Fritz

Wow. Just finished with this book.

Every once in a while you run into a gem like this. It's hard to put your finger on why it touches you but it does. All the seemingly random statements, random comments and random thoughts converge into the feeling that it was supposed to convey. And it hits you right in the face. The fear, the anguish, the pain and the sadness. But also the beauty, the joy and the lightheartedness of a young man.

It's all in there. And it's so great.

The Diamond Age pulls you into a wonderful world of new lingo, social strata and devices. The story starts out with few different story lines that inevitably weave together. It is set in a possible future in which country states have become obsolete because of a digital currency. Prophecies of cryptocurrencies and 3d-printer in a book that was first published in 1995.

The book has some great words and wonderful phrasing. Sentences are straightforward and not needlessly complicated. There is a colorful cast of characters and a very interesting world this is a part of.

The only thing that really bummed me out was that it ended rather quickly.

This was a good read. Although I have to say I think I'm not very fond of Victorian novels. So much happens. At one point I thought that I was either reading a flashback or dreamworld.

oh well. tough read but good

This was a nice long and slow epic novel that was low on magic and high on honour

This book is maybe not the fastest read. But when you do get into it, you get into it good. Beautiful prose, that at times can be tiring, but also can be very moving.
The book tells the story of an old Zulu parson from a little village in the KwaZulu-Natal area in South Africa, taking place just after the Second World War. This pastor's son gets bad news from the village and is summoned to go to the ‘big city' Johannesburg. In Johannesburg he finds out very grievous things about the several people who left Ndotsheni, amongst which is his son.

Whenever you think the book is getting to tiresome to continue reading the writer understood that something needs to change, or something needs to happen. The book changes central characters have way through the book, changing to focusing on an elderly English South Africa, who also gets summoned to Johannesburg because of bad news about his son.

Maybe not brilliant. But the issues addressed are issues which are certainly still relevant for Johannesburg and South Africa. 4 out of 5.

A very very funny book. A great critique on the strange intricacies and politics of war. It is a fairly manic and psychotic. It features many, many characters, so much so that it feels a bit Dostoyevskian at times, with a hint of Nick Hornby.
And exactly this is what made it a bit hard to read at times. The chapters always revolve around one of the characters, cycling through the many different characters, so after a while this gets a bit much. Halfway through I put it aside for a while, because I did not see where it was going. Then the hilarity can only get you through for 1 or 2 chapters. Around page 400 or so it I was again submerged in the story. But maybe that's the catch. That when you read it, you want to put it aside. When you're not reading it, you want to pick it up again. It's a mighty Catch, that one.

Awesome. I am excited to read another Heller book as soon as possible, which will be somewhere next year :)

This book is about two sisters from a family that once held high esteem in the village they grew up in. A family that once had money. The book moves through the two World Wars of the previous century as the sisters grow up. The book is written as if the elder of two is writing down her memoirs as an 80-year old lady. The sadness keeps building as the story progresses. Sadness piled upon sadness.

I love reading Atwood, and this is no exception, it is a very funny (the laugh-out-loud kind of funny), and interesting read with a large and colourful vocabulary. At the bottom of this review I'll share all of the words that stood out to me, because they were being used in different way that I am used to, or because I think I should use these more, or because hitherto I simply was not aware of their existence. The start of the book confused me somewhat though as I am not really one for reading the blurbs on the back. And in this case it would have at least helped me place the characters a bit. It didn't really matter though. I think the book was meant to be read with people leafing back to find clues they first missed. And that was something I really enjoyed. Being surprised and finding myself leafing back to find what became clear later on.

If you don't like descriptions of an upper-class lady about attire and decoration this book is probably not for you. If you do not mind, you learn a great deal about terms for all kinds of decoration material that was used at the beginning of the previous century. As well as learning about different kinds of dresses, veils and the such.

Here are some quotes I enjoyed; interspersed is a list of words that stood out to me.

52:
History as I recall, was never this winsome, and especially not
this clean, but the real thing would never sell: most people prefer a past
in which nothing smells.

55:
Why do we always assume at such moments that everyone in the
world is staring at us? Usually nobody is.

fractious

propitiatory

95:
At the very least we want a witness.We can't stand the idea of our
own voices falling silent finally, like a radio running down.

