I'm a shy lurker who enjoys friendly interaction but is bad at initiating. I like reading.
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What my stars mean:
★☆☆☆☆ Hated it
★★☆☆☆ Didn't like it
★★★☆☆ It was OK
★★★★☆ Liked it
★★★★★ Loved it
Academics can be cocky. Atop their perches of authority high …
Typical K.J. Parker Fare
3 stars
Citizen Gyges has a chat with his city’s foremost scholars. He has a small request. A tiny one, really.
A quintessentially K. J. Parker novella. Wanting a far too clever for his own good narrator, who is a bit shifty but deep-down basically decent? Check. In need of a complicated scheme involving many moving parts? Parker has got your back.
If you generally enjoy Parker’s books, you’ll like this. I was vaguely disappointed by the denouement, but all in all, found it a delight.
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity …
Not a Weir fan
3 stars
Waking up, attached to strange medical equipment, he realises that he doesn’t know where he is, why he’s there, or who he even is.
The concept is fine, interesting even, but I do not enjoy Weir’s writing style. In fact, I’d forgotten just how much I dislike it in the decade since I read “The Martian”.
I find Weir tediously didactic, he over-explains everything, and so many plot points are so blatantly telegraphed, it makes a mockery of his supposedly intelligent characters. Speaking of which, I really don’t like Weir’s characters, particularly the protagonist.
Ryland Grace is a cardboard cut-out who cracks unfunny “jokes”, and tiresomely describes his every move. Grace’s character is just flat, despite him crying constantly (that’s how we know he is sad), or him being the coolest teacher ever.
Captain Tova Lir chose a life as a courier rather than get involved in her …
A little too cute
3 stars
Tova Lir — captain, courier, mentor — has a few mysteries to solve, and she needs to figure out the answers before an assassin can strike.
I found this very light and frothy, and with a much too cutesy vibe for my tastes. It also has no misdirections or explorations of any kind, it’s a simple story told in a straightforward manner. This is not a bad thing, but I like curlicues, details, miscellanea, and complex characters in my fiction. Not bad, but not for me.
Maya is a “camera” who broadcasts, not only what she sees, but also what she feels, to billions worldwide. And she just found something worth sharing.
After really enjoying Reed’s short story The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For, I was looking forward to reading this novel, originally published in the 90s. The edition I read included a laudatory foreword by Jo Walton, an author whose opinion I respect, and in retrospect probably raised my expectations a little too high.
Though full of fascinating ideas, and doesn’t read like an old-fashioned relic, it isn’t really my type of sci-fi. Still an interesting book, and Reed wrote some shockingly prescient things. Sadly, not the good kind.
Also, I either prefer Reed’s shorter fiction, or perhaps her newer work. For me, it just didn’t rise to the level of The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving …
Maya is a “camera” who broadcasts, not only what she sees, but also what she feels, to billions worldwide. And she just found something worth sharing.
After really enjoying Reed’s short story The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For, I was looking forward to reading this novel, originally published in the 90s. The edition I read included a laudatory foreword by Jo Walton, an author whose opinion I respect, and in retrospect probably raised my expectations a little too high.
Though full of fascinating ideas, and doesn’t read like an old-fashioned relic, it isn’t really my type of sci-fi. Still an interesting book, and Reed wrote some shockingly prescient things. Sadly, not the good kind.
Also, I either prefer Reed’s shorter fiction, or perhaps her newer work. For me, it just didn’t rise to the level of The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For, in either writing or world-building. That said, I’m looking forward to the novel she’s publishing this year.
Why did a hotspot of horrific, and oddly specific crimes spill across part of the US, during certain decades?
Though Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers is well-written and interesting, I’m not sure I’d have made it through the chapters where Fraser lays out the crimes against humanity and nature wrought by industry. While informative, had I been unaware of the lead theory, I would have found it strangely off-topic, and possibly moved on to a different book. I’m still not sure there wasn’t more going on than just poison warping a generation of men, but I certainly don’t know enough to opine.
This book really does read like a True Crime novel, but though the author deftly manages to keep tension constantly mounting throughout, there is no final revelation to release it. And while the catalogue of horrors inflicted throughout the decades is …
Why did a hotspot of horrific, and oddly specific crimes spill across part of the US, during certain decades?
Though Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers is well-written and interesting, I’m not sure I’d have made it through the chapters where Fraser lays out the crimes against humanity and nature wrought by industry. While informative, had I been unaware of the lead theory, I would have found it strangely off-topic, and possibly moved on to a different book. I’m still not sure there wasn’t more going on than just poison warping a generation of men, but I certainly don’t know enough to opine.
