Ninett

So in depth. I would never have thought that salt was such an important catalyst for trade and the movement of people. I did find it hard going to read in some sections, because the writing can be very bland. The author takes no pains to make a series of facts into an engaging narrative.

Still, I liked learning about how closely intertwined human societies have always been with an innocuous mineral.

My mom was reading this on holiday, so I decided to get a copy myself and read along at the same time. I wonder what the intention of the publisher was for this book. The author is so self absorbed, so grandiose, so insufferably self-congratulatory that I am forced to think that the publication of this work is a joke played on the author by the publisher. The inner voice of this woman is vapid. She has no redeeming qualities. Her emotional life is sterile and pitiful.

It isn't a novel for entertainment purposes. This is the voice of a woman without knowledge of how her life may present to others - she has no ability to understand that this would come across as repulsive to non-psychopaths, and writes in a gloating tone of her inability to connect with anything. I suppose if I knew I was missing an essential piece in me, I'd try to make it look like a win, too.

Either way, I hated this woman. I felt some kind of primal, instinctual revulsion to this memoir. My mom said that all voices are worthy and we can't judge people for what they can't help, but I wouldn't want to be within a km radius of this lady either way. The idea that this novel serves as a window into the life of someone devoid of humanity, and this being an important window to peer in through, even for just a bit, is what kept me from giving it a 1 star rating.

I really loved this book when I first read it a long, long time ago. It was fresh, funny and unexpected. The absurdity really did it for me then. This re-read has been fun, but this time I've had to knock a star off (oroginally 1.5 stars, but then I didn't have the heart to go through with such a big downgrade), mostly because I realised there is no plot to speak of, things just happen randomly and for no particular reason. The story never evolves and the characters aren't fleshed out. This is more annoying now as am adult than it was when the world was a crazier place (in my teens).

Not a bad book! Great as an intro or reference for runners, especially in the latter half, in which the author gets into the technicalities of gait, cadence, and form.

My major gripe is that there are lots of theories on form that are put forth strongly, but with really only anecdotal evidence to back them up. In contrast, Lieberman's book about exercise (absolutely amazing book) backs every claim up with scientific publications, and the reader can draw their own conclusions.

I realise that not all sports writers can have a PhD in evolutionary physiology, but I do expect some level of rigor in the scientific aspects of the writing, otherwise I am likely to dismiss it as opinion (which I think it is in this case).

Still a good intro and still has some interesting thoughts and observations, and with it being a quick read, I do recommend it to beginner runners even if only for the inspiration and basic technical knowledge.

Hard to rate the middle book of a series separately from the others. This instalment was just as fast-paced and complex as the first. The story does not skip ahead much, and is a direct continuation of where the previous one left off, seamless. I love the intricacies of the political system and economy in Scalzi's universe. They leave a lot of room for plotting and scheming, lots of differing perspectives and motivations to emerge.

Really intersting and packed full of information. Well written, engaging science writing from an expert in his field. I really appreciated that he did not play the blame game, but outlined with empathy the situation that many people in the world are facing today.

He does not dole out unsolicited diet advice, he just writes down the scientific effects of ultra-processed foods on our biologies, with clear reasoning and evidence from published papers. He does go into the economics of the industry and the entertwining of the UPF industry with pharma and government, relationships which lead to higher profits and less regulation.

I found this to be an enlightening read, and have taken pains to change certain elements of my diet as a result. I think this is an important book at this point in our history.

I really enjoyed the clever ending for this series. I think Grayland becoming an AI in the end was a masterstroke, and I loved to see her enemies shamed and outdone. I am glad that the relationship that she had with Marce did not stop the author giving her a ruthless death.

The writing can be a bit filthy in more ways than one, which I don't always enjoy, but at least there is a realism there that reminds us that Scalzi writes about humans and not just about concepts and plot points.

