DECEMBER 2022

 

Cold Enough For Snow ~ Jessica Au

 

Babel ~ R. F. Kuang

 

Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow ~ Gabrielle Zelvin

 

NOVEMBER 2022

 

The Paris Apartment ~ Lucy Foley

** OK

Too convoluted, too much chop and change, too unbelievable

The Bullet That Missed ~ Richard Osman

 

Our Missing Hearts ~ Celeste Ng

 ****RECOMMEND

The second half dragged it down but the first part was a great read

OCTOBER 2022

 

Shrines of Gaiety ~ Kate Atkinson

 

X NO BLEH

Boring characters who had no life breathed into them.  

Very little sense of time.

Lucy By The Sea ~ Elizabeth Strout

 

X NO

Lucy can stay by the sea ... and hopefully get carried away by the tide.

Tiresome whiny narrator with the depth of a teaspoon and the vocabulary of Dick and Jane

Limberlost ~ Robbie Arnott

 

*** LIKE

An outstanding Aussie writer : I liked it ... a lot ... but, there was a "but"

It has a great sense of place and time but lacks the magic realism of the previous two that I loved.

Small Things Like These ~ Claire Keegan

**** HIGHLY RECOMMEND

It was such a small thing (approx 73 pages) but a thing of great poignancy.  

Just beautiful, a lingering read.

The White Rock ~ Anna Hope

*** LIKE

Set in San Blas, Mexico

Well researched and that research is woven into interesting storylines

SEPTEMBER 2022

 

The Colony ~ Audrey Magee

 **** HIGHLY RECOMMEND

A reader's delight.  

Shining language, multiple themes, lingering memories

Of Saints and Miracles ~ Manuel Astur

 **** RECOMMEND

A delight in language and imagery (a translation from Spanish)

Fractured storyline that really doesn't have a climax, a beautiful evocative read

Disappearing Earth ~ Julia Phillips

 **** FAVOURITE

In some ways it reminded me of The Island of Women in that it introduced me to a place I knew nothing about.  This was set on the Kamchatka Peninsula.  While the heart of the storyline is the disappearance of two (three) young girls, there is also so much about the way of life, the location, the problems, the displacement of the indigenous people.

Treacle Walker ~ Alan Garner

 

Not For Me

Any "deeper meaning" was overcoated in gobbledygook

AUGUST 2022

 

The Kraken Wakes ~ John Wyndham

 

Could not get into the G R R Martin so thought i might slip into this ... but it wasn't the right time for a reread

Fire And Blood ~ George R. R. Martin

 Just couldn't get into it. 

Will return!

The Furies ~ John Connolly

 ** OK

Didn't move the Charlie Parker story along much

Had a Covid claustrophobic feel to it

Two novellas rather than a novel

JULY ~ 2022

 

Mercury Pictures Presents ~ Anthony Marra

 

** OK ... but only just

Seriously over written, loaded down with metaphors and descriptors yet the characters elicited no empathy.  For a character driven novel, they stayed on the page.

Native Tongue ~ Suzette Haden Elgin

 **** RECOMMEND

Sci Fi + Feminism + Language ... loved it

Thought Provoking, well considered construct

It is the first of a trilogy so I hope the others live up to this 

The Twyford Code ~ Janice Hallett

 ** Barely OK

WW2 codes hidden in Enid Blyton; a gold and jewel heist; all told through phone conversation transcripts.

Trite Tripe

The Anomaly ~ Herve Le Tellier

 *** LIKE+

Are we all a simulation game?

A planeload gets cloned ... a glitch in the game?

Here Goes Nothing ~ Steve Toltz

*NO (nonono)

Here Is Nothing but Word Garbage

I only finished it because I skimmmmmmed.

My rating for this book is YH2BFJ or WALOD

You Have To Be Fucking Joking ... What A Lot Of Drivel

JUNE ~ 2022

 

Horse ~ Geraldine Brooks

 

**** RECOMMEND

A thoroughly thoroughbred of a read

Didn't think I would be interested in a book about a racehorse but this is so much more

The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye ~ A. S. Byatt

 

** OK

Wordy and lecturing rather than beguiling storytelling

The Island ~ Adrian McKinty

 X DNF

Movie Script

Trust ~ Hernan Diaz

 **** RECOMMEND

This gets a recommend because of its unusual storyline.

Told in 4 segments :  an Edith Warton style novel about a Wall Street tycoon; the tycoon's notes for his memoir; the notes from the personal secretary/ghostwriter of that memoir; the journal of the tycoon's wife.

MAY ~ 2022

 

Mockingbird ~ Walter Trevis

 

**** RECOMMEND

A SciFi Classic

The Lincoln Highway ~ Amor Towles

X NO X

DID NOT FINISH

Surely this should be sold as YA.  The level of language, the Hardy Boys type boys-own-adventure.  Boring!  The storyline, though littered with gung-ho action, is plodding.  

Repetitive, tedious, banal ... 

 

City On Fire ~ Don Winslow

 

 ** LIKE

A lot of blah blah blah for the introductory book for a trilogy.

Too many characters; too shallow; too ridiculous,

Anthem ~ Noah Hawley

 DID NOT FINISH

What a load of verbosity leading nowhere

Garbage that luckily I was able to return for a refund.

The Man Who Fell To Earth ~ Walter Travis

 

**** RECOMMEND

Such an enjoyable read to fall into

Well written, well-paced, thoughtful, engaging.

No One Is Talking About This ~ Patricia Lockwood

 * DID NOT FINISH

Pretentious Drivel

Literary Elitism 

APRIL 2022

 

Sea Of Tranquility ~ Emily St John Mandel

 

**** RECOMMEND

Shifting time lines due to time travel warp

Engaging read, engaging characters

Devotion ~ Hannah Kent

 

* NO

In my new coding system this would be a WOT or a WMLB

(Waste of Time or Want My Life Back)

Wordy drivel

The Candy House ~ Jennifer Egan

 

**** RECOMMEND

A worthy companion to Goon Squad though it did my head in a little trying to keep the mental jigsaw together.

A Visit From The Goon Squad ~ Jennifer Egan

 

****** FAVOURITE

The Trees ~ Percival Everett

 **** RECOMMEND

Irreverent and relevant

How absurd to write a humourous book about racism and deaths! The book is absurd, the characters are absurd, the premise is absurd and it is great reading!

Second half drags a little.

MARCH 2022

 

Beasts Of A Little Land ~ Juhea Kim

 ** OK

So lacking in connection to the characters

Historical background but all just a watered down backdrop for a romantic soap opera

Trio ~ William Boyd

 

*** LIKE

Always an escape

Good at setting the scene and time period and believable characterisations.