was bullied in school
5. Natalia is sad because she lost her brother and husband
6. Ben is sad because he ended up in prison for being gay
7. Gunther Hoth (one of the Germans hunting them) is said because his ex-wife took their son to Crimea

(['ve realised that the deeper I dig into what I disked about the book, the angrier I get, so I might stop here...)

The other thing that annoyed me was the completely unwarranted post-scriptum maligning the SNP and trying to persuade Scots to vote 'No' in the first Indy Ref. I get it - you think extreme nationalism is a bad thing and that the SNP are substance-less. You're part Scottish and live in Sussex. Pardon me while I completely disagree with everything, in light of being dragged out of the EU by the xenophobic Midlands.
]]> <![CDATA[Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie]]> 18865 The Philadelphia Inquirer

Since his 1972 trailblazing opus, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, Hunter S. Thompson has reported the election story in his truly inimitable, just-short-of-libel style. In Better than Sex, Thompson hits the dusty trail again—without leaving home—yet manages to deliver a mind-bending view of the 1992 presidential campaign—in all of its horror, sacrifice, lust, and dubious glory. Complete with faxes sent to and received by candidate Clinton's top aides, and 100 percent pure gonzo screeds on Richard Nixon, George Bush, and Oliver North, here is the most true-blue campaign tell-all ever penned by man or beast.

"[Thompson] delivers yet another of his trademark cocktail mixes of unbelievable tales and dark observations about the sausage grind that is the U.S. presidential sweepstakes. Packed with egocentric anecdotes, musings and reprints of memos, faxes and scrawled handwritten notes...Memorable."--Los Angeles Daily News

"What endears Hunter Thompson to anyone who reads him is that he will say what others are afraid to....[He] is a master at the unlikely but invariably telling line that sums up a political figure....In a year when all politics is—to much of the public—a tendentious and pompous bore, it is time to read Hunter Thompson."�Richmond Times-Dispatch

"While Tom Wolfe mastered the technique of being a fly on the wall, Thompson mastered the art of being a fly in the ointment. He made himself a part of every story, made no apologies for it and thus produced far more honest reporting than any crusading member of the Fourth Estate....Thompson isn't afraid to take the hard medicine, nor is he bashful about dishing it out....He is still king of beasts, and his apocalyptic prophecies seldom miss their target."�Tulsa World

"This is a very, very funny book. No one can ever match Thompson in the vitriol department, and virtually nobody escapes his wrath."�The Flint Journal]]> 245 Hunter S. Thompson 0345396359 Julie 5
(Please excuse the interjecting rant about political journalism nowadays. While reading it, I kept wondering what he would have made of the very lacklustre Biden vs. Trump race recently. Current mainstream journalism has renounced all critique for the pretence of objectivity - so much so that prominent UK news outlets are literally just citing press releases when reporting on them. HST's take on it, Gonzo journalism if you will, went so far the other way into the realm of subjectivity, that it feels like a breath of fresh air to read some clearly imagined tall tales about prominent politicians. And this also probably has something to do with the readership: it feels like the target audience of The Rolling Stone had enough critical thinking skills to separate fact from fiction.)

Anyway, that was an unwarranted digression. 'Better Than Sex' is an abridged chronicle of the Clinton vs. Bush 1992 campaign - written in a similar vein to 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail'. One can feel HST was getting slightly older and growing slightly tired of the political turmoil - and yet there is so much raw energy dissipating from some of the articles gathered here that a self-professed Millennial feels like they've missed out (for context, I was 2 in 1992). It makes me long for an age I've not experienced, in a country that has probably kept the same level of crazy politics going for the last 50 or so years - bonkers, right?]]> 3.77 1994 Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie
author: Hunter S. Thompson
name: Julie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/28
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves:
review:
This book gets 5* just because it was written by HST. In fact, I would still give it 5* even if it weren't written by HST.

(Please excuse the interjecting rant about political journalism nowadays. While reading it, I kept wondering what he would have made of the very lacklustre Biden vs. Trump race recently. Current mainstream journalism has renounced all critique for the pretence of objectivity - so much so that prominent UK news outlets are literally just citing press releases when reporting on them. HST's take on it, Gonzo journalism if you will, went so far the other way into the realm of subjectivity, that it feels like a breath of fresh air to read some clearly imagined tall tales about prominent politicians. And this also probably has something to do with the readership: it feels like the target audience of The Rolling Stone had enough critical thinking skills to separate fact from fiction.)

Anyway, that was an unwarranted digression. 'Better Than Sex' is an abridged chronicle of the Clinton vs. Bush 1992 campaign - written in a similar vein to 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail'. One can feel HST was getting slightly older and growing slightly tired of the political turmoil - and yet there is so much raw energy dissipating from some of the articles gathered here that a self-professed Millennial feels like they've missed out (for context, I was 2 in 1992). It makes me long for an age I've not experienced, in a country that has probably kept the same level of crazy politics going for the last 50 or so years - bonkers, right?
]]> Turtles All the Way Down 35504431
Aza Holmes never intended to pursue the disappearance of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Pickett’s son Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.]]> 290 John Green 0525555366 Julie 3
A 30 year-old woman reading YA novels should set off some alarm bells to begin with - ie. my already skewed and cynical view of the world doesn't really match an often idealistic, rosy, teenage one. But this is one of John Green's better books.

It starts off with a kind-of-quest, as we would expect: 16 year-old Aza Holmes sets and her best friend Daisy Ramirez try to find disappeared billionaire Russell Pickett, somewhere on the outskirts of Indianapolis. Even though the plot loosely follows the same Greenesque structure (characters go on a wild goose chase of X, only to find that the journey was an introspective one, and X was on their doorstep the whole time), what's really compelling is Aza's battle with anxiety and OCD. I felt for her. I REALLY felt for her - and I would struggle to find anybody who suffers from even mild anxiety who would not identify, even very slightly, with Aza's 'thought spirals'.

