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andrewspink's reviews
487 reviews
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
You would imagine that a book about the problems of the publishing industry would not be so interesting, like when journalists start interviewing each other because they are standing around waiting for some momentous event and absolutely nothing is happening. But to my surprise, this book was great fun to read. Not only that, but it tackles themes like plagiarism, cultural appropriation and racism in a nuanced and entertaining way. I don't know if I will ever watch an author being interviewed in quite the same way again.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"Perhaps he'll die this time" is a great first line. Although the title might give the impression that this is a run-of-the-mill science fiction story, there is a lot more to it than that. It tackles big issues like refugees, racism, multi-cultural societies, English identity, and even the sense of freedom that riding a bike gives you. There are also elements of a thriller with a nice building of suspense and some completely unexpected plot twists. I am inclined to agree with those who say that the ending is a bit weak.
For those who like literary science-fiction, this is a must-read and for those who are not sci-fi fans but like a good story, I would also recommend it.
For those who like literary science-fiction, this is a must-read and for those who are not sci-fi fans but like a good story, I would also recommend it.
Terugkeer by Harlan Coben
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Harlan Coben (1962) is een Amerikaanse schrijver van bijna 40 spannende boeken en heeft ook veel prijzen gewonnen. Kenmerken van zijn boeken zijn de snelle actie, korte leesbare zinnen en onverwachte plotwendingen — en Terugkeer is niet anders.
Het verhaal gaat over een seriemoordenaar die onopgemerkt blijft door altijd iemand anders erin te luizen. De moordenaar neemt een stuk DNA of andere sporen van iemand met een sterke motivatie om het slachtoffer daarna dood te maken. Vervolgens plaatst hij of zij het DNA zorgvuldig op de plaats delict.
Myron Bolitar is de hoofdpersoon. Hij is jurist en zakelijk vertegenwoordiger van Greg Downing, die jaren geleden overleden is. Echter het DNA van Greg is op een plaats delict gevonden. Hoe kan dat? Als Myron dat probeert te ontdekken, brengt hij zichzelf in gevaar. En het gevaar komt niet alleen van de kant van de moordenaar... Er zijn veel onverwachte veranderingen in de verhaallijn en dat geeft een echt spannende leeservaring.
Veel van het boek is vanuit een alwetende verteller geschreven. Een paar hoofdstukken zijn vanuit het perspectief van de moordenaar verteld maar dan in de tweede persoon (‘je pakt het pistool’). Dit extra perspectief werkt goed, maar ik vroeg me regelmatig af waarom Harlan Coben de vreemde je-vorm heeft gekozen. Helemaal op het eind wordt dat duidelijk en toen dacht ik terug aan die hoofdstukken en snapte ik dat er meer in zat dan op eerste gezicht duidelijk was. Leuk dat er meer diepte in dit boek is dan je van een thriller zou verwachten.
Het boek is door twee mensen (Jan Pott en Annemarie Lodewijk) vertaald en ze hebben dat goed gedaan. Er is een Amerikaanse sfeer, maar de oorspronkelijke Engelse tekst is niet zichtbaar aanwezig. Soms lees ik vertalingen van boeken uit het Engels (mijn eigen eerste taal) die tenenkrommend letterlijk vertaald zijn of waar de vertaler gewoon het Engels niet begrepen heeft. Gelukkig was deze vertaling anders.
Vaak zijn dit soort boeken vrij seksistisch met hulpeloos vrouwelijke slachtoffers en veel geweld tegen vrouwen. Alhoewel er wel wat geweld is, viel dat ook wel mee en de vrouwelijke personages zijn net zo sterk en complex als de mannen.
Als je van spannende verhalen houdt, zou ik dit boek zeker aanbevelen.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence and Violence
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
What a strange book! It tackles big themes, which is interesting, but I found it hard to relate to or understand the characters. Perhaps that is my problem, not that of the book.
Schoonheid en kracht by Tim Krabbé
adventurous
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
Volgens de uitgever is dit boekje een literaire juweeltje. En dat klopt.
Victory City by Salman Rushdie
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I had read some rather negative reviews about this book, so I wasn't sure about it. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. Not so much for the story; I'm not so keen on magic and fantasy - although the influence of Indian mythology did make that more interesting, but more for the writing. Rushdie writes in long complex sentences, sometimes with unusual words, and they are a delight to read.
Apparently, the less magical aspects of the story are based on historical reality, including the mass funeral pyres, war elephants and an empire defeated in 1565.
It is a bizarre coincidence that two of the characters are blinded by an iron rod and that Rushdie himself was blinded in one eye by a knife attack shortly after the book was published. Sometimes reality is even wierder than Rushdie's fiction.
Apparently, the less magical aspects of the story are based on historical reality, including the mass funeral pyres, war elephants and an empire defeated in 1565.
It is a bizarre coincidence that two of the characters are blinded by an iron rod and that Rushdie himself was blinded in one eye by a knife attack shortly after the book was published. Sometimes reality is even wierder than Rushdie's fiction.
