Alex
Classic whodunnit mystery set in a remote Scottish highland estate. Everyone seems to have had their own reasons for killing the victim but who actually did the deed? And what sordid secrets will we learn along the way to an answer?
Lucy Foley continues to prove that she is a master of the mystery thriller. Her style of writing that bounces back and forth between the past and present is everywhere now, but she does it better than most.
There are plenty of things to like about this book and this series. Hell, I think most people should read all of Sanderson's work, so don't take this mostly negative review as a warning against him. It's just that I am now a week or so post-reading and all I can think of are criticisms, so I figured I'll just go with that.
Is it wrong to criticize the Wind and Truth for being too damned long, knowing that it was always going to be? Like most epic fantasy series, I've seen the Stormlight Archives books gradually lengthen over time and until now I haven't minded. But this one seems to have tipped over the brink into the laborious.
Book length is not necessarily a problem in and of itself, but when an author asks for so much more of your time I think we as readers ought to see a return. Or at the very least the added time shouldn't actively make the experience of reading worse, which is what I think happened here. If you set aside all of the flashbacks and time-suspended action of the Spirit Realm, the entire plot of Wind and Truth takes place over just a few days. While that's a clever idea, in practice this is a really hard thing to pull off.
Sanderson does a great job bouncing between characters and conflicts and I absolutely found myself wide awake at 1am on many occasions unable to put the book down because I just had to know what would happen next. But on just as many occasions, I would start to read and just put it down again or thumb past pages or even whole chapters until I found something interesting to latch back onto.
On reflection, part of the challenge with this is that Sanderson's preachy moralization seems to have been turned up to 11 in this book. I agree with pretty much everything he (through his characters) says about what it means to be a good person, but do I need every 3rd piece of dialogue to advance the plot AND reaffirm the importance of good mental health? No, I don't. I imagine this is a deliberate attempt by a genuinely good hearted author to give people (especially young people) strong moral examples but it really did distract for me.
Brilliant. Just brilliant. I love the layers of the storytelling in this installment, but the whole series does such a great job balancing exciting action sequences, novel mechanics, nerdy references, heart-warming character relationships, corporate intrigue, and galactic political games. DCC truly has it all!
I was and am a massive fan of Richard Osman's “Thursday Murder Club” (TMC) series and I started this new debut with a mixture of excitement and fear that it would disappoint in comparison. Let me just say, “We Solve Murders” delivers and more. It is not a spin-off or in any way connected to TMC, but the same humanity shines through.
The characters in this story are compelling and warm in the way only Osman can create amidst so much murder and intrigue. He is, more than perhaps any author, able to fulfill the contradictory promise inherent to the “cozy mystery” genre. This story is somehow both comforting and thrilling, and I can't wait until the next one comes out.
In my last review I praised Dinniman for how fluently he incorporates gaming mechanics into the way the story works, but this was too much for me. I've never been a card-based gamer so the schtick of this floor being based on card battlers just felt forced for me. That being said, I completely understand that exactly what was too much for me was probably REALLY GREAT for people who love that game genre.
Despite my annoyance with the card mechanics, this is still a fantastic book and I am still stoked as hell to continue with the series. Onwards Princess Posse!!
It feels like a rom-com, but one in which the main character processes his pain from a break up as opposed to the other way around. It's poignant, beautiful, a bit navel-gazey (obviously), and so refreshing. Because of the cover design, I kept waiting for it to turn into a more traditional rom-com but was pleasantly surprised to realize that the relationship at the center of this book is the one the narrator has with himself.
Also, at the end of the book is a brief section from the ex-girlfriend's POV that I loved. It was so cool to hear the whole story from her side of things too.
Another great audio book that truly hits me in all the right places. I know this isn't for everyone but this series is just so bloody fun. And bloody. I love the way the author uses gaming mechanics fluently and how the drama is starting to move outside the game world and into the “real world” beyond.
