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patchworkbunny's Reviews (2.12k)
Another moving and controversial story from Jodi Picoult, however I did find it hard to follow the timeline in places as it wasn't so clear as her other books whether we were in the past or present. Anna is a fantastic character and if it was just her story it would be 5 stars! I'm only giving it 3 stars as I found it a little long and the end seemed to be tacked on as an after-thought - to me it didn't seem a logical or believable conclusion to the story. I don't think we really needed the lawyer/GAL romance and whilst I had sympathy for Sara I didn't like her much.
In a not too distant future, the economy has crumbled, energy is hard to come by and earth's population is living on top of each other in the cities. Literally. Wade lives in a trailer park where the homes are stacked on top of each other and you run the constant risk of being mugged. It's no surprise that for many the escape of the virtual world inside OASIS is such a draw. When the creator of the system, Halliday, dies he leaves in his will a clause; his fortune and control of OASIS goes to whoever finds the easter egg he has hidden in the code.
At the start of the story, it's been several years since the hunt for the egg started and there are thousands of “gunters” who take the challenge very seriously. Halliday was a fan of 70s and 80s pop culture and therefore the gunters learn as much as possible in their quest for the egg. If you get nostalgic about computer games or remember the 80s fondly, I think this will be right up your street. Whilst I'm not a big gamer myself, I have grown up with the evolution of computers and have been on the edge of geekery for quite some time. I spent a lot of my teens in a MUD and I can remember pixels being a common feature in games!
I've heard from several sources that girl gamers often get a raw deal online. I think they will be pleased to see female gamers portrayed in a positive light throughout the story. They're just as good as the boys, if not better!
There are underlying issues that are addressed beneath all the fun gaming adventures. For many, the virtual world is an important escape from other troubles or they only way for people to be themselves. If only real life had a mute function for bullies!
I started recommending Ready Player One to my geek friends before I'd even finished it It's going to be a Marmite book though, you'll either love it or hate it. Though I would suggest it as a stockign filler for those awkward relatives who already have every gadget or game going. There's a good chance they won't have heard of this book and I'm sure they will enjoy it if they can put down their consoles long enough to read a few pages.
At the start of the story, it's been several years since the hunt for the egg started and there are thousands of “gunters” who take the challenge very seriously. Halliday was a fan of 70s and 80s pop culture and therefore the gunters learn as much as possible in their quest for the egg. If you get nostalgic about computer games or remember the 80s fondly, I think this will be right up your street. Whilst I'm not a big gamer myself, I have grown up with the evolution of computers and have been on the edge of geekery for quite some time. I spent a lot of my teens in a MUD and I can remember pixels being a common feature in games!
I've heard from several sources that girl gamers often get a raw deal online. I think they will be pleased to see female gamers portrayed in a positive light throughout the story. They're just as good as the boys, if not better!
There are underlying issues that are addressed beneath all the fun gaming adventures. For many, the virtual world is an important escape from other troubles or they only way for people to be themselves. If only real life had a mute function for bullies!
I started recommending Ready Player One to my geek friends before I'd even finished it It's going to be a Marmite book though, you'll either love it or hate it. Though I would suggest it as a stockign filler for those awkward relatives who already have every gadget or game going. There's a good chance they won't have heard of this book and I'm sure they will enjoy it if they can put down their consoles long enough to read a few pages.
Vimbai is the queen bee at the Harare salon where she works until one day a man walks in and asks for a job. To the women of Zimbabwe a male hairdresser is unheard of but he soon proves that he is the best around. Understandably, Vimbai is resentful but slowly a friendship forms between the two.
This book manages to highlight many of Zimbabwe's problems in a plot that would not feel out of place in the chick-lit genre. These are people with normal everyday lives in a country that is in turmoil and I think Tendai Huchu does a fantastic balancing act between light-hearted and informative whilst keeping a dark edge. Don't expect lots of detail into the current affairs of the country though, it's a short book and I think explanations would weigh it down.
The character of Vimbai is hard to like at times, her attitude has been shaped by her past and also her cultural upbringing which is so different from my own. Some of her opinions are quite shocking to a liberal reader.
When the book dropped through my door, I was rather pleased to find it had a Joey HiFi cover which is an added bonus. I think I might have to start a collection!
