In a mysterious town hidden in our collective subconscious there's a department store that sells …
The DallerGut Dream Department Store
2 stars
I just didn’t really “get” this. I’m not sure if I’m just not the target audience, or maybe it’s a cultural barrier, but none of it gripped me or made me want to keep reading. It felt more like a series of scenes or vignettes rather than a cohesive novel, and sometimes this can work if there’s an overarching story or theme, but things just felt very random here. I did really like the premise so it’s shame I didn’t gel with it. I’ll keep an eye out for a similar sounding book.
Terry Pratchett's profoundly irreverent novels are consistent number one bestsellers in England, where they have …
The Colour of Magic
3 stars
I wavered between 3 and 4 stars for this. Overall I enjoyed it: I've read a couple of his other books and this is what you'd expect from a Pratchett novel (whimsical, witty, eccentric). You can feel the beginnings of his style taking shape here, which is fun to see. I get the feeling that Rincewind isn't a fan favourite character but I found him entertaining. That said it was a little all over the place plot-wise, and felt quite chaotic. The pacing was also not very refined. All in all though it's a solid start to the epic Discworld series.
This was beautifully written, as expected (I loved Hamnet). It has a tense, claustrophobic quality that immerses you in the tightly controlled world of Lucrezia. Speaking of which; she is so full of humanity, something I think is quite tricky to pull off with historical figures. Could it have done with being a smidge shorter? Probably, but I was so gripped I didn't really care.
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the …
Lessons in Chemistry
3 stars
I hear and agree with the criticism about this book (Elizabeth feels too modern, the convoluted and rushed ending) but I still enjoyed it. It was heartwarming, very funny, and I loved the characters.
1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China's Cultural Revolution. …
The Three-Body Problem
2 stars
Another mediocre read, I’m not having much luck at the moment! This started off so well, I was absolutely hooked by the clever, sophisticated scientific concepts and Liu’s easy writing style. The sections set in 1960s China were fascinating, it kind of felt like a sweeping historical sci-fi. I was also really invested in the main characters early on, and I especially loved Da Shi, the noir-ish detective with a bit of an attitude.
But then somewhere around the halfway mark things got really bogged down with the science, in fact the science became the main character. The scientific concepts became very hard for a casual reader to grasp and Liu would spend pages, sometimes entire chapters, dissecting and analysing these complex ideas. Quite frankly, I got bored and felt quite alienated as a reader. All of the momentum went out of the storytelling and character development, which just felt …
Another mediocre read, I’m not having much luck at the moment! This started off so well, I was absolutely hooked by the clever, sophisticated scientific concepts and Liu’s easy writing style. The sections set in 1960s China were fascinating, it kind of felt like a sweeping historical sci-fi. I was also really invested in the main characters early on, and I especially loved Da Shi, the noir-ish detective with a bit of an attitude.
But then somewhere around the halfway mark things got really bogged down with the science, in fact the science became the main character. The scientific concepts became very hard for a casual reader to grasp and Liu would spend pages, sometimes entire chapters, dissecting and analysing these complex ideas. Quite frankly, I got bored and felt quite alienated as a reader. All of the momentum went out of the storytelling and character development, which just felt criminal as they were such interesting characters. It was such a disappointing turn of events as I was loving it up until this point, and was so excited to read the other books in the trilogy.
Cornwall, 1947. Marvellous Ways is a 90-year-old woman who has lived alone in a remote …
A Year of Marvellous Ways
3 stars
This was a mixed bag for me. No one can say that Winman’s writing isn’t exceptionally beautiful - it’s a bewitching, dreamy book very much in the style of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. A lot of time is spent exploring Marvellous’ magical connection to nature, and indeed nature feels very alive in this novel - almost a character in its own right. I enjoyed this element of the book - and the magical realism - very much, and I really loved the character of Marvellous. I’d go so far as to say she’s one of my favourite literary characters. There were many moments I stopped to re-read passages because they were just so damn good. In the style of Winman’s other books (at least the two I’ve read), it’s a novel that has a lot to say about love, loss and what makes a life well lived.
But …
This was a mixed bag for me. No one can say that Winman’s writing isn’t exceptionally beautiful - it’s a bewitching, dreamy book very much in the style of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. A lot of time is spent exploring Marvellous’ magical connection to nature, and indeed nature feels very alive in this novel - almost a character in its own right. I enjoyed this element of the book - and the magical realism - very much, and I really loved the character of Marvellous. I’d go so far as to say she’s one of my favourite literary characters. There were many moments I stopped to re-read passages because they were just so damn good. In the style of Winman’s other books (at least the two I’ve read), it’s a novel that has a lot to say about love, loss and what makes a life well lived.
But at times the lyricism and intense focus on the prose did feel quite suffocating, and I wish the rest of the book had room to breathe. Some of the characters and some of the pacing didn’t quite work for me - things could feel a bit tacked-on or underdeveloped. I didn’t fully get into the book until about halfway through, until then it had felt quite abstract and meandering. I also didn’t really care for Drake - I just found him a bit annoying! - so reading so much about him in the first part of the book was a bit of a slog (I liked his character more as time went on though). I can definitely see this book would be a bit Marmite, so it’s one I’d only recommend to specific people.
Any Human Heart is expansive in its scope; charting the course of one man’s life across much of the 20th century, this novel has it all - love, loss, sex, war, glamour, destitution, friendship, and more than a little bit of humour. I loved experiencing the excitement and turmoil of the century through Logan’s eyes, and was genuinely sad to say goodbye to him when I got to the end of the book. The intimacy of the diary format works very well as a way to explore the wider events and culture of the century, I really enjoyed that juxtaposition. Boyd’s writing is superb and I was easily and happily carried along on Logan’s journey. Very often I found it almost impossible to put down - the writing flows so well and just pulls you in.
That said, spending 500 or so pages inside someone’s head is quite daunting, and …
Any Human Heart is expansive in its scope; charting the course of one man’s life across much of the 20th century, this novel has it all - love, loss, sex, war, glamour, destitution, friendship, and more than a little bit of humour. I loved experiencing the excitement and turmoil of the century through Logan’s eyes, and was genuinely sad to say goodbye to him when I got to the end of the book. The intimacy of the diary format works very well as a way to explore the wider events and culture of the century, I really enjoyed that juxtaposition. Boyd’s writing is superb and I was easily and happily carried along on Logan’s journey. Very often I found it almost impossible to put down - the writing flows so well and just pulls you in.
That said, spending 500 or so pages inside someone’s head is quite daunting, and there were points that I got very annoyed with him and found some of his actions a bit predictable and repetitive. For instance, there is a lot of focus on sex - it just got a bit...boring? I also wanted him to be more self-reflective at times; sometimes his character felt frustratingly enigmatic, which jarred with the intimacy of the journal entries. The sheer number of places he lived - London, Paris, New York, Nigeria, the Bahamas, Southern France - also seemed a little far-fetched to me, even for someone born into his privilege. But these are minor criticisms, and not things that took much away from my enjoyment of this sweeping, ambitious novel. I’ll be reading more William Boyd for sure.