Possibly delving into mental health is what makes this novel more compelling than TFIOS (because, let's face it, living with anxiety is more relatable than living with a terminal condition). And, also, the characters feel better built and less stereotypical (case in point, Davis Pickett vs. Augusts Waters, with the former being more rounded).

Bottom line: worth a read - the prose flows, it's endearing and captivating, but deffo not the oeuvre of a generation. ]]> 3.87 2017 Turtles All the Way Down
author: John Green
name: Julie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/18
date added: 2021/01/18
shelves:
review:
Actually, about 3.5* out of 5* - some spoilers ahead.

A 30 year-old woman reading YA novels should set off some alarm bells to begin with - ie. my already skewed and cynical view of the world doesn't really match an often idealistic, rosy, teenage one. But this is one of John Green's better books.

It starts off with a kind-of-quest, as we would expect: 16 year-old Aza Holmes sets and her best friend Daisy Ramirez try to find disappeared billionaire Russell Pickett, somewhere on the outskirts of Indianapolis. Even though the plot loosely follows the same Greenesque structure (characters go on a wild goose chase of X, only to find that the journey was an introspective one, and X was on their doorstep the whole time), what's really compelling is Aza's battle with anxiety and OCD. I felt for her. I REALLY felt for her - and I would struggle to find anybody who suffers from even mild anxiety who would not identify, even very slightly, with Aza's 'thought spirals'.

Possibly delving into mental health is what makes this novel more compelling than TFIOS (because, let's face it, living with anxiety is more relatable than living with a terminal condition). And, also, the characters feel better built and less stereotypical (case in point, Davis Pickett vs. Augusts Waters, with the former being more rounded).

Bottom line: worth a read - the prose flows, it's endearing and captivating, but deffo not the oeuvre of a generation.
]]> Kay's Anatomy 52692522
This book is going to tell you what's actually going on in there, and answer the really important questions, like:

Are bogies safe to eat? Look, if your nose is going to all that effort of creating a snack, the least we can do is check out its nutritional value. (Yes, they're safe. Chew away!)

and...

How much of your life will you spend on the toilet? About a year - so bring a good book. (I recommend this one.)

So sit back, relax, put on some rubber gloves, and let a doctor take you on a poo (and puke) filled tour of your insides. Welcome to Kay's Anatomy*.

*a fancy word for your body. See, you're learning already.]]> 405 Adam Kay 0241452945 Julie 5
(Not gonna lie, I've had a soft spot for Adam Kay's stuff ever since his Amateur Transplants days and I've steadily bought all of his books since + seen him perform live at the Fringe - although I wouldn't call myself a stalker per se...)

Anyway, going back to the book, it's a perfect pitch for pre-teens. It reminded me very much of the 'Horrible Histories' series, but, this time, it's about the human body. Plenty of funny little factoids to keep you entertained (even as a doctor I didn't know, for instance, about the exitance of the Immortality Drive). Would recommend both for children and adults (being young-at-heart helps in this situation). ]]> 4.37 2020 Kay's Anatomy
author: Adam Kay
name: Julie
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/08
date added: 2021/01/08
shelves:
review:
This was a brilliant read - spoiler alert, but I'm a 30 year-old Orthopod in training, and I loved it!

(Not gonna lie, I've had a soft spot for Adam Kay's stuff ever since his Amateur Transplants days and I've steadily bought all of his books since + seen him perform live at the Fringe - although I wouldn't call myself a stalker per se...)

Anyway, going back to the book, it's a perfect pitch for pre-teens. It reminded me very much of the 'Horrible Histories' series, but, this time, it's about the human body. Plenty of funny little factoids to keep you entertained (even as a doctor I didn't know, for instance, about the exitance of the Immortality Drive). Would recommend both for children and adults (being young-at-heart helps in this situation).
]]> <![CDATA[The Age of Revolution, 1789�1848]]> 550840 356 Eric J. Hobsbawm 0679772537 Julie 3
For context, I picked up this book because I did not have enough oversight to pace my reading over the belated summer break we had at the beginning of September. I resorted to choosing one of my husband's texts - it was either this or 'Bring Up the Bodies', and the second instalment of Mantel's Cromwell trilogy sounded decidedly less intriguing than this.

Bear in mind this is an academic text. An insightful and well-written one, but an academic text nonetheless. It focuses on charting the 60 years or so of great European turmoil: how the French and Industrial Revolutions set the scene for early modernity and probably helped shape the view of the world that we all share today. It analyses all aspects of life in that tumultuous day and age, from politics and religion to arts and how the sciences were affected. It's a decidedly informative read, but bone dry. ]]> 4.22 1962 The Age of Revolution, 1789–1848
author: Eric J. Hobsbawm
name: Julie
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1962
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/21
date added: 2020/12/21
shelves:
review:
I really took my time, didn't it?

For context, I picked up this book because I did not have enough oversight to pace my reading over the belated summer break we had at the beginning of September. I resorted to choosing one of my husband's texts - it was either this or 'Bring Up the Bodies', and the second instalment of Mantel's Cromwell trilogy sounded decidedly less intriguing than this.

Bear in mind this is an academic text. An insightful and well-written one, but an academic text nonetheless. It focuses on charting the 60 years or so of great European turmoil: how the French and Industrial Revolutions set the scene for early modernity and probably helped shape the view of the world that we all share today. It analyses all aspects of life in that tumultuous day and age, from politics and religion to arts and how the sciences were affected. It's a decidedly informative read, but bone dry.
]]> <![CDATA[This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor]]> 35510008 Scribbled in secret after endless days, sleepless nights and missed weekends, Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line. Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know � and more than a few things you didn't � about life on and off the hospital ward.

As seen on ITV's Zoe Ball Book Club

This edition includes extra diary entries and a new afterword by the author.

]]> 285 Adam Kay Julie 5
I'm a *junior* doctor, and his stories of life, death and everything in between just sound so reassuringly familiar. It's kinda nice to know that somebody else has been there, done that, got the T-shirt and got it stained by blood almost immediately. Relationship breakdown? Check. Missing out on weddings/birthday parties/funerals because you had to be in work? Check. Developing a scathing, sarcastic sense of humour in order to deal with the death, tragedy and pain that constantly surrounds you? Also check.

