Oxford 2057, and time travel is a thing. Lady Shrapnell is pouring all her effort into restoring the Coventry Cathedral, destroyed during a German bombOxford 2057, and time travel is a thing. Lady Shrapnell is pouring all her effort into restoring the Coventry Cathedral, destroyed during a German bombing in 1940. And she'll damned well requisition every single time travelling historian from the University, as long as it gets her all the original artefacts.
Ned Henry is one of the unfortunate historians, attempting to escape yet another deployment, and gets therefore sent back to the Victorian era for a bit of down time. It's just that he's also supposed to deliver a rat... a fan... or maybe a hat somewhere, but as he's suffering of Temporary Inability to Distinguish Sounds the whole task turns into a much bigger deal that anyone may have suspected. Cue a whole lot of boating, animal sitting, and just all-around mayhem, trying to prevent the collapse of the known reality.
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Just like with Doomsday Book, the story gripped me right from the get go, having me dedicate it every minute of my spare time. With tons of humour, plenty of action, some truly intriguing time travelling logic and even a bit of romance, I could barely stand to do much else while reading.
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... at least until I switched to the audiobook. I had the brilliant idea to try out the audible version, in an attempt to maximise my reading time. Perhaps it was the fault of the narrator, or maybe Ned's time lag was more contagious than I thought, but I was completely unable to distinguish characters from one another. As a result, I started tuning out more and more of the book, and nearly abandoned it, before deciding to start over. Sans audio this time.
Score: 4.3/5 stars
I will never get over my utter hatred of lyrical works, no matter how comically one may try to present them. So even without the unfortunate audible experience, I doubt I'd have gotten a full on 5-star read out of it. And yes, I say that fully aware that all the crappy poetry was an integral part of the story.
One of the first symptoms of time-lag is a tendency to maudlin sentimentality, like an Irishman in his cups or a Victorian poet cold-sober.
It all started with a letter from one Miss Helene Hanff inquiring about "clean secondhand copies of any of the books on the list [of her most pressingIt all started with a letter from one Miss Helene Hanff inquiring about "clean secondhand copies of any of the books on the list [of her most pressing problems], for no more than $5.00 each". Little by little a lovely friendship started to form between Miss Hanff and Frank Doel, an employee of the Marks & CO. secondhand bookstore.
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Like any normal pen pal relationship, it came with the occasional surprise gift
I should just like to add that everything in the parcel was something that we either never see or can only be had through the black market. It was extremely kind and generous of you to think of us in this way and we are all extremely grateful.
but also with several instances of (un)expected tantrums
All I have to say to YOU, Frank Doel, is we live in depraved, destructive and degenerate times when a bookshop鈥攁 BOOKSHOP鈥攕tarts tearing up beautiful old books to use as wrapping paper.
WHAT KIND OF A PEPYS鈥 DIARY DO YOU CALL THIS? this is not pepys鈥 diary, this is some busybody editor鈥檚 miserable collection of EXCERPTS from pepys鈥 diary may he rot.
However, as any authentic friendship, we can see that business and personal relationship are clearly separated by the post script section. Case in point, the letter containing the excerpt from above:
P.S. Fresh eggs or powdered for Xmas? I know the powdered last longer but 鈥渇resh farm eggs flown from Denmark鈥 have got to taste better. You want to take a vote on it?
Furthermore, Miss Hanff herself admits:
You go to so much trouble for me and i never even thank you, i just needle you, it鈥檚 mean. I really am grateful for all the pains you take for me.
And over the span of twenty years, Miss Hanff somehow finds herself corresponding with several different employees of Marks & CO., Frank's wife and even their elderly neighbor.
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I couldn't say precisely what attracted me to this book. Suffice to say, that I couldn't put it down from the moment I started reading it. Despite being a non-fiction, that chronicles the rather mundane exchanges between a writer and a second hand book-seller, I have read it with just as much enthusiasm as if it had been a good thriller.
