hannah_macpherson's reviews
230 reviews

The Way of the Runner: A Journey Into the Fabled World of Japanese Running by Adharanand Finn

3.25

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace

2.25

There are some brilliant passages and I love some of the ideas in it, but it took me literal years to finish and a lot of it is dry as hell 

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty

3.0

Interesting but not as interesting as I hoped 

Room to Dream by David Lynch

2.75

Interesting setup for a biography, but considering his life story it’s a bit more dry than I expected. Good to know he also thought dune wasn’t a great film

Why Calories Don't Count: How We Got the Science of Weight Loss Wrong by Giles Yeo

3.25

Worth a read, but his previous book Gene Eating is much better. If you do start this, commit to getting past the first sections as they’re quite dry but it gets a lot more interesting after that

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

4.25

Something so sad written so beautifully 

Spare by Prince Harry

3.25

His hatred of the press is well founded and I found that part very convincing. I also thought the stuff about his and Megan’s relationship was absolutely lovely.

 In the first 3/4 of it however he was pretty unlikable, privileged and unaware. At one point he’s gifted a flat and has a paragraph moaning about the lack of natural light. He just has no understanding of normal life, but also is it fair for me to expect him to? He has never experienced it. I’m unsure whether it’s unfair of me to expect that of him.

I absolutely respect the fact that he’s selling his story to prevent the press from doing so, but I don’t understand why he doesn’t live the quiet life he’s said he wants and fought so hard for. 

Get rid of the royals, loved the drama though x

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

The blandness of the characters is both the worst and the best thing about the book. At first I found it a drag but she does have a great way of portraying normal life, which is of course the point. It grew on me a lot. 

There are quite a few spicy bits. I listened at work and had to keep checking no one else could hear it lol

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

1.5

I can see why it was popular at the time, and probably inspired a lot of “go find yourself” adventures, but it’s very ‘white girl goes travelling and meets some monks’. As you’d expect, it’s quite culturally insensitive in parts. I enjoyed the way she starts off saying that she doesn’t want this journey to include a man and then ends up with one anyway. Love that

I did enjoy bits of it though and it makes me want to read some more substantial travel memoirs, just maybe not this one 
 

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

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

1.5

I’m giving this 1.5 because there are some interesting ideas but they’re just so completely underdeveloped - and not in a cool way that lets the reader piece an idea of what happened afterwards, but more as if the author hasn’t fully thought through his ideas. The characters are not unlikeable, they’re just extremely bland, I have no feelings towards them at all.

Read remains of the day instead (or I’ll accept never let me go)

I liked the way that religion developed in AIs, but it’s written without any colour. Is Josie meant to seem like a 7 year old rather than 14? Maybe, but it’s unclear whether that’s the case or the author doesn’t understand teenagers/children. Why is this intelligent AI unable to identify a phone? And don’t get me started on the lazy attempt to discuss genetic editing. Also wtf is up with the mother, her interactions with her old partner are utterly bizarre. It would have been SO much more interesting if Josie had died and the robot had replaced her. Plus the  dad also lost his engineer job to robots yet the kid is trying to get into college for it and no one is telling him not to? And he’s happy to help klara break some random machine without any explanation whatsoever  ?? End could have been interesting but came off very preachy