For those who are not medical professionals, I would highly recommend reading it. It sheds a light on a reality that some might not know exists: what goes on behind the scenes and what happens to your doctor on a day-to-day basis (spoiler alert: it ain't all good). And, honestly, we probably need more people to read it if we want to save the NHS.]]> 4.40 2017 This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
author: Adam Kay
name: Julie
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/12/10
date added: 2020/11/20
shelves:
review:
This is the second book I read this year that I wish I had written (and, had I kept a diary, I probably could have - except the horrific penis-related injury I treated was not a de-gloving, but a fracture).

I'm a *junior* doctor, and his stories of life, death and everything in between just sound so reassuringly familiar. It's kinda nice to know that somebody else has been there, done that, got the T-shirt and got it stained by blood almost immediately. Relationship breakdown? Check. Missing out on weddings/birthday parties/funerals because you had to be in work? Check. Developing a scathing, sarcastic sense of humour in order to deal with the death, tragedy and pain that constantly surrounds you? Also check.

For those who are not medical professionals, I would highly recommend reading it. It sheds a light on a reality that some might not know exists: what goes on behind the scenes and what happens to your doctor on a day-to-day basis (spoiler alert: it ain't all good). And, honestly, we probably need more people to read it if we want to save the NHS.
]]> The Serious Goose 49216540 Meet a very Serious Goose in late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's first fun and funny picture book! There is nothing silly about this goose. You CANNOT make her laugh, so DON'T EVEN TRY!

Written, illustrated, and lettered by Jimmy Kimmel, this picture book challenges young readers to bring the silly out of a very Serious Goose. Inspired by Jimmy's nickname for his kids, The Serious Goose reminds us to be silly in a serious way. Put your little comedians in front of a mylar mirror and challenge them to make this no-nonsense goose smile. This delightful read-aloud is guaranteed to create gaggles of giggles time and time again!

Kimmel's proceeds from sales of THE SERIOUS GOOSE will be donated to Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and children's hospitals around the country.]]> 40 Jimmy Kimmel 0525707751 Julie 0 to-read 3.85 2019 The Serious Goose
author: Jimmy Kimmel
name: Julie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You]]> 53199074 Listening length: 5 hours

Created and edited by Adam Kay (author of multi-million best seller 'This is Going to Hurt'), 'DEAR NHS' features household names telling their personal stories of the health service. Contributors include Joanna Lumley, Naomie Harris, Kate Tempest, Lee Child, Tanni Grey Thomson, Bill Bryson, Trevor McDonald, Jack Whitehall, Michael Palin, Stanley Tucci and many, many more.

All profits from this book will go to NHS Charities Together to fund vital research and projects and the Lullaby Trust which supports parents bereaved of babies and young children.

The NHS is our single greatest achievement as a country. No matter who you are, no matter what your health needs are and no matter how much money you have, the NHS is there for you. In 'DEAR NHS', 100 inspirational people come together to share their stories of how the National Health Service has been there for them and changed their lives in the process. By turns deeply moving, hilarious, hopeful and impassioned, these stories together become a love letter to the NHS and the 1.4 million people who go above and beyond the call of duty every single day - selflessly, generously, putting others before themselves, never more so than now.

They are all heroes, and this book is our way of saying thank you.

This audiobook features readings by: Mary Beard, Bill Bryson, Lee Child, Richard Coles, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Mark Haddon, Naomie Harris, Si King, Joanna Lumley, Alexander McCall Smith, Trevor McDonald, Michael Palin, Kate Tempest, Stanley Tucci, K.T. Tunstall, Jack Whitehall, Jacqueline Wilson, Benjamin Zephaniah and many more.

A minimum of £1.61 from the sale of each book will be paid to NHS Charities Together and £0.08 will be paid to the Lullaby Trust.]]> 408 Adam Kay 1398701181 Julie 4
Disclaimer: I'm a massive fan of Adam Kay's. I am also a Trauma & Ortho trainee who's been working throughout the pandemic. I remember Kay's Amateur Transplants days (and took the advice at the end of 'The Drug Song' very seriously), laughed my heart out while reading 'This Is Going to Hurt', sang along while in the audience of his Fringe show, and, as a personal moment of pride, made him chuckle during a meet-and-greet.

However, I cannot bring myself to give this book 5* for a very simple reason: the NHS shouldn't need this. The NHS shouldn't need British celebs to remind folk that:
A. it's a good thing that we have it
B. it provides free point-of-care medical service to everybody (off the record, but it's pretty shoddy at recuperating insurance costs later)
C. it doesn't matter what the presenting complaint is - from Louis Theroux's swollen testicle to Sue Perkins' accident with a vacuum cleaner (*raises eyebrow*), we look after everybody. We always have. We always will.

The biggest issue is your average Joe coming to realise that. Hopefully they'll soon realise that the way to protect the NHS is not by putting on a show every Thursday evening, but by not voting Tory. Seriously. Stop it. Just bloody stop it. And maybe the piecemeal privatisation and incompetent mismanagement will also stop. Just sayin'.

ps: the missives ranged from pure comedy gold (like Kevin Bridges' contribution) to heart-wrenching drama, with a few lovely poems thrown in the mix. Had it not been for the book's purpose, I probably would have enjoyed them even more.]]> 4.22 2020 Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You
author: Adam Kay
name: Julie
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/08
date added: 2020/09/08
shelves:
review:
Funny how fast you finish a book when you're actually enjoying it, huh?

Disclaimer: I'm a massive fan of Adam Kay's. I am also a Trauma & Ortho trainee who's been working throughout the pandemic. I remember Kay's Amateur Transplants days (and took the advice at the end of 'The Drug Song' very seriously), laughed my heart out while reading 'This Is Going to Hurt', sang along while in the audience of his Fringe show, and, as a personal moment of pride, made him chuckle during a meet-and-greet.