A short side-story from the Kingkiller Chronicles world, featuring Bast. I'm happy to see his character expanded a bit more, and showing a more cunning side of him rather than the servile character that he is in the mainline books. The story is quite short, and can be read in a single sitting, especially since there are some very nice illustrations in the book.

A very average Ken Follett book. Good, with some tense bits, and some loathe-worthy characters and heros to root for. The writing is quite formulaic if you read more than one book from Follett in a row, so I would advise waiting a few months between books. I enjoyed the 10th century setting, it's not often that fiction goes back that far.

Hobb's writing is definitely a slow burn. I got stuck near the middle, not sure if the story was progressing onwards or just stagnating, everything felt like a side quest. I put it down for a few days before picking it back up and plowing through the 'training arc'/setup sections.

Given this early floundering, I thought I wouldn't be rating the book higher than three stars, but the second half more than made up for it. I rarely read more than an hour of a book at a time, but this gripped me completely. The ending was unexpected and sort of beautiful in a way.

Though I never liked him much, I was devestated that Shrewd died after such a long suffering. I really thought he'd shake his tormentors and make a comeback. It was a great piece of writing to have Shrewd apologise for what he has made of Fitz. I am not a fan of the Molly storyline, once again I think it detracts from the story, but I reckon she'll be back - and pregnant - in the next book. We also didn't get any inkling on whether Nighteyes will be back after that ending, poor fella.

The writing has emotional depth and the characterisation is impeccable. Everyone is a real person, people with flaws, realistic motivations, goals, and agendas.

Immune was a big job for me to read, for two reasons.

Firstly, I take notes on all popsci nonfiction I read, noting down things I didn't know before, and I knew nothing about immunology, so I took many notes. This is a good thing, because I learned a lot from the book!

The second reason is a bad one, unfortunately: I hated the authorial tone in this. The vibe is that of a teacher who tries very hard to be down with the kids and makes liberal use of slang that's just a touch out of date. I really did not jive with this, it took away from the topic and made me mistrust the authority of the writer on the subject. It was certainly done to be more accessible, but it comes across as cheesy and condescending.

The illustrations were of a very high quality, and they added so much to the narrative, always presented at exactly the right time, spread evenly throughout. This brings the rating up to three stars.

I reserved this online at the library and was so surprised when I received it - it's TINY! I read it in 16 minutes, with time included for perusing the beautiful illustrations. It isn't bad at all, but given that the book costs as much as a novel on amazon, I feel that the cost-benefit scale doesn't favour a higher rating for it. I may just not be in the know about the lore around Susanna Clarke's fantasy universe, but I found this to be only a very small story, without much content.

The entirety of the story can be summed up as: girl goes to the woods and adopts a bear cub selflessly, knowing she faces death. With fantastical elements.

My expectation was too high for what I actually got out. The illustrations saved it.

The categorisation at the back of the book is business, and a lot of the advice is about how to be successful in the business sphere. I'm not in danger of becoming a businesswoman any time soon, since I still have years left on my degree, so I did skim those parts. The personal development chapters at the start of the book taught me a few new things about self-actualisation and productivity, so I did enjoy those parts. My sister said she wishes Steven Bartlett wasn't such an ass, and I think I echo this sentiment in general, but the ass-ness doesn't come across in this book :)

Nothing brings it down, really, I just didn't have an application for the advice in half the book. I think I'm the wrong audience.

PS I am aware I chose a business book and then found fault in it being a business book. Bite me.

An incredibly emotive collection of personal accounts from the Chernobyl disaster. There are testimonies from people of all walks of life: scientists, rural grandmothers, wives of first responders, communist loyalists, doctors, resettlers, politicians, and those who came in to do damage control (risking their lives in the process).

The story unfolds piece by piece, and each voice adds to the rich tapestry. The author does not shy away from including perspectives that are distasteful to us in the west and in the 21st century, and I think this is necessary and good. This tragedy was the result of human tensions - to brush tensions under the rug and write a single sided story would do it a disservice.