102:
Now I think it was more complicated than that. It may have been a warning. It may also have been a burden. Even if love was underneath it all, there was a great deal piled on top, and what would you find when you dug down? Not a simple gift, pure gold and shining; instead, something ancient and possibly baneful, like an iron charm rusting among old bones. A talisman of sorts, this love, but a heavy one; a heavy thing for me to carry around with me, slung on its iron chain around my neck.

caul

145:
...many people take a
curatorial interest in their own scars.

hector

162:
We didn't learn very much Latin, but we learned a great deal about forgery.

inane

169 the button factor picnic:
More and more I feel like a letter – deposited here, collected there. But a letter addressed to no one

windfall

181 loaf givers:
It was the purpose in life of older people to thwart me. They were devoted to nothing else
...
I found it difficult to picture Helen of Troy in an apron, with her
sleeves rolled up to the elbow and her cheek dabbled with Hour, and
from what I knew about Circe and Medea, the only things they'd ever
cooked up were magic potions, for poisoning heirs apparent or chang-
ing men into pigs.As for the Queen of Sheba, I doubt she ever made so
much as a piece of toast. I wondered where Mr. Ruskin got his peculiar ideas, about ladies and cookery both.

compunction

tippler

souse

dowdy

doily

beg off

erstwhile

lascivious

voracious

bas-relief

stodgy

aplomb

fob off

pinko

breviary

tawdry

glassine

purloin

inert

sibilant

216: the attic
(Which does a man prefer? Bacon and eggs, or worship? Sometimes
one, sometimes the other, depending how hungry he is.)

porphyry

paunchy

228 Imperial Room:
It was God, looking down with his blank, ironic searchlight of an eye.
He was observing me, he was observing my predicament, he was
observing my failure to believe in him. There was no floor to my room: I was suspended in the air, about to plummet. My fall would be endless - endlessly down.
Such dismal feelings however do not often persist in the clear light
of morning, when you are young.

indenture

trousseau

truss

242: The Tango
They were new money,
without a doubt: so new it shrieked. Their clothes looked as if they'd
covered themselves in glue, then rolled around in hundred-dollar bills.

244: The tango
Sex may go nicely with many things, but vomit isn't one of them.

sequin

chiffon

epicene

suds

wallow

filigree

effluvium

283: steamer trunk
The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. 

nacreous

292: the fire pit
Well, they bill by the minute, these lawyers, just like the cheaper whores.

waylay

frump

portcullis

yokel

jaunty

cupola

marcel

303: postcards from Europe
The French hotel had a bidet, which Richard explained to me with
the trace of smirk after he caught me washing my feet in it. I thought,
they do understand something the others don't, the French. They
understand the anxiety of the body. At least they admit it exists.

304:
The French are connoisseurs of sadness, they know all the kinds. This is why they have bidets.

insouciance

dulcimer

taffeta

bouffant

ermine

chiffon

nostrum

biddy

stevedore

specious

impecunious

quoits

379: the ashtray
the rich have always been kleptomaniacs

poultice

emery

corundum

riffle

traipse

pinafore

patina

garish

sheen

q.t.

insouciant

gambol

layette

belfry

morass

tatty

maquillage

stolid

abstemious

lugubrious

verisimilitude

scurrilous

bilious

508: victory comes and goes
But unshed tears can turn you rancid. So can memory. So can biting your tongue. My bad nights were beginning. I couldn't sleep

harridan

518: the other hand
The picture is of happiness, the story not. Happiness is a garden walled with glass: there's no way in or out. In Paradise there are no stories, because there are no journeys. It's loss and regret in misery and yearning to try the story for it, long it's twisted road.

Ok. Not sure if is the cognitive dissonance speaking for reading 14 volumes averaging at 850 a piece. But I thought it was good. It was a satisfying ending. Which in the land of long-running fiction is hard to accomplish. Overall I'm happy. But I'm also happy to move on to something else ;).

There is a small annoyance throughout the series that grew to an escalation here as it was so often used: Balefire. The "evil" fire ("Not that, never that.") that burns away objects and people from the pattern. It always felt like this was very much to the author's convenience: you burn someone away. But not all of the things they did were reversed. But some were. That said this is the first novel where "balefire" has the ramifications you'd expect, things reversed that actually has a lot of effect. But then it immediately gets solved in the same paragraph. So yeah. That kind of bums me.

With precise diction and purpose David Mitchell again has written a novel worthy of winning more prizes than it did. Mitchell's love of Japan and his characters can be read throughout the book. I would recommend this to everyone in to contemporary literature and even more so for the people into historical novels.

The life of a young Dutchman, Jacob de Zoet, goes to the trading post of Dejima close to Nagasaki in the Japanese Empire for the hopes of some extra cash. As a clerk he hopes to make some money so he is worthy of marrying a woman he loves back in Zeeland (the Netherlands). He finds out soon enough that in the Dutch East India Company in the tail of the 18th century honesty and diligence are not always considered virtues by his superiors, peers or subordinates. Corruption and fraud is what keeps the company a float. And his report digging up dirt on all his superiors predecessors is not wholeheartedly welcomed.
Through events like these the intelligent clerk learns to be a shrewd diplomat and not to blindly the virtues of his superiors.

