Constantin

3.5*

That was a long read. I can't say I was a big Barbra Streisand fan before, but I knew she just had to divulge a few juicy secrets and some interesting insights and boy was I right. The man in her life are something that deserves a mention alone (Pierre Trudeau, Marlon Brando just to name a few). The most interesting bit however was the realisation of why is she considered to be so attractive and feminine. Robert Redford put it best: “Barbra???her femininity brings out the masculinity in a man, and her masculinity brings out a man???s femininity, vulnerability, romanticism, whatever you want to call it.”

I would give it 4-4.5*, but the book is quite repetitive (talking about the same issues over and over again) and she appears to be a bit too full of herself at times.

I was a big fan of Ronnie ever since he won his first masters and then became world's number 1 snooker player in late 2003-early 2004. He was playing against legends like John Higgins and the late Paul Hunter, all of whom were great players, but Ronnie had that special something that had more to do with playing the adversaries rather than playing the table. Finally I got to know what it is, but I won't leave any spoilers here. I'm glad he's turned his life around and I'm glad to see he's still at it, winning his 8th masters just as I was reading this book.

This book simply isn't my cup of tea, I dislike the narration style and it just doesn't make me want to get back to it. Hats off to the author for creating such believable characters and narrative, but I would only consider this mildly interesting if it were about a famous band I would be a big fan of.

3.5*

It definitely got me curious to read some of her fiction works, however while reading this one in particular I was left wondering “who hurt you? what did they do to you?”. While I was able to resonate with her portrait of the modern world in some aspects, I was completely taken aback by others. Maybe we just live in different worlds

5* for the humour, nothing beats good English humour and Dawn is so skilfully oozing it through every word
3* for the stories and storytelling. The book read more like a sketch for stand-up comedy

4.5*

The writing style is still a bit too cumbersome and all over the place for my taste, however the second book has grown on me with its rich and quite plausible narrative. I believe science fiction should evoke a sense of wonder and this book does exactly that.

I found his life more colourful than I expected it to be, his ego slightly bigger than a doctor would prescribe for a happy life which probably explains the nob-existent relationship with his children and I was pleasantly surprised by how down-to-earth and charismatic Sir Patrick Stewart he is outside the acting world. Great fella to have as a friend, mentor or colleague. Not so great as a father or husband.

3.5*

This book is for anyone climbing the career ladder in corporate America, not much in it for anyone else.

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This book was like watching The Americans all over again, however things have changed a lot since that show aired for the first time. The main takeaway is that getting rid of Putin is almost impossible, unless the whole FSB(KGB)/SVR(GRU) turn against him, which is highly unlikely.

I'm not a big fan of forensic pathology and unlike the author I'd rather experiment on rats in a lab than dissect bodies in various stages of putrefaction. All this considered, I enjoyed her tone and her attitude towards death, despite her encounters with some of the worst forms of it. I found the book pretty informative and east to read. 4.5* rounded to 5* for the Scottishness

The 1990s had two sex symbols: Demi Moore and Pamela Anderson. Having read the memoir of the former one, it was only fair to read the latter one as well. I was expecting much of the same: abusive parents, toxic environments, unhealthy relationships. To my surprise, it was very far from that. Who knew that Hugh Heffner's mansion would be a safer place than Hollywood.
I saw Pamela in a totally different light. A woman that loves love in all forms. Granted some men took advantage of that, but nonetheless she lived a quite interesting life.

3.5*
Quite promising at first. I can see the resemblance with Salinger's writing style, which I quite enjoyed, but then it got repetitive and nonsensical.

I cannot understand how I managed to get through it, just because it was so infuriating at times. I would've preferred to have read the memoir of some more interesting spares like Princess Margaret, but alas they have decided to take their secrets to the grave. This spare in particular is a spoiled brat, completely oblivious of all the great things in his life and how lucky he is compared to the rest of the world. What is annoying is that none of this is his fault. He was born into it.
What Harry succeeds with this book is convincing people that the monarchy is a thing of the past and no longer required.

This is a difficult one to rate. On the one hand the writing is quite good and the plot is intriguing enough, however none of the characters are likeable for all sorts of reasons. The book reminds the reader why does a person seek an affair first of all (at the core of it) and also gives some food for thought for anyone considering whether to start one.

Strongly advise parents with young children or soon-to-be parents to give this one a miss. It's very sad and the humour is so dark that it follows you for a while after finishing the book. There are lessons to be learned if you're grieving, but the main takeaway is probably to never assume you can fully comprehend what others are going through.

Reading this book you'd think that a typical day for Bono looks like this:
- Wake up
- Have breakfast with the Pope in the Vatican, get commended for his philanthropy work, exchanging gifts
- Quick lunch with Mandela, exchanging wisdom and share plans of fighting for some common cause
- Fly over to the Obamas for an early dinner. Get a call from Gates & Buffet letting him know they'll send over a few tens of billions to his fund. Getting to the Obamas, where Barack drinks him under the table, have a quick nap and fly back to Ireland. Paul McCartney picks him up from the airport and shares with him some fond memories from the Beatles' early days.
- Have a night cap with Cillian Murphy in their local pub in south Dublin.
- Go to bed.

There is just too much name dropping and not enough storytelling or life lessons. It's one of those books that I wish it was much more, but it just didn't deliver.

It's books like this that stay with you, books that you stumble upon accidentally and would have never read them otherwise, but then they turn out to be so much more than you could've expected.

I would say this book is not for everyone and many would not like it as much as I did, but I would still recommend giving it a go.

Very impressive for a debut novel.

Definitely the quickest read of the year for me. It's very similar to Gone Girl, except it wasn't as predictable (in my case). Pleasantly surprised.
The psychological bits rely on purely Freudian school which is a bit annoying at times, but it's not meant to be a psychological book anyway so that's ok.

The biography part was more than interesting, I didn't expect some of the things I read about him. His life is definitely one of the most fascinating ones I've read about. The only bit that was frustrating at times was that he would start describing certain animals and plants as if he were filming a Planet Earth episode, which is not at all what I would expect in a memoir.

4,5*

4,5*
Mi-a pl??cut intriga, mi-au pl??cut ??i personajele, ??ns?? a fost prea previzibil pe alocuri. O lectur?? pl??cut?? ??i emo??ionant?? cu siguran????.

Foarte ??ncurcate firele narative, greu s?? ??ii pasul. Mi-au pl??cut jocurile de cuvinte ??i diversitatea personajelor, ??ns?? nu pot s?? zic c?? am r??mas cu ceva ??n urma acestei lecturi.