Book Reviews

Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger

2020-07-04 An interesting book that shows just how incredibly driven Schwarzenegger has been through his life. This is quite a comprehensive and in-depth autobiography and longer than others I’ve read recently. The only real criticism is a sense of spin, in that he talks up his achievements while playing down his mistakes. Every now and then he’ll just happen to mention that he was an... Continue reading

The Bat (Harry Hole, #1) by Jo Nesbø

2020-07-01 A strange and quirky detective novel – Nordic noir set in Australia. At first it’s interesting for the mix of Aboriginal stories and alternative sexuality. However, it soon gets bogged down with chattiness to make up for the lack of character POV. This resulted in the main character, Harry Hole, doing a lot of things without the reader having any idea why, unless Harry... Continue reading

Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove, #1) by Larry McMurtry

2020-06-22 This is a novel in three parts, and the first part started really well. It took a long time to set up, but it established a good range of characters, atmosphere and setting. It held all the promise of a strong plot that I couldn’t wait to see develop. It took a turn in the second part, when it started to introduce yet more... Continue reading

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2020-06-18 A bleak novel about a man and a boy traveling along a road through a post-apocalyptic landscape. The planet is dying, everything is dead or burned, ash is everywhere. All plants, animals, and most people have already died. The man and boy feel exhausted, starving, cold, take shelter, scavenge. Repeat for 300 pages. This is an atmospheric book – did I mention it’s very... Continue reading

The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1) by N.K. Jemisin

2020-06-15 It took a couple of chapters to get into, mostly because of a self-conscious omniscient narrator followed by a second-person point of view, both of which were difficult to engage with. However, most of the rest of the book is stylistically normal, and was both an easy and engaging read. On the one hand, this is a very clever book. The use of second... Continue reading

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

2020-06-13 A 100-page story about a Cuban fishermen who sets out to catch a big fish. In between him talking to himself there are detailed descriptions of him pulling on his lines, having backache, and feeling hungry. It’s effect on modern literature is lost to me – perhaps some see in it an epic of man conquering nature, but all I found was a disturbing... Continue reading

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

2020-06-12 It’s taken me over thirty years to read this book since it was first recommended to me. I should have read it then – it could have been illuminating. However, reading it in middle-age it just reads as a rushed and lacking depth. Big concepts are thrown about with abandon – one moment the seagull is fixated on speed, the next it’s about freedom,... Continue reading

The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2) by Liu Cixin

2020-06-12 I enjoyed The Three Body Problem, but I’m not sure about The Dark Forest as much. On the one hand, it was a reasonably interesting and enjoyable book for most of the time. However, once we reached the section with the teardrop I felt that the story had become unnecessarily contrived and that undermined my enthusiasm. The story didn’t really seem to find its... Continue reading