Full disclosure: I'm a Cal Newport fan. I like his philosophy and have read his previous books [b:Deep Work 25744928 Deep Work Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World Cal Newport https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1447957962l/25744928.SY75.jpg 45502249] and [b:World Without Email 54326146 A World Without Email Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload Cal Newport https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597016311l/54326146.SY75.jpg 84775785] multiple times. And as far as I can tell, I'm right in the heart of his target demographic as a small business owner in the knowledge/creative economy. I believe his assertions about the importance of deep work and the need to move away from the culture of busyness, but despite his practical tips I still don't do nearly enough of it.If we think of Slow Productivity as a part of a series, it is somewhat in-between Deep Work and World Without Email. Deep Work is still the best articulation of his philosophy of work. In it, he lays out his principles that I think of as:1) Valuable work comes from intense (“deep”) engagement with a topic or issue. This requires long stretches of uninterrupted focus. 2) The modern norm of work culture rewards and incentivizes the exact opposite of this, or “shallow” work, in which we quickly move from task to task without really moving anything forward.3) In order to produce value, we must create and protect our capacity to do deep work and limit our engagement with shallow work.Newport's second book, A World Without Email, is almost practical application guide for his philosophy. In it, he encourages readers to recognize and avoid moving into what he calls the “hyperactive hive mind” (HHM) system of organization. HHM is the default way that groups of people come together the solve problems but it is not efficient. Most of us would recognize this as lots of Slack messages, texts, or emails. The book makes the argument that whenever a process slips into HHM-mode, we end up spending more attention and effort on managing our communication than on the actual problem being solved. Then it proposes some ways to avoid this, mostly by adapting “ticketing systems” or Kanban-style organization tools. This third book of the series, Slow Productivity, is kind of a hybrid of the two previous books. In many ways, he is retreading the same ground and simply renaming “deep work” as “slow productivity.” While he's not necessarily breaking new ground, this reframing is helpful. And as I reflect on it a few days after finishing, the biggest value I take away is in the anecdotes of famous creators and their deliberate efforts to cultivate space for deep work. “This book could have been a blog post” is a common critique of books like this. And to some degree that's true. There is nothing fundamentally new here. But I find that there's a real value in taking time to sit with ideas and examine from multiple angles. In that way, this book is really helpful and I'm glad I read it.
OK, I said I would try to take some time before continuing on with the series but honestly this is the best audio book series I've ever heard and I just can't get enough. The setting for this floor of the dungeon (the Iron Tangle) is super weird and overly convoluted, and yet it still works.
In this book, Carl and Donut's personalities keep evolving into fuller and better versions of themselves and the people around them are starting to become genuinely interesting in themselves. I'm moving too quickly through the series to thoughtfully react to just this book but all I can say is that it's worth trying.
Must. Stop. Listening.
Seriously, these books are so fun I had to stop myself from immediately buying and starting book 3. This series is funny as hell, but that's just the beginning of it. The world that Dinniman has created in Dungeon Crawler Carl is so weird but in a way that feels relatable because he has clearly been informed by all the nerdy RPG lore and fiction that I have. The dungeon is a fascinating game world but the way in which it (and the players and NPCs) relates to the out-of-game universe across the galaxy is fast becoming an irresistible mystery for me.
More James Patterson than Louise Penny, this latest Inspector Gamache novel falls far short of expectations.
This review will contain a few vague spoilers from this book and some VERY BIG spoilers for earlier books in the series.
Armand Gamache and the characters around him usually strike a balance between the relatable and the aspirational. In this book, I think she failed to keep that balance in line and we end up with a cast of characters who are, frankly, just too good to be believed. I imagine this is hard to avoid when you've spent the 18 previous books wringing as much believable drama out of the central cast of characters and you have now distilled those who remain into unalloyed heroes. It's boring.
When Peter Morrow turns out to be the killer in The Long Way Home, we as readers are forced to confront the idea that even those people around us we think of as safe may not be. That anyone we know and trust could be harboring a pain inside that, if properly triggered, could blow up everything. Or when Olivier turns out to have deceived everyone in Bury Your Dead, we watch in admiration and wonder when Gabri keeps loving him anyway and leads him back into the group. The point is that Penny is an author who seems to understand that people are complicated and that nobody is all good or all bad.
In The Grey Wolf, this moral reckoning with complexity and mixed motivations is only weakly made manifest. The good guys are good guys and the bad guys (with a little bit of twisting and turning) are bad guys. It reads more like so many other authors' modern morality plays.