I think I'll leave it at that. The book is to intriguing and intricate.. just read it yourself. Mitchell is an artist.

This book is a tantalizing ride through many dreams and realities experienced by Eiji Miyake. A 20 year-old looking for his father, who he has never met, in the bustling city of Tokyo. Which is of course a demanding task in a city so big and with all kinds of people distracting one from their initial mission.[a:David Mitchell 4565 David Mitchell http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1347623450p2/4565.jpg] is quite a genius and in my opinion one of the best contemporary writers the Commonwealth has to offer. He should be awarded a Man Booker in stead of just being long and short listed. It is clear he has submerged himself in other cultures (apparently living in Japan for 8 years),moving through different cultures and times as well as places in his novels. If you like intricate webs of stories within stories and different writing styles in one book you'll enjoy this book thoroughly.afterthought:I'm not sure but I think it is an homage to [a:Haruki Murakami 3354 Haruki Murakami http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1350230608p2/3354.jpg]. The book title is a reference to a song by John Lennon and is according to one the protagonist's many dreams a sequel to Norwegian Wood ([b:Norwegian Wood 11297 Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320451630s/11297.jpg 2956680] is a song by the Beatles and a book by Murakami). But I cannot be sure, as I have never read anything by Murakami (but am sure to do so quickly).

[Excerpts from a paper I've written, so not perhaps not a proper review:]

Orthodoxy in its time was an account of the search for truth and meaning of one of the last century's great minds, to have him find the wildest philosophy of all being true, Christianity. It was a cry for what Chesterton called practical romanticism. To embrace the paradox without having to be caught in one of the outer extremes of either one of the stances. To not let homogeneity ruin creativity.
The philosophy might not be something astonishing, new, or original at all, but its journey is one that will startle not only people in modern times but also in post-modern times. Chesterton believed the Christian faith as summarized in the Apostles Creeds to be the “best root of energy and sound ethics”.
That being his main argument there are other issues he tries to discuss. One of them is the suicide of thought, or endless doubting.

One of the main arguments of the book is that pure rationalism and rational thought is not all there is and is certainly not the highest thing of all. The argument is built up out of the notion that true reason is lost in what Chesterton calls the Suicide of Thought. Doubting thought and reason itself, giving both the virtues and vices a free rein. It is not only the bad things that have run a bad course but also the good. They have been decoupled and isolated and have therefore gone mad. Truth by all means is a very uncompassionate truth, as compassion is very immoral if it is compassion at every expense. Reason is in line with the previously mentioned virtues it has gone wild. Doubting reason itself. Which makes it difficult to reason at all, if one can not even trust his thoughts. Chesterton states his position wittily:
“Thus when Mr. Wells says [...:], ‘All chairs are quite different,' he utters not merely a misstatement, but a contradiction in terms. If all chairs were quite different, you could not call them ‘all chairs.' “
(Chapter 3)
This is still true today. The basis and view of truth is something that is far more fluid, less fixed than it used to be. Truth is constructed, non-absolute and nothing can be known for sure. One person's truth is no better than another's.

This doubting however and broad sense of truth, is something that is immensely difficult to achieve. Truth by its very nature is very exclusive. If one says for example that truth is constructed and in no way objective or fixed, you are making a very exclusive, rigid statement. You can now not say that some sayings are more true than another, where this should actually be possible in the line of thinking that truth is not fixed. Basically you are saying if you do not agree with me, your view of truth is inferior to mine. Which is basically worth as much as simply claiming something to be true. The only difference is, is that there is no longer space for conversation because there is nothing left to discuss or think about, when it is all the same.

Orthodoxy is therefore although old a renewing way of looking at the world. For in it there is freedom to make mistakes, but at least you know that you went right or wrong about something. It gives the freedom to progress for you now know where to progress to, instead of busying yourself with what ideal needs to be met.
The unorthodox way in which Christianity has reconciled red and white without making them pink, but remaining the fiery and exuberant colour of both.

This took me a long time to finish. But it's a very interesting book about coming to terms with a less right or wrong version of the world. It's written by a catholic monk, so there is quoting of the bible which was kind of off putting at times. But I enjoyed the journey

What can I say, I was not in fact blown away, as some people have described it to me.

The fun thing to me about the book was, that I did know anything about the story until I started. The post-apocalyptic style thus took me by surprise and was one of the little surprises in the book.

