Wants to read The Memory Police
book
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 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 Left Hand of Darkness 6/10
300 pages but wow it felt 4 times longer...<br/><br/>I found the writings quite difficult to consume. A lot, if not all the names were sounds but without any familiar rhythm, and Le Guin was describing, with I assume great accuracy a world with locations, cities, regions and mountains - but I was struggling to map it all. <br/><br/>Then the story was thread through this detail, which left me struggling to read and struggling to enjoy the book.<br/><br/>It's only when I hit around 60% and the two characters embark on a journey across the ice did I finally manage to engage properly. I really did feel the characters relationship change through their journey and felt their struggle, which I think is what turned this book, for me, from 2 star to 3.<br/><br/>There's a scene towards the end when the protagonist revisits the King of {whatever the name of the city was}, and the protagonist reflects on how the time has passed since his first visit much earlier in the book. I could empathise! It felt like a lifetime!<br/><br/>Probably a great book. Maybe passed me by though.
Rated The Answer Is No 4/10
Brief, sadly, on all aspects.<br/><br/>I knew this was a short read, and having come out of Frank Herbert's Dune at almost 900 pages, a nice little chomp down on a Backman book was exactly what I wanted. <br/><br/>Except, frustratingly, I ended up feeling a little cheapened by this book. I've loved Backman's other books (that I've read) and it's the dry humour whilst seeing there's caring a love under every grumpy character that makes their books so appealing to me.<br/><br/>This short story definitely tries to include that aspect, but the book is so short that it feels more like it's been _stuffed_ full of lovely sentiment to the point where it's feels more trite than anything else.<br/><br/>I do think it's simply the format that left this story down for me. The sentiment of the actual story is lovely (I appreciate there's no meat to my review here), but it just was blasted out of a cannon rather too quickly for my liking.
Rated Book Lovers 6/10
A romance story, some clever writing, slightly predictable, not entirely my bag.<br/><br/>I think, because I only started reading in the last decade, that I've not read a "proper" romance novel before. <br/><br/>I can't say that I'm won over by the genre through, but that's my failing and not the book's.<br/><br/>The story does a decent job of not following usual tropes and traps of stereotype literature, and somehow this is the third fiction book this year I've read that's based in the publishing world (unrelated tidbit).
Rated Weyward 6/10
A little predictable.<br/><br/>The book is broken across multiple eras and lives of women who are related, three in particular, changing the written voice used (so it's reasonable to follow as it jumps).<br/><br/>The problem I had, particularly having *just* come off _What About Men?_ was that every single male character was evil (not quite the right word, but probably suitable given the "witch" like story). <br/><br/>I get that this makes sense specifically since it's from the perspective of these women, but it ended up feeling trope-like and it was easy to predict how things were going to go, which I don't enjoy so much. <br/><br/>Probably a good beach read, or solo read mixed in with different genres (probably not right after _What About Men_!).
Rated Shades of Grey 8/10
Felt like a long read and felt a little like it was trying to be Red Dwarf a few times, but eventually settled into an interesting and fun story.<br/><br/>I do admit I got lost with the length of time reading the book, but suspect it was the speed I was reading (only a handful of pages each night) - the story takes place over a matter of days - not as I thought a matter of months.<br/><br/>There's lots of lore in the world that's not really explained, but doesn't really get in the way. I did expect to find the humour more, but it wasn't really there for me.<br/><br/>Likeable characters, and a good story which stands well on it's own. I'd like to read more, but would hope the pace is a little quicker.
Rated The Man Who Died Twice 8/10
Wreaks of "cosy crime" - and that's good.<br/><br/>There's a reason that Richard Osman's series has been a runaway success for many people (or at least I can believe it) - the story is well written, the characters are extremely well drawn and the pages are a pleasure to digest.<br/><br/>I keep thinking I'm further along in the series than I actually am because the characters have quickly become a staple of crime fiction in my head.<br/><br/>Although I did find I was a little suprised at the some of the more grusome passages (realising that doesn't really fit the "cosy crime" sub-genre). Those parts did take me out of the story a little. Again, I feel like I've had more of these characters than I actually have (this is the second Thursday book I've read), so there's no reason why a few hard edges wouldn't be part of the story.<br/><br/>I did, however, have one complaint. I was quickly getting annoyed with the diary that Joyce would write in. For some reason I was having a hard time believing that Joyce was writing diary entries in such a conversational style as a pen and paper job, especially when the style of her writing/thoughts read as if she would be telling her husband… who's already shuffled off. I'm not 100% sure why I found it distracting, but I suspect that's not going to reduce any amount in the next Thursday books, so I'll probably need to find a way around it.<br/><br/>Otherwise, a lovely read. Definitely feels as if I'm visiting these characters, and it's always a pleasure sharing a bit of time with them all.
