book

Rated Tokyo Express 6/10

Lovely old time detective story.<br/><br/>I do love an old book. Written in 1958, post war in Japan, mostly a story about...sort of...trains. <br/><br/>I knew Japan was big on trains (similarly to the UK, it's our mode of transport), but reading about how they would plan their journey often sleeping overnight, upright, on the train to get from one place to another.<br/><br/>The crime is linked to trains and journeys and planning. <br/><br/>It's a nice, short enough, straightforward detective story that cross from one generation of detective (old, slow, "classic"), to young(er) and determined.<br/><br/>There are parts where I'm wondering what _real_ evidence they have to follow up or chase down particular individuals, but it gets a pass being nearly 70 years old.

Rated Here and Now and Then 6/10

The heart break of time travel.<br/><br/>I enjoyed this book. The time travel core mechanic is…okay. It's not perfect/bullet proof, but it works to create the impossible problem.<br/><br/>The main character is, a little all over the place. It's not enough to be distracting, but often I found myself thinking "this guy isn't helping himself" as he'd continuously make the same mistakes. Maybe this could have been edited out.<br/><br/>Without giving too much away, the main character gets stuck out of time for several decades and so eventually makes a life for himself. A family and some happiness.<br/><br/>Then, he's pulled back to his timeline (in the future) without any prospect of returning or even attempting closure with his wife and daughter.<br/><br/>The story goes on to attempt to deal with the question: could you let go? <br/><br/>The big problem being knowing _when_ to let go. There's no good time.<br/><br/>I've thought a lot about this in my personal life, which I think is why I could connect to the torment that the protagonist faces.<br/><br/>Not hard science, not a heart string puller, but thoughtful. Even if I wanted to shake the protagonist!

Rated The Wasp Factory 8/10

Unique. <br/><i></i><br/>The protagonist, Frank, is most definitely a psychopath and yet one that I could almost understand their weird justifications - and that's credit to Banks, otherwise this could easily have been a story of a complete whack job.<br/><br/>The book is described (possibly by the publishers) as a gothic horror - it's certainly dark, but not sure it fits into horror.<br/><br/>It's definitely a mind fudge, and one that had me wanting to read more to try to understand if Frank understood what he was or not.<br/><br/>Definitely interesting, probably would have had a big impact if I'd read this in my teens (and not a 40 year old), still enjoyable in a challenging kind of way.

Rated Christmas Jars Collector's Edition 6/10

A sweet tale of kindness. I asked for recommendations for Christmas–feelings books, and this is one that came up, and it does indeed do a good job of getting those feel–good vibes going.<br/><br/>The story is a little sickly sweet, but that's okay. I particularly liked the first 1/4 of the story that follows Louise, an unexpected adopted mother to Hope. This part is particularly tender and gentle.<br/><br/>The book definitely left me with the desire to follow the Christmas traditions that's created in the story, which as the book ends, it's followed by real life stories of individuals who did just that.<br/><br/>I have the kindle version that, unbeknownst to me, included some twenty-odd true stories at the end, making up around 20% of the kindle edition. I read a few of these, but they did follow the same pattern, and eventually skipped over a few feeling it was similar to reading an appendix of a book (and yes, this makes me a little bit of a terrible person!!!).<br/><br/>Overall: does the job I had hoped it would do: get me in the mood for Christmas by reminding me of the "gift of giving (love)".

Wants to read Death on the Nile

Rated To Be Taught, If Fortunate 6/10

To Be Taught is another excellent story from Becky Chambers. Gently, honest, touching and inquisitive about the universe.<br/><br/>A novella (so in theory a "short read") is exactly the kind of story I've quickly come to expect from Chambers: about the characters and striving to be better through knowledge and our humanity.<br/><br/>The story is told a message delivered to us - and by "us" the message hopes to be received by Earth. The crew of four humans have been sent to explore outer space and return with their findings.<br/><br/>The mission is entirely a discovery exercise, not "the Earth is doomed, we must quickly find new home" which so many stories would shoot for. So the book tells of the crew landing across four different planets and what they find and tell of their enthusiasm in science and real human struggles in confined spaces.<br/><br/>This is a gentle and easy read, and for me, treated as something to tide me over until the next novel length Wayfarers is released - but equally a solid story on it's own merits.<br/>

Rated Piranesi 8/10

Rated Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory 6/10

Very brief but a good bridging story.

Wants to read All Our Wrong Todays

Rated Hope to Die 10/10

Wants to read Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence

Rated The Ocean at the End of the Lane 8/10

Wants to read Notes on a Nervous Planet

Wants to read The Count of Monte Cristo

Rated Dogs of War 10/10

Wow. I loved this book. I'm not entirely sure how I found it - I suspect Amazon randomly recommended it to me, and it was definitely a random purchase - but so glad I did.<br/><br/>I'd just finished reading Snow Crash which has a small character which is an enhanced dog (called a Rat), and a few years back I'd read <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22358.We3">We3</a> which has animals who escape a tyranny of human kind…so I think I was expecting something like that. I was wrong!<br/><br/>The book opens from the point of view of Rex, a "bioform" dog - part machine, part dog, part human DNA. The first few pages read as a little trite "I am Rex. I am Good Dog" etc - but this quickly falls away as I realised the darkness of what was being described from Rex's point of view. <br/><br/>Then each chapter is told from different individuals point of view, including Hart - the engineer/carer for the bioforms, Honey - a bioform Bear and many other characters.<br/><br/>The story is split over 5 parts that, I can assume, is covering several years. It starts in a war torn country, but once this part is over, the story goes on to raise the question of the bioform's rights, and whether a human-made thing can be human if it can feel for itself. By <em>human</em>, we mean the condition rather than the species.<br/><br/>The story is a mix of the future of AI and augmented lifeforms, fear of different, corporations and their relationship with slavery - and through it, somehow, the protagonist is a dog that I can actually relate to as he even evolves through the book (the author does a brilliant job of evolving Rex's language and vocabulary as Rex is exposed to more of the world and the story moves on).<br/><br/>Other thoughts that this book brought up for me:<br/><br/>- If humankind make a <em>thing</em> and a thing can think for itself, should it have rights? What does that process look like - and how long does it take?<br/>- Can and should humankind survive in it's current state. Is an augmented human less or more human? <br/>- A fully autonomous intelligence is effectively immortal, so it can also outlive generations of humankind until the generations come to accept it?<br/><br/>If you're interested in how technology can evolve in our future with AI, singularities, and the like, then I'd definitely recommend this book. <br/><br/>I loved this story, really great stuff!

Rated Good Omens 10/10

Such good fun. I think my favourite character was actually Dog. I loved the inner monologue that went with the Hell Hound!<br/><br/>I don't think I've read a story with so many characters intertwining throughout a story (though, truth be told: I've not read many stories!) - and this book did a superb job of keeping all the characters unique, interesting and coherent.<br/><br/>The story (for me), started fairly light (in heart) and towards the last quarter it goes rather dark - although this may be to be expected as the Armageddon is at hand. This also did wonders for my nightmares (I had three consecutive nights dreaming about my own End Of The World dreams).<br/><br/>I'm also really impressed that two different authors created the story in a way that feels completely unified (and this edition included a Q&A chapter at the end where Pratchett and Gaiman share their process and thoughts on each other).<br/><br/>Really fun stuff and included some real laugh out loud moments. The entire last chapter could have been highlighted too - beautiful closing message.

Rated Shades of Grey 8/10

Felt like a long read and felt a little like it was trying to be Red Dwarf a few times, but eventually settled into an interesting and fun story.<br/><br/>I do admit I got lost with the length of time reading the book, but suspect it was the speed I was reading (only a handful of pages each night) - the story takes place over a matter of days - not as I thought a matter of months.<br/><br/>There's lots of lore in the world that's not really explained, but doesn't really get in the way. I did expect to find the humour more, but it wasn't really there for me.<br/><br/>Likeable characters, and a good story which stands well on it's own. I'd like to read more, but would hope the pace is a little quicker.

Rated Weyward 6/10

A little predictable.<br/><br/>The book is broken across multiple eras and lives of women who are related, three in particular, changing the written voice used (so it's reasonable to follow as it jumps).<br/><br/>The problem I had, particularly having *just* come off _What About Men?_ was that every single male character was evil (not quite the right word, but probably suitable given the "witch" like story). <br/><br/>I get that this makes sense specifically since it's from the perspective of these women, but it ended up feeling trope-like and it was easy to predict how things were going to go, which I don't enjoy so much. <br/><br/>Probably a good beach read, or solo read mixed in with different genres (probably not right after _What About Men_!).

Rated The Murder of Roger Ackroyd 8/10

Surprisingly modern for a book written nearly 100 years ago. A solid murder mystery.<br/><br/>Apparently one of Christie's most (or more?) controversial books which I can believe given it was written in 1926. There's talk of drugs and cocaine and even a dictaphone (which I didn't even know had been invented back then).<br/><br/>I did somehow guess the murderer, but I suspect it's because so many stories have come since, and it was a technique that has been employed many times since.<br/><br/>Still, enjoyable, and holds up well even in 2023.

Wants to read The Martian Chronicles

Rated Born to be Mild: Adventures for the Anxious 4/10

Some laughs but ultimately turned into a journal.<br/><br/>The first series of chapters were really fun and throughout the book there's genuine chuckles from the writing, but the actual content is what left me feeling the book could have either been 150 or so pages, or at least dig a little deeper under the skin of anxiety.<br/><br/>This is supposed to be a memoir of the author's life over a year following some unknown years of possibly being house bound with anxiety and/or alcoholism. As you can see, it's not clear. He also alludes to a marriage break up, and at first I expected he was going to explain the backstory to how he arrived to this year where he's trying to find his (I guess) purpose in life, but unfortunately not. It's more like it's a reference his friends (many of which are casually mentioned in the book) might understand, but not us the average reader.<br/><br/>One thing that is clear is that he suffers from a very high level of anxiety. He's on prescription medication to help but it's always rattling around in the background. Something I can understand (similarly with depression). <br/><br/>The problem is that **all** throughout the book (and year?) he's trying to find his purpose or calling in life, as if it's one thing that everyone has and that's all. At first I can understand that desire, but as he repeats his attempts at adventures to fill his supposed hole it gets repetitive and like he's actively avoiding the lessons that's certainly clear to me as a reader: it's all a bit messy and that's okay. <br/><br/>There is a single chapter that does give an insight into the anxiety - which I appreciated as a reader, but it's over in a matter of pages (literally) and there's nothing further to explain what it's like all the time. <br/><br/>The further the book goes the more it swaps from memoir to journal. We're often treated to a blow by blow account of how he arrives at a field, with shops he passed and roads he walked. <br/><br/>I think I would have enjoyed some introspection rather than the 4 page conclusion at the end of the book. By the 80% mark, I found I was just trying to skim through the pages because I didn't care about what he'd brought home from the shops for his dad and the end of the book was welcomed though I felt it could have come a lot sooner and likely left me with a better impression.

Rated System Collapse 8/10

Great addition to the story of a struggling Murderbot.<br/><br/>I continue to love Martha Wells' Murderbot diaries. <br/><br/>As the years (and diaries) have gone on, SecUnit/Murderbot (and I'm sure they gave themselves a name in one of the books...) struggles to navigate their own emotions, mostly pushing them down, or "tagging for later" - something I'm sure I've done before.<br/><br/>It's this part of the story that makes Murderbot so relatable, and makes me consider that the impending AI uprising is perhaps not a matter for Terminators but a new species that will struggle with existence just as much as humans do.<br/><br/>It's also nice to get a full novel from Wells - just so I can chew on the story and have Murderbot in my life a little longer.<br/><br/>I have to admit there's some points where I'm reading the plot and just going along with it. Sometimes losing track of which human is which (and I'm not sure someone could just pickup this book without having read a lot of the previous books in the series). But this isn't particularly at the detriment of the book - the characters are compelling enough that I want to keep with them (ART and ART-drone included).<br/><br/>I'll continue to recommend the Murderbot diaries. Lovely, human stuff.

Rated A Closed and Common Orbit 8/10

Enjoyed this story - it had a lot of warmth.<br/><i></i><br/>I have to admit, I was fairly upset to realise that Wayfarers book 2 did not continue with the characters I'd grown to love so much from Wayfarers book 1. I'm still secretly hoping to find the crew from the Wayfarer again in another book.<br/><br/>This story however, picks up right after the closing events from book 1 - but instead follows Pepper and Lovelace back to Pepper's adopted world to find acceptance both within and without.<br/><br/>The story focuses on the two characters and bounces back and forth between the two (and along two different periods of time). I didn't find myself laughing in this book (I did in the first which is what spurred me to immediately read this and the third) but it was a touching story of individuals trying to find their place in the world and the loneliness that comes before.<br/><br/>In a way, I felt like the book was a pair of stories about mother and daughter - and whilst I'm neither, I found lots to relate to. And as with Chambers' first instalment of Wayfarers, I find myself wanting this future for our own humanity.<br/><br/>There's something both charming and utterly beautiful about the universe that Chambers has created for us. It was nice to travel to a new place and follow new characters (even though I still want to hear more about Kizzy and Jenks, and Dr Chef and Sissex - I suspect their on their own journey).<br/><br/>Good stuff. Very sweet. Very warm and loving story.

Rated The Thursday Murder Club 10/10

So good on all levels. Utterly polished and wonderfully likeable characters.<br/><br/>Not much to add, except that the story was really well drawn out, and the main characters in the "Murder Club" were interesting, had depth and I could really imagine.<br/><br/>Understandable how this series of books have been such a hit. Absolutely looking forward to reading the rest in the series.<br/>

Rated Murder in the Family 4/10