book
Wants to read I Have Some Questions for You
Wants to read Capital Is Dead. Is This Something Worse?
Added A Psalm for the Wild-Built to Want to Read
Rated The Air Raid Book Club 6/10
Quick easy read. Little repetitive, but shines a nice light.<br/><br/>The story starts in 1938 and we follow Gertie as she plans to retire as a widow having run a bookshop and successful book clubs for many years.<br/><br/>That's put on hold when she agrees to take in a child from the Kindertransport - which I'd know about but hadn't read a great deal of detail. <br/><br/>As a parent myself, this is the first part that breaks my brain a little, and indeed this part is entirely based in history. An amazing effort and so terrible too. <br/><br/>The story then follows Gertie as she takes care of Hedy, a 15 year old German Jew who also longs to be reunited with her family.<br/><br/>The story takes us through The Blitz, the air raid shelters, rolling blackouts and rationing that took place over the years as Hitler and the Nazis spread through Europe.<br/><br/>I've not read any wartime books, so this was an experience. Obviously: harrowing. The story does also do a good job of making me believe the life that tries to march on.
Rated Reasons to Be Cheerful 6/10
Honestly not sure what I thought of the book…<br/><br/>I'm unsure how I got this on my to-read list. I think I was looking for funny books from the last few years. I didn't laugh once reading this book though. It was a sweet story, set in the 80s, but I'm not sure where the arc was.<br/><br/>The story is told from the perspective of Lizzie, an 18 year old young woman who moves out of home to work as an assistant to a dentist. The dentist himself is fairly sexist and xenophobic. The mother (of the protagonist) is … hard to describe. In short, she's a pain in Lizzie's arse - though she definitely loves her.<br/><br/>I think there's some part of flying the nest and finding your own feet, but Lizzie somehow ends up in a very similar place by the end of the book. There's times I was reading and thinking surely she's going to realise that she herself is actually a good dentist and will take that path, but nope, she ends up as a clothes store assistant, so … I don't know.<br/><br/>It was cute to have 80s nostalgia peppered throughout the book, the highlight being the salad spinner (which my own mother still owns and I definitely remember spinning it for fun).<br/><br/>I guess I was left with the sense of _why did I read what I read_?
Rated Tokyo Express 6/10
Lovely old time detective story.<br/><br/>I do love an old book. Written in 1958, post war in Japan, mostly a story about...sort of...trains. <br/><br/>I knew Japan was big on trains (similarly to the UK, it's our mode of transport), but reading about how they would plan their journey often sleeping overnight, upright, on the train to get from one place to another.<br/><br/>The crime is linked to trains and journeys and planning. <br/><br/>It's a nice, short enough, straightforward detective story that cross from one generation of detective (old, slow, "classic"), to young(er) and determined.<br/><br/>There are parts where I'm wondering what _real_ evidence they have to follow up or chase down particular individuals, but it gets a pass being nearly 70 years old.
Rated When the Cranes Fly South 8/10
Took me a minute to get into, but then…I cried. The good kind.<br/><br/>It took me until around 20% of the book to get on with it properly. I was struggling to even want to pick up the book. It's well written, but the subject, _end of life_, was so unappealing that I found myself wanting to avoid reading the book.<br/><br/>At some point around 1/5 of the way in, this feeling settled and I was swept along by the narrative that the main character, Bo, gives us.<br/><br/>I think reading this there's going to be different aspects that hit different people hardest. I'm not a dog person, so the thread about Sixten, his dog, though sad (the dog doesn't die!) it didn't gut punch me.<br/><br/>I did however relate hard to the inner monologue not linking up to what's actually said. Something I suspect most people can relate to - which I suspect is the reason this book is well recommended.<br/><br/>The book is told almost exclusively from the thoughts of Bo, the elderly 89 year old man (which took me quite a few pages to actually work out). From his thoughts we travel back and forth in his memory which worked really well. I didn't feel lost at all, maybe because Bo's memories felt like they flowed naturally back and forth.<br/><br/>The story really does feel like it's being faithful to the human flaws many of us share.<br/><br/>It also, for me, did an excellent job of building up my relationship with Bo and gently brought me to tears right at the end in a way that made me message my kids to tell them I love them.
Rated Close to Home 8/10
Solid reading, what I've come to expect from Hunter.<br/><i></i><br/>Having now read three of the Adam Fawley books, albeit in reverse order, I've come to expect a certain level of story telling from Cara Hunter and this as the first book does not disappoint.<br/><br/>Having recently read the 2nd book (though the order isn't crucial) the twist device was a little familiar but it didn't distract from the story, nor did I predict any part of the story.<br/><br/>Enjoyable as a British based modern investigation story that leans more on (what I imagine is) police work rather than glamorous whodunit style reveals.<br/><br/>Looking forward to reading the fourth installment.