Rated Dune 6/10
Incredible world building, but I definitely felt the story lost me multiple times.<br/><br/>I've watched Dune 1 and 2 before having read this book, so I had a distinct advantage that Denis Villeneuve's version was already in my head and gave me an (effective) leg up on the visualisation of the world that Herbert was building.<br/><br/>Genunienly I found the world building and detail amazing, and even moreso the idea that this book was written in 1965 _and_ that so many people had already fell in love with the book and world. That speaks, I think to the quality of the writing.<br/><br/>The story (again with the advantage of having watched the films) for the first half was engaging.<br/><br/>But then around the time in the book that wasn't translated to the screen, the scenes in which Jessica is becoming the Grand Mother, and Paul also drinks the Water of Life - he starts to trip out and I honestly lost the entire thread of the book at this point. <br/><br/>I was stuck in a period where I wasn't sure if I was reading a description of a dream or if the book had jumped forward in time. It was also around the middle of the story, so it felt important to know whether it was "reality" or not!<br/><br/>Eventually I just decided that I had misread somewhere along the lines and carried on with the book. I did feel like the 50-80% section of the story sagged quite heaverily and the story really slowed down. Possibly for _even_ more world building, but by that point I was starting to find it hard to muster the motivation to read through a few more pages.<br/><br/>I did enjoy the final section of the book, and the story definitely accellorated, but, just like the movie Dune, Part Two, the book ends like a car running full pelt into a brick wall. The story is moseying along and then it just sort of ends in a way like someone smashed the book out of my hand and told me I can't read any more.<br/><br/>I've had lots of people tell me the sequels are great, and I don't doubt it, but I also like to read a book as a complete unit, and…well, the end, literally the last page definitely did not feel like the end of the book at all.
Rated What About Men? 10/10
For me: a must read. <br/><br/>Reading Moran's book I could quickly see that I was the exact target audience for the content: white, cis, straight, leftie male. I try my best to be a feminist but I know that sometimes I end up being an apologist for my own gender.<br/><br/>Moran doesn't slam men in her book (as easy as that might be) she instead asks me to celebrate or be proud my masculinism in a way that doesn't have to be toxic or have causalities.<br/><br/>Her book has made me question what I consider the ideal values for being a man are. I'm not sure yet, but I'd long given up even asking the question.<br/><br/>She also gives some damn good reasoning to help understand the existence of the angry white men, boys that are being, effectively brain washed. It's something I don't have personal experience of, but having a young son, I'm even more aware of where he gets his information and inspiration from.<br/><br/>There's a lot of really good content in her book, both to spark discussion and reflective thought, but also stories of other men's experiences both positive and negative - which has helped me see the similarities in how I conduct myself as a man.<br/><br/>If you're anything like me, I highly, highly recommend reading this book.
Rated Anxious People 10/10
A heartwarming story where not everything needs to be okay.<br/><br/>I really enjoyed this book. It's more of a 4.5 for me, as I'm not sure I'd need to read it again, but it left me with some warm and fuzzies inside, and that's nice to have every once in a while. <br/><br/>I cared about each of the characters and the Backman gives enough (albeit) little layers to each of them that makes the characters all special. <br/><br/>It was an easy read. I wanted to find out more at the end of each chapter. And it left me with a warm feeling in the end.