I have initially chosen this book for my to-read list, by idly going through GR's 'books about books/bookstores' lists. I haven't given it much thought, aside from a vague recognition of the street featured in the title. Now I'll just HAVE to make a point to check the address out, if only to see the commemorative plaque.
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Score: 4.8/5 stars
Any book that manages to grab my attention so much, deserves to be given a 5 star rating. The lack of a full rating is due to me being a terrible nitpicker, and not getting an ending for all characters. Someone needs to find Cecilia and put a post script about her in the epilogue.
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I just can't seem to find an eloquent way of closing this review opinion piece. For me this book was not a "timeless period piece", nor a "slide-splitting treasure". It was just a short little story spanning 20 years (heh!), which just sort of captured my attention and stubbornly refused to let it go.
I loved it. Go read it and maybe you'll love it too!
Zanna is a slightly above-average teenager: above-average in height, attractiveness, intelligence and even in all-around popularity. As a matter of faZanna is a slightly above-average teenager: above-average in height, attractiveness, intelligence and even in all-around popularity. As a matter of fact, her only claim to originality is settling on a rather odd choice for a nickname: Zanna being short for Susanna. Nothing to get excited about, until of course there suddenly is: random people start to treat her like a celebrity, and animals follow her around. Except for cats, the snooty buggers!
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Even so, Zanna and her friends generally write the adoring fans off as run of mill weirdos. But then one night, together with her friend Deeba, she gets transported into the odd city of Un Lun Dun. Or UnLondon, if you prefer. *roll credits*
Turns out that Zanna is the chosen one, destined to save the fantastic city from the evil powers of the Smog. There's a prophetic book and all, which has long foretold Zanna's - a.k.a the Swazzy's (say it like choisi in French) - deeds... or has it really? Because with all Zanna's mysterious instincts, things suddenly take a truly awful turn.
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Do you know those stories where the prophesied hero always swoops in to save the day at just the last minute? The otherwise utterly ordinary kid, who eventually gets dropped into just the right situation where things just click? Well, Un Lun Dun is not that kind of story. As a matter of fact, it does just about anything to become the exact opposite of said story.
Well perhaps not quite the exact opposite. To be fair, there is an otherwise ordinary girl who rises to the occasion, and there is a prophecy... that seems to have completely messed up its predictions. But otherwise, Un Lun Dun is a truly charming and exciting story, that will keep on taunting you with every imaginable cliche, only to veer into a completely unexpected direction at the last minute.
Score: 4.3/5 stars
Following my rather bumpy start with The City & the City I was somewhat reluctant to give yet another one China Mi茅ville's books a go. Would I be putting my cat to sleep in no time again? Would I, have to fight my way through the first 200 pages, before finally falling into a sustainable reading rhythm?
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So, naturally, I went and bought a physical copy... because I obviously have no self-control. Thankfully I had no trouble with language idiosyncrasies this time around. Granted, the book's primary audience is middle grade/young adult, so the writing style was adapted to this target audience. That said, it has way too many short sentences. Often times, it felt like I had finally found my reading pace. Only to get stopped. Every. So. Often....more
At a time when most of us were busy poring over integrals, exponentials and the odd geometrical figure in preparation for university entrance exams, mAt a time when most of us were busy poring over integrals, exponentials and the odd geometrical figure in preparation for university entrance exams, my best friend managed to come up with this absolutely amazing essay for English class. It detailed her plans for an exclusive little bookstore, that would cater to all our needs when it came to English books.
It's been more than 10 years since that fateful English class, but I can still picture the cosy mental imagery that her essay would bring to my mind. At the time, finding anything other than old-time classics (e.g. Austen, Dickens, Shakespeare etc.) in local bookstores, would generally require the assembly of the entire Fellowship of the Ring.
In the end, life took her towards a completely different profession, but I like to think that she still holds a soft spot in her heart for the exclusive little bookstore.
