Suzie

Had a weirdly hypnotic feel to it. Conclusion was slightly disappointing, but the build up was nice.

Underwhelming.

Unlikeable protagonist, and not entirely sure what the point of the novel was other than ‘this guy is a jerk'.

The book starts strong, but the final ‘collection' of mostly Mormon stories lets it down.
Nonetheless, some great stories, including several I remember vividly reading as a child.

Giving this five stars as it had a profound impact on me as a teenager.

Re-reading today, I found some of it quite dry and a little bit trite, but the ending still really resonated with me and I feel that it achieved exactly what it set out to do.

Can't rate: I did not finish, but I think the fault lies with myself as a reader than with the book.

This is one of the worst ‘pseudo-science' books I have ever read. She criticises ‘Big Pharma' for using studies with small sample sizes and for failing to control for placebo effects – but then the studies she posts as sources for her truly outrageous claims are so completely flawed it's hard to know where to begin in criticising them.

I was hoping for a book that explained some of the science behind depression, and had some of the studies of the recent links between the microbiome and mental health. What I got was an angry, controversy theorists' rantings about the evils of antidepressants, antibiotics, statins, vaccines and painkillers.

Her healing ‘plan' seems to be a version of whole30/paleo, with some meditation and exercise thrown in. Though, disclaimer, I quit this book 40% of the way through because I just couldn't take any more.

I need a boat and an island.

Considering this is a book about the suffragettes, it would have been nice if the book had chosen not to put the romantic struggles of the female characters front and centre (seriously, a story about Pearl would have been a lot more interesting) and if the poor characters didn't essentially just get rescued by rich characters to give them a happy ending. But it was well written and there was some interesting history in here.

I have no idea what to make of this book. I'll come back to it at a later date to see if I can figure it out.

Gave me a better understanding of the four neurotransmitters in the title, but the writing style is a little jarring in places. It almost feels like it's written for a child, with very simplistic language and no allowance for grey areas or nuance. I find her dismissal of things like blaming ‘the system' and ‘the man' somewhat problematic and whilst there is nothing wrong with the advice she offers, she doesn't cite sources for the science.

I read ‘Life Changing Magic' a while ago, and it didn't really click with me. But after watching the show I was inspired to try again. Re-read Magic, and then read this one. For whatever reason, I'm more receptive to it this time around.

Nice to read some optimism for a change, but his decision to ignore climate change seemed a little strange. Like YES let's get Universal Basic Income, YES let's rebuild government to be user focused instead of a bureaucratic nightmare of legacy systems, YES let's bring in a 4 day week. But none of this will matter if we can't get a grip on the accelerating collapse of ecosystems due to global warming.

I really wanted to like this, but it was so random – it felt like a collection of blog posts rather than a book

Honestly, I thought this was an example of a perfect short story when I first read it, and on re-reading it remained so.

Classic Vonnegut. Not his best book, but still highly readable.

About the lasting effects of the Second World War, and the rapidly changing culture that we inhabit. A reminder of the blank (and sometimes terrifying) future we might face, and a vivid description of the past that we share.

Really interesting to contrast the Q1 and F1 versions of the play and consider the improbability of knowing the ‘definitive' Hamlet.

I can't really understand what this novel was trying to do. It's exaggerated pantomime at times, but undercuts the humour and ‘fun' kinky-swashbuckling stuff with some realistic violence (including an unnecessary and graphic rape scene) which results in an atonal mess. There's the seed of a good book here, but it's in desperate need of an editor.

Another bizarre and twisting tale with no plot and outrageous characters. Dreams and superstitions co-mingle, truth is a golden haze on the sands. The point is not the point.

This is the most horrible book I have ever read (and I have a high tolerance for weird shit, with Naked Lunch being up there on my reading list) and if I didn't have to read it for a course I would have quit a quarter of the way in.

I can't give it a rating. Ballard knew exactly what he was doing and executed it well. It's just that what he was doing was holding up a warped wing mirror and showing the very worst of an alienated, superficial, soulless and pornographic humanity. By the end of the book I was exhausted from the endless onslaught of atrocity. There are no redeeming aspects; the sex in this book is not fun, sensual, or affectionate but rather the repetitive hollow actions of an addict. It left a vile taste in my brain.

Compelling and clever but let down by the somewhat abrupt and ‘neatly tied up' ending.

Fun detective novel. Very much full of old-fashioned manor houses and diamond thieves with a bit of colonialism thrown in for good measure. Interesting to see the start of this genre, and there's enough tongue-in-cheek humour and self-awareness to help the book rise above its flaws. A bit long-winded, but only by modern standards.

I had hoped this would be funny, but it was, in fact, extremely tedious.

Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars.

I often find it strange when a book the highlights the cruelty of war gets described as beautiful. This is a book about terrible things, and yet it feels weightless, it feels literary. I appreciate books that centre the existence of trees, and their strange and magical way of being in the world – but this is a less convincing account than Overstory. Nonetheless, I'm glad I read it. I learned a lot about Cyprus.