gotossmycausticsalad's reviews
482 reviews

On Palestine by Ilan Pappé, Noam Chomsky

Hard to quantify this one really. The discussion format was interesting. I disagreed with some of Chomsky's points - like the one about the ASA boycott - so it was interesting to see them in context of a conversation with pushback.
The latter part of the book - the collection of essays - is quite repetitive.

Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha

Fascinating book, but also quite a slog. It's an academic work, rather than something written for mass appeal. That, or I've got stupider since my history A-level (cough cough) years ago. 
A few issues with the editing, sentences repeated or missing words. 

Blossoms and Shadows by Lian Hearn

3.5

I picked this up because I loved the Tales of the Otori when I was a kid but I found this quite disappointing. The different tensions in the narrators character sound interesting but put together they somehow fell flat. The only character I ended up really interested in by the end was the painter. 

A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata

4.5

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

4.0

Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela

5.0

A long read but it was engagingly enough written that it never dragged. I found it a clear and easy to follow introduction to the history of apartheid and the struggle to end it.

Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera

4.0

The Grassling by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

3.0

Found it quite hard to keep focused on, although in fairness I read the first half of it on a train with a child flicking uno cards at my knees so maybe that had more to do with it than the content. The second half had no such excuse, though.
Not something I'd have picked up on my own I think so maybe not fair to review it - I was under the impression it was a fiction book rather than a memoir when I started, which I imagine didn't help.

Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux

4.5

Funny, informative and hideously depressing in parts. What more could you want!

Sixteen Horses: a BBC Two Between the Covers Book Club pick by Greg Buchanan

3.0

Interesting enough premise but quite hard to follow.