en-US Mon, 19 Jun 2023 04:14:15 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review5629457344 Mon, 19 Jun 2023 04:14:15 -0700 /review/show/5629457344 ClareT gave 4 stars to Chinatown (Paperback) by °Õ³ó³Üận
bookshelves: 2023-read, fiction, translated-fiction, women-in-translation
I have absolutely no idea what was happening in this book. Yes, it is the thoughts of a Vietnamese teacher of English, living in Paris, stuck on the Metro with her twelve year old son. But, what is real and what isn't? What is symbolic of something else, and what is literal? I am not sure I know, especially now I have finished it.
The thoughts drift backwards and forwards in time, between her life in Paris, and her life as a student in Vietnam and Leningrad. Her parents, her lost love, the father of her son, her friends, the 'guy' she met on the plane, her hairdresser, all drift in and out of her random thoughts. Often repetitive, with the same thoughts looping back round, they all give us a glimpse into everyday life in Vietnam in the 1980s, whether real or fantasy.
Translated without any paragraphs or chapters, and all through the voice of the narrator, it is a book that as soon as I finished I put on the shelf with the intention of reading it again in the not too distant future, in the hope of gaining a better understanding, and appreciation of the nuances within the book. ]]> Review5629446716 Mon, 19 Jun 2023 04:05:10 -0700 /review/show/5629446716 ClareT gave 5 stars to On the Scent: Unlocking the Mysteries of Smell -- and How Its Loss Can Change Your World (Hardcover) by Paola Totaro
bookshelves: 2023-read, non-fiction, science
This was an unexpected delight. Like the author, I hadn't really thought much about the importance of the sense of smell, and, before Covid, didn't realise there were people who were anosmiacs.
The author, who loses her ability to smell through Covid (but later had it return), writes about a subject that is rarely touched upon. As she often points out, the sense of smell is usually treated as the least important of our five senses, and therefore, until Covid came along, was rarely studied.
She takes us through what is known and unknown about how we smell things, what it is like for those who have lost or never had a sense of smell, and some of the studies that were being undertaken before and that were accelerated during Covid.
It's a book that introduces the reader to a different way of thinking about how we perceive the world, with a lot of information in it that isn't very difficult to read, doesn't require a science background, and which does make you want to learn more about the science of smell. ]]> Review5629435772 Mon, 19 Jun 2023 03:55:13 -0700 /review/show/5629435772 ClareT gave 3 stars to The Inugami Curse (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi, #2) by Seishi Yokomizo
bookshelves: 2023-read, fiction, translated-fiction
I do enjoy a good mystery novel, but although this one is OK, it really didn't hold my attention well. Set in a remote part of Japan, the story centres on the Inugami family, following the death of the patriarch and the reading of his will; the contents of which are entirely unexpected by the family. Detective Kindaichi has been asked to visit by one of the lawyers representing the family, and there follows a series of murders all of which are linked to the will, and seemingly to some historical wrongdoing by members of the family which resulted in the Inugami Curse of the title.
There are lots of plot twists, and quite a few murders, but it is a slow and plodding book, even by the standards of this type of Japanese crime fiction. In the end I just wanted to finish it and began to care less about who had actually carried out the murders. I am not sure I will bother reading any more of the Detective Kindaichi novels in the future. ]]> Review5629427310 Mon, 19 Jun 2023 03:54:43 -0700 /review/show/5629427310 ClareT gave 4 stars to Miss Benson's Beetle (Paperback) by Rachel Joyce
bookshelves: 2023-read, fiction
This was an unexpected and enjoyable read. I'd avoided this book because it was all over social media, but on a bored afternoon at my mother-in-law's I picked it up and found myself drawn into the world of Miss Benson and Enid.
The premise of the book is that Miss Benson suddenly decides to fulfil a dream and search for a golden beetle that had been illustrated in a book she had looked at with her beetle loving father on the morning when he shot himself. Realising that she will need an assistant, she advertises in the paper for a French speaking expedition leader. After several let downs, she ends up with Enid who doesn't speak French, and knows nothing about beetles.
We follow them on an adventure which is the making of both of them, and which has several twists and turns along the way.
The book works because both Miss Benson and Enid are very different and very likeable. It is like a gentle version of Thelma and Louise set in the 1950s.
It was a compelling and easy read with an unexpected ending that I would definitely recommend. ]]> Review5629427310 Mon, 19 Jun 2023 03:47:03 -0700 /review/show/5629427310 ClareT gave 4 stars to Miss Benson's Beetle (Paperback) by Rachel Joyce
bookshelves: 2023-read, fiction
This was an unexpected and enjoyable read. I'd avoided this book because it was all over social media, but on a bored afternoon at my mother-in-law's I picked it up and found myself drawn into the world of Miss Benson and Enid.
