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patchworkbunny's Reviews (2.12k)
Written by a British author for the American market, I was a bit disappointed that Ironbridge wasn't the one in Shropshire. I liked the premise of the book and was glad that the Fey were of the evil variety that I've become accustomed to from some of my favourite series. I just felt it didn't feel it had enough oomph. Probably another one for the younger end of the market.
A surprisingly easy read from a debut author. Told in first person narrative from the killer's point of view it was a refreshing change from the police investigations common to the crime genre. Some parts even manage to be amusing, especially to those of us that curse over Royal Mail's Thick Book Tax! The book is set in Glasgow and there is some slang but most of it is pretty common and if you can understand a Scot you should be OK.
These short stories are pure bitesize Murakami. Forever eloquent, they cover all his hallmark themes from the mundane to the surreal, moving to amusing. There's even a few lost animals and lots of dancing thrown in for good measure.
I always enjoy reading books set in Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld universe and this was no exception. It's another young adult trilogy similar to The Darkest Powers and is set in a small research town run by the St. Cloud family. Now if you're a fan of her main series, this will mean something to you otherwise I won't spoil it. The fact that I know the universe means I like looking for clues in these books.
A let down to the book is that it doesn't really have an ending. Yes, it's the first part in a trilogy, but I feel each book should be readable by itself. The previous YA trilogy I read back to back so I didn't notice it much but Darkness Rising I'll now have to wait...
A let down to the book is that it doesn't really have an ending. Yes, it's the first part in a trilogy, but I feel each book should be readable by itself. The previous YA trilogy I read back to back so I didn't notice it much but Darkness Rising I'll now have to wait...
The story starts off when Chesney accidentally summons a demon; it could happen to anyone. But Chesney doesn't want to sell his soul to the devil and his choice has disastrous consequences. What follows are a lot of negotiations, a preacher with a far-out theory on the meaning of life and an agreement with the devil which shapes the rest of the novel.
The book got off to a good start, I was chuckling in places and then suddenly a deal was made. Without giving too much away, the deal was the turning point and it felt a bit like a different book from there on. Whilst I enjoyed the writing and the general concept, Chesney came across as a bit of a two-dimensional character and I didn't really warm to him.
I think this would appeal to fans of Robert Rankin and superheroes (that's fans of superheroes, not the caped crusaders themselves...not that they wouldn't enjoy it). Actuaries will probably be happy with their representation too; I bet they don't get featured in many novels.
The book got off to a good start, I was chuckling in places and then suddenly a deal was made. Without giving too much away, the deal was the turning point and it felt a bit like a different book from there on. Whilst I enjoyed the writing and the general concept, Chesney came across as a bit of a two-dimensional character and I didn't really warm to him.
I think this would appeal to fans of Robert Rankin and superheroes (that's fans of superheroes, not the caped crusaders themselves...not that they wouldn't enjoy it). Actuaries will probably be happy with their representation too; I bet they don't get featured in many novels.
I find Claire a bit of an uninspring character and easily find myself getting a bit bored of Fey polictics. However, Dorina spends a large portion of this book running around New York with a decapitated vampire in tow. I was not expecting to laugh so much!
What if words could kill? Chuck Palahniuk starts off Lullaby with a fantastic concept but somehow gets lost along the way. The idea that overhearing words in the street or on the radio, the internet, the television, could kill without any reason or malice is quite a scary one. That reading to a loved one could cause their death is heartbreaking and the first half of this book is thought-provoking and sad.
I loved this book up until around the point where Oyster appears. I guess he is there as the villain of the piece but his arrival also signalled the start of strangeness beyond enjoyment. I can understand the role of the extremist vegan in a world where human lives are so easily ended but he ranted on a bit much. I didn't get the point of the class action law suits either (I knew why he was doing them just not the relevance to the story).
I loved this book up until around the point where Oyster appears. I guess he is there as the villain of the piece but his arrival also signalled the start of strangeness beyond enjoyment. I can understand the role of the extremist vegan in a world where human lives are so easily ended but he ranted on a bit much. I didn't get the point of the class action law suits either (I knew why he was doing them just not the relevance to the story).
A seriously fascinating read. If you like to pigeon hole things, I'd have to say this would be popular science. If you're a squid specialist, you'll probably know everything in this book, but as there aren't many of them in the world, lets assume you'll learn a lot. That's if you can keep an open mind about the interestingness of cephalopods.
What's a cephalopod I hear you ask? It's a family of spineless creatures that includes squid, octopus and cuttlefish. This book covers all three but does focus on squid, as the title suggests. You'll be amazed by the medical advances that have been made thanks to the research carried out on squid. I even learned a little about the human nervous system, although I did start to tune out a little when it got a bit complex.
On occasion the book branches out to cover other areas of behavioural research, such as a charming story of how the finch learns to sing. Another researcher, carries out an experiment with his pet dog and yellow snow.
There's a chapter on sex which ranges from the funny (an incident of jumping sperm in a classroom) to tragic (the story of the Great Pacific Octopus mother).
Whilst the writing style isn't going to win any literary awards, the subject matter more than makes up for anything lacking in the sentence structure. It is a non-fiction book after all and does well to be entertaining. I repeatedly found myself putting down my current fiction read so I could read a little bit more about squid.