This book really does read like a True Crime novel, but though the author deftly manages to keep tension constantly mounting throughout, there is no final revelation to release it. And while the catalogue of horrors inflicted throughout the decades is unflinchingly, and graphically recorded, Fraser is never lurid, and always shows empathy towards the victims.
As a history of serial killers, this is an astounding book. As a history of the poisoning of the Pacific Northwest, this is an interesting book. For me, the weakest part was the interweaving of the author’s own life. It felt superfluous, and I found it distracting. Taken as a whole? A cracking read.
A surprising and varied collection of letters on the subject of sex curated by the …
Slightly disappointing
3 stars
A collection of letters about sex from various people of note.
While I really enjoy the Letters of Note blog, I obviously don’t find all letters equally appealing or interesting. This is also true for Letters of Note: Sex. While I found some interesting, some well-written and interesting, the bulk of them weren’t particularly compelling and the book as a whole paled in comparison to the average Letters of Note newsletter.
The letters run the gamut of sweet to quite explicit, and though all were about sex, none were, themselves, sexy. Particularly not the more explicit ones. The language and imagery used in the letters (presumably) intended to entice were hopefully received as alluring or erotic by the recipient, but I found it awkward, risible, and sometimes repellent.
I actually found myself enjoying the introductions to the letters most. They were informative, succinct, and well-written.
"From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, …
Enjoyable twist to a fairytale
3 stars
Anja drinks poison. A lot.
Healer Anja, the usual competent Kingfisher protagonist, is hired to uncover the mystery of how someone is being poisoned. Cats, bodyguards, some really creepy bits, and a satisfyingly true to life resolution of the final, niggling “plot hole” make this an enjoyable twist on a certain fairytale.
Princess Marra needs to figure out how to rescue not only herself, but her siblings too.
Another enjoyable fantasy from T. Kingfisher. This one feels a little darker in tone than Kingfisher’s non-horror fare, and is very fairytalesque, with godmothers, and princesses, and kings. As usual, Marra the protagonist is satisfyingly down-to-earth, and works with the tools at her disposal to attain her goals. A nice, quick read about comeuppances and chickens.
One of the most acclaimed books of our time, winner of both the Pulitzer and …
Long, but worthwhile
3 stars
A potted history of a city, and a multitude of mini biographies are all contained within a shockingly in-depth biography of a single man. A man who shaped one of the biggest cities in the world in large, literally concrete ways. This is an amazing work, and I cannot begin to understand how Caro managed to pull this all together into a cohesive, readable book.
It is long, at times tedious, often shocking, and always illuminating, but definitely most interesting if you have more than a passing familiarity with New York City. I have only visited once, and thus miss a lot of the subtleties of Moses’ machinations. Nevertheless, this was a rewarding book to read, and I wish it were possible for me to visit NYC again (not happening on this timeline), and pay attention to all the places mentioned.
Caro is an adept writer, at first …
A potted history of a city, and a multitude of mini biographies are all contained within a shockingly in-depth biography of a single man. A man who shaped one of the biggest cities in the world in large, literally concrete ways. This is an amazing work, and I cannot begin to understand how Caro managed to pull this all together into a cohesive, readable book.
It is long, at times tedious, often shocking, and always illuminating, but definitely most interesting if you have more than a passing familiarity with New York City. I have only visited once, and thus miss a lot of the subtleties of Moses’ machinations. Nevertheless, this was a rewarding book to read, and I wish it were possible for me to visit NYC again (not happening on this timeline), and pay attention to all the places mentioned.
Caro is an adept writer, at first coaxing admiration from the reader for the young Moses, which quickly cools to a disdain for the forceful and underhanded means in which mature Moses conducts much of his dealings. However, by the end, while the author seems sympathetic to the elderly man, this feeling did not transfer to me. I felt nothing but contempt for the old man mourning his loss of power.
While Caro is a fine writer, this book is from 1974, and some language he uses is absolutely past its sell-by date. Disconcertingly so. Nevertheless, it’s an utterly overwhelming book, and a staggering accomplishment by an author.
Kitty has an affair which leads to difficult consequences.
I didn’t care for this. Unlike “Of Human Bondage” in which Maugham mesmerised me with his prose, I found the dialogue stilted, flat and the writing tiresome. When I looked it up, I was stunned to learn “The Painted Veil” was written a decade after “Of Human Bondage”.
