andrewspink's reviews
472 reviews

Inversions by Iain M. Banks

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

In the beginning you wonder why this book is labelled science fiction and not fantasy. And then the penny drops and you wonder if it is time travel or aliens.

Subtle Agroecologies: Farming with the Hidden Half of Nature by Julia Wright

informative slow-paced

2.0

You have to read through an awful lot of pseudoscience to find a few interesting gems of interest in this book. So many studies based on anecdotes or without replicates or proper controls. 
Some of the stuff about indigenous knowledge was interesting,  but it's interpretation seemed to be firmly pressed into a particular ideological mold. Quite often it was Rudolf Steiner, who had quite a racist ideology. 

De zeven vinkjes: Hoe mannen zoals ik de baas spelen by Joris Luyendijk

informative medium-paced

3.0

I had a bit of a mixed response to this book. On the one hand, Luyendijk's experience in England, working for the Guardian, was one that I could very much identify with. He was used to using his privileged position as an unfair advantage and all of a sudden, although nothing had formally changed, he no longer had the network and knowledge of the precise social niceties needed to get on. That was just how it felt for me in my first few years in the Netherlands. On the other hand, this book is more of a pamphlet, he makes his point by repeating variations on the same things time and again. The reader is left with the impression that there was not quite enough material to fill a book. Also, his seven 'ticks' are not equal. It is entirely possible that a university education actually teaches you things which help in assuming a leadership position, e.g. the ability to think critically, analyse problems and organise information, in which case the fact that more senior people have university level education than average is not entirely due to people hiring new colleagues who look like themselves.
Having said that, the problem that he raises is important and serious. I have heard many Dutch people saying that it is not as bad here as e.g. in the UK; this book clearly proves the opposite.

Ga je er over schrijven? by Herman Koch

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

4.0

This book tackles the important subject of living with a cancer diagnosis,  but it is light, amusing and self-effacing.  Highly recommended. 

Thuis draag ik bij me by Cecile Korevaar

adventurous challenging sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The story of the youthful refugees is well told and the tauma and emotions come across really well. I think that if I was the age of the characters, I would have really enjoyed it, but it was just a bit too young adult for me.

Love Marriage by Monica Ali

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An enjoyable and entertaining novel. The characters were occasionally a little stereotyped, but towards the end we discover that that was to present the realities of their personal histories as a greater surprise. The reader really gets to care about the characters.

Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris by Anjet Daanje

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What an extraordinary book! It is composed of 11 novellas, which are all interconnected in various ways. Or maybe all but one, I didn't spot the connection with the one in France in WWI, but doubtless I missed something.  And that is easy to do, you really have to be on your toes to see the clues and to remember who all the characters are and what they were up to hundreds of pages beforehand. 
The book is centred around the Brontë sisters (although they are not called that). That was definitely a plus for me. I like their novels and I lived in a part of Yorkshire with a similar landscape as that round Haworth until I was 9, so could relate to that.
It felt a bit like reading a translation, seeing it was in Dutch but nearly all set in Yorkshire. There were a couple of 'mistranslations'; English letterboxes don't have keys and Anglicans don't attend mass. There was no Yorkshire dialect. Come to that, the one serious shortcoming of the book was that although some sections were meant to be old documents, it all seemed to be written in pretty much the same style. 

The book is also all about death. Nevertheless it is not really morbid. The 11 stories enable Anjet Daanje to philosophise about death from various perspectives and that certainly gave an interesting extra dimension to the book. That does mean that it is a bit heavy in parts, and it is also really long. That's OK, but it does mean that I'm bound to have missed some important cross references. 

In summary,  the book was hard work, but worth it.

Wolven op het ruiterpad. Over mensen en andere roedeldieren by Tijs Goldschmidt

informative fast-paced

3.0

This book is an eclectic collection of essays about various subjects; botany, anthropology, mythology, zoology, ethology and more. I'm not so keen on short pieces like that as a genre, as soon as they get going they finish. That was also the case for this book. Some of them had interesting ideas and they were all well written.  A nice book to dip into, but not really one to sit down and read. 

Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

When I read the basic premise of the novel, that it is about 'what if' five children had not perished in the London blitz, I had expected the book to be all about what a waste that was, what a wonderful life they had missed. That wasn't the case. Their lives are both ordinary and full of negative experiences. That is not to say that the book was miserable to read. Far from it. The characters are so well-rounded and interesting that it was a pleasure to read the book. What I also liked was the huge jumps in time that the book made as it progressed. That had the effect of putting the everyday troubles and worries into perspective; 15 years later, everything was different anyway. Various reviews suggest it is worth reading a second time. I have the feeling that I missed some things the first time round, so maybe I will do so.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

In the early 1990s, I lived in a small village in Illinois, and there was an 'Indian Burial Mound' next to my house. I was amazed and soon read up to discover about the people that had lived there before the European colonists came. It was a horrific story. Genocide, essentially. Both Americans and Europeans had been so brainwashed by the Hollywood 'Cowboys and Indians' that many people had no idea of the true story of what happened. I don't know if things are any better now. 
This book takes a crucial moment in that story, when an Native American tribe

for the first time, actually won their case in Congress and managed to call a halt to efforts to eradicate them

. 
The book is well-written and has some lovely poetic phrases. "When Tomas thought of his father, peace stole across his chest and covered him like sunlight".  I also liked the way that it dealt with the spirituality of the characters.
There was only one aspect of the book that I didn't like. Although it was a bit nuanced, in the end there is no doubt that it glorifies boxing, presenting it as a subtle sport of skill and tactics. I was not convinced, for me it remains barbaric. But that was only a small part of the book, for the most part this was well worthwhile.