On a side note, the picture captions were very basic. There was one photo near the beginning that just said “a squid”. I think if you have picked up the book to read you'll know what one looks like and it should either have been expanded upon or left out. I do think the drawings are a nice addition and I just love the cover illustration. In general, I think more books need pictures!
If you enjoy watching natural history documentaries, especially those concerning marine wildlife, I would sincerely recommend this book.
I'm glad I've never really liked squid as a food as I would now feel guilty eating such interesting little, and not so little, creatures.
What's a cephalopod I hear you ask? It's a family of spineless creatures that includes squid, octopus and cuttlefish. This book covers all three but does focus on squid, as the title suggests. You'll be amazed by the medical advances that have been made thanks to the research carried out on squid. I even learned a little about the human nervous system, although I did start to tune out a little when it got a bit complex.
On occasion the book branches out to cover other areas of behavioural research, such as a charming story of how the finch learns to sing. Another researcher, carries out an experiment with his pet dog and yellow snow.
There's a chapter on sex which ranges from the funny (an incident of jumping sperm in a classroom) to tragic (the story of the Great Pacific Octopus mother).
Whilst the writing style isn't going to win any literary awards, the subject matter more than makes up for anything lacking in the sentence structure. It is a non-fiction book after all and does well to be entertaining. I repeatedly found myself putting down my current fiction read so I could read a little bit more about squid.
On a side note, the picture captions were very basic. There was one photo near the beginning that just said “a squid”. I think if you have picked up the book to read you'll know what one looks like and it should either have been expanded upon or left out. I do think the drawings are a nice addition and I just love the cover illustration. In general, I think more books need pictures!
If you enjoy watching natural history documentaries, especially those concerning marine wildlife, I would sincerely recommend this book.
I'm glad I've never really liked squid as a food as I would now feel guilty eating such interesting little, and not so little, creatures.
Warning: This novel is not suitable for younger readers, there's graphic sex and lots of swearing including the c-word which I know a lot of people dislike.
Kudos to Glen Duncan for writing a literary werewolf novel. I wanted to love it but have come away feeling a bit ambivalent. The majority of the novel is narrated by Jacob, the last of his kind. However a lot of these conversations seem to be happening during sex. Whilst sex and violence isn't automatically a bad recipe for a novel, I didn't think it fit with the style of prose which was fairly reflective.
I didn't find the plot particularly strong. WOCOP is an organisation that has been hunting werewolves for some time and Grainer, a Hunter, is hoping to seek revenge. Jacob is resigned to his fate and starts saying his goodbyes to the one person with meaning in his life, Harley, who he saved many years ago and has since formed a close bond. I thought this relationship came across as very real and touching however the story soon goes off in a different direction and I think I preferred the earlier half of the book. The ending was a little predictable for my liking but then maybe I read too many werewolf books!
Kudos to Glen Duncan for writing a literary werewolf novel. I wanted to love it but have come away feeling a bit ambivalent. The majority of the novel is narrated by Jacob, the last of his kind. However a lot of these conversations seem to be happening during sex. Whilst sex and violence isn't automatically a bad recipe for a novel, I didn't think it fit with the style of prose which was fairly reflective.
I didn't find the plot particularly strong. WOCOP is an organisation that has been hunting werewolves for some time and Grainer, a Hunter, is hoping to seek revenge. Jacob is resigned to his fate and starts saying his goodbyes to the one person with meaning in his life, Harley, who he saved many years ago and has since formed a close bond. I thought this relationship came across as very real and touching however the story soon goes off in a different direction and I think I preferred the earlier half of the book. The ending was a little predictable for my liking but then maybe I read too many werewolf books!
Written by 36 different authors, it is not, as you may be thinking, a collection of short stories but a surprisingly coherent novel written live on stage!
Yes you read that right. Hotel Angeline: A Novel In 36 Voices is the product of The Novel: Live! Each writer wrote a chapter in two hours and the whole novel was completed in just six days! Now I'll forgive you for thinking, that's great entertainment but surely the book is a bit hit and miss? No, no, no. It turned out a wonderful story about a girl called Alexis who has an absent mother and is trying to keep a residence hotel running whilst there's a terrorist plot afoot and a body in the basement.
There are of course changes in style but, with a handful of exceptions, you can barely notice the changes unless you're looking for them. I was too absorbed in the plot which is how it should be. I may be tempted to go back through the chapters and match up the writers at a later date. I'm not familiar with the majority of them but this book will definitely make me look out for their work.
It's a bittersweet, sometimes darkly comic, charming, coming of age story and I had a teary-eyed moment towards the end.
Yes you read that right. Hotel Angeline: A Novel In 36 Voices is the product of The Novel: Live! Each writer wrote a chapter in two hours and the whole novel was completed in just six days! Now I'll forgive you for thinking, that's great entertainment but surely the book is a bit hit and miss? No, no, no. It turned out a wonderful story about a girl called Alexis who has an absent mother and is trying to keep a residence hotel running whilst there's a terrorist plot afoot and a body in the basement.
There are of course changes in style but, with a handful of exceptions, you can barely notice the changes unless you're looking for them. I was too absorbed in the plot which is how it should be. I may be tempted to go back through the chapters and match up the writers at a later date. I'm not familiar with the majority of them but this book will definitely make me look out for their work.
It's a bittersweet, sometimes darkly comic, charming, coming of age story and I had a teary-eyed moment towards the end.