Remy Sharp

Really enjoyed it, and after reading Pearson's ‘86 fix and the sequel, I'm pretty certain I'll continue to read his books.

The book was a solid page turner, nothing too taxing and a great pairing of characters: Beth (our protagonist) and Clement the deuteragonist. They go on an adventure to find some gold to pay off a local gangster for a debt that Beth doesn't owe.

I just enjoyed the journey of following these two as trapiese through London, test their awkward boundaries and continue to question exactly where did Clement come from.

Hoping to read the sequel - Wrong'un - right away!

Loved it. I happened to read this directly after the ‘86 Fix, and although it didn't have the same “retro” feel of the first book, it was superb all the same.

Some parts of the storyline were actually quite bleak, with the hard reflective thoughts that go with “what if” - I really enjoyed this.

It ties up a bit overly perfectly at the end, but after following Craig across the two books, and all the hardships he goes through, I was actually quite see Craig have a happy ending!

The story was interesting enough, but I ended up getting frustrated with both the author's portrayal of women throughout the book (always using physical traits to describe them, like beautiful, or soft skin), and then there's an entire chapter dedicated to sexist undertones of “how women are past their prime by 30s”.

Then there was Toa himself. From what I understand from the book, he was the one who imprisoned his fellow kind in turtles and the like. So why he was surprised when Zoras (name might be wrong) was utterly pissed off and wanted revenge - is...confusing at best. From what I gathered, Toa started the war himself directly by starting to enslave the other alien beings that annoyed him. So ¯_(ツ)_/¯

A beautiful tale, and the detail of the characters, their surroundings and the history throughout the book made me often wonder if it was actually a biography!

The entire story is a eloquently walk through a character's life whose choses to made the best of what they have, and left me wanting to see things the same in my.own daily life.

Very easy and quick read (for me). The writing is extremely conversational (which makes for a nice change).

It does occasionally feels a bit here and there, rather than centred, but I kept reminding myself that the book started as a one woman stand up, so it's understandable.

None the less, the book is littered with (genuinely) laugh out loud moments (took me a good few minutes to stop laughing at the hearing-aid anecdote), and beautiful insights as well as kind words for those (of us) with mental illness.

A future in my past written in a distant past. What an amazing book. Orwell's writing has lasted near perfectly (i.e. modern and in context) some 70 years later (which frankly blows my mind).

The story breaks into three parts as we make our way into Winston's mind. Part 1 reads like I'm learning around his world and how he experiences it. The mundane work, the acceptance of his role, whilst he secretly scratches his mind back.

In part 2, I feel like I'm taking into Winston's heart as he re-experiences the world and the life and love that still exists in it. I loved some of the expressions and sadness that came with those expressions. Such as Winston knowing that what he was doing was against the “rules”, and that it was simply an inevitability of being caught and tortured.

He believes that he's given up his body already to the world of 1984, and when the Thought Police catch him, they'll take his mind, and so long as he protects his heart, he'll live on.

Part 3 is mostly from inside of Winston's mind, as O'Brian works firstly to break Winston's mind, but then puts it back together in The Party's form. The place that O'Brian (and thusly The Party) comes from is entirely bleak and worse, believable in my own reality today.

O'Brian utters phrases like:

> Nonsense. The earth is as old as we are, no older. How could it be older? Nothing exists except through human consciousness.

Bleak.

Eventually, there's no winning. There's no happy ending. There never could be. Winston's heart is pierced, he's made to love Big Brother, and only then, when he's fully remade in The Party's eyes, does it end. For him, and for us.

I've now read two Carrie Fisher books and I've loved them both. She is...was such a superb author chock full of quotable lines.

This novel is structured differently to anything I've read so far (which isn't saying a great deal) starting as postcards, then as a she says/he says diary, then as “typical” third person. The book itself is also split into parts that remind me of an indie movie from the 90s (which I think it actually became) whose style is very much a monologue of the protagonist.

I really enjoyed following along the character of Suzanne Vale. The only chapter/part I struggled a little with was Dysphoria, which felt much more like a gossip paper about Hollywood - it's not that it wasn't good, just that some of the reference and lifestyle was a little beyond my being able to connect.

All in all though, I love Fishers prose and I love that reading on the Kindle lets me highlight as I go along (37 highlights from this book!).

Such good fun. I think my favourite character was actually Dog. I loved the inner monologue that went with the Hell Hound!

