This was a Christmas gift from my sister, who heard an interview with the author and thought it sounded interesting. She was oh-so right. This book was terrific – engaging, surprising, well-written, and lives up to its name. This is historical fiction at its finest, with a few kernels of real history enveloped in an... Continue Reading →
Kairos, by Jenny Erpenbeck. Pub 2021. Translation by Michael Hoffman, Pub 2023
I went for this book specifically because it won the 2024 International Booker prize, and so knew it would fulfill a booklist category. Otherwise, I knew nothing about this book, other than its original language was German. The title Kairos refers to the Greek god or characteristic of a chance encounter. This is how the... Continue Reading →
Neuromancer, by William Gibson. Pub 1984
This is one of those books: when I say I haven’t read it, people who have and loved it are SHOCKED. “How can you not? Oh, you must!” The latest was my brother, and so to enable a conversation with him about it, I finally read it. Neuromancer is revered in modern sci-fi circles as... Continue Reading →
Dickens and Prince, by Nick Hornby. Pub 2022
Short version: Dickens may not be your cup of tea. Ditto for Prince. So the short version is: I really enjoyed this book, learned a lot, and found the comparison to be a fascinating look back at two artists of different mediums and times. If you are interested, but not so much you want to... Continue Reading →
Anita de Monte Laughs Last, by Xochitl Gonzalez. Pub 2024
My reading of this book is a three-part saga. Before: I previously read Gonzalez’ first novel, Olga Dies Dreaming, a recommendation from another reader. I thought it was okay, with some interesting characters and a story based in a culture unfamiliar to me (Latin American/Caribbean Americans in New York). When the author’s next novel came... Continue Reading →
The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters. Pub 2024
This book was recommended by the same friends that recommended Project Hail-Mary. Since that one was good, I dove into this one with enthusiasm. Like that previous recommendation, this one was also good. This lost-and-found family story begins with a Nova Scotian native family of berry pickers working in Maine. One random summer day, after... Continue Reading →
The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley. Pub 2024
I had high hopes for this book. A Christmas gift from a fellow bookclubber, this time-travel romance seemed very promising. However, after pushing to the half-way point, I gave up in frustration, then skimmed through the remainder of the book. Perhaps I missed out, but I was too worn out from rolling my eyes to... Continue Reading →
The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu. Pub 2008. Translation by Joel Martinsen, pub 2015.
This is book two of the Remembrance of Earth's Past series that began with The Three-Body Problem. It picks up nearly where the last left off, after the defeat of the rebel human groups – those who were keen on being taken over by aliens and actively helping them and putting humanity at risk. The aliens have very... Continue Reading →
Mrs Death Misses Death, by Salena Godden. Pub 2022
I was tricked into reading this book by a) hearing it mentioned somewhat favourably on a podcast, and b) thinking the name was a clever play on words. Unfortunately, this book has the ignominy of being my choice for the drivel category, and so early in the year. I hope this is a sign that... Continue Reading →
Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons. Pub 1932
This book was a top recommendation from a fellow bookclubber a few years ago and, while it’s been in my pile for a while, only made it to the top this year, primarily as a way of trying to start the year off with a good book. Cold Comfort Farm is very much a novel... Continue Reading →
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