However, I cannot bring myself to give this book 5* for a very simple reason: the NHS shouldn't need this. The NHS shouldn't need British celebs to remind folk that:
A. it's a good thing that we have it
B. it provides free point-of-care medical service to everybody (off the record, but it's pretty shoddy at recuperating insurance costs later)
C. it doesn't matter what the presenting complaint is - from Louis Theroux's swollen testicle to Sue Perkins' accident with a vacuum cleaner (*raises eyebrow*), we look after everybody. We always have. We always will.

The biggest issue is your average Joe coming to realise that. Hopefully they'll soon realise that the way to protect the NHS is not by putting on a show every Thursday evening, but by not voting Tory. Seriously. Stop it. Just bloody stop it. And maybe the piecemeal privatisation and incompetent mismanagement will also stop. Just sayin'.

ps: the missives ranged from pure comedy gold (like Kevin Bridges' contribution) to heart-wrenching drama, with a few lovely poems thrown in the mix. Had it not been for the book's purpose, I probably would have enjoyed them even more.
]]> <![CDATA[The Age of Reason (Roads to Freedom, #1)]]> 10034 The Age of Reason is set in 1938 and tells of Mathieu, a French professor of philosophy who is obsessed with the idea of freedom. As the shadows of the Second World War draw closer -- even as his personal life is complicated by his mistress's pregnancy -- his search for a way to remain free becomes more and more intense.]]> 416 Jean-Paul Sartre 0679738959 Julie 2
Is it even a pandemic if you don't French Existentialism for a bit? Joking aside, I am not a massive fan of:
A. French literature in general (after a particularly traumatising moment when my Mom thought if would be a good idea for me to read 'Queen Margot' at about 10 or 11)
B. French Existentialism in particular - I've suffered through Camus for high school assignments, and that was quite enough, thank you very much.

The whole plot of 'The Age of Reason' revolves around 35 year-old Mathieu faffing about for 300 pages in order to decide whether to marry his pregnant mistress, Marcelle, or to pay for her to have an illicit abortion. Turns our option B was not quite really what Marcelle had in mind, so she ends up accepting the marriage proposal of one of their gay friends, Daniel. Mathieu doesn't have the courage to properly court the young student he has a crush on (Ivich, who's the resident drama queen) or to go and join the war in Spain, like one of his mates did. In conclusion, he does fuck all for the entire book and spends unreasonable amounts of time just considering these possibilities, which, to be fair, was the entire point of the novel.

Joking aside and on a far more serious note, I *get* what the book is getting at. It's a slow, introspective process of a man who's not as young as he used to be and is faced with some challenging, life-changing decisions. However, just because it's Sartre doesn't mean it's any good, and the prose drags - unsure if that's an issue of the translation or of the original text, but please avoid if you're not in a soul-searching, pensive mood.]]> 3.98 1945 The Age of Reason (Roads to Freedom, #1)
author: Jean-Paul Sartre
name: Julie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1945
rating: 2
read at: 2020/08/23
date added: 2020/08/23
shelves:
review:
*some spoilers, but seeing that the book was written in 1945, I don't think they really count*

Is it even a pandemic if you don't French Existentialism for a bit? Joking aside, I am not a massive fan of:
A. French literature in general (after a particularly traumatising moment when my Mom thought if would be a good idea for me to read 'Queen Margot' at about 10 or 11)
B. French Existentialism in particular - I've suffered through Camus for high school assignments, and that was quite enough, thank you very much.

The whole plot of 'The Age of Reason' revolves around 35 year-old Mathieu faffing about for 300 pages in order to decide whether to marry his pregnant mistress, Marcelle, or to pay for her to have an illicit abortion. Turns our option B was not quite really what Marcelle had in mind, so she ends up accepting the marriage proposal of one of their gay friends, Daniel. Mathieu doesn't have the courage to properly court the young student he has a crush on (Ivich, who's the resident drama queen) or to go and join the war in Spain, like one of his mates did. In conclusion, he does fuck all for the entire book and spends unreasonable amounts of time just considering these possibilities, which, to be fair, was the entire point of the novel.

Joking aside and on a far more serious note, I *get* what the book is getting at. It's a slow, introspective process of a man who's not as young as he used to be and is faced with some challenging, life-changing decisions. However, just because it's Sartre doesn't mean it's any good, and the prose drags - unsure if that's an issue of the translation or of the original text, but please avoid if you're not in a soul-searching, pensive mood.
]]> Codgerspace 35175 320 Alan Dean Foster 072784685X Julie 3
What's the worse thing that can happen if you leave a cheese sandwich unattended? Most of us would say 'mould' (unless you're into your Gorgonzola). The answer explored in this book is 'all utility robots produced by a certain corporation stop doing their jobs and start looking for higher meaning'.

However, the main narrative focus of the book is set on 5 retirees living a peaceful life in a village outside New York, until they accidentally 'awake' a massive spaceship previously built by ancient alien intelligence. They find themselves in the middle of a pan-galactic struggle for power (as the ship turns out to be rather deadly when attacked), and the ships' inhabitants, the Drax, also decide to wake up.

Not a masterpiece of the genre, but an entertaining read nonetheless.]]> 3.55 1992 Codgerspace
author: Alan Dean Foster
name: Julie
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2020/06/16
date added: 2020/06/16
shelves:
review:
*possible spoilers ahead*

What's the worse thing that can happen if you leave a cheese sandwich unattended? Most of us would say 'mould' (unless you're into your Gorgonzola). The answer explored in this book is 'all utility robots produced by a certain corporation stop doing their jobs and start looking for higher meaning'.

However, the main narrative focus of the book is set on 5 retirees living a peaceful life in a village outside New York, until they accidentally 'awake' a massive spaceship previously built by ancient alien intelligence. They find themselves in the middle of a pan-galactic struggle for power (as the ship turns out to be rather deadly when attacked), and the ships' inhabitants, the Drax, also decide to wake up.