This book manages to highlight many of Zimbabwe's problems in a plot that would not feel out of place in the chick-lit genre. These are people with normal everyday lives in a country that is in turmoil and I think Tendai Huchu does a fantastic balancing act between light-hearted and informative whilst keeping a dark edge. Don't expect lots of detail into the current affairs of the country though, it's a short book and I think explanations would weigh it down.
The character of Vimbai is hard to like at times, her attitude has been shaped by her past and also her cultural upbringing which is so different from my own. Some of her opinions are quite shocking to a liberal reader.
When the book dropped through my door, I was rather pleased to find it had a Joey HiFi cover which is an added bonus. I think I might have to start a collection!
Read as part of the Transworld Book Group:
A woman is found at the scene of a crime with no memory of who she is or how she came to save the lives of eleven girls sold into slavery. In order to help retrieve her identity, the police bring in psychiatrist Dr Nathan Fox who has no memories of his own childhood trauma. Fox has a form of synaesthesia in which he feels other people's pyshical contact and pain, and he soon realises Jane Doe has the same sensations and more. When the police connect her to a series of murders, Fox is more determined to find out who the mystery woman is.
The condition is synaesthesia is fascinating and probably more common than you may think. The best known form is that of perceiving colours for letters and numbers but the term covers a wide range of interconnected senses. The premise of The Colour of Death is that a person that shows all forms is hyper-sensitive to their surroundings and may come across as being pyschic. Sounds good? I found that in trying to explain Jane Doe's visions with quantum physics, Cordy made the whole thing a lot less believable to me than if it had just been something supernatural that we could choose to believe or not.
On the other hand, the idea of synaesthesia being something spiritual is also explored yet I found this got a bit repetitive and somewhere in the second half it just got a bit too weird. I wasn't sure if I was meant to be believing what was going on or if they were just delusions of a psychopath!
Ignoring my skepticism, it's a good pacy read and I liked the characters of Fox and Jane Doe (I won't spoil it by letting you know if we find out her real identity). I agree with other reviewers that Cordy has set it up nicely for a series, one that I would be interested in reading. I think the concept that is laid out in the final pages would be an intriguing one, if I can just get past the quasi-science.
A woman is found at the scene of a crime with no memory of who she is or how she came to save the lives of eleven girls sold into slavery. In order to help retrieve her identity, the police bring in psychiatrist Dr Nathan Fox who has no memories of his own childhood trauma. Fox has a form of synaesthesia in which he feels other people's pyshical contact and pain, and he soon realises Jane Doe has the same sensations and more. When the police connect her to a series of murders, Fox is more determined to find out who the mystery woman is.
The condition is synaesthesia is fascinating and probably more common than you may think. The best known form is that of perceiving colours for letters and numbers but the term covers a wide range of interconnected senses. The premise of The Colour of Death is that a person that shows all forms is hyper-sensitive to their surroundings and may come across as being pyschic. Sounds good? I found that in trying to explain Jane Doe's visions with quantum physics, Cordy made the whole thing a lot less believable to me than if it had just been something supernatural that we could choose to believe or not.
On the other hand, the idea of synaesthesia being something spiritual is also explored yet I found this got a bit repetitive and somewhere in the second half it just got a bit too weird. I wasn't sure if I was meant to be believing what was going on or if they were just delusions of a psychopath!
Ignoring my skepticism, it's a good pacy read and I liked the characters of Fox and Jane Doe (I won't spoil it by letting you know if we find out her real identity). I agree with other reviewers that Cordy has set it up nicely for a series, one that I would be interested in reading. I think the concept that is laid out in the final pages would be an intriguing one, if I can just get past the quasi-science.
Stockholm is in the grip of a heatwave and strange things are happening. Electrical appliances won't turn off, everyone has headaches and the recently dead are starting to come back to life. Not the average zombie story, John Ajvide Lindqvist has taken the time to think about the emotional aspects of zombies actually being loved ones. David has lost his wife in a car crash but can't bring himself to tell his son that she's either dead or undead. Mahler lost his grandson, Anna her son, two months before and are still struggling to come to terms with his death. To both families, the zombies are not some horror film come to life but a chance to hope that there is life after death.