Rated Another England: How to Reclaim Our National Story 6/10
"Our diverse literary heritage reveals that we do not _need_ a single national story"<br/><br/>I bought and read this book after seeing Caroline Lucas speaking with Zack Polanski during a live session of Bold Politics. It's a book that tries to reclaim "Englishness" from the weaponising that the Far Right have been using it for.<br/><br/>Overall, it's an interesting read, lots of history, both good and bad, lots of literature and how stories and poetry has been used over the centuries to act as a force for political change for good.<br/><br/>Solidarity and standing up for what's right is the theme the ran through for me.<br/><br/>From a technical perspective, I didn't enjoy that nearly every single page also came with a long paragraph of footnotes - which normally I skip (because it goes off to the end of the book and back, but these were inline on the same page), and completely broke the flow of what I was reading. I wish that these had simply been part of the written content rather than regular sidebars.<br/><br/>Then as I read, I felt like perhaps I wasn't quite the audience to fully appreciate the book. There's certainly a good chunk that is accessible, but it often felt like if I worked in politics this content would make more sense.<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>I did come away with 23 highlights and wanted to highlight more, partly to remember what I had read, partly as a "wow, I did not know".<br/><br/>I think if you enjoy your history and commentary _and_ literature, then you'll enjoy this book. I struggle to read non-fiction in any reasonable amount of time, so I often find by the time I get to the end of a book, I forget the important things from the start!<br/>
Rated A Very Merry Murder 6/10
Fine. Easy read. Guessed the murdered though 🤷<br/><br/>Grabbed it for the Christmas period (slightly annoyed I finished it on Jan 2nd). It's decently written, apparently part of a series (this being book 6) but stands fine on it's own. There's a few references to something that happened before, but doesn't affect the story.<br/><br/>It does read like a Columbo or Murder She Wrote, where there's people killing other people like it's just another Wednesday. All ends are fully tied up without anything left to the reader by the end.<br/><br/>I did figure out the killer around 1/3rd of the way in - or at least I keep asking the protagonist "What about X?!".<br/><br/>Not terribly Christmasy, but the very last chapter was very sweet.
Rated In Bloom 8/10
No quite the same murderfest from Sweetpea 1, but still enjoyably angry at the world.<br/><br/>I think I expected the same kind of murder spree from the first book, and it's not that at all (although Rhiannon, the protagonist, desperately wants that). It's actually written on the tin, In Bloom is Rhiannon's experience of being pregnant - which, for a change, rolls up all the shitty experiences into one.<br/><br/>I enjoyed, and laughed at, the cutting turn of phrases - the kind of brutal honesty that you might reserve for the closest of friends knowing that it's for the "inside voice".<br/><br/>I can see myself reading the next instalment in the book (though perhaps not so soon) and I'm not entirely sure where the character can go given the way the book ends, so that's definitely intriguing.<br/><br/>But just for the the record (my record!), Rhiannon is a terrible person!
Rated Yellowface 8/10
Brilliantly written, almost car-crash like reading.<br/><br/>The story is very much set in the publishing world, which isn't something I know very well or is directly relatable, but I was still brilliantly drawn in by Kuang's characters.<br/><br/>It took me a while to fully realise that the protagonist, Juniper Song, is white (even if it says it right there in the blurb!), which, when it was written down in text made a lot of story even more cringe.<br/><br/>It's an interesting view into an individual being cancelled, then un-cancelled, then…somehow digging a deeper hole. I really couldn't find myself feeling any sympathy with the Juniper character and found myself often saying (albeit in my head): just walk away, start a-new, the damage is done.<br/><br/>Along side the cancel story, Kuang lets me, as a white reader, look in on a world where I don't really have any experience: Asian American culture in literature (and work), and how race is always in play for better or worse.<br/><br/>A great, intelligent read. Even if it keep making me think of the Batman slap meme...
Rated Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow 10/10
Favourite book of my year: wonderful. <br/><br/>I loved the characters. I've loved the story telling. I loved the passion around work. I loved the love between the characters. <br/><br/>Crossing multiple decades but the crux takes place during the height of 1990s PC gaming. i.e. shortly after Doom - and our characters are games makers. <br/><br/>Though the weaving part is their company that makes games, I wouldn't call this a "gamer's book". I'm certainly not a gamer by their measure, but the story put into their game design and the love they have is infectious.<br/><br/>The book left me genuinely inspired. The character _Marx_ makes me want to be more like him. He has purpose in helping others without being a martyr.<br/><br/>What's more, the book left me wanting to **make**. I love that hungry creative feeling (even if it's slightly dampened by having _too_ many projects!).<br/><br/>Loved it. Strong recommend.
Rated Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 10/10
I read this to my son, who turned 7 just after we started. We did end up doing some epic bedtime reading sessions to complete whole chapters. And as with books I've read to him, I shall let his own words dictate this review :)<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>I liked the bit where Harry goes underground and in the house, because I wish I had a scary house under the whomping willow.<br/><br/>When Black came into the room, I thought it was scary, and I thought it was going to happen in my bedroom!<br/><br/>The sad bit was when Buckbeak died (but oh yeah, they rescued him).<br/><br/>It's good, and a little bit scary.<br/><br/>---
Rated Sweetpea 8/10
Funny, unwavering and dark.<br/><br/>Rhiannon, Sweetpea, is according to BuzzFeed, a serial killer - and probably a psychopath. For the first half of the book I just read it as she's a bit crazy and has decided to act on her impulses.<br/><br/>Except as I carried on reading, I realised that what she was doing was listing the things that piss her off all the time and just landed at the inevitable conclusion that the only way to get rid of these things is to get rid of these things. Not unlike a lot of us except we don't go all the the way to fully extinguishing someone.<br/><br/>There were some really funny turns of phrases throughout the book and I just wondered how I could possibly end but suspected it would end the way it did which isn't a bad thing. I definitely plan to read a few more of these books in a series. <br/><br/>Graphic, explicit, raw, quite angry (and annoyed), funny. Good stuff!