Not a masterpiece of the genre, but an entertaining read nonetheless.
]]> Traces of Her 45482571 An unsolved murder.

Rose isn’t surprised anymore when her free-spirited step-sister, Willow, decides to disappear off somewhere without notice. But something feels different this time. When Willow sends her a mysterious package containing photographs of suspects in a cold case she is obsessed with solving, Rose realises she needs to find her sister before things get out of hand.

A missing girl.

With no sign of Willow to be found, Rose takes up the search for answers about the deaths that shook a small Cornish village eighteen years before. But what is the connection between Willow and the two sisters marked by tragedy?

Time is running out.

Someone knows where Willow is and what happened all those years ago. And they will do anything to stop the truth from coming out.

Can Rose find Willow and the answers she needs, before it’s too late?]]> 322 Amanda Brittany Julie 2
I sometimes genuinely feel bad leaving not-very-nice reviews on ŷ: after all, nobody enjoys seeing other folk tear to shreds a book they put a lot of effort into. But the only reason why I finished this was to see if my instincts as regards Ava's 'killer' were right: they weren't (I suspected it had been Eleanor, because she did mention having facilitated a speedy adoption due to her job as a social worker). But I twigged that it was actually Gail who had been killed that night before the big reveal, so my assessment was not completely wrong.

The plot is jumpy, and the small chapters can sometimes feel clipped. Constantly alternating between Ava's 3rd person and Rose's 1st person is kind of annoying and having the 'you' chapters is fucking pointless because we really don't get a clue who those chapters mention until the end. Flat is an understatement when describing the characters, their professions/hobbies do nothing to further the action (which is what sometimes makes good thrillers, methinks) and we have a teenager with an eating disorder thrown in for no good reason. Oh yeah, that really doesn't get resolved, nor does Jeanette's storyline (so, spoiler alert, turns out one of your daughters is actually alive, shall we address that?). Anyway, maybe good to keep you busy one lazy afternoon, but would't recommend it otherwise.]]> 3.97 2019 Traces of Her
author: Amanda Brittany
name: Julie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2020/05/19
date added: 2020/05/19
shelves:
review:
*spoilers ahead*

I sometimes genuinely feel bad leaving not-very-nice reviews on ŷ: after all, nobody enjoys seeing other folk tear to shreds a book they put a lot of effort into. But the only reason why I finished this was to see if my instincts as regards Ava's 'killer' were right: they weren't (I suspected it had been Eleanor, because she did mention having facilitated a speedy adoption due to her job as a social worker). But I twigged that it was actually Gail who had been killed that night before the big reveal, so my assessment was not completely wrong.

The plot is jumpy, and the small chapters can sometimes feel clipped. Constantly alternating between Ava's 3rd person and Rose's 1st person is kind of annoying and having the 'you' chapters is fucking pointless because we really don't get a clue who those chapters mention until the end. Flat is an understatement when describing the characters, their professions/hobbies do nothing to further the action (which is what sometimes makes good thrillers, methinks) and we have a teenager with an eating disorder thrown in for no good reason. Oh yeah, that really doesn't get resolved, nor does Jeanette's storyline (so, spoiler alert, turns out one of your daughters is actually alive, shall we address that?). Anyway, maybe good to keep you busy one lazy afternoon, but would't recommend it otherwise.
]]> <![CDATA[The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine]]> 38095085 A teenage boy who got his wick stuck in a candlestick
A remarkable woman who, like a human fountain, spurted urine from virtually every orifice

These are just a few of the anecdotal gems that have until now lain undiscovered in medical journals for centuries. This fascinating collection of historical curiosities explores some of the strangest cases that have perplexed doctors across the world.

From seventeenth-century Holland to Tsarist Russia, from rural Canada to a whaler in the Pacific, many are monuments to human stupidity � such as the sailor who swallowed dozens of penknives to amuse his shipmates, or the chemistry student who in 1850 arrived at a hospital in New York with his penis trapped inside a bottle, having unwisely decided to relieve himself into a vessel containing highly reactive potassium. Others demonstrate exceptional surgical ingenuity long before the advent of anaesthesia � such as a daring nineteenth-century operation to remove a metal fragment from beneath a conscious patient’s heart. We also hear of the weird, often hilarious remedies employed by physicians of yore � from crow’s vomit to port-wine enemas � the hazards of such everyday objects as cucumbers and false teeth, and miraculous recovery from apparently terminal injuries.]]> 400 Thomas Morris 0593080327 Julie 5
Composed of a series of short vignettes, this compendium showcases medical anecdotes from 17th, 18th and 19th century journals in the US and UK. Ranging from unfortunate to downright gruesome, it paints a pretty vivid picture of a series of interesting wounds (some of them self-inflicted) and afflictions (ergot poisoning, anybody?) that we really don't get to see in 2020 Although, TBH, a scythe-related injury nowadays would at least give us a break from the common lawnmower-induced ones :)]]> 3.76 2018 The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
author: Thomas Morris
name: Julie
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2020/05/09
date added: 2020/05/09
shelves:
review:
Of note: I am a trauma trainee, so I am extremely biased - this book was flippin' hilarious! My husband bought me it as a birthday present and it only took me about two weeks to finish it, giggling merrily along the way.

Composed of a series of short vignettes, this compendium showcases medical anecdotes from 17th, 18th and 19th century journals in the US and UK. Ranging from unfortunate to downright gruesome, it paints a pretty vivid picture of a series of interesting wounds (some of them self-inflicted) and afflictions (ergot poisoning, anybody?) that we really don't get to see in 2020 Although, TBH, a scythe-related injury nowadays would at least give us a break from the common lawnmower-induced ones :)
]]> Beyond Black 395959 An ACE for this ISBN can be found here

Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Hilarious and sinister, ‘Beyond Black� is a tale of dark secrets and secret forces in suburban England.
Alison Hart is a medium by trade: dead people talk to her, and she talks back. With her flat-eyed, flint-hearted sidekick, Colette, she tours the dormitory towns of London's orbital road, passing on messages from dead ancestors: 'Granny says she likes your new kitchen units.'

