Reviews and Comments

avatar for Ben2read@bookwyrm.social

Ben - and son (James)

Ben2read@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 4 months ago

We read together.

Follow on Fediverse

This link opens in a pop-up window

reviewed A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove (2014, Atria Books) 5 stars

A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a …

Amazing

5 stars

After having spent months reading through a very long series, I was finding it hard to pick up and get through another book.

This book cured me. At once it is annoying and compelling - the main character is at once understandable, relatable and a little strange to us.

It's a great story which will stick with you... and after reading it, you can search out other material (there's one great movie, and another not so great version).

reviewed Troofriend by Applebaum Kirsty

Troofriend (Paperback, 2020, NOSY) 5 stars

TrooFriend

5 stars

Childrens book - James is 11.

He said to rate this 5 stars (though I think The Hobbit is much better)... I would give it a 3-4 star rating (I want him to rate 'enjoyed this' books around 3 stars).

However, it's an easy read. It's a fairly basic children's story based very loosely on the I, Robot idea.

The main thing which James found he had to read on for was the fact that the main character developed traits which made it clear that it was not simply Artificial... so it was very thought provoking. The reader is also the AI narrator too.

The writing is okay, not stellar. At first it appears that many 'interesting' vocabulary is italicised, but that's done inconsistently... so I'd definitely rate it as adequate, but not high quality for language.

There are also some 'holes' in the story (for me, not for James) …