Rated The Echo Wife 8/10
Could not put the damn book down!<br/><br/>Very easy book to read, and annoyingly difficult to stop reading late at night. <br/><br/>The story is told from Evelyn's perspective, a brilliant scientist working in the field of human cloning.<br/><br/>There's a lot that goes on in the book, both from the story moving forward and driven by plot twists but also from Evelyn's own inner monologue.<br/><br/>The clone aspect of the story presents a, I think, believable take on the sci-fi concept (specifically the purpose clones would serve) and this easily leads to the messy question of what is a person, how we feel towards others, what we're willing to accept.<br/><br/>The book also shows how Evelyn struggles, or rather, maintains her anger and in particular, frustration towards others she feels (quite often) are incompetent, and it's interesting seeing where this comes from for the character, and how she goes on a journey, that can often get pretty dark (I'm not explaining myself well here, but I'm trying to avoid too much of a spoiler).<br/><br/>A very easy read for me. The story absolutely drives forward. There are lots of (I thought) nice turns of phrases throughout the book that didn't feel too forced. <br/><br/>There's really only one (biggish) plot hole based around the amount of time that passes, which the story does attempt to address, but I was so caught up in the page turning that it didn't particularly impair on the enjoyment.<br/><br/>Fun stuff!
Rated Here and Now and Then 6/10
The heart break of time travel.<br/><br/>I enjoyed this book. The time travel core mechanic is…okay. It's not perfect/bullet proof, but it works to create the impossible problem.<br/><br/>The main character is, a little all over the place. It's not enough to be distracting, but often I found myself thinking "this guy isn't helping himself" as he'd continuously make the same mistakes. Maybe this could have been edited out.<br/><br/>Without giving too much away, the main character gets stuck out of time for several decades and so eventually makes a life for himself. A family and some happiness.<br/><br/>Then, he's pulled back to his timeline (in the future) without any prospect of returning or even attempting closure with his wife and daughter.<br/><br/>The story goes on to attempt to deal with the question: could you let go? <br/><br/>The big problem being knowing _when_ to let go. There's no good time.<br/><br/>I've thought a lot about this in my personal life, which I think is why I could connect to the torment that the protagonist faces.<br/><br/>Not hard science, not a heart string puller, but thoughtful. Even if I wanted to shake the protagonist!
Rated System Collapse 8/10
Great addition to the story of a struggling Murderbot.<br/><br/>I continue to love Martha Wells' Murderbot diaries. <br/><br/>As the years (and diaries) have gone on, SecUnit/Murderbot (and I'm sure they gave themselves a name in one of the books...) struggles to navigate their own emotions, mostly pushing them down, or "tagging for later" - something I'm sure I've done before.<br/><br/>It's this part of the story that makes Murderbot so relatable, and makes me consider that the impending AI uprising is perhaps not a matter for Terminators but a new species that will struggle with existence just as much as humans do.<br/><br/>It's also nice to get a full novel from Wells - just so I can chew on the story and have Murderbot in my life a little longer.<br/><br/>I have to admit there's some points where I'm reading the plot and just going along with it. Sometimes losing track of which human is which (and I'm not sure someone could just pickup this book without having read a lot of the previous books in the series). But this isn't particularly at the detriment of the book - the characters are compelling enough that I want to keep with them (ART and ART-drone included).<br/><br/>I'll continue to recommend the Murderbot diaries. Lovely, human stuff.
Rated The Radleys 8/10
An easy read, good for the holiday.<br/><br/>I chomped this down in a matter of days (though it helped being by the pool to spend more time reading). I've read a number of Matt Haig's books and find I prefer his older material over the newer books, and this book fitted nicely into that category.<br/><br/>Without examining the story too carefully (because I think the balance of humour and darkness, in retrospect, is a little off balance and the wheels sort of come off!) - it was a fun read. <br/><br/>Definitely reading the book in 2025 rather than the years which the Twilight stories were at their height probably makes the story a little more refreshing for me (it's about a British vampire family - not a spoiler, you'll get that from the blurb). <br/><br/>The characters were fairly simple to follow and switch between on each (nicely short) chapter. I didn't really feel much sympathy for the parent characters (I'm not sure if I was supposed to, but like I said, it doesn't want too close a look), but there's some fun twists on the vampire genre (or perhaps I'm not that familiar with the genre!).<br/><br/>Some fun gory bits, a decent mini twist here and there, very easy to read - a good choice for the holiday read.