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Mr. and Mrs. Hartlieb were brave enough to jump ahead into their dream. They left their comfortable life back in Hamburg, to move to Austria, and opened a little bookstore in Vienna. Well technically, they didn't even think they'd win the auction for it, but once they did, there was no turning back.
I've always figured that it was likely impossible to make a living from selling books. I mean, there are all these large bookstore chains, not to mention Amazon. But apparently, there were plenty of people who were happy about the little bookstore in their district.
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That is not to say, that things weren't hard, what with a 16-year-old son still in Hamburg finishing his school year, finding a kindergarden for the 4-year-old daughter, obtaining the necessary loan from the bank, supervising the renovation of the old building into a bookstore and their home...
I wasn't really expecting to actually enjoy reading about construction work, being rushed off your feet trying to unpack daily orders, all the while being scared that your lack of expertise is going to be "outed" and that everything will come crashing down around you.
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Score: 4/5 stars
This is basically a feel-good story about real-life dreams coming true, and still going strong 10 years later. While I'm not necessarily feeling like opening my own bookstore any time soon, I will definitely make time to look up the Hartlieb Bookstore, the next time I'm in Vienna.
December 2054, Oxford: time travel is now a thing. Taking advantage of his boss' Christmas break, the acting head of Oxford University's History DeparDecember 2054, Oxford: time travel is now a thing. Taking advantage of his boss' Christmas break, the acting head of Oxford University's History Department organizes a "sneaky" trip to the tail end of 1320; almost 30 years before the outbreak of the plague.
As time travelers had not yet explored the years prior to the 1600s, this trip is deemed especially dangerous. Yet as true ignoramuses, the organizers brush off any worries. After all, the most important prep stuff had been completed, and the rest is obviously just needless worrying, which would take up way too much time anyway. Possibly even enough for unadventurous people to interfere. Unsurprisingly, things end up going very badly, and not just for Kivrin who is travelling to the past, but also in present day Oxford.
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This 600-page (digital) brick of a book, basically chronicles the story of two pandemics. One in the middle ages with little to no resources available, and one from the near future, where (almost) all resources necessary for its eradication exist.
Having Kivrin realize the futility of her pre-time-travel preparation was fairly predictable. The accuracy of the present-day pandemic though was quite impressive. Or perhaps I should call it frustrating? After all it was published back in 1992, based on research of the 1920s Spanish Flu.
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That being said, most of the book's appeal lies in the storyline of the past, where the tragedy is both entirely predictable, and at the same time so much worse than that. With this in mind, I was truly surprised by how futile, yet also incredibly important Kivrin's efforts in helping the people around her eventually proved to be.
Compared to that, the account of the present-day pandemic, while successfully contained within Oxford, proved to be an exercise in frustration, much like what we've seen/are seeing in our days: people whining about minor (aka first world) problems, rioting against their rights being restricted, not to mention using religious guilt-tripping to prey on the vulnerable.
Score: 4.3/5 stars
Despite it originally being a self-imposed prerequisite for reading To Say Nothing of the Dog, I'm happy that I read this book. It turned out to be such a gripping tale, even with the frustrating amount of senseless bickering in the present day storyline.
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Even though I've shelved this book a little over 4 years ago, I don't think I could've appreciated it properly before. Certainly not back in 2017, before I had experienced living during a global pandemic. Not even last year, when I was way too frightened of getting sucked into yet another COVID conspiracy, as soon as I even thought of the news.
The high and mighty Om, has been stuck as a tortoise for over three years now. Considering that a god's strength lies in the number of its believers, The high and mighty Om, has been stuck as a tortoise for over three years now. Considering that a god's strength lies in the number of its believers, this is not a normal occurrence for Om. After all, the country is full of zealous believers at His disposal. They're devout enough to wage war in His name. At the same time, they seem to have trouble hearing His request for more lettuce leaves... except for Brutha, the most simple-minded of them all.