At times I felt that the story was not going anywhere. But then it did it so well, that I kept reading. Then there were a few more gems. The intricacies of the desolate protagonist telling himself and his son that they are the good guys, while in fact they are very similar if not the same as most of the people they meet. The times the slow journey was relieved with supplies and a place to rest.

In conclusion. Nice minimalism in the dialogue and pace in the story.

Oh yeah, and what the f*** was up with the last paragraph. After all this simple minimal train-of-thought kind of dialogues and factual description, the last paragraph all of a sudden is a bit of beautiful deep poetic prose completely out of place.

Not sure what to think. It wasn't particularly enjoyable to read. It felt like a Dostoyevski, but without character that had a certain charm or I could feel sympathy for.

I made it though and then read up about it. Apparently it was very influential and stood out because it was so different from other novels, being so isolated.

This book again grips the readers, with some stunning plot twists and turns. The story that was left unfinished in the first of the series continues.
It bustles through themes of dystopia and coming-of-age. Because let's be fair it's not exactly literature, but it's just very exciting teen fantasy. Nonetheless, a book that is sure for an exciting heart-in-throat-pounding thrill ride.

Also it's one of those books you can easily finish in a matter of day(s). It is an easy and fluent read.

A wonderful read once again. I was a bit thrown off by the start. Just as I was suprised find out about this book existing as part of a trilogy, I was surprised to find the story revolving around other main characters than the first book.

For all the prose and poetry I reward it 4 out of 5

This is an amazing book. Seriously. Just finished, still lost for words.

This was just a perfect adventure/fantasy book, which I will surely read to my kids.

The story is set on a swampy world, with a minimal cast. According to my sources (meaning: Wikipedia) ADF's job was to write a story which could pass as a cheaper sequel to Star Wars if (what is now known as) SW IV: A New Hope did not prove to be very successful.

That does not make this book a cheap Star Wars story though. It feels like it could be part of a George Lucas world. But perhaps it feels more like an Indiana Jones adventure with the Star Wars personnel. The interesting thing is that very little about the Star Wars universe was known at the time. At the moment of writing we have an official canon decreed by the Disney-folks: 7 movies in a series and a Star Wars story: Rogue One. Alan Dean Foster was trying his best to create an interesting world with creatures that fit into the first movie.

And in my opinion he succeeded. The world immediately called to mind the Dagobah system of “The Empire Strikes Back” (my favourite movie).

The book is a fun read, an adventure story that makes you flip pages quickly. Battles that last long enough, but not too long. The only thing that is weird is that it does not really fit into the Star Wars stories of today. Luke is in love with Leia and it seems she with him. and some of the battles or Force uses seem strange and out of place.

Other than that, if you're a fan of sci-fi and adventure this is a fun read that could neatly fall in between Star Wars IV and V.

This book is profusely saturated with sesquipedalian confabulation, narrative and history. The plethora of sumptuous wording can at times feel grandiloquent whilst simultaneously being vastly amusing.

The ephemeral delectation of a story being told lies in the both subtle and encompassing display of the scenery, the characters and the events, without sounding dreary and unimaginative. De Bernieres does not always succeed in steering away from that.

The story that de Bernieres unfolds is one of delight and melancholy with a thorough and disconsolate veritable historical account of WWII on the Greek island Cephallonia.

I gave the book 3 stars, because although it was an entertaining and English vocabulary enriching book the lead up to the end was tedious. It was clear and strong its historical aspects whilst maintaining the storyline. The narrative was not too cheesy and the love story was not too sappy. According to goodreads I then end up with 3 stars. I liked it.

Wow.. that took a long time. I was not really into it.

This is a nice little novel that is a little like Nick Hornby meets philosophy. It's easy going but makes you think and hits all the cliches you expect it to.

Prachtig boek over worden wie je bent ongeacht de verwachtingen om je heen. Over lieve ouders en de norm en daaraan niet voldoen.

PS wel doordrenkt van welvaart en privilege van een normaal thuisgezin enzo. Maar zelfs in die gezinnen is er pijn en moeite om jezelf te zijn.

Amusing tale. Too bad much of the suspense is built up around the fact that you don't know the gist of the story. Which sadly was not the case.

A great book, a bit tough to get through at times but very well written. The story comprises the lives of 6 people in different ages and different places. The concept that is we are all connected in some way, however remote. The funny and hilarious was well balanced with the sad and serious.

The difficulty in the book lies exactly in the brilliance. In every different story a different style is used. Great and ingenious, but a bit of a speedbump as well. Everytime you get into one of the stories, the next one starts. You do get rewarded though after half of the book the stories make sense and interlock nicely.

Will pick up another Mitchell soon. This is a great writer.