Noll's 2016 Books and Cross-Stitch

[Nollaig]

Wow - I quite liked The Ice Twins! We do seem to disagree on books quite often! 

 

I wouldn't say quite often. Maybe 50/50, but I think it's less. And that's totally fine! It might have gotten a better rating had I been feeling more patient but it I just thought it was a bit all over the place and not believeable.

 

Nice reviews! While I was reading the synopsis of The Ice Twins, I was thinking 'This sounds brilliant!', so I was surprised to see you gave it one star. I'll add it to my wishlist anyway, though it will probably be years before I ever get to it.

 

Ah yeah, don't let me put you off it. Even if I had seen someone else give it one star (I did, actually, on Goodreads), I'd still give it a go myself because I liked the concept

 

I'm back from Dublin! So much catching up to do on here!

[Athena]

I'm back from Dublin! So much catching up to do on here!

I hope you had a great time .

[Nollaig]

I hope you had a great time .

 

I did! We went to see a few exhibitions about the 1916 Easter Rising, which was a (relatively) small rebel uprising against the British. It was doomed to fail pretty much from the start for a number of reasons, but it changed a lot of opinions about the rebel movement and was kind of the starting point in paving the way for an Irish state independent of Britain. It's (obviously) 100 years ago this year that it happened, so there's a lot of centenary stuff going on for it. Lots of artifacts and photos from 1916 and the surrounding years. Very emotional stuff, but also makes me A) glad that I live in a time when relations with Britain are largely very good (the British Queen came to Ireland in 2011 for the first state visit in the history of the Republic, 100 years after the last state visit from King George when Ireland was still under British Rule), and she addressed our president in Irish. She's a very cool lady. And B) ashamed of the absolute state of our modern government - bunch of useless lying thieves that the rebels who fought for an independent nation would be disgusted by. 

 

Little history info dump there, sorry

[Athena]

I'm glad you had a great time! I didn't know these things, so thanks for educating me .

[Nollaig]

Wow, more than 2 weeks since I've posted any reviews. Fell way behind on my reading and have been frantically trying to catch up. I have two new reviews, and two more that may or may not get written... not sure yet.

 

#36 The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories - Angela Carter

 

Genre: Fairytale/Short Stories

Synopsis: From familiar fairy tales and legends - Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss-in-Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires, werewolves - Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories. Includes: The Bloody Chamber, The Courtship of Mr. Lyon, The Tiger's Bride, Puss-in-Boots, The Erl-King, The Snow Child, The Lady of the House of Love, The Werewolf, The Company of Wolves, Wolf-Alice.

*** 

Review: I think this might be where I have to call it with short stories. They just don't work for me. There's too much disparity in quality across so many different tales that when it comes to rating the book as a whole, the average wins out, does my favourites no justice and ultimately renders the experience not worth it for what bits I liked. The beautiful writing, and one or two stories, were the only real saving graces of this book.

As a collection of darker fairytale retellings (something which, when done right, I absolutely love), I thought I might enjoy this. There were parts that I liked, and there was one story that I loved - The Werewolf. I can't say reading the whole book was worth it for that one story alone, as it was also one of the shortest, but I feel like it was one of the deeper stories. Which, probably doesn't say much for the longer stories. Wolf-Alice is the other story that was pretty okay.

I think the worst part was the amount of repetition, and recurring use of objects or descriptions. Particular amidst the frequency of wolf-related stories, it began to feel like a collection of slightly differing threads for one story rather than a set of distinct stories. Many of the stories also seemed kind of pointless - for example, the Beauty and the Beast retelling. There was nothing really new added to the story, and the motivations of the Beauty character were so poorly illustrated that they seemed not to exist at all.

I'm going to stop ragging on this book now. Absolutely masterful use of language, but wasted on these stories.

Rating: ★★✰✰✰ (It was okay)


#37 All The Birds in the Sky - Charlie Jane Anders

Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Magical Realism/Apocalypse

Synopsis: Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn't expect to see each other again, after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during high school. But now they're both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who's working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention into the changing global climate. Patricia is a graduate of the hidden academy for the world's magically gifted, and works with other magicians to secretly repair the world's ever-growing ailments. Little do they realize that something something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together--to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages. A deeply magical, darkly funny examination of life, love, and the apocalypse.

*** 

Review: Ooooh this book. This book. I really liked it, but I didn't quite think it was amazing, and I'm honestly not sure if that's down to me, or to the book.  It started off fantastically, with introductions to characters I immediately liked and wanted to know more about. It  is also made up of a mishmash of genres, including fantasy (almost fairytale fantasy, not high fantasy), sci-fi, an alternate futuristic version of our world which is facing an apocalypse... like I said, it's a mishmash, and for me it mostly worked and came together very well in the end. The fairly light writing - at times very funny, but at times a little questionable - and easy-to-read nature of the book means it is pretty easy to get through.