I don't think I've read a story with so many characters intertwining throughout a story (though, truth be told: I've not read many stories!) - and this book did a superb job of keeping all the characters unique, interesting and coherent.

The story (for me), started fairly light (in heart) and towards the last quarter it goes rather dark - although this may be to be expected as the Armageddon is at hand. This also did wonders for my nightmares (I had three consecutive nights dreaming about my own End Of The World dreams).

I'm also really impressed that two different authors created the story in a way that feels completely unified (and this edition included a Q&A chapter at the end where Pratchett and Gaiman share their process and thoughts on each other).

Really fun stuff and included some real laugh out loud moments. The entire last chapter could have been highlighted too - beautiful closing message.

Fun stuff. I didn't realise this was the sixth novel of a series, but it really didn't matter - and almost added more depth since the characters had a lot more backstory.

Robert Rankin's writing is really fun too. Lots of quick wit throughout the book, the kind that I wish I could come up with in my daily life!

The story is a kind of comical farce whereby history has somehow shifted and things aren't quite what they're supposed to be.

I'm not quite sure if the story is supposed to have a single protagonist or whether it's more of an ensemble. It certainly mostly follows Jim, John and Soap (great...weird, name!). Then there's multiple side characters that I half suspect might have more story in other Brentwood books.

All the same, it was really fun to read a book that clearly had a wide range of characters with more stories to tell.

Quite brilliant.

The books I've read previously create pockets of world's to tell a story in. The War with the Newts, Capek create an all encompassing story that not only covers the entire planet earth, but also allows for economical, sociological, financial and political effects of the tale being told.

The book can sometimes come across as a quite dry historical account of how the world, and indeed, mankind came to exist with the Newts. But then throughout the book we follow a very small number of characters and eventually returning to the butler who burdened himself with the guilt of introducing the newts to the world, which leads to the inevitable near-end of mankind.

I found the story telling quite brilliant in the ability to describe, in such believable detail, the impact of these newts being on earth, the changes to their environment that allowed for their growth and the world wide impact of this ecological change.

But it was the last two chapters that really won the story for me. The penultimate chapter has us revisiting the butler in his 70s taking a rowing trip with his son, and where he so confidently tells his son that they're safe in Prague. His son isn't so sure, and in a turn towards the end of the chapter, we see that the butler has been carrying the torment of “what if...”, what if he had made a different decision: would the world's fate be in safe hands now?

Then the final chapter was (again, sorry) quite brilliant. A discussion between the author and himself as the writer, trying to determine if mankind's fate is truly doomed. Whether humankind has any way to save itself from its own inevitable self destruction through greed and fear. Or whether the newts are inevitably prone to the same failings as humankind too...

A tough, and sometime dry read, but really quite excellent!

The story of an 11 year old boy after his father dies. The story uses a unique story telling device where it's told from the boys mind (or imagined diary), but the result is a stream of consciousness, littered with rule-breaking authoring techniques.

I can imagine this method coming off as forced or trite. But Haig's book manages to execute really well.

There's some vivid scenes of loss that touch my own personal childhood, remembering my own mother in the early chapters.

The boy himself believes he's being visited by his deceased father who asks him to enact revenge for his recent death.

The boy, Philip, struggles with his own confused feelings of being a boy, being 11 and starting to see more of the world, and being thrown into a new family structure. It's all too much for him.

Being inside his head you can understand his actions, and it makes me wonder about how we judge someone from the outside who behaves so oddly or “badly”.

Ultimately we're left to decide for ourselves whether the boy is really seeing ghosts, though one thing is clear by the end: he'll need counselling to get through the next 15 years.

A good, fast, little read, perfect for holiday reading.

Loved this book. For me, it puts a magnifying glass on the grotesque behaviours that men have and still do, inflict on women, simply because of gender, this warped idea that one is stronger than the other. As a man this book is a huge insight into the reality of the power struggle, along with being a great page turner and great thriller.

I read this aloud to my son at bedtime (6 turning 7 in a month). It took a chunk of time, and making the voices distinct was fun and tricky!

I asked him to give me the review, so the 5 stars is his (I'd have given it 4, but the book was for him).

—


Boy called Darkus found a beetle and had 2 friends, blew up the emporium, and got his dad back and Lauretta Cutter got away.

I liked them building Basecamp.

—

❤️

(warning: not really a review, more of a thing to remind me of the book)

Overall, a fairly cinematic story akin to the genre I'd expect The Matrix to fall into. If I'm completely honest, I did occasionally lose track of what was going on through the story (it took me a good few weeks to read it), but the story and two main characters managed to carry me along.

I also have to admit that it took me a little while to get past the corny named main character “Hiro Protagonist” and the overly macho techno all black, motorcycles and swords. Of course, Hiro is the world's best swordsman...obviously. Though when I just went with it, it was pretty good fun.

Neal Stephenson writing was extremely good at visualising a scene and the objects in the world the characters live in (in reading the acknowledgement I learnt that the book was intended as a graphic novel and I wonder if there was graphic work he was describing). All the same, it was very easy to read and see the world as we moved from reality, to the metaverse (virtual world), to vehicles and different landscapes.

There's a tonne of historical and religious background to the story too, most of which I understand to be based on real research (from our universe) and the depth of which was incredible.

The Snow Crash is (supposed to be) a virus that exists in both the digital world and the real world. The story creates (perhaps tenuous?) links between computer/digital ideas and pre-biblical times explaining that the story of Babel was the first instance of the virus, transmitted through verbal programming, affecting humankind.

The two other main-ish characters were Y.T (a young women/teenager who we follow in parallel with Hiro) and Raven. Y.T. is really fun, and perhaps more relatable since she's a little more “regular” (compared with Hiro) - just kitted out with lots of tricks in her suit.

Raven is the uber baddie, throwing glass spears, cutting through bulletproof suits and generally being invisible. He definitely plays the “main henchman” really well, and we even get to understand his motives which I love for a “proper” baddie.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, left a little confused about the motivation about some of the connections in the book (like what really motivates Y.T. to join forces with Hiro, or how Hiro was one of the first creators of the metaverse, yet he's somehow a promotor for his roommate's band...).

Sorry, not much of a review, more a prompt for my own memory in years to come!

I read this book based on a recommendation regarding eating fats. On the title alone, I probably would have ignored this book, but the contents is absolutely superb.

If you're interested in nutrition and how the human body works (and obesity/fat and type 2 diabetes) then this book is a superb match.

The majority of the book is dedicated to understanding the problems of food consumption and how it affects our bodies.

Importantly, the pages are chock full of references to real scientific studies that support the claims.

The last part of the book is dedicated to long term maintenance and long term change (since all diets eventually fail due to the body adjusting it's energy expenditure for the calories being consumed). This is where the studies are a little thinner on the ground, bug Fung uses logic to argue his case (there are some studies, but not as such high frequency as the rest of the book).

All in all, this book has changed my views on dietary fats, helped me understand why we get fat and finally shown me why fasting works.

Highly recommended.

Really quite beautiful. I found myself drawing out my reading time for this book, and almost wanting to find a tree to sit under and slowly soak up this story.

It's a story of love, loss and loneliness (or so I read), and it's was beautifully paced dropping back and forth from different points in time for the two main characters. Describing emotions and the tiniest moments in such a loving and tender way. It truly made me want to slow down and just watch the love that moves around us every day.

I want to give this a 4.5 but the stars apparently must be whole or not at all. I just found the ending a little abrupt. But that may have also been confused by the fact that the last 6% (10-ish minutes) of the book was an interview with the author (which was interesting enough), it just threw me when the tale was finished.

All the same, quite beautiful.

I've read and enjoyed the previous two Clement stories. This story was fun, and a very easy read (for me to get through 400 pages in a matter of days is testament to that).

The story follows a journalist, Emma in her mid-40s, living in London on her own and being handed crappy assignments, whilst she's still hungry for her big break.

She comes across Clement (our 70s angel trying to - somehow - find redemption) and he's drawn to her knowing that he must help her in some way. Enter the Clawthorn Club and the story.

Overall, the story is enjoyable, and it's nice to get a little into the feelings of Clement (having read the two previous installments). The story does have some predictable (to me) twists, but it doesn't hurt the reading experience too much.

Sadly the author decided this was the book to push his own opinions about the current climate of how women are to take daily microaggressions.

I understand that Clement's language and attitudes stem from the 60s and 70s which leads to some socially jarring language. This is what adds to Clement's charm, that when he's pulled up on the language be it “casual” racism or sexism he listens to the feedback and adjusts when appropriate.