It's really quite a moving and thought-provoking book. The reliving are still corpses but animated somehow. They are not out to eat brains but understandably people are scared of them. If it is one of the people you love most in the world, what can you do but carry on loving them? Fear and hatred can only have negative consequences but what happens if we can be compassionate...
Translated from the original Swedish by Ebba Segerberg, there are a few clunky sentences and odd phrases but not enough to get in the way of the powerful storytelling. It's not all action but a much more introspective, quiet book that I feel would even appeal to readers who don't like zombies.
It's really quite a moving and thought-provoking book. The reliving are still corpses but animated somehow. They are not out to eat brains but understandably people are scared of them. If it is one of the people you love most in the world, what can you do but carry on loving them? Fear and hatred can only have negative consequences but what happens if we can be compassionate...
Translated from the original Swedish by Ebba Segerberg, there are a few clunky sentences and odd phrases but not enough to get in the way of the powerful storytelling. It's not all action but a much more introspective, quiet book that I feel would even appeal to readers who don't like zombies.
I quite enjoyed The Shakespeare Secret so was looking forward to a fun read from this book. Unfortunately, Carrell comes across as a bit patronising, explaining practically everything that her characters say in depth. This makes the book much longer than it needs to be. Also she would have us believe that everyone in Scotland is a practising Pagan. It all seems a bit unbelievable...
I did enjoy the last 60 or so pages, could have done with a ruthless edit to make it 3 stars.
I did enjoy the last 60 or so pages, could have done with a ruthless edit to make it 3 stars.
It's saying something that I chose a Temperance Brennan book as an easy going in-flight read. I remember the days when they were quite challenging, trying to decipher medical terms and a smattering of French. I can't decide if Kathy Reichs has kust lost interest in the series or is pruposefully dumbing it down for TV audiences. It does seem a bit of a coincidence that the books started going downhill after Bones got popular!
So, a body is found encased in a barrel of tarmac in landfill adjacent to Charlotte's NASCAR track. Despite being a bit on the light side, it follows the classic Tempe plot where you know she shouldn't be sticking her nose in but somehow she ends up overly involved and in some kind of trouble. As a Brit I am bamboozled by the draw of racing cars in a circle so it was the perfect opportunity to explain the NASCAR scene and immerse the reader in the adrenaline but somehow that didn't happen. The racing side seemed to just be a novel plot device and I think she missed out there. Pixar's Cars seemed to have nailed it better.
As an easy crime read, it's not bad but for those of you wanting to return to Tempe's heyday, you will be disappointed. Better than the previous instalment and handy on a transatlantic flight!
So, a body is found encased in a barrel of tarmac in landfill adjacent to Charlotte's NASCAR track. Despite being a bit on the light side, it follows the classic Tempe plot where you know she shouldn't be sticking her nose in but somehow she ends up overly involved and in some kind of trouble. As a Brit I am bamboozled by the draw of racing cars in a circle so it was the perfect opportunity to explain the NASCAR scene and immerse the reader in the adrenaline but somehow that didn't happen. The racing side seemed to just be a novel plot device and I think she missed out there. Pixar's Cars seemed to have nailed it better.
As an easy crime read, it's not bad but for those of you wanting to return to Tempe's heyday, you will be disappointed. Better than the previous instalment and handy on a transatlantic flight!
Windfall is the fourth book in the series and picks up from the end of Chill Factor. Jo has quit the weather wardens and is now working as a lowly weather girl. She doesn't even get to wear a bikini but instead is forced into hideous foam suns and clouds for her strangely accurate yet deeply unlikable boss. If that wasn't bad enough, her sister turns up on her doorstep husbandless, homeless and above all without her extensive wardrobe. She can't turn her away despite the fact that she has to do something about David, who at the end of the previous book, wasn't in great shape at all.
Amongst all that, there are two pretty good characters introduced; a cop with questions who just won't leave Jo alone and Eamon, her sister's rebound target. I feel these books sometimes take a little too long to get going and if you're not into weather then I can imagine they can seem a little slow but I found I couldn't put it down once it got going.
Amongst all that, there are two pretty good characters introduced; a cop with questions who just won't leave Jo alone and Eamon, her sister's rebound target. I feel these books sometimes take a little too long to get going and if you're not into weather then I can imagine they can seem a little slow but I found I couldn't put it down once it got going.