Ultimately, Patricia represents nature (magic) and Laurence represents science, two things which oppose each other and proponents of which view the impending apocalypse very differently. Starting off with the origin story for each of the main characters, the novel then follows them through their adult years. I found the mid-section of the novel waned, the initial adult years. I think what I found difficult to invest in was the sheer scale of this world the author created, with so little access to it. I felt like the world was too big for this one book, and would have benefitted from being broken across two books. It also jumped back and forth between the present and past of the characters, documenting little pieces of backstory like Patricia's time at Wizard School, which I felt fit very disjointedly and seemed, not irrelevant, but like infodumps slotted in where necessary to make sense of the plot.

It's a character driven novel, that's for sure, which is essentially about two people so metaphorically different that it seems impossible they can ever be friends/lovers/whatever. I'm not precisely sure what the metaphor is for, but the sheer scale of what's happening in this book makes me feel like it's gotta be a metaphor for something. Love conquers all? I dunno. I guess my ultimate feelings about this book are very mixed. I want to love it. I feel like there's something in there which, with a little more attention, I could latch onto and comprehend and love. So I'm going to give it four stars for now, and re-read it at another time.

Rating: ★★★★✰ (loved it)

[Athena]

Great reviews ! It's a shame the short stories didn't work for you. For me, they can be really hit-or-miss, often when I read a collection of them I really like some but quite dislike others. I do prefer novels overall. I enjoyed reading both of your reviews, you're really talented in writing them .

[Michelle]

I love short story collections.. but then I do find they work well for me when reading time is limited.. for example, with the last two collections, each story was just the right length for a bath.. perfect for me! Have you ever read Stories.. it is my favourite collection, and has quite a bit of variety in it. 

[Nollaig]

Great reviews ! It's a shame the short stories didn't work for you. For me, they can be really hit-or-miss, often when I read a collection of them I really like some but quite dislike others. I do prefer novels overall. I enjoyed reading both of your reviews, you're really talented in writing them .

 

Awww thank you 

 

I love short story collections.. but then I do find they work well for me when reading time is limited.. for example, with the last two collections, each story was just the right length for a bath.. perfect for me! Have you ever read Stories.. it is my favourite collection, and has quite a bit of variety in it. 

 

Yeah, maybe my problem is that I read short story collections like novels, and often read many short stories in a row. Maybe I should take some time to process each one. I haven't read Stories, but I'm not a huge fan of Gaiman except for American Gods. After three very different sets of short stories, I'm really not sure they're for me, but since you recommended it I may give it a go 

[Nollaig]

#38 Me Before You - Jojo Moyles

 

Genre: Romance/Drama/Fiction
Synopsis: Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane. Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that. What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time. 

*** 

Review: Originally I gave this book 4 stars, but I have to be honest, upon reflection it has dropped down to 3 stars. It's extremely easy to read - I flew through it in two evenings - but 'easy to read' is not the same thing as 'good'. While the premise is an interesting one, and the execution is refreshingly not a typical chit-lit girl-meets-boy romance, there are also virtually no characters I ended up caring about (except Will) and way too many unlikely plot points which seemed forced in order to achieve a specific outcome.

Louisa kept making me think of Bella Swan - while I can understand her appeal for Will - someone who treats him like a regular person instead of 'a guy in a wheelchair', there isn't much of interest to her beyond that. And I say this as someone with a relatively small town unambitious quiet life myself. Louisa's lack of ambition is hugely relatable for me, but I still didn't particularly care about her as a person. She occasionally seemed like she had zero autonomy at all, especially as related to her long term partner. Her family provided an occasional bit of comic relief, and I have to admit it was a part of the story concerning their financial wellbeing that made me tear up moreso than anything that happened with Louisa and Will. The characters just lacked depth. The only real pull in the story was to see what the final outcome would be.

And getting there was a little bit painful. The only example of poor plotting that springs to mind right now (not calling it a spoiler because SURPRISE! they actually went outside once or twice), but which was definitely not the only one in the book, was the failure on both the parts of Louisa AND Nathan, to make a sufficient effort to locate disabled parking on one of their days out, especially considering Louisa then spotted it literally driving out of the venue. Whatever about Louisa, surely Nathan, having worked with Will for two years and other quads prior to him, would have thought to call the venue, or failing that, ask an attendant on the day before assuming there was none and pulling into a field?