Quite rarely does a book affect me on such a deep level emotionally. I cried while reading some parts. But maybe not the parts you would imagine. Certainly, this is a sad story, but for me the sharp portrayal of what eastern european culture is like was the catalyst for the tears. It's very rare for me to think well of my homeland, but repeatedly throughout the book there were little snippets of scenes of life that gave me a sense of loss at having left. I will never move back, but this is the first sliver of homesickness I've felt in a long time.

The writing was utterly beautiful to me. Novic's prose glides smoothly. The events are portrayed with sensitivity, but without compromising the unflinching realism that this gruesome topic calls for. My only criticism is that the ending leaves so many threads unfinished that I had to check another copy to see if mine was truncated somehow on my kindle... I feel that at least the storylines with Brian and Marina should have been tied off properly.

At first I thought this would end up as a DNF, mainly because of a tight library deadline on it. The more I read, though, the more I realised that this is almost a kind of emotional education on others, as well as being (of course) about negotiation. It's often hard for me to understand and deal with the emotional lives of others if they're directed at me, and this book gives you some of the tools to be able to do that. I found myself having little revelations about human behaviour throughout, and the book has given me a lot to think about, both in terms of how I approach emotional conversations, and in terms of business and work. The stories did not get repetitive, and I'd venture to say that I'd even read a full hostage negotiation stories memoir by Chris Voss.

The reason it is dragged down a little is that for me it was a battle to get through this book for some reason. I was avoidant of it. Not really the book's fault, since the writing was engaging.

Not bad, just very slow. The finale is not what I expected, but I guess it is what the main characters deserved. I really thought that at least Asta Sollilja would end up with a brighter future, but her fate is bleak and broke my heart. Bjartur - nothing really could redeem this man who puts his silly pride before the lives of others. I disliked him from the start. Putting his selfish and rude demeanor down to an intense desire to be independent just did not cut it for me. Humans are made to be social and to survive together - no man is an island. I suppose the point of the novel is to prove this, and it does that well. It is very difficult to write a loathesome character and still elicit some shred of empathy for him by the reader, but when his house was taken away I felt a twang of pity.

The depth and the complexity of the writing kept me reading, the emotional lives of the characters often striking a chord within me that made me feel seen by the author, even as someone from a vastly different place and time than the characters. There is something universal about the human experience that was captured by Laxness in the lives of these miserable sheep farmers.

I love the whimsical storytelling style of Diana Wynne Jones. It's absolutely written for kids, but I think the best kinds of children's books are still good for adults, too. I loved the twist on the classic 'save the princess' tale in which the many princesses essentially rescued themselves. I imagine that if Abdullah hadn't gotten to the castle, then his princess would have found her own way out sooner or later. I also liked Sophie and Howl, both in disguise.

This is the kind of writing that allows an adult to relive the magic of childhood, and that's quite a rare quality!

The author is very playful with the information she withholds from both her characters and from her readers, which creates a fun dynamic between reader and character. I loved that the story was light and full of absurdity.

I found it especially silly that the book is essentially about a time-travelling cat causing chaos, yet it is named with a reference to Cyril instead, who doesn't drive any of the plot, making the title extremely apt. I hated Tossie, even her name is distasteful to me, and her mother was an even more detestable figure. I did manage to guess Tossie's ending about 2/3 of the way through after more than one mention of the Butler Did It trope.

Overall I found this to be clever, well written, and lighthearted. My only qualm was that maybe the pacing was a bit too slow for the content.

I love the character dynamic between Howl, Calcifer, and Sophie, and would have loved to see more books featuring these characters front and centre. They do make an appearance in this book, but the main characters are two young magicians tasked with looking after a multi-dimensional house while the wizard who owns it is away sick.

Even so, the storytelling was full of the hallmark whimsy and adventure of Diana Wynne Jones. The magic in the book is classical in every sense of the word, and her books feel like touching grass to a fantasy reader.