Me and my dogshit opinions are also on Storygraph so feel free to add me there.
Riveting read, many unexpected turns and complex, flawed characters. Felt a little deflated on finishing it but looking forward to other
books in this series. (Actually was well-written and helped me pass my theory test, along with The Highway Code.)
When nation states falter or fail, the problem is not diversity itself, but not enough official inclusiveness - equity in the eyes of the state.
The structure of this book is a bit backwards. Vince starts out by scaring you shitless, and that's the point where she'll lose a lot
of her readers. She follows up with some cause for optimism and suggested solutions for the inevitable climate crisis and global migration.
It would have been good to have some of that ray of sunshine in the introductory doomerism. She dispels a lot of myths around migration, although
where she cannot adress a concern (e.g. cultural shift within the host nation due to mass immigration), she glosses over. I learned a lot of
cool stuff (cloud seeding!) from this and feel more up-to-date with the state of the world. I've been told some of the references are dodgy
(to Youtube, Vice etc.), but I went through the whole list and cannot corroborate this.
Sabaliauskaite is known for historical novels and I'd heard a lot of good stuff about her before I picked up this short story collection.
I am very impressed, both by the caliber of writing but also by the translation. Each of the stories focuses on Vilnius from a different
perspective (Lithuanian, Polish, Jewish) but also a different time in the city's history. In my opinion, the best historical fiction makes
the characters seem similar to us - different in cultural norms and references, but not naive or strange. And here the characters, including
the main one - the city - are vibrant and exciting. I feel nostalgic for something I have never experienced.
The wildness of the Water contrasted with the severity of the lines of the Doorway
I love Piranesi's optimising, aesthetic sensibility and generous outlook. He's like an idealised version of a human being, and with
so much darkness in the world, his presence is pleasant (it should be irritating, surely? But it's not). But I've got to whinge about
something, and it's going to be about the excessive capitalisation, which interferes with the reading and is irritating. However, this
is a minor issue and I found the book enjoyable. The end sequence is not paced very well, but perhaps it's in line with the rest of the story,
where the mystery proves to be a lot less important than the world of the House. You've got to plug into its rhythms for this book to work its
magic properly, I think.
Miscreant with a pig's head
I love to relax into Dickens's wordy prose, it's one kind of book where the generous page count never worries me. In Dombey and Son there
was some socially progressive messaging, both regarding poverty and the rights of women. However, I felt that Edith got done hard. The
obsession over whether she's slept with Carker or not feels grotesque and weird in this day and age. I also expected some character development
in Florence (it did seem to happen at one point!) but alas, it was not to be. Imho there are better novels by Dickens and I do tire
from those of his characters that are pure like the driven snow, as well as the moralising, but who am I kidding, I did enjoy this.
Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as 'Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun To Be With'
I felt under so much pressure to like this book. A few of my friends are passionate fans, to the point of one of them wearing
a quote t-shirt. Imagine my chagrin when some way into the story I realised that if it wasn't for the book club commitment, this
would be one of those rare books that I don't bother finishing. It's full of dad jokes and slapstick, which is very far removed
from my sense of humour. Furthermore, Adams picks up jokes that were kinda funny the first time round and then reheats them in a
different context where they don't work. I did, however, like a few moments ('goodbye and thanks for all the fish') so it wasn't
a complete dud. Actually, no, I'm afraid it was.
Relatively readable compared to some other Oxford law textbooks (I'm looking at you, Tort), with a layout that's clearly
aimed at a student (revision points, summaries, terms defined as they come up, etc.) I appreciate it for not trying
to be both a textbook and a comprehensive reference book at the same time. The result is that it does its job well.
The fun part is that towards the end of this book I learned that I don't need to be reading these door-stopping tomes
and now can purchase a much more compact set of textbooks. Reader, I nearly cried.