Given this book's cliffhanger ending, I am worried that Penny has written herself into a corner and the next one will be similarly disappointing. I don't want another big terrorism story that has characters flying all over the world. I desperately hope that she finds a way back to the intimate human-scale stories that have made this series the absolute best in genre that it is.
Princess Donut: OH MY GOD CARL THIS IS THE MOST FUN AUDIO BOOK EVER!!!!
I'm not sure what I can say about this that isn't said more enthusiastically by other reviewers but I loved listening to this and am already onto the next one. The acting in the audio version is really good and the production quality is the best I've heard. As others have noted, you have to like the D&D-inspired world and the nerdy sense of humor so it's not for everyone. But it's definitely for me.
I never read this book when I was young but the movie stands out in my rearview mirror as one of those bizarrely clear memories that have stuck with me forever.
The book is truly great, especially for younger readers.
Here is what my sons had to say about it:
- “I liked it because it had no big exciting conflict but was still interesting. It still captured the same feeling as a book that does have a big battle or fight.”
- “I like the part when Mrs Frisby first goes into the rosebush and at first you think it will probably be Justin but then it's Brutus instead. Justin is a great hero because he went back to save the other rats at the end.”
- “This book made me think that rats could be able to live a life just as advanced as humans if we didn't disturb them. And that their civilization would be different from ours.”
- “Let's go rats!!!”
I studied history, and I really like thrillers. Naturally, I thought Manhunt was going to scratch the itch but it just didn't. This book really is what it says on the tin: A moment-by-moment retelling of the hunt for John Wilkes Booth. I learned SO MUCH MORE than I ever thought I would about Lincoln's assassination and for that, I am truly grateful. But man, it was a chore to get through.
If you've never read a decent science fiction story, I could see liking The Unwanteds. It has an OK, if predictable, plot and some interesting fantasy elements. The basic premise is that there's a dystopian Soviet-style society where creativity of any kind is grounds for summary execution. Any child who has sung, drawn, or performed a creative act is literally purged at age 13 and those that remain are sorted into a ruling (Wanteds) or peasant (Necessary) class hierarchy. It turns out that those kids they purge (Unwanteds) don't actually die and have set up a secret utopian creative society that inevitably is revealed and they have to fight (with art magic) for the future of humanity.
I mean, sure. This is a totally valid fictional universe and it feels nice to sort people into good and bad groups and I guess creativity is a good thing. But good lord, does it need to be THIS heavy-handed? Does the author (and editor, and publisher) think kids are so dumb that they need the moral lines painted with such thick ink? This feels like the McDonald's Happy Meal equivalent of speculative fiction and I just can't recommend it.
Our family had a long road trip recently and this was one of the books we ended up listening to in the car, and I just wish we hadn't. We could've listened to the Hunger Games, or Harry Potter, or really anything narrated by Stephen Fry.
OK, the concept of this series is silly and sets up a lot of obvious (but still funny) gags. But this excellent sequel is a testimony to the author because it ends up being more than that. Middle school is all about relationships, and anyone who has been a pre-teen knows that those relationships can be rocky at times. In this excellent sequel, Raj and Klawde both have to navigate friendships that have turned sour and what that means for them. The parallel stories create plenty of opportunity for reflection (and hijinks) that not only had our whole family laughing, but also set the stage for some deep conversations about trust, betrayal, and reconciliation.
We listened to the first book on our drive to Chicago for Thanksgiving and this one on the way back. Just as with the first, I can't recommend this enough for family fun times.
Klawde is a truly terrible person. He's Genghis Khan-level evil and a book about his bloody conquests would be depressing, but this isn't that book. In this book, the despot has been overthrown and is exiled to the most primitive planet his advanced space-fearing species can think of: Earth. There's something about his hateful and violent invective contrasting with his relative powerlessness of being a cat on a human world sets up some great gags and over time you can't help but enjoy him.
I listened to this with my family on a long car ride and it had us laughing out loud. The title kind of says it all, but if you have 5-10 year-old kids this is well worth a few hours of your time as a co-reading book or listening to the excellent voice acting.
