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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 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 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.

Wants to read All Our Wrong Todays

Rated Hope to Die 10/10

Wants to read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Rated The Galaxy, and the Ground Within 8/10

Surprisingly difficult to connect with.<br/><i></i><br/>This is still a well written, interesting, continues the Wayfarer universe and prompts some challenging thoughts.<br/><br/>Where I did struggle was connection with the characters. Because they're exclusively alien, and entirely so: 4 arms and a shell, tiny sloth like swinging creatures, laru furball bendy things (though I imagined the creature from Ice Age oddly enough), because they're hard to visualise in my head I found it harder to connect to the characters.<br/><br/>I do also suspect this is a way of putting the reader in a position of a minority, to be unable to recognise oneself amongst the peers, which is what kept flipping back and forth in my head whilst continuing with the tale.<br/><br/>As with other Becky Chambers' books, the story isn't some fantastical explosion of events, but a soft observation of life and interaction of species and races living together - and that's something I'll continue to love about their books.<br/><br/>My favourite is still the first book, I'm not sure anything is going to top that for many years, but this is still a solid entry into the Wayfarer world.

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/>

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.

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

Rated 84K 8/10

After I got used to the technical aspect of the writing, a really engrossing story.<br/><i></i><br/>The book is written in a way that quite often ends right in the middle of a train of thought. Reading on a kindle it was hard to work out if it was intentional or if there was a problem with the Kindle edition! After a while I got used to it, and learnt to just to either let go of the sentiment or ignore it.<br/><br/>The story uses time jumping *a lot* but thankfully the book is written in a way that it was easy to know when we had jumped back or forwards through time.<br/><br/>The story is set in a dystopian alternative reality, which frankly isn't far from our reality now and it's easy to see how our society could get there. Which makes the entire story even more scary. <br/><br/>The story primarily follows Theo Miller a person who has lived in the world as it becomes worse and just gone along with it because "that's just the way the world works". <br/><br/>He weighs crime for indemnity, of course rape has a power indemnity than sexual harassment (because… Men made the rules 🤦), and the rich can afford to pay of any indemnity including murder whereas the poor can't pay the company taxes and are thusly thrown to the Patty lines - effectively slave labour.<br/><br/>I did wonder a few times in the book whether if I'd completely missed a key chunk of the story, but it did indeed come back together and make sense. <br/><br/>A good read. Bleak, but good.

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

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