Rated Born to be Mild: Adventures for the Anxious 4/10
Some laughs but ultimately turned into a journal.<br/><br/>The first series of chapters were really fun and throughout the book there's genuine chuckles from the writing, but the actual content is what left me feeling the book could have either been 150 or so pages, or at least dig a little deeper under the skin of anxiety.<br/><br/>This is supposed to be a memoir of the author's life over a year following some unknown years of possibly being house bound with anxiety and/or alcoholism. As you can see, it's not clear. He also alludes to a marriage break up, and at first I expected he was going to explain the backstory to how he arrived to this year where he's trying to find his (I guess) purpose in life, but unfortunately not. It's more like it's a reference his friends (many of which are casually mentioned in the book) might understand, but not us the average reader.<br/><br/>One thing that is clear is that he suffers from a very high level of anxiety. He's on prescription medication to help but it's always rattling around in the background. Something I can understand (similarly with depression). <br/><br/>The problem is that **all** throughout the book (and year?) he's trying to find his purpose or calling in life, as if it's one thing that everyone has and that's all. At first I can understand that desire, but as he repeats his attempts at adventures to fill his supposed hole it gets repetitive and like he's actively avoiding the lessons that's certainly clear to me as a reader: it's all a bit messy and that's okay. <br/><br/>There is a single chapter that does give an insight into the anxiety - which I appreciated as a reader, but it's over in a matter of pages (literally) and there's nothing further to explain what it's like all the time. <br/><br/>The further the book goes the more it swaps from memoir to journal. We're often treated to a blow by blow account of how he arrives at a field, with shops he passed and roads he walked. <br/><br/>I think I would have enjoyed some introspection rather than the 4 page conclusion at the end of the book. By the 80% mark, I found I was just trying to skim through the pages because I didn't care about what he'd brought home from the shops for his dad and the end of the book was welcomed though I felt it could have come a lot sooner and likely left me with a better impression.
Rated How Not To Be a Boy 6/10
Not what I had hoped.<br/><br/>I basically ended up disliking Webb even more than I already (suspected) I did. I felt like he just came off like a bit of a smug, privileged git - which really wasn't where I thought it was going to take me.
Rated A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes 10/10
Goodness me, this was a good book! Right from the start, Rutherford states that the book won't be littered with references to research papers throughout and the book reads very much like Rutherford is quite literally telling me _a story_ (I should add that references are added in the appendix of the book if you want to validate and have further reading on the subject of DNA).<br/><br/>I always feel like when I read non-fiction I'm supposed to be a little smarter once I've finished, and somehow retain my newly acquired knowledge so I can wax lyrical later on in the pub in years to come…<br/><br/>The subject of this book is (as the title suggest) genes, DNA and how it all works. The book is fascinating, and although I'm certain that I'm zero percent smarter now (sadly my own failing!), Rutherford's book was littered with fascinating stories from both recent and distant history - which have so far stuck in my head.<br/><br/>I got wind of this book via my own genealogy research, and being able to find every step in my ancestry to William The Conqueror, I posted a tweet and eventually saw a reply from Adam Rutherford explaining "that's cool that you can demonstrate it with genealogy, but it’s literally true for all British people too. Edward 3 is the direct ancestor of every British person". <br/><br/>That snippet reply alone piqued my interest in reading this book, and damn glad I did - I think I highlighted nearly two pages worth of kindle notes, partly to help me remember and partly because there was some superb stuff in there, including:<br/><br/>> borborygmus, which is a technical word for a rumbly tummy.<br/><br/>Rutherford's writing and storytelling is entertaining, informative and even regularly funny.
Rated Rogue Protocol 8/10
As usual from the MurderBot series: excellent, fresh and entertaining.<br/><br/>I felt like the story dug deeper into MurderBot's character, anxiety and it's attempt to understand it's feelings.<br/><br/>Definitely feels like this third book is pulling together an overarching story that will be concluded in book four - which I can't wait to read!
Rated To Be Taught, If Fortunate 6/10
To Be Taught is another excellent story from Becky Chambers. Gently, honest, touching and inquisitive about the universe.<br/><br/>A novella (so in theory a "short read") is exactly the kind of story I've quickly come to expect from Chambers: about the characters and striving to be better through knowledge and our humanity.<br/><br/>The story is told a message delivered to us - and by "us" the message hopes to be received by Earth. The crew of four humans have been sent to explore outer space and return with their findings.<br/><br/>The mission is entirely a discovery exercise, not "the Earth is doomed, we must quickly find new home" which so many stories would shoot for. So the book tells of the crew landing across four different planets and what they find and tell of their enthusiasm in science and real human struggles in confined spaces.<br/><br/>This is a gentle and easy read, and for me, treated as something to tide me over until the next novel length Wayfarers is released - but equally a solid story on it's own merits.<br/>