You know how you read these news stories about how Americans (and men in particular) are generally lonely and sad? Well, I'm one of those people. I know that friendship is important, and I love hanging out with the few that I have, but the actual mechanics of it seem to elude me.
My hope was that this book would inspire me with specific actions I could take to maybe turn my social life around, but it didn't. Now, that is probably more to do with me than the author, and it did feature a few interesting insights:
- Different attachment styles necessitate different ways of relating, on both sides of a friendship.
- Every interaction (yes, even texts I leave read for days/weeks) are tests of security and by failing those tests, I am giving a signal of not being a secure friend.
- There are romantic friendships where the friends truly love each other with passion but there's no sexual element. I liked this description, and it speaks to maybe a void in the way we think about friendships.
But that's kind of where it ends. The description of the book claims that it is based in data, and that just doesn't seem to be the case. The author spends most of her time switching between rehashing things I already knew (friends = happiness) or needlessly detailed anecdotes of people the author knows. It reads like a social science PhD with way too much qualitative analysis.
I read the first 2 books of this series a couple of years ago and stumbled upon this one browsing through my old Goodreads year-in-review lists. The concept of the series is a fun one: What if all modern technology just stopped working? The author's answer is that different groups of people would all pursue alternative medieval-esque models of government, production, economics, and warfare.
Honestly, the whole series is a fun read and this 3rd book wraps it up well. There's nothing particularly innovative or progressive in the writing but it's well told.
I listened to the audiobook and when it started with a prologue from “the we” I was so confused! This was a character voice that had no precedent in the first book and I was worried that maybe I had remembered the wrong story or that there was a very specific “A Memory Called Empire” hole in my memory. It was disorienting, but I tried something new that might be helpful for other Goodreads users.Before getting into this book I used the new ChatGPT conversation mode and talked with it about the first in the series in order to catch up and WOW, it was incredibly helpful. I read a lot of books and almost never am I able to discuss them with a friend, but when I do have that opportunity it's always very rewarding. I started a new chat and simply said “Hey ChatGPT, I'm about to start the book “A Desolation Called Peace” and I don't remember much about the first book in the series. Can you help me remember what happened and who the characters are?” From there I ended up having a rewarding 15 minute conversation about the characters, past plot points, and the overall fictional universe that left me prepared and excited to continue the story.If you are a big reader, I think this is a game changer to be able to really discuss books with “someone” who is always available and even “knows” some things about you. Now, on to the actual review, which I'll keep short because of how much space I've dedicated to my experiment with ChatGPT.A Desolation Called Peace is SO good. It's epic science fiction in all of the best traditions of the genre. The galaxy spanning drama of Empire and the threats at the edge is well represented in our heroines' personal stories. There is a truly foreign intelligence that we have to grapple with, along with the timeless politics of humanity. Maybe this is another theme for things I'm loving these days like [b:Babel 57945316 Babel R.F. Kuang https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1677361825l/57945316.SY75.jpg 90789229], but I also loved the way in which the Teixcalaanli culture relies on language and literature. There are rumours that the author is going to keep writing stories in this universe but that there might not be a third in the linear series. To that, I have to say I am a little disappointed because it does feel like it ends on the edge of a new beginning. That being said, I heartily recommend these books to any and all scifi readers.
I spent the first half of this book thinking it was a decent young adult sci-fi book with an overly derivative plot and the second crying to myself about the beauty and resilience of love.
This is not a very clever plot. What if everyone were given an opportunity to learn exactly how long they would live and how would that change society? It's almost a high school level philosophy class kind of topic, and I'm not sure we really need yet another book about this idea. Except I also found myself bawling at the vulnerability and acceptance of people facing certain death and choosing to live their truths anyway. That probably says more about me than it does this novel but in case you might have the same reaction, I'd recommend it.
In previous reviews of other Percy Jackson books I've made it clear that I like Riordan and this series. The books are well written, with better than average character development and world building for young adult fiction.
I know there are more books in the series, but for me this is going to be the end of the journey. It feels like the end and I just don't feel like I want to continue. My kids have gone on to the next book and even beyond into some of the other stuff in the Olympian universe and they love it. But at the end of the day, this is a kids series and I just don't find it compelling enough to keep reading.