Kitty, the rather unpleasant protagonist, is a spoilt, shallow child of a woman who marries a man she barely even likes, on a whim. Her development throughout the novel didn’t ring true, and seemed unlikely, making her character feel flat and unbelievable. I just couldn’t manage to suspend my disbelief of the transformation she undergoes. I found the setting bland, didn’t care for any of the characters, didn’t enjoy the plot, and felt very disappointed by the ending. In short, not for me.
Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532. London, 1837. Boston, 2019.
Three young women, their …
Slight twists to classic lore
3 stars
Alice, Charlotte and Maria all hunger for a life different than circumstance has afforded them.
An enjoyable read with a slightly different take on vampires. I love the title, and the twists to classic vampire lore Schwab plays with. Much of the book is historical fiction, and also queer, both of which I find appealing.
While I found the stories of Maria and Charlotte most engaging, Alice’s used a few tropes I am thoroughly tired of. Her chapters were the ones I least enjoyed. I also found the denouement somewhat lacking. Otherwise, a fun read with well-defined characters and interesting storylines.
Spring, 1875, in the Cherokee Nation West. A baby, a black hired hand, a bay …
Good, but sprawling
3 stars
Check, matriarch and soon-to-be-widow, attempts to keep friends and family safe while living in the Cherokee Nation in 1875.
A fine read, but a little too sprawling and unfocused for my tastes. I found Verble’s “Stealing” a much more intimate and compelling read. Partly because “Cherokee America” isn’t written in first person, but also because its wide-ranging portrayal of a time and place which touches upon many characters and situations lacks the sensitive depiction of a single protagonist I so appreciated in “Stealing”.
In nineteenth-century Russia, the wife of an important government official loses her family and social …
This is not a love story
2 stars
Anna Karenina falls in love with Count Vronsky.
Considered one of the great novels, after reading ‘Anna Karenina’ I’m not sure why. This is my first Tolstoy and while I enjoyed a couple of Dostoyevsky novels ages ago, I’m unsure whether I simply don’t care for Tolstoy or have meanwhile soured on Russian classics in general.
Though the prose might be sublime in the original, I read the Maude translation and found it fair to middling. It was bloodless and dispassionate, with a lot of telling and little showing. Nothing really seems to happen or matter, even though there are deaths and births and scandals.
There are many characters with many names, and because no-one is particularly interesting, they tended to blend together. Once nicknames were added to the mix, I really struggled at times. Add in the excessive amounts of philosophising on religion, politics, peasantry, and …
Anna Karenina falls in love with Count Vronsky.
Considered one of the great novels, after reading ‘Anna Karenina’ I’m not sure why. This is my first Tolstoy and while I enjoyed a couple of Dostoyevsky novels ages ago, I’m unsure whether I simply don’t care for Tolstoy or have meanwhile soured on Russian classics in general.
Though the prose might be sublime in the original, I read the Maude translation and found it fair to middling. It was bloodless and dispassionate, with a lot of telling and little showing. Nothing really seems to happen or matter, even though there are deaths and births and scandals.
There are many characters with many names, and because no-one is particularly interesting, they tended to blend together. Once nicknames were added to the mix, I really struggled at times. Add in the excessive amounts of philosophising on religion, politics, peasantry, and sundry other thoughts that occurred to Tolstoy, and it all makes for dull reading. While, at times, he displays extreme insight into people and emotions, Tolstoy will then quickly shatter the moment by shifting to different characters having an irrelevant conversation.
Characters are wracked by pointless anxieties which crop up constantly, something I found irritating rather than illuminating. And while Tolstoy states that every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, I found his unhappy families all alike.
I suppose I’m glad I read it, but it really felt like one of those serialised novels where the author was paid by word. Ultimately, I didn’t care for it, and found it a slog.
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends …
Not my kinda crime
3 stars
A group of retirees get together every Thursday and solve cold cases, but one day a hot one in need of solving shows up.
I wanted to like this more than I actually did. While I understand why people enjoy these books, they just aren’t my kind of thing. I didn’t like the crimes, nor the resolutions, and had issues suspending my disbelief about how much detecting the Murder Club could actually do, and found it all a bit too sappy in the end.
Det. Maritza Smith needs to solve the mystery inside Rose House, but the only way she can get in is if Dr. Selene Gisil allows it.
While I very much enjoyed Martine’s Teixcalaan Series, and I found the idea behind Rose/House extremely appealing, I didn’t care for this at all. I found the characters bland, the prose slippery and overly descriptive, and the denouement ultimately unsatisfying. I’d much rather read another Teixcalaan novel.