Being A Beast by Charles Foster
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Charles Foster is clearly a complete nutter, which made for an interesting book. In order to determine what it is like to be various animals, he lives in a hole in the ground and eats earthworms for some months to see what it is like to be a badger and or vomiting his food up so that he would know what it was like to be an animal that chews the cud, like a deer.
Quite early on, he concludes that he cannot really feel what it is like to have the auditory world of a badger, 'not because of physiology but of otherness'. Despite that, he goes on to project a whole lot of his own emotions and feelings into what it must be like to be a badger or deer. It is only really in the final chapter, about swifts, where he concludes that swifts are so other that he cannot get inside their heads. My problem with this book is not that he says that animals have emotions. He says that professional biologists disapproved of that statement. That might have been the case a few decades ago, but by the time this book was published in 2016, very few behavioural biologists would oppose the term. My problem is that he does not sufficiently allow the animals to have their own emotions and tries to make everything fit into his own range of experience, an endeavour necessarily fated to fail. He describes how he goes through various contortions trying to understand what the sensory world of an animal that has whiskers might be like, but in the end seeing we don't have that sense, it is literally beyond our imagination. It is really not like feeling with our hands, that we do know (and I should mention that I am a co-author on a paper recently published about whiskers!).
He states at one point that otters don't experience pain. That is a very bizarre and ungrounded statement. All animals (possibly excluding insects), but certainly mammals, reptiles, fish and birds, feel pain.
He says that foxes can leap 3m, which is equivalent to him jumping 8m. This is an unfortunately common mistake made by nature programmes on the TV and by popular sciences books. This comparison misapplies scaling laws. The ability to jump does not scale linearly with size because the physics of jumping involves factors like muscle strength, body mass, and energy expenditure, which do not scale in a simple linear fashion.
He also doesn't understand red-green colour blindness. Like 8% of human males, I am red-green colour-blind. That does not mean that I see everything in grey scale, far from it. It means something like that sometimes red is rather like a shade of green.
Finally, he gives space to the ideas of Rupert Sheldrake. His ideas were discredited decades ago, I don't think anyone who has actually looked into the so-called evidence for them takes them seriously these days.
Nevertheless, having said all that, those are minor quibbles and this was a though-provoking book which I enjoyed reading.
Quite early on, he concludes that he cannot really feel what it is like to have the auditory world of a badger, 'not because of physiology but of otherness'. Despite that, he goes on to project a whole lot of his own emotions and feelings into what it must be like to be a badger or deer. It is only really in the final chapter, about swifts, where he concludes that swifts are so other that he cannot get inside their heads. My problem with this book is not that he says that animals have emotions. He says that professional biologists disapproved of that statement. That might have been the case a few decades ago, but by the time this book was published in 2016, very few behavioural biologists would oppose the term. My problem is that he does not sufficiently allow the animals to have their own emotions and tries to make everything fit into his own range of experience, an endeavour necessarily fated to fail. He describes how he goes through various contortions trying to understand what the sensory world of an animal that has whiskers might be like, but in the end seeing we don't have that sense, it is literally beyond our imagination. It is really not like feeling with our hands, that we do know (and I should mention that I am a co-author on a paper recently published about whiskers!).
He states at one point that otters don't experience pain. That is a very bizarre and ungrounded statement. All animals (possibly excluding insects), but certainly mammals, reptiles, fish and birds, feel pain.
He says that foxes can leap 3m, which is equivalent to him jumping 8m. This is an unfortunately common mistake made by nature programmes on the TV and by popular sciences books. This comparison misapplies scaling laws. The ability to jump does not scale linearly with size because the physics of jumping involves factors like muscle strength, body mass, and energy expenditure, which do not scale in a simple linear fashion.
He also doesn't understand red-green colour blindness. Like 8% of human males, I am red-green colour-blind. That does not mean that I see everything in grey scale, far from it. It means something like that sometimes red is rather like a shade of green.
Finally, he gives space to the ideas of Rupert Sheldrake. His ideas were discredited decades ago, I don't think anyone who has actually looked into the so-called evidence for them takes them seriously these days.
Nevertheless, having said all that, those are minor quibbles and this was a though-provoking book which I enjoyed reading.
The trail to nowhere: Life and death along the Colorado trail by Quentin Septer
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced
3.0
As a keen mountain biker, I was looking forward to reading this book. The book's main achievement was that the author did a good job of conveying why it is that most mountain bikers cycle. It is not for the thrill of the adrenaline rush (which is probably what you would believe from watching YouTube films on the subject) so much as the joy of being in nature, in the woods or the mountains, not shut off from the natural world like in a car and going faster than walking, so that you can see more.
The book is also very much about how the author started to come to terms with the death of his father during the ride. To be honest, I found that a little repetitive and not so helpful. He clearly worshipped his father, who is presented as a sort of perfect man, rather than a human being 'warts and all'. That meant that his father comes across as rather a two-dimensional and uninteresting character. It is understandable that a boy should see his father like that, especially at that stage in his bereavement, but it is not so helpful for the reader. The theme comes back very often; even when he sees a lake drying up, he was reminded of his father's death.