This book is different to the previous installments, as this story is sprinkled with the protagonist, Emma, casually putting down other women's own struggles. These times throughout the book don't contribute to the characters nor did it help the story along, so I sense this is more that the author is shoehorning their own opinions in. Which served to annoy and frustrate me when I bumped into those random moments in the book.

I did enjoy this story (the 3 stars wasn't a 5 for any negative reasons) - it's pretty well paced, and discusses some particularly interesting ideas – and at the time I read this book whilst I was also reading [b:A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes 30135182 A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived The Stories in Our Genes Adam Rutherford https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462740264s/30135182.jpg 50566865] which is pertinent to the subject matter The Chrysalids covers: genetics.This particular edition was also prefaced with an introduction essay, which I feel like I'm cheating when I read, because it explains core concepts much more explicitly and throughout the story, these ideas are provided additional context for me.The story follows David and his struggle to fit in in the world (or certainly his world). The planet has been ravished by something that has scrambled DNA across all life, and humanity (as we meet it in the start of the book) is holding dearly onto “pure” existence. “Pure” being applied to crops, animals and humans, or “man”. The result of a non-pure human (an extra toe or misshapen bones or perhaps an extra chromosome?) leads to that individual being sent to the “Fringes”, perhaps even exiled to the Badlands, or just murdered. For intolerance.Except David does not fit in, and the community is ultimately fearful of change and they religiously to stem it's progress. The thing is: life is change.—One of the more poignant moments (to me) was between David and his uncle (who is sympathetic to “Deviations”), where his uncle questions the ideas and definitions of “pure” and “pure man”, and how it is horribly flawed. This entire exchange prompted me to consider what we, in our society and our communities accept as written in stone. And perhaps I'd do well to remember that just because something “is” doesn't mean it should be.—A character that I struggled a little with, was Sophie. Her character early in the story was strong and inquisitive about the world. When we meet her much later in the story and in life, she knows what she wants, but her wants are limited to the world she now exists in. Specifically she works to protect her position as the raped partner of the head of her tribe. Sophie's character is possibly the most heartbreaking, and I wish she had been able to escape her destiny.Yet, when David, his cousin Rosalind and his sister Petra escape to a new land at the end of the story, the intolerance exists in this new community, though it seems the only difference is that they know that they will be succeeded eventually (and not without putting up a fight).

My hospital read! I spent a day and night in hospital for tonsillitis, and managed to read through this book (though there's not a whole lot to do in hospital!).

Originally this book was destined for a 3 star, but the last 5th of the book started to really pull the story together and made for quite a fun and gripping ending.

—

I selected this book to read because it was Ben Elton, and I'd read a few of his books before and was expecting satirical, witty and possibly funny. I did not expect this book! The characters are certainly witty, but there's no comedy to be found. This is a dark detective story.

The story did feel a little crowded for the first half, it follows the protagonist Edward Newson, a detective inspector and a good one to boot. Newson is extremely well centred with respect to his work, and it makes him a good detective.

In his personal life, he's off centre, but as the reader, I found his judgement quite questionable - and I'm not 100% sure if his character arc leaves him any better at the end.

At the surface of the story, we have a murder mystery. A pretty graphically gruesome murder. Then there's some very strong elements of sex - and very graphic hardcore sex (which, I didn't really realise I was signing up to). Then there's a heavy bullying theme: how if affects an individual decades on, how the bullies continue to live, if they can move past it, whether it's rooted to their soul or not. Then there's unrequited love. Then there's nostalgia and reaching into the past and trying to rekindle feelings of hope and love and happiness.

So...yeah, it felt a little crowded.

Thankfully the last quarter somehow manages to pull a lot of the themes together (and drops a few on the way).

In the end, I enjoyed the story and enjoyed the gripping ending. It did all tie up a little too nicely, but then it's a story, so why shouldn't it?! :)

Unsure. I have to admit that reading this book I often felt a little lost as to what was happening and why, but just carried on to enjoy the ride.

Reading a book that so significantly influenced modern cinema such as The Matrix and the like, it's interesting to read the descriptions of movement in and out of the matrix (little-m).

I'm also not entirely sure how the book ended, and without the final chapter which tidied up a few things, I would have been rather lost and confused!!!

Good ride. Not sure I'm too bothered about the trilogy, but I would try another William Gibson book in future.