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octavia_cade's reviews
2580 reviews
Nuts by Alice Clayton
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
3.0
I have to admit that I picked this up at the library without even reading the back - I was looking for a romance book without an illustrated cover to tick off a reading challenge task, and I've read and enjoyed one of Clayton's romances before, so figured why not?
You can imagine my delight when I got home and realised it was a foodie romance. A chef has a meet-cute with a farmer and while half of the book is them slavering over each other the other half is them slavering over cake and other assorted foodstuffs. Given that I'm the type of person who will happily read cookbooks, this was immediately appealing. It was lighthearted and entertaining with nice people as the protagonists which is really all I ask for in a romance. Amusingly, it seems like just the kind of romance book that would do well with an illustrated cover.
And now I want some walnut cake.
You can imagine my delight when I got home and realised it was a foodie romance. A chef has a meet-cute with a farmer and while half of the book is them slavering over each other the other half is them slavering over cake and other assorted foodstuffs. Given that I'm the type of person who will happily read cookbooks, this was immediately appealing. It was lighthearted and entertaining with nice people as the protagonists which is really all I ask for in a romance. Amusingly, it seems like just the kind of romance book that would do well with an illustrated cover.
And now I want some walnut cake.
Martyr by Peter David
adventurous
medium-paced
1.0
I'm trying to work my way through the Star Trek novels, but I continue to have real problems with this series. I can't help but think that if I were living in the Federation and was in some sort of trouble, this is the very last crew I'd want to rely upon to rescue me. They all feel so damn immature, and I can't think of a single personal problem that any of them have (or might have, in the future) that I would care about in the slightest. Which is a problem, given how much of the series is given over to their personal issues.
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
I would never have thought that I'd give such a high score to what is effectively a story of prolonged animal abuse, but here we are. Also, I don't know why I saw the sharks coming a mile off when the old man didn't - especially considering that fishing isn't high on my list of interests or marketable skills when it is both to him. Still, I'm prepared to take such selective stupidity as metaphor in this case, and as such it was was genuinely effective. Mostly, I think, because of the characterisation. I don't find the old man pleasant, really - mostly I just felt sorry for him, with a side of why-are-you-doing-this-to-yourself, but then I think that about a lot of Man vs. Nature stories - but there's no denying that he was finely drawn.
It's changed my opinion of Hemingway a bit as well, to be honest. This book has been on my to-read list for a while, but I've been putting it off because the first Hemingway book I read was The Sun Also Rises, back in 2017, and I didn't like it at all. I had another stab a year later with A Farewell to Arms, which I liked better, but even then I couldn't see why Hemingway had the reputation that he does. Now I see it. This was really good. Not always to my taste, but the skill is clearly apparent to me in ways that it wasn't before.
I'm tempted now to just never read any more of him ever again. Might as well go out on a high note. (I really did think Sun was awful.)
It's changed my opinion of Hemingway a bit as well, to be honest. This book has been on my to-read list for a while, but I've been putting it off because the first Hemingway book I read was The Sun Also Rises, back in 2017, and I didn't like it at all. I had another stab a year later with A Farewell to Arms, which I liked better, but even then I couldn't see why Hemingway had the reputation that he does. Now I see it. This was really good. Not always to my taste, but the skill is clearly apparent to me in ways that it wasn't before.
I'm tempted now to just never read any more of him ever again. Might as well go out on a high note. (I really did think Sun was awful.)
The Eagle Huntress: The True Story of the Girl Who Soared Beyond Expectations by Aisholpan Nurgaiv
adventurous
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
3.5
This is the kind of sports book I enjoy! By which I mean it is more about animals and human relationships with them than it is about, oh, I don't know, the things I would traditionally think of as sporty.
Knowing very little about Mongolia, part of the interest of this book, for me, was the very accessible look at what it's like to grow up there. Nurgaiv is twelve years old and her family is nomadic, and so I enjoyed reading about what her life is like and how she and her family live. Admittedly, I'm even more interested in the eagles. There are no golden eagles in New Zealand, and while I saw a bald eagle once when I visited Seattle I've only ever seen golden eagles in pictures or videos. I didn't even know that they lived in Mongolia! Clearly they do, and there's a long tradition of training them as a hunting partner. I would have liked a little more focus on how this is done, and the history of the sport in general - certainly more on the history of women in the sport, as they go back to 700 BCE, according to the book - but then I'm aware that this book is directed mostly at children, so I can understand the strong focus on Nurgaiv instead.
What a fascinating relationship she has with her eagle! I'm adding the film to my to-watch list - it will have to do until I can see a golden eagle in person one day.
Knowing very little about Mongolia, part of the interest of this book, for me, was the very accessible look at what it's like to grow up there. Nurgaiv is twelve years old and her family is nomadic, and so I enjoyed reading about what her life is like and how she and her family live. Admittedly, I'm even more interested in the eagles. There are no golden eagles in New Zealand, and while I saw a bald eagle once when I visited Seattle I've only ever seen golden eagles in pictures or videos. I didn't even know that they lived in Mongolia! Clearly they do, and there's a long tradition of training them as a hunting partner. I would have liked a little more focus on how this is done, and the history of the sport in general - certainly more on the history of women in the sport, as they go back to 700 BCE, according to the book - but then I'm aware that this book is directed mostly at children, so I can understand the strong focus on Nurgaiv instead.