Alison's ability to communicate with spirits is a torment rather than a gift. Behind her plump, smiling and bland public persona is a desperate woman. She knows that the next life holds terrors that she must conceal from her clients. Her days and nights are haunted by the men she knew in her childhood, the thugs and petty criminals who preyed upon her hopeless, addled mother, Emmie. They infiltrate her house, her body and her soul; the more she tries to be rid of them, the stronger and nastier they become.

‘Beyond Black� is a witty and deeply sinister story of dark secrets and forces, set in an England that jumps at its own shadow, a country whose banal self-absorption is shot through by fear of the engulfing dark.]]> 480 Hilary Mantel 0007157762 Julie 4
My previous experience with Mantel's writing had been 'Wolf Hall'. I threw in the towel after that: I found the prose cumbersome, and the pace sluggish. (I feel that I should put out there the fact that I have absolutely zero intention of finishing the Cromwell trilogy). My husband found 'Beyond Black' in a charity shop and read it during our honeymoon. I promptly followed suite during UK's lockdown - if a flippin' global pandemic is not a good time to get through this book, then there never will be one.

'Beyond Black' tells the story of Alison, a larger-than-life medium and her business partner/assistant/poignant critique aimed a middle-class British women of the early 2000s Colette. In essence, there is not a whole lot of plot to get through: there main storyline follows some rather mundane events, such as travelling to various small towns outside of London, purchasing and moving into a new build (which I'm sure will resonate with many readers, as nothing seems to be smooth sailing) and summarising what happens at a psychic convention. What really sets the book apart is the narration of Alison's inner turmoil (as her childhood was far from happy, to put it mildly) and the way her powers impact on relationships with the non-intuit (Colette) and the intuit alike.

It gets 4 stars because there's a point where the plot starts dragging a bit, but a pretty good read overall. ]]> 3.44 2005 Beyond Black
author: Hilary Mantel
name: Julie
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/27
date added: 2020/04/27
shelves:
review:
*potential spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk*

My previous experience with Mantel's writing had been 'Wolf Hall'. I threw in the towel after that: I found the prose cumbersome, and the pace sluggish. (I feel that I should put out there the fact that I have absolutely zero intention of finishing the Cromwell trilogy). My husband found 'Beyond Black' in a charity shop and read it during our honeymoon. I promptly followed suite during UK's lockdown - if a flippin' global pandemic is not a good time to get through this book, then there never will be one.

'Beyond Black' tells the story of Alison, a larger-than-life medium and her business partner/assistant/poignant critique aimed a middle-class British women of the early 2000s Colette. In essence, there is not a whole lot of plot to get through: there main storyline follows some rather mundane events, such as travelling to various small towns outside of London, purchasing and moving into a new build (which I'm sure will resonate with many readers, as nothing seems to be smooth sailing) and summarising what happens at a psychic convention. What really sets the book apart is the narration of Alison's inner turmoil (as her childhood was far from happy, to put it mildly) and the way her powers impact on relationships with the non-intuit (Colette) and the intuit alike.

It gets 4 stars because there's a point where the plot starts dragging a bit, but a pretty good read overall.
]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken]]> 36620738 How can you defend a child-abuser you suspect to be guilty? What do you say to someone sentenced to ten years who you believe to be innocent? What is the law and why do we need it? And why do they wear wigs? From the criminals to the lawyers, the victims, witnesses and officers of the law, here is the best and worst of humanity, all struggling within a broken system which would never be off the front pages if the public knew what it was really like.

This is a first-hand account of the human cost of the criminal justice system, and a guide to how we got into this mess, The Secret Barrister shows you what it’s really like and why it really matters.]]> 385 The Secret Barrister 1509841156 Julie 5 If you enjoyed 'This is going to hurt' and want to find out how another public British institution is underfunded and struggling, you should probably read this book.
If you would like to think that 'innocent until proven guilty' forms the basis of how British courts apply the law, then maybe you shouldn't read this book.

Much like Adam Kay's tell-all diaries, The Secret Barrister's writing pens a series of very disquieting truths about how one of the state's crucial institutions doesn't really work. And this is for a number of reasons: from pay cuts to whatever poorly regulated joke that is going on the the magistrates' courts, so many instances of disorganisation and red tape are recorded in this book that it makes you question how the UK's judiciary ended up in this situation. An unexpectedly bleak, but not altogether unsurprising read.]]> 3.89 2018 The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken
author: The Secret Barrister
name: Julie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2020/04/01
date added: 2020/04/01
shelves:
review:
If you live in Britain, and have absolutely no idea how the judicial system works, you should probably read this book.
If you enjoyed 'This is going to hurt' and want to find out how another public British institution is underfunded and struggling, you should probably read this book.
If you would like to think that 'innocent until proven guilty' forms the basis of how British courts apply the law, then maybe you shouldn't read this book.

Much like Adam Kay's tell-all diaries, The Secret Barrister's writing pens a series of very disquieting truths about how one of the state's crucial institutions doesn't really work. And this is for a number of reasons: from pay cuts to whatever poorly regulated joke that is going on the the magistrates' courts, so many instances of disorganisation and red tape are recorded in this book that it makes you question how the UK's judiciary ended up in this situation. An unexpectedly bleak, but not altogether unsurprising read.
]]> <![CDATA[A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)]]> 164154 334 Walter M. Miller Jr. 0060892994 Julie 3
As per always, the opinions expressed here are my own and I know there will be a good chance they might upset some folk, but here goes: I have the overarching feeling that I read this book at the wrong time in my life, therefore it's not mind-blowing.

