altlovesbooks

"How strange that the familiar fields and lakes and forests of Earth shone with such celestial glory when one looked at them from afar! Perhaps there was a lesson here; perhaps no man could appreciate his own world until he had seen it from space."

Not a bad book exactly, but you have to be in the mood for what this book is for it to really hit with you.

The Selene is a tourist craft on the Moon, dedicated to ferrying small groups of people around the surface on tours. On one of these tours, an earthquake (moonquake?) causes a sinkhole to open up around Selene and swallow up her and her passengers.

The bulk of the book is taken up by men of science doing their science thing in brainstorming ways to get air to the ship and rescue them. Meanwhile, we're treated to chapters involving the passengers keeping up morale, putting on plays, reading aloud, and generally being goofy (in a 1960s sort of way). It's very much a classic, a product of its time, but not in the racist/sexist way I've used that phrase to mean in other books. More like, a stilted way of writing, a plot with science galore but nothing/almost nothing in the way of character development. Really, the only characterization that exists is in the form of Pat (captain) longing after Sue (stewardess), again, in a 1960s sort of way.

It's fun, it's short, it's a classic for a reason. It's very readable, but you have to really like old sci-fi writing styles to enjoy this one.

"I'm the best in the universe at letting bad shit happen to me."

This wasn't a bad book at all, and actually it had me hooked up until the ending started rolling, and then it felt like I was reading a different book entirely.

In a universe of multiple Earths, Cara is unique in that her self on most of these other worlds has already died. This allows her the privilege of visiting these other Earths and gathering information without being killed herself as the multiverse tries to correct itself. She makes a decent living doing this and maintains ties with her family living outside her walled city, but she also has a pretty large secret she's kept hidden from everyone.

Up front I'll say that the author can write. This was more philosophical and character-driven than I was expecting, and I was delighted by that. The multiverse aspect is really just used as a setting, and despite being important to Cara's character, manages to take a back seat to everything else going on. There's thoughts and discussions on classism and what it takes to survive a world of haves and have nots which I appreciated, and I loved how Cara approached her life, her job, and her resiliency at managing to survive.

When the ending started happening, though, I kind of felt like I was reading a different book. While the ending itself (prior to the epilogue) made sense and was at least a little bit satisfying in the moment, I thought that (ending/epilogue spoilers here) the author potentially walking back Adra/Adam being bad with a reconciliation with Nik Nik undid a lot of what the ending already finalized. I don't know if any of that is addressed in the second book, but it felt really vague and wishywashy.

I also thought the relationship between Dell and Cara wasn't handled well. It's basically one-sided for a majority of the book, with some hints at more, until the ending when suddenly things go from 0 to 100 without any buildup. It didn't feel natural, it didn't feel right, and felt more like a checkbox than anything else. I thought that was disappointing.

I really did enjoy a lot of what this book was doing, I just wish it had ended better. I might check out the second book to see if anything from the ending here is resolved more fully there, but I won't make it a priority.

I was annoyed by this more than I was amused. Rather than being a fleshed out collection of stories from library workers, it was a compilation of mostly dialogue exchanges. An example:

Elderly Patron: [timidly] Where are the computers?

Me: There are some in the Adult Department and in the coffee/vending machine area.

Elderly Patron: Thank you. If I get lost, someone will come find me, right?

That example is basically tonally the feeling of the book. Aside from the dialogue exchanges being annoying, I also kind of hated how it felt like the entire book was making the same tired jokes. Haha, elderly people and computers, amirite? Haha, mental illness is funny from the outside, high five. Haha, kids say the darndest things, those rascals. It felt mean spirited in a lot of places, and honestly, just between you and me....

....a lot of the stories felt made up. Particularly when you get to some of the exchanges involving "difficult" patrons (which, don't even really sound all that difficult). A patron will have an issue with a late fee or perceived treatment or some other library thing, and whoever is relating the exchange says exactly the perfect thing at the perfect time with the exact amount of snark. You almost expect an "and then everyone in the library clapped" at the end of some of these short exchanges.

Just an overall miss with me. I gave it a star for being library-focused, but I couldn't recommend this to anyone.