The book also contains a lot of factual information. Some of it is really interesting, like the scandalous treatment by the US government of the Ute people who were living in Colorado before the European colonists came. Time after time, treaties were made and broken and their lands stolen until there was not enough left to be viable. The author writes that he doesn't know if he should feel responsible for what his ancestors did. The point is that it is what his government did, and that government still bears responsibility for the actions of previous administrations of the same government.
He also writes a lot about the geology and natural history of the places he passes through. As an ecologist, I enjoyed reading about the plants and animals, but I must say that I found the geology dry and rather boring. I caught myself skipping bits. Perhaps he also assumes too much background knowledge of his readers in those sections as well.
There were some strange bits. He describes one of his friends as an obnoxious human being. Why would you do that? He tells the story of how a bunch of criminals shot a judge in 1875 and then a couple of sentences later says that town must have been a wonderful place to live. I guess that is humour or irony, but I wasn't amused, especially in the current political situation in the US. In the prologue he appears to mention that he mountain biked whilst high on cannabis, which is potentially dangerous, but it is presented as normal.
In summary, if you are a mountain biker, or just enjoy walking in the mountains, you will enjoy this book, but perhaps you will also think that it would have benefited from a severe edit to cut out some of the more boring and repetitive sections.
Acknowledgment: I received a free advance review copy of this book from BookSirens in return for an honest review.
The book is also very much about how the author started to come to terms with the death of his father during the ride. To be honest, I found that a little repetitive and not so helpful. He clearly worshipped his father, who is presented as a sort of perfect man, rather than a human being 'warts and all'. That meant that his father comes across as rather a two-dimensional and uninteresting character. It is understandable that a boy should see his father like that, especially at that stage in his bereavement, but it is not so helpful for the reader. The theme comes back very often; even when he sees a lake drying up, he was reminded of his father's death.
The book also contains a lot of factual information. Some of it is really interesting, like the scandalous treatment by the US government of the Ute people who were living in Colorado before the European colonists came. Time after time, treaties were made and broken and their lands stolen until there was not enough left to be viable. The author writes that he doesn't know if he should feel responsible for what his ancestors did. The point is that it is what his government did, and that government still bears responsibility for the actions of previous administrations of the same government.
He also writes a lot about the geology and natural history of the places he passes through. As an ecologist, I enjoyed reading about the plants and animals, but I must say that I found the geology dry and rather boring. I caught myself skipping bits. Perhaps he also assumes too much background knowledge of his readers in those sections as well.
There were some strange bits. He describes one of his friends as an obnoxious human being. Why would you do that? He tells the story of how a bunch of criminals shot a judge in 1875 and then a couple of sentences later says that town must have been a wonderful place to live. I guess that is humour or irony, but I wasn't amused, especially in the current political situation in the US. In the prologue he appears to mention that he mountain biked whilst high on cannabis, which is potentially dangerous, but it is presented as normal.
In summary, if you are a mountain biker, or just enjoy walking in the mountains, you will enjoy this book, but perhaps you will also think that it would have benefited from a severe edit to cut out some of the more boring and repetitive sections.
Acknowledgment: I received a free advance review copy of this book from BookSirens in return for an honest review.
Thriller Weken 2024 by Dominique Biebau, Jet van Vuuren, Angelique Haak, Floris Kleijne, Lex Noteboom
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Nice mix of stories. I liked the one about the dog!
Sloop by Anna Enquist
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I'm not so keen on books with an anti-hero and I must say that I found the protagonist of this book a bit of an unattractive character. She is repeatedly described as not listening to what people say to her, even when it is important, which is irritating. She is hopelessly naïve when it comes to the relationship with her much older teacher. She internalises the negativity that her mother felt about her. Her weakness is shown in, for instance, her infidelity to Mark.
The switching between different time periods went ok, though I did sometimes get a bit confused about when the passage I was reading took place.
There are also things to like about the book. It is nicely written and easy to read. The insight into how a composer works was very interesting. I wonder how true to life that was, and how much that varies between composers. A lot of the process looked suspiciously like the process of writing a novel, but maybe the creative process is similar? The descriptions of how she was feeling insecure but still came up with a confident answer to her questioners was well done.
The plot was a bit haphazard. What was the point of the fish episode? Was that meant to be an analogy for something else, or was it just irrelevant to the rest? The interaction between the ups and downs of her attempts to have a child and her composition work was credible and interesting. Quite a lot of the plot was rather predictable, for instanceit was obvious that as soon as she stopped the fertility treatments that she would get pregnant which was a shame.
In general, a bit of a mixed bag, but worth reading.
The switching between different time periods went ok, though I did sometimes get a bit confused about when the passage I was reading took place.
There are also things to like about the book. It is nicely written and easy to read. The insight into how a composer works was very interesting. I wonder how true to life that was, and how much that varies between composers. A lot of the process looked suspiciously like the process of writing a novel, but maybe the creative process is similar? The descriptions of how she was feeling insecure but still came up with a confident answer to her questioners was well done.
The plot was a bit haphazard. What was the point of the fish episode? Was that meant to be an analogy for something else, or was it just irrelevant to the rest? The interaction between the ups and downs of her attempts to have a child and her composition work was credible and interesting. Quite a lot of the plot was rather predictable, for instance
In general, a bit of a mixed bag, but worth reading.