All that said, it was easy to read, some of the writing was beautiful, and I have to give Moyles credit for not backing down from some tough issues and realistic approaches to them. I felt the ending, which seems to be a point of debate on Goodreads, was actually credible, well-executed and well-handled. I felt Louisa's feelings, and I also completely understood Will's perspective. So I can't say I didn't enjoy it - I did, but there were far too many niggly bits for me to consider it particularly noteworthy.

Rating: ★★★✰✰ (I liked it)

[Michelle]

 

 

Yeah, maybe my problem is that I read short story collections like novels, and often read many short stories in a row. Maybe I should take some time to process each one. I haven't read Stories, but I'm not a huge fan of Gaiman except for American Gods. After three very different sets of short stories, I'm really not sure they're for me, but since you recommended it I may give it a go 

Gaiman is the editor, and only one of the stories is his.

[Madeleine]

Going back to The Ice Twins, I read it recently and, like Nollaig, the setting and the idea really appealed to me, in fact,  I think the setting is probably the best thing about it.  I got so confused by the twin's identity switching back and forth that eventually I sort of gave up trying to work out which one did survive, but maybe that didn't really matter in the end. I agree that both parents were unlikeable, and pretty self-obsessed, in fact I think the only one with any sense was the dog!  I think I rated the book around 6 or 7 out of 10, as the idea is a good one, and the setting and weather were also excellent.  But on the whole I found it disappointing, although I would read more by this author, he's written other books under a different name but this is his first psychological thriller, and I think he shows definite promise in this genre.

[Nollaig]

Going back to The Ice Twins, I read it recently and, like Nollaig, the setting and the idea really appealed to me, in fact,  I think the setting is probably the best thing about it.  I got so confused by the twin's identity switching back and forth that eventually I sort of gave up trying to work out which one did survive, but maybe that didn't really matter in the end. I agree that both parents were unlikeable, and pretty self-obsessed, in fact I think the only one with any sense was the dog!  I think I rated the book around 6 or 7 out of 10, as the idea is a good one, and the setting and weather were also excellent.  But on the whole I found it disappointing, although I would read more by this author, he's written other books under a different name but this is his first psychological thriller, and I think he shows definite promise in this genre.

 

I'm a pretty tough marker when it comes to books, in fairness. Even stuff that I thoroughly enjoy won't get full marks unless I really think it's outstanding, so for a book as messy as The Ice Twins it's not surprising I rated it so low. I just got so frustrated with it.

[bobblybear]

I will be reading it shortly (borrowed it from the library), so I wonder what I will make of it.

[Madeleine]

Yep I'm a tough marker too, it takes a lot to get 10/10 from me!  I've just given my latest read 9/10, it was great but lost a point for being a bit predictable (although it was predictable in a comfort read way) and having a rather stereo-typical villain.

[pontalba]

Some great and thoughtful reviews, Noll. 

 

I've changed with regard to short stories.  When I was young, I didn't care for them, didn't appreciate them a bit.  But I think around the time I hit my 40's I started to appreciate them more and more.  Our reading habits fluctuate throughout our lives.  I think before, I missed the closure in short stories, they were too open ended for my taste.  But now, I appreciate the open ended-ness of them.  I love to mentally explore the possibilities.  The "what if" factor. 

Now I keep a stack of anthologies around here, just to dip into when I feel like it.

[Anna Begins]

But now, I appreciate the open ended-ness of them.  I love to mentally explore the possibilities.  The "what if" factor. 

Now I keep a stack of anthologies around here, just to dip into when I feel like it.

^^ What she said I often read my short stories either slower, one or two at a time or pick someone with totally different flavor in their stories (ie Phillip K Dick, Raymond Carver). I found my love for reading through that "What if" factor, still am attracted to those types of books.

[julie]

Hi Noll

Just dropped in to say howdy and hope you are well .

[Nollaig]

I will be reading it shortly (borrowed it from the library), so I wonder what I will make of it.

 

Hehehe not much from the sounds of it!

 

Yep I'm a tough marker too, it takes a lot to get 10/10 from me!  I've just given my latest read 9/10, it was great but lost a point for being a bit predictable (although it was predictable in a comfort read way) and having a rather stereo-typical villain.

 

I just thought it rambled all over the place and had no real point!

 

Some great and thoughtful reviews, Noll. 

 

I've changed with regard to short stories.  When I was young, I didn't care for them, didn't appreciate them a bit.  But I think around the time I hit my 40's I started to appreciate them more and more.  Our reading habits fluctuate throughout our lives.  I think before, I missed the closure in short stories, they were too open ended for my taste.  But now, I appreciate the open ended-ness of them.  I love to mentally explore the possibilities.  The "what if" factor. 