*arguably at the wrong time, because, as a society, we seem to constantly be on the verge of causing our own destruction time and time again*

The book is made up of three distinct vignettes, set a few centuries apart (and a good few centuries after the initial World War that led to the destruction of civilisation as we know it). The first novella captures the adventures of Francis, a well-meaning (albeit rather inept) novice, who 'stumbles' upon some old relics while on a vigil in the desert. The second novella is set roughly six centuries later, during a so-called Renaissance, and encompasses the visit of a secular scholar to the abbey which houses the Albertian Order of St Leibowitz (and the chaos that ensues, after the order figures out electricity). The third story is set in 3781, and sees mankind destroy itself using nuclear weapons yet again.

There are many themes coming to the forefront: recurrence, cyclical history and the church vs. the state (bear in mind my short synopsis is an oversimplification, and there are much more nuanced aspects that may have escaped me). Probably one of the reasons why it did not ultimately appeal to me is the pacing - but I'm happy to have given it a bash, for my own pop-culture at least. ]]> 3.99 1959 A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)
author: Walter M. Miller Jr.
name: Julie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1959
rating: 3
read at: 2020/03/08
date added: 2020/03/08
shelves:
review:
*proceed at your own risk, possible spoilers ahead*

As per always, the opinions expressed here are my own and I know there will be a good chance they might upset some folk, but here goes: I have the overarching feeling that I read this book at the wrong time in my life, therefore it's not mind-blowing.

*arguably at the wrong time, because, as a society, we seem to constantly be on the verge of causing our own destruction time and time again*

The book is made up of three distinct vignettes, set a few centuries apart (and a good few centuries after the initial World War that led to the destruction of civilisation as we know it). The first novella captures the adventures of Francis, a well-meaning (albeit rather inept) novice, who 'stumbles' upon some old relics while on a vigil in the desert. The second novella is set roughly six centuries later, during a so-called Renaissance, and encompasses the visit of a secular scholar to the abbey which houses the Albertian Order of St Leibowitz (and the chaos that ensues, after the order figures out electricity). The third story is set in 3781, and sees mankind destroy itself using nuclear weapons yet again.

There are many themes coming to the forefront: recurrence, cyclical history and the church vs. the state (bear in mind my short synopsis is an oversimplification, and there are much more nuanced aspects that may have escaped me). Probably one of the reasons why it did not ultimately appeal to me is the pacing - but I'm happy to have given it a bash, for my own pop-culture at least.
]]> The Goldfinch 17333223
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.]]> 771 Donna Tartt 0316055433 Julie 4
Up until the last 50 pages, this was a solid 5* for me. Disclaimer: I like Tartt's writing. I really like Tartt's writing - described by many as pretentious, I just feel that her vivid descriptions are bloody amazing. There's one paragraph in particular here, when Theo describes his inner turmoil and disgust at the world, that knocks it out of the ballpark completely.

Anyway, I digress. The only reason why it gets downgraded to 4* is because you cannot have *THAT TWIST* and then decide to end it like 'and they didn't live happily ever after, but at least Theo didn't get charged with murder'. Maybe I'm missing something? I know she got a lot of backlash after ending 'The Little Friend' in a similar manner, but this is just a bit painful. Maybe the point, again, is that life doesn't guarantee you a neat resolution. Anyway, it was a page-turner and I have no regrets with finishing it in less than a month.]]> 3.94 2013 The Goldfinch
author: Donna Tartt
name: Julie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/31
date added: 2020/01/31
shelves:
review:
*spoilers ahead*

Up until the last 50 pages, this was a solid 5* for me. Disclaimer: I like Tartt's writing. I really like Tartt's writing - described by many as pretentious, I just feel that her vivid descriptions are bloody amazing. There's one paragraph in particular here, when Theo describes his inner turmoil and disgust at the world, that knocks it out of the ballpark completely.

Anyway, I digress. The only reason why it gets downgraded to 4* is because you cannot have *THAT TWIST* and then decide to end it like 'and they didn't live happily ever after, but at least Theo didn't get charged with murder'. Maybe I'm missing something? I know she got a lot of backlash after ending 'The Little Friend' in a similar manner, but this is just a bit painful. Maybe the point, again, is that life doesn't guarantee you a neat resolution. Anyway, it was a page-turner and I have no regrets with finishing it in less than a month.
]]> <![CDATA[First Man In: Leading from the Front]]> 38586921
Special forces training is no walk in the park. The rules are strict and they make sure you learn the hard way, pushing you beyond the limits of what is physically possible. There is no mercy. Even when you are bleeding and broken, to admit defeat is failure.

To survive the gruelling selection process to become a member of the elite you need toughness, aggression, meticulous attention to detail and unrelenting self-discipline, all traits that make for the best leaders.

After 13 years service in the military, with 4 years as a Special Boat Service (SBS) sniper, Ant Middleton is the epitome of what it takes to excel. He served in the SBS, the naval wing of the special forces, the Royal Marines and 9 Parachute Squadron Royal, achieving what is known as the ‘Holy Trinity� of the UK’s Elite Forces. As a point man in the SBS, Ant was always the first man through the door, the first man into the dark, and the first man in harm’s way.

In this fascinating, exhilarating and revealing book, Ant speaks about the highs and gut-wrenching lows of his life � from the thrill of passing Special Forces Selection to dealing with the early death of his father and ending up in prison on leaving the military � and draws valuable lessons that we can all use in our daily lives.]]> 321 Ant Middleton 0008245746 Julie 4
But hear me out: this was a very enjoyable read. Context into how I got at this book: Ant's well known for featuring on Channel 4's 'SAS - Who dares wins' programme. I ended up watching it because one of the contestants gave a talk about her experience at a conference I attended last year (it was Lou, the Orthopod). And his book was on 2 for 1 sale in Tesco.

Sure, it might be a bit embellished, but some of the life lessons he proposes are weirdly applicable to just being a reasonable person. At quite a fair few of the take-home messages are also applicable if you do any gruelling form of exercise/have a job that bleeds you dry. It's kinda self-helpy in that way. And an entertaining read. I might go watch 'Mutiny' now.]]> 4.01 2018 First Man In: Leading from the Front
author: Ant Middleton
name: Julie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/04
date added: 2020/01/04
shelves:
review:
Heresy, right? - I've just given this book more stars that I did 'The Testaments'.