In dire need of protection from non-believing eagles, our tiny little Om-as-a-tortoise will take what He can get, where He can get it.
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Small Gods was not particularly high up on my Discworld (re)read list: more like a task to be ticked off, on the way to more interesting books. Something that I could see being useful to open other people's eyes about organized religion.
I, for one, have already done the -"fervent little believer, who worries that the Almighty has seen her wish to do her (long put off) chores on Sundays" or the - "spiteful atheist who will strive to insert twice as many mean-spirited remarks as anyone else into all her interactions with the devout" only to become an - "occasional eye-roller and constant exasperated sigher". ...and I did it all in heels.
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But then little by little, the characters started to grow on me, and I suddenly found myself so hooked that I devoured the whole book within a day!
While the Quisition department's tortures, the mindless religious bigotry, and power hungry coups d'茅tat all left me in various states of disgust, when the narrative perspective would switch to Brutha, I was ready to swing my metaphorical pom-poms his way. Brutha's simple-minded yet thoughtful way of believing was so touching, especially because I was expecting him to do a 180 character change with each of his fervently held beliefs that came crashing down.
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Having recently finished a children's book whose "love thy enemies" message left me utterly nonplussed, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself earnestly hoping that Brutha's kindness would eventually pay off, even though I would've been happy to have the main antagonist drop dead at any moment.
Score: 4.8/5 stars
I have to admit that I did end up skimming through some of the more philosophical passages, in favor of the more action-packed scenes, but all in all I can't say I was ever bored. As a matter of fact I even cried at the climactic moment, which is highly unusual for me.
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P.S. Fans of Carpe Jugulum should definitely read this, in order to have a better understanding of the legends surrounding the prophet Brutha....more
Before Hari Seldon became the fearsome apostle of doom, and the legendary founder of psychohistory, he was an idealistic 30-year-old with an interestiBefore Hari Seldon became the fearsome apostle of doom, and the legendary founder of psychohistory, he was an idealistic 30-year-old with an interesting scientific theory. He only meant to start a hypothetical discussion among fellow mathematicians, but ended up seriously pondering its practical applicability.
Running for his life through various sectors of the imperial capital, Seldon tries to delve into the origin of an Empire rumoured to be on its last legs. After all a working science of psychohistory could be invaluable in providing a means of salvation...
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I had initially meant to read this book to discuss the changes in TV series with my book club, but ended up barely grazing the subject. I am not sorry though, because the amount and quality of the world-building here is just amazing. Twice as long as the Foundation (i.e. the 1st book, not the series), this book gives the reader a much better understanding of the early signs of the Empire's collapse, by introducing a clever tactic of ingenious inventions left abandoned, due to lack of resources for mass-production.
Set some 40 years before the start of the Foundation, we meet a much more naive and idealistic Hari Seldon, with a penchant for scientific flights of fancy and the occasional flirting session. I especially enjoyed seeing the clash between Seldon's scientific common sense, and Chetter Hummin's political one: both making excellent (if often contradictory) points.
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The only thing that detracted from my enjoyment, was the protagonist's awkward attempt at flirting. I even suspected sarcasm initially, as Hari's sudden sleazy remarks felt rather out of character. It's funny how much I don't want to see romantic (sub)plots outside the genre anymore, when I could hardly picture a happy ending without it ten years ago.
Score: 4.8/5 stars
This was the book that made me fall in love with Asimov's stories, and now it's the book that brings back fond memories of the Robot series. I loved the clever Easter-Eggs that reference places and people from the 4 books, especially when Seldon tries to asses their accuracy.
"The more valued and the more carefully preserved particular information is, the more long-lasting and accurate it may be.鈥 鈥淭he key word is 鈥榩articular.鈥 What the Book may care to preserve may not be what you wish to have preserved and what a robot may remember best may be what you wish him to remember least.鈥
Ms. Smartarse
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