The premise of the book is that Miss Benson suddenly decides to fulfil a dream and search for a golden beetle that had been illustrated in a book she had looked at with her beetle loving father on the morning when he shot himself. Realising that she will need an assistant, she advertises in the paper for a French speaking expedition leader. After several let downs, she ends up with Enid who doesn't speak French, and knows nothing about beetles.
We follow them on an adventure which is the making of both of them, and which has several twists and turns along the way.
The book works because both Miss Benson and Enid are very different and very likeable. It is like a gentle version of Thelma and Louise set in the 1950s.
It was a compelling and easy read with an unexpected ending that I would definitely recommend. ]]> Review5535563323 Sun, 07 May 2023 08:24:29 -0700 /review/show/5535563323 ClareT gave 1 star to Yesterday (Paperback) by Juan Emar
bookshelves: books-i-gave-up-on
This is the first time I had a DNF with a book from Pereine. I got just over halfway and decided I didn't want to carry on. I am likely to be an outlier on this one, even my husband loved the book and rated it at 5 stars, but, for me, I could cope with the oddness, ostriches fighting with lionesses, a discussion about the shades of green, but it just rambled and I couldn't work out what they author was talking about for a lot of it. I think it has been compared to works by Borges, and I struggled with those too, so probably not a big surprise.
]]> Review5468992972 Sun, 07 May 2023 07:46:35 -0700 /review/show/5468992972 ClareT gave 5 stars to Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (Paperback) by Robin Wall Kimmerer
bookshelves: 2023-read, natural-history, science, non-fiction
I bought this book some time ago, after reading Braiding Sweetgrass. And, just like Braiding Sweetgrass, it was a book to savour.
The book consists of a number of shortish essays about some aspect of moss natural history, linked into a social commentary. Before reading this book I knew nothing about mosses, but now I understand a lot more about where they are found and why, their life cycle, and their place in ecosystems. For example, why some reproduce asexually, and some sexually, why some are found on rocks, some on trees.
This is not a book that is going to make you an expert on mosses, rather it is a book that will make you interested enough in mosses to make you want to go out with a hand lens and try to become an expert.
This is likely to be one of my favourite books of the year, and it is just a pity that the author hasn't written more books. ]]> Review5535481144 Sun, 07 May 2023 07:35:48 -0700 /review/show/5535481144 ClareT gave 3 stars to They Were Sisters (Paperback) by Dorothy Whipple
bookshelves: 2023-read, fiction
This was an easy read, as so many other reviewers have said and enjoyable for all of the sadness and wasted lives within it.
The book starts from the point of view of Lucy, the oldest of the sisters, who, following the early death of her mother, put her life on hold and took responsibility for her irresponsible siblings. We have Vera, stunningly beautiful, who commands attention from anyone in the room, with her stream of male followers, and Charlotte, who falls in love and marries one her partying brothers' friends, Geoffrey.
The book follows the sisters as they get married and, in the case of Vera and Charlotte, have children, and, the impact that they have on the lives of those around them, including Lucy who tries to hold them together. Vera is incredibly self-centred, whilst Charlotte and her children live in fear of causing the anger of Geoffrey. Geoffrey is a very nasty piece of work, and Charlotte to weak to respond. Parallels can be drawn with Wemyss in Vera, written by Elizabeth von Armin, also a dark and controlling man.
At times the characters seemed a little formulaic, and the outcomes a little predictable, but this book was written in 1943, and perhaps at a time when the behaviour of controlling men, and carefree women were not quite so prevalent in literature.
I will definitely read more from Dorothy Whipple in the future.

]]> Comment260977578 Sun, 07 May 2023 07:35:12 -0700 /review/show/4858227700 JimZ's review of They Were Sisters
by Dorothy Whipple

I had the same comparison in my mind between Geoffery and Wemyss - definitely a similar type of character. ]]> Review5492432341 Sun, 07 May 2023 07:13:18 -0700 /review/show/5492432341 ClareT gave 4 stars to Hive (Paperback) by April Doyle
bookshelves: 2023-read, fiction
I was a bit dubious about whether I would like this book; it was given to me by a friend after she had seen the reviews online. Indeed, it started out quite slowly, but I got to enjoy it more and more as it went on, despite the pretty gloomy nature of the book. In fact, my worry about it was much worse as I can see that it might not be that far from the future we are creating - loss of pollinators and drought from climate change causing a lack of food, rationing being brought back, hunger driving violence and desperation, whilst those in power seem to not really lack for food.
This book tells the story of Annie, a bee researcher, and Victor, who travels round Kent with his bees pollinating the various crops. However, the bees are still dying, so Annie has to surrender her colonies.
Throw in some dubious behind the scenes work, a bit of a love back story, murder, and the philosophical and moral arguments for and against the use of artificial nano drones and you have an interesting read that perhaps shows what is to come.
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