But hear me out: this was a very enjoyable read. Context into how I got at this book: Ant's well known for featuring on Channel 4's 'SAS - Who dares wins' programme. I ended up watching it because one of the contestants gave a talk about her experience at a conference I attended last year (it was Lou, the Orthopod). And his book was on 2 for 1 sale in Tesco.

Sure, it might be a bit embellished, but some of the life lessons he proposes are weirdly applicable to just being a reasonable person. At quite a fair few of the take-home messages are also applicable if you do any gruelling form of exercise/have a job that bleeds you dry. It's kinda self-helpy in that way. And an entertaining read. I might go watch 'Mutiny' now.
]]> <![CDATA[The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)]]> 42975172 The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her--freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood's sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

"Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in." --Margaret Atwood

An alternate cover edition of ISBN 978-0385543781 can be found here.]]> 422 Margaret Atwood Julie 3
I have read a couple of reviews that basically state exactly what I am also going to state: was this book really necessary? Did we actually learn all that much from following Offred's offspring and their very different life paths? Did it merit a Man Booker Prize? (Can't really answer the last one, as I've not yet read the book it shares it with). Probably the most earnest answer to all of these questions is 'maybe'.

Maybe this serves as an even more striking cautionary tale about dictatorships gone wrong, especially in the current political climate. Maybe learning more about Aunt Lydia gives us more insight into how Gilead ended up the way it did (and eventually collapsing). And maybe the alternating POVs keep the story going. But it took a while to pick up the pace - about half the book. Maybe I'm being harsh. Maybe I just don't enjoy Atwood's writing all that much. ]]> 4.16 2019 The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Julie
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/01/02
date added: 2020/01/02
shelves:
review:
*Spoiler alert, read at your own risk*

I have read a couple of reviews that basically state exactly what I am also going to state: was this book really necessary? Did we actually learn all that much from following Offred's offspring and their very different life paths? Did it merit a Man Booker Prize? (Can't really answer the last one, as I've not yet read the book it shares it with). Probably the most earnest answer to all of these questions is 'maybe'.

Maybe this serves as an even more striking cautionary tale about dictatorships gone wrong, especially in the current political climate. Maybe learning more about Aunt Lydia gives us more insight into how Gilead ended up the way it did (and eventually collapsing). And maybe the alternating POVs keep the story going. But it took a while to pick up the pace - about half the book. Maybe I'm being harsh. Maybe I just don't enjoy Atwood's writing all that much.
]]> The Inverted World 142181 239 Christopher Priest 0060134216 Julie 5
*Some spoilers ahead*

Short and punchy, 'The Inverted World' starts with a pretty standard premise: we get introduced to our main character Helward Mann and the strange world he inhabits. Much like the YA stuff one gets used to by this age, there's an impenetrable guild system, strict rules and regulations, and a bit of an iconoclastic significant other (Helward's fiancee, Victoria). So far, not mind-blowing.

But things go south. Quite literally. And the brilliant twist (which still has people debating what the fuck actually happens) comes straight out of left field, in the shape of a hyperbole. Or a tractiricoid, if that word means anything to you. Would recommend, because one will deffo recognise some of China Mieville's source of inspiration (Iron Council similarities, anybody?).
]]> 3.94 1974 The Inverted World
author: Christopher Priest
name: Julie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at: 2019/11/15
date added: 2019/11/15
shelves:
review:
I'm not very good at reading sci-fi, and I'm not very good at giving sci-fi books 5 stars. But this one deserves all of them.

*Some spoilers ahead*

Short and punchy, 'The Inverted World' starts with a pretty standard premise: we get introduced to our main character Helward Mann and the strange world he inhabits. Much like the YA stuff one gets used to by this age, there's an impenetrable guild system, strict rules and regulations, and a bit of an iconoclastic significant other (Helward's fiancee, Victoria). So far, not mind-blowing.

But things go south. Quite literally. And the brilliant twist (which still has people debating what the fuck actually happens) comes straight out of left field, in the shape of a hyperbole. Or a tractiricoid, if that word means anything to you. Would recommend, because one will deffo recognise some of China Mieville's source of inspiration (Iron Council similarities, anybody?).

]]> This Is Your Brain on Music 141565 This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including:
� Are our musical preferences shaped in utero?
� Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music?
� What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain’s response to music?
� Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure?

This Is Your Brain on Music explores cultures in which singing is considered an essential human function, patients who have a rare disorder that prevents them from making sense of music, and scientists studying why two people may not have the same definition of pitch. At every turn, this provocative work unlocks deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession.]]> 314 Daniel J. Levitin 0525949690 Julie 4
Anyway, once you get into the actual nitty-gritty of the neuropsychology aspects, the book becomes much more interesting. Who knew that non-musicians can actually reproduce songs almost pitch-perfect? (provided that song doesn't have too many cover variations). And who knew that, to this day, we're still not 100% certain as to why music (and the creating of it) has endured across centuries and cultures? Deffo worth a read, especially if you're an avid music listener. ]]> 3.90 2006 This Is Your Brain on Music
author: Daniel J. Levitin
name: Julie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/27
date added: 2019/10/27
shelves:
review:
As a self-professed musicophile with some background knowledge (partly through having read 'Musicophilia', and partly because knowing how hearing works is a bit of a pre-requisite for graduating from medical school), this book should have been right up my street. And it was, partly: the one thing I'm not very certain about it the pitch of the introductory chapters, as they do seem to alternate in tone between condescending and over-simplistic, and introducing a myriad of complex concepts in about 0.3 sentences.

Anyway, once you get into the actual nitty-gritty of the neuropsychology aspects, the book becomes much more interesting. Who knew that non-musicians can actually reproduce songs almost pitch-perfect? (provided that song doesn't have too many cover variations). And who knew that, to this day, we're still not 100% certain as to why music (and the creating of it) has endured across centuries and cultures? Deffo worth a read, especially if you're an avid music listener.
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