Bland and forgettable to a scary degree. I finished this book maybe an hour and a half ago and already had to refresh myself on what happened. Not a whole lot, as it turns out. The title of this is actually a bit misleading, since this book really isn't about the bookstore at all, which also has me a little sore.

Takako, doormat, discovers her boyfriend had been cheating on her, and also lost her job at the same time. She's saved from having to make any tough decisions though, by her divorced uncle calling her up and inviting her to stay at his bookshop out of the city. She stays in an upper room above the bookshop, minds the store for her uncle, and meets some of the locals. She still pines for her old boyfriend though, and even when confronting him still seemed like she just wanted to pretend nothing happened. At one point in the book she starts pestering her uncle about why her aunt left him, and suddenly the book is not about Takako trying to grow a spine, but about her aunt and uncle reconciling. The book ends.

This is not about the bookshop or books really, beyond a casual plot point of Takako rediscovering her love of reading. The writing is flat, the characters are flat, and it's hard to actually feel anything for any of these characters if the writing isn't selling them to you. I also felt like the book spent time trying to build up Takako/the bookshop that it felt jarring when suddenly the point of the book shifted to Takako/the aunt/reconciliation.

Plus I sort of hated the scene early on between Takako, her uncle and the boyfriend. Her doormat personality made it hard for me to actually like her.

A perfectly readable book, but bland and forgettable by the end.

DNF @ 8%

Maybe its too soon to be throwing in the towel on this one, but it just isn't flowing well for me. The contemporary-feeling humor thrown into a period piece just took me out. I'd rather move onto something that grabs me a bit faster than this one isn't.

Before I get started, I just want to note that this author is a member of Monty Python. I didn't realize that before I read the introduction, and then I had to do an audible double-take when it came up.

So this is a book about the HMS Erebus, a ship constructed in 1826, left to sit for several years, and was finally scooped up to be used in both the Ross Expedition (1839) headed to Antarctica and the Franklin Expedition (1845) lost on a voyage to the Northwest Passage/Canadian Arctic. We're introduced to the main players in both expeditions, and are treated to first-hand accounts of these early days of the Erebus. Unfortunately, not a lot was found pertaining to the fate of the Franklin expedition, so the portion of the book surrounding that was fascinatingly mysterious.

This is an incredibly well-researched book about a ship I think I'd only heard about peripherally. The entire first three quarters of the book feature all sorts of first hand accounts, letters, etc from people directly on or affiliated with the ship about their time aboard. The section about the Franklin Expedition is, understandably, light on this, as there was, y'know, nobody left to interview and no journals found, but the author does a good job of piecing together the available information at the time of the book's publication and presenting a (few) compelling story(ies) about the fate of the crew.

Just a really interesting book all around. I thought going into it that it would just be about the Franklin Expedition, but was pleasantly surprised with the additional backstory and history behind this ship. Highly recommend for ship/history buffs.

"Fortune's wheel did what it did, regardless of your hopes, prayers, cleverest planning."

Just another great GGK book here, even if it doesn't unseat my top 3 by him. A solid plot, tight pacing, and interesting, deep characters makes for a satisfying read. Evidently set during the Hundred Years' War, and loosely follows the life of a French poet, Francois Villon.

Thierry Villar, vaguely notable tavern poet and a self-proclaimed nobody to the realm, is tasked with stepping up and being a somebody following the murder of the King's brother. Investigating places the law can't reach, asking questions of people that they can't ask, and basically being an informant involved in a realm-shaking murder. What follows is Villar's progress from being a nobody to gaining friends in powerful circles, amidst the backdrop of a potential civil war.

What I love about this book (and GGK's books in general, but it's very evident in this book) is how he can take a minor character, even in their own story, and turn them into something living, breathing, and remarkable. The story's main character is Villar of course, but there's a slew of other POVs that each get their own backstory and contribute to the larger tale. There's also several minor characters that, while not given their own voice in the story, are sent on their literary way with a few lines from GGK about how events affected their life and how they end up. There's a couple Easter eggs here for people who read his other books.

Just a satisfying story to read. While a bit more straightfoward in the telling than some of his other books, I was still really glad to have read this, and was in love with the story/characters throughout.