Now I keep a stack of anthologies around here, just to dip into when I feel like it.

 

Hmmmm. I'd like to get into them, but I just don't know. I'll keep giving them a go, from time to time.

 

^^ What she said I often read my short stories either slower, one or two at a time or pick someone with totally different flavor in their stories (ie Phillip K Dick, Raymond Carver). I found my love for reading through that "What if" factor, still am attracted to those types of books.

 

I still haven't read anything by Phillip K Dick and I really, really need to!

 

Hi Noll

Just dropped in to say howdy and hope you are well .

 

Thanks Julie! Hope you are doing well too

 

My reading has been a little sporadic lately, but I'm getting there. I read two books by a guy named Adam Roberts, both sort of weird rambly sci-fi things. One, The Thing Itself, I thought was absolutely fantastic (based off some of Kant's philosophical ideas and turned into a sci-fi thriller), and this led me to immediately try another, Bete, about a kind of sentient-animal uprising. I think it went over my head though, because I really don't get what the point of it was. One more book for him, I think, and then I'll decide whether I like him as an author. Reading The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton at the moment.

 

Behind again on writing my reviews, really need to catch up!

[Inver]

Love your review on 'Ice Twins' and I know where you are coming from with that...it annoyed me greatly in places, but I had to finish it.

[bobblybear]

Hehehe not much from the sounds of it!

No, I gave up on it. It was pants!

 

Reading The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton at the moment.

I loved her book Afterwards. I have Sister on my Kindle but haven't heard of The Quality of Silence. I hope you are enjoying it!

[Nollaig]

Love your review on 'Ice Twins' and I know where you are coming from with that...it annoyed me greatly in places, but I had to finish it.

 

Yeah, same, I wanted to find out what happened even though I knew I'd be rolling my eyes all the way there!

 

No, I gave up on it. It was pants!

 

I loved her book Afterwards. I have Sister on my Kindle but haven't heard of The Quality of Silence. I hope you are enjoying it!

 

It was good, but nothing amazing. Great premise and writing, execution underwhelming. Will definitely check out Sister though.

[Nollaig]

There are three books I probably won't write real reviews for, as I just don't have much to say, so some thoughts:

 

#39 The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah

Really enjoyed this book, liked the characters, the prose, the story. Did feel at times it attempted to pack too much in, and as such diluted the impact of various events. 

 

#40 Behind Closed Doors - B. A. Paris

A light, easy thriller to read, despite feeling like the book equivalent of a b-movie I actually really enjoyed it. Pretty clever with a likable main character. Somewhat underwhelming ending.

 

#41 Push - Sapphire

I am in no way qualified to review this book, so I won't. A very hard-hitting look at an illiterate, abused young girl attempting to better herself. Definitely not for everyone, but Precious was a great and inspiring character to read about.

 

#42 Bete - Adam Roberts

A book about animals who gain consciousness and instigate an uprising against humanity. I feel like, having read another of Robert's books (which will be reviewed) that there is intelligence behind this book, but everything about it was just too far outside the realm of what I know or care about to understand. There were a lot of religious references, and the animals rights felt more like a vehicle than the point of this book. It had good parts, but definitely doesn't compare to his other novel The Thing Itself.

 

#43 The 39 Steps - John Buchan

An extremely unbelieveable but also very fun romp around the Scottish countryside as a bunch of locals miraculously help out just in the nick of time while a guy is trying to prevent some kind of political disaster I never entirely understood. I still enjoyed it, though.

[Little Pixie]

I enjoyed The 39 steps too - and the other books with Richard Hannay, like Greenmantle. 

[chaliepud]

 

It was good, but nothing amazing. Great premise and writing, execution underwhelming. Will definitely check out Sister though.

I thought Sister was excellent, Afterwards was good too but haven't bought The Quality of Silence, something about it didn't appeal. It's hard I find when an author does a particularly good book and then the second isn't as good, I then find it hard to be bothered to try any more, it's as if they've peaked (or jumped the shark as Steve always says! Strange saying!)

[pontalba]

I thought Sister was excellent, Afterwards was good too but haven't bought The Quality of Silence, something about it didn't appeal. It's hard I find when an author does a particularly good book and then the second isn't as good, I then find it hard to be bothered to try any more, it's as if they've peaked (or jumped the shark as Steve always says! Strange saying!)

Agreed, I've read the same two of hers and enjoyed them. I have The Quality of Silence started, but it didn't grab me. Something in it discomfited me. I'll pick it up again, could have been my mood. We'll see. It's disappointing when that happens with an author one likes (so far).

 

Regarding Jump the Shark........ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark