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Rated Rivers of London 8/10

Vivid voice, fun and dark and original.<br/><br/>I wasn't sure what I was getting in to reading Rivers of London (recommended multiple times on socials), especially as I kept finding the teens/young adult book cover for it (reminding me of the multiple covers the Harry Potter books had) - but I decided to jump in.<br/><br/>I quickly got sucked into the book and the narrative style that Aaronovitch used. For some reason I had Millie Bobby Brown as the voice which caused me a little confusion when I learn that the protagonist and narrator is called Peter Grant (I really didn't read the blurb) - but decided that she could still run the inner monologue.<br/><br/>The Rivers of London is a very London and British book (which I always especially enjoy because I can vividly see the places, hear the accents and usually feel the weather) that's a mix of modern copper plod story with fantastical (and certainly for me: original) characters from gods to vampires to ghosts and wizards.<br/><br/>There's a good balance of funny and witting against the (some times) gruesome and frankly pretty terribly bad things that make for the primary investigation for the protagonist, Grant, to work through.<br/><br/>Really fun stuff - I can definitely see myself returning for more in this series.

Rated Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 6/10

Really interesting ideas sandwiched in a bit of a weird trip.<br/><br/>I'm sure there's an English studies thesis for this book, but I'm utterly unqualified. This book was, kind of all over the shop.<br/><br/>I'm very familiar with Blade Runner (both director's cut and OG) and I'd known ahead of time that the book it was based on was _not_ the same. <br/><br/>There's actually a fairly coherent string of plot that's similar to the ideas of the movie: identity and self awareness.<br/><br/>The middle section of the book is actually pretty linear to follow.<br/><br/>It's mostly the sections that involve Mercer and the mind fusing that the characters go through. Specifically when there's no purposeful fusing - in that two characters, Deckard included, seem to just start tripping and interacting with Mercer, or... having "thought" stones thrown at them... I'm not sure. <br/><br/>The Mercer sections, I found myself reading for the ride, but not really knowing what was going on. <br/><br/>I'm glad I've finally got a Philip K. Dick book under my belt, though I was warned that this particular book probably isn't the best choice for a first. <br/><br/>What does stand out is for a book written in 1968, it reads like something that was written recently (perhaps with the exception of the flying cars _still_ using petrol!).

Wants to read The Last Wish

Rated A Very Merry Murder 6/10

Fine. Easy read. Guessed the murdered though 🤷<br/><br/>Grabbed it for the Christmas period (slightly annoyed I finished it on Jan 2nd). It's decently written, apparently part of a series (this being book 6) but stands fine on it's own. There's a few references to something that happened before, but doesn't affect the story.<br/><br/>It does read like a Columbo or Murder She Wrote, where there's people killing other people like it's just another Wednesday. All ends are fully tied up without anything left to the reader by the end.<br/><br/>I did figure out the killer around 1/3rd of the way in - or at least I keep asking the protagonist "What about X?!".<br/><br/>Not terribly Christmasy, but the very last chapter was very sweet.

Rated Butter 6/10

Wants to read Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis: The Evidence-based 7 Step Recovery Program

Rated Reasons to Be Cheerful 6/10

Honestly not sure what I thought of the book…<br/><br/>I'm unsure how I got this on my to-read list. I think I was looking for funny books from the last few years. I didn't laugh once reading this book though. It was a sweet story, set in the 80s, but I'm not sure where the arc was.<br/><br/>The story is told from the perspective of Lizzie, an 18 year old young woman who moves out of home to work as an assistant to a dentist. The dentist himself is fairly sexist and xenophobic. The mother (of the protagonist) is … hard to describe. In short, she's a pain in Lizzie's arse - though she definitely loves her.<br/><br/>I think there's some part of flying the nest and finding your own feet, but Lizzie somehow ends up in a very similar place by the end of the book. There's times I was reading and thinking surely she's going to realise that she herself is actually a good dentist and will take that path, but nope, she ends up as a clothes store assistant, so … I don't know.<br/><br/>It was cute to have 80s nostalgia peppered throughout the book, the highlight being the salad spinner (which my own mother still owns and I definitely remember spinning it for fun).<br/><br/>I guess I was left with the sense of _why did I read what I read_?

Rated Sweetpea 8/10

Funny, unwavering and dark.<br/><br/>Rhiannon, Sweetpea, is according to BuzzFeed, a serial killer - and probably a psychopath. For the first half of the book I just read it as she's a bit crazy and has decided to act on her impulses.<br/><br/>Except as I carried on reading, I realised that what she was doing was listing the things that piss her off all the time and just landed at the inevitable conclusion that the only way to get rid of these things is to get rid of these things. Not unlike a lot of us except we don't go all the the way to fully extinguishing someone.<br/><br/>There were some really funny turns of phrases throughout the book and I just wondered how I could possibly end but suspected it would end the way it did which isn't a bad thing. I definitely plan to read a few more of these books in a series. <br/><br/>Graphic, explicit, raw, quite angry (and annoyed), funny. Good stuff!

Rated The Radleys 8/10

An easy read, good for the holiday.<br/><br/>I chomped this down in a matter of days (though it helped being by the pool to spend more time reading). I've read a number of Matt Haig's books and find I prefer his older material over the newer books, and this book fitted nicely into that category.<br/><br/>Without examining the story too carefully (because I think the balance of humour and darkness, in retrospect, is a little off balance and the wheels sort of come off!) - it was a fun read. <br/><br/>Definitely reading the book in 2025 rather than the years which the Twilight stories were at their height probably makes the story a little more refreshing for me (it's about a British vampire family - not a spoiler, you'll get that from the blurb). <br/><br/>The characters were fairly simple to follow and switch between on each (nicely short) chapter. I didn't really feel much sympathy for the parent characters (I'm not sure if I was supposed to, but like I said, it doesn't want too close a look), but there's some fun twists on the vampire genre (or perhaps I'm not that familiar with the genre!).<br/><br/>Some fun gory bits, a decent mini twist here and there, very easy to read - a good choice for the holiday read.

Rated How Not To Be a Boy 6/10

Not what I had hoped.<br/><br/>I basically ended up disliking Webb even more than I already (suspected) I did. I felt like he just came off like a bit of a smug, privileged git - which really wasn't where I thought it was going to take me.

Rated Spectrum Machine Language for the Absolute Beginner 6/10

Pretty gentle and sensible introduction to assembly and machine code. I'm pretty familiar with 8-bit assembly already but this helped to lay some decent foundations.<br/><br/>The pace is a bit weird though. It starts and continues for a good deal of the book as uber simple, almost erring on the side of being patronising with it's weird 16 fingered alien - but it does just about work.<br/><br/>But then, as the later chapters go on, the author suddenly switches from nice and gentle to "obviously", "just" and "simple" and it feels a bit like you're tossed into the deep end with no orientation. I found I had to re-read seemingly short and "obvious" chapters.<br/><br/>Frustratingly the chapters on audio and graphics were exceptionally short only referring to the `out` ports which is technically accurate but didn't offer much advice.<br/><br/>Then around 40% of the book is used to build out a Frogger clone which I'll admit I skimmed.<br/><br/>The appendix is very useful though, with a complete index of opcode to pneumonic and visa versa which I've used a number of times already.

Rated The Answer Is No 4/10

Brief, sadly, on all aspects.<br/><br/>I knew this was a short read, and having come out of Frank Herbert's Dune at almost 900 pages, a nice little chomp down on a Backman book was exactly what I wanted. <br/><br/>Except, frustratingly, I ended up feeling a little cheapened by this book. I've loved Backman's other books (that I've read) and it's the dry humour whilst seeing there's caring a love under every grumpy character that makes their books so appealing to me.<br/><br/>This short story definitely tries to include that aspect, but the book is so short that it feels more like it's been _stuffed_ full of lovely sentiment to the point where it's feels more trite than anything else.<br/><br/>I do think it's simply the format that left this story down for me. The sentiment of the actual story is lovely (I appreciate there's no meat to my review here), but it just was blasted out of a cannon rather too quickly for my liking.

Rated Yellowface 8/10

Brilliantly written, almost car-crash like reading.<br/><br/>The story is very much set in the publishing world, which isn't something I know very well or is directly relatable, but I was still brilliantly drawn in by Kuang's characters.<br/><br/>It took me a while to fully realise that the protagonist, Juniper Song, is white (even if it says it right there in the blurb!), which, when it was written down in text made a lot of story even more cringe.<br/><br/>It's an interesting view into an individual being cancelled, then un-cancelled, then…somehow digging a deeper hole. I really couldn't find myself feeling any sympathy with the Juniper character and found myself often saying (albeit in my head): just walk away, start a-new, the damage is done.<br/><br/>Along side the cancel story, Kuang lets me, as a white reader, look in on a world where I don't really have any experience: Asian American culture in literature (and work), and how race is always in play for better or worse.<br/><br/>A great, intelligent read. Even if it keep making me think of the Batman slap meme...

Wants to read Light from Uncommon Stars

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)".

Rated What About Men? 10/10

For me: a must read. <br/><br/>Reading Moran's book I could quickly see that I was the exact target audience for the content: white, cis, straight, leftie male. I try my best to be a feminist but I know that sometimes I end up being an apologist for my own gender.<br/><br/>Moran doesn't slam men in her book (as easy as that might be) she instead asks me to celebrate or be proud my masculinism in a way that doesn't have to be toxic or have causalities.<br/><br/>Her book has made me question what I consider the ideal values for being a man are. I'm not sure yet, but I'd long given up even asking the question.<br/><br/>She also gives some damn good reasoning to help understand the existence of the angry white men, boys that are being, effectively brain washed. It's something I don't have personal experience of, but having a young son, I'm even more aware of where he gets his information and inspiration from.<br/><br/>There's a lot of really good content in her book, both to spark discussion and reflective thought, but also stories of other men's experiences both positive and negative - which has helped me see the similarities in how I conduct myself as a man.<br/><br/>If you're anything like me, I highly, highly recommend reading this book.

Rated Stone Blind 8/10

Brilliant different perspective on the Madusa myth.<br/><br/>I really liked how the story was told. I was vaguely familiar with the myth, and did a little Wikipedia skimming to get familiar with the greek gods and the Gorgons.<br/><br/>I loved how Haynes took the myth, kept it, from what I could tell, entirely intact, but told it from the sympathetic perspective of not only Medusa, but the women throughout the mythology.<br/><br/>Very early in the book Haynes writes, which captures the tone perfectly:<br/><br/>> This particular monster is assaulted, abused and vilified. And yet, as the story is always told, she is the one you should fear. She is the monster.<br/>> We’ll see about that.<br/><br/>Excellent stuff.<br/>

Rated Redwall: The first book in the beloved, bestselling saga 4/10

Was one of the first "big" books I read as a kid. Sadly it didn't hold up to the test of time.<br/><br/>A nice story about mice and animals (and a Badger I remember being called Constance), but it smacked of heroes are boys and damsels are girls, which might have been fine back in the 80s, but not so much for me now.<br/>

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

Very brief but a good bridging 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/>