What a fascinating relationship she has with her eagle! I'm adding the film to my to-watch list - it will have to do until I can see a golden eagle in person one day.
The Heidelberg Ghost by Nickie Cochran
lighthearted
fast-paced
1.0
This didn't do it so much for me I'm afraid. I liked the idea and the setting - a Halloween party at Heidelberg Castle brings together a ghost and a romance writer - but there was too much going in here. It felt as if it needed to be stripped back a lot, and have more attention given to the central pair. I've never found love at first sight particularly convincing, so as a reader I need more of a build-up. Furthermore, the 400 year old ghost was just too modern for me - had he been the ghost of a stone mason killed in contemporary times he would have behaved no differently.
Still, I bought the collected trilogy, I think it is, so the other novels in the series might be more to my taste.
Still, I bought the collected trilogy, I think it is, so the other novels in the series might be more to my taste.
Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs: How the Struggle for Survival Has Shaped Birds and Their Behavior by Roger J. Lederer
informative
medium-paced
3.5
This was a very interesting book, with lots of illustrations - which I enjoy - and it's clear that Lederer is an expert in his subject. It didn't take long to realise, though, that he has a very specific explanatory style: a general description of some feature or other, and then a series of often very brief examples. I can't know, of course, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if this book began with a list and was then converted from bullet-point to paragraph form.
Don't get me wrong. I like texts with lots of examples. Everyone has different learning preferences, but I've always been able to grasp examples a lot more easily than theory (probably why I can never get on with philosophy). There were some fascinating examples here, and I found myself looking up birds as I read, trying to learn more. I can't get away from the feeling that I was reading a list, however.
Don't get me wrong. I like texts with lots of examples. Everyone has different learning preferences, but I've always been able to grasp examples a lot more easily than theory (probably why I can never get on with philosophy). There were some fascinating examples here, and I found myself looking up birds as I read, trying to learn more. I can't get away from the feeling that I was reading a list, however.
The Pet by Mel Gilden, Ted Pedersen
adventurous
fast-paced
3.0
The storyline here is blindingly obvious and I think any child reader would say the same, but it's still an enjoyable read. A furry, rhino-type creature is smuggled onto the station and Jake and Nog rescue it and have fun with their new pet, who is not all he seems. My opinion of these Trek children's novels (because they're not young adult by any stretch of the imagination) is always closely linked to how credible the story is, given the age of the two protagonists, and this one's bang-on. It's a sci-fi twist on boys-and-their-dog, and it's completely believable that kids would get excited about the possibility of a pet and take it to their secret clubhouse and eat ice-cream sundaes together. I mean, who wouldn't?
Divergent by Veronica Roth
dark
medium-paced
1.0
I didn't find this remotely convincing, I'm afraid.
The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin by Peter Sís
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
I have to admit a sneaking preference for Peter Sís' other picture book biography, the Galileo-focused Starry Messenger, primarily for the colours (as I recall, more blue-toned than sepia) but this is still excellent. Sís is one of my favourite illustrators - his work is so detailed and so layered that it's a pleasure to look at, and I'm slowly collecting all of his picture books.
Given that this is a picture book, the biography itself is fairly limited. Sís is working within the constraints of the form, after all, and there's only so much that can be fitted into 44 pages. However, it's enough to capture interest, and the focus on exploration and curiosity and hard work - as well as, let's be honest, all the animals and fossils! - is genuinely compelling. I love books like this, books that are written in the certainty that kids love science and want to learn about it, and I'm equally certain that the parents who buy this for their offspring are going to take equal pleasure in reading it for themselves. It's such a visually appealing book.
Given that this is a picture book, the biography itself is fairly limited. Sís is working within the constraints of the form, after all, and there's only so much that can be fitted into 44 pages. However, it's enough to capture interest, and the focus on exploration and curiosity and hard work - as well as, let's be honest, all the animals and fossils! - is genuinely compelling. I love books like this, books that are written in the certainty that kids love science and want to learn about it, and I'm equally certain that the parents who buy this for their offspring are going to take equal pleasure in reading it for themselves. It's such a visually appealing book.
The Elementals by Michael McDowell
dark
medium-paced
4.0
This isn't quite a haunted house novel. Rather, it's a cursed house novel, I think, because what's rattling round Beldame - the elementals of the title - are less ghosts than amorphous monstrosities made of sand. Which sounds absolutely ridiculous, but really it's quite disturbing.
It's the sand that does it. The rest of the book is your typical Southern Gothic, but the setting sets it apart. On a spit of land in rural Alabama are three old Victorian houses. Isolated, surrounded by sand and water, the dunes of the spit are slowly swallowing the houses. The bright, almost bleached landscape, the sense of unending, torpid heat, and the insinuation of sand into everything in and around the houses - flower bulbs, sugar bowls, etc. - and the growing suspicion that the sand, or something in it, is both sentient and malevolent... it's just very creepy.
The only other sand-based horror I've read is The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe - very different from this, but it's making me wonder about sand and horror. There might be an article in it.
It's the sand that does it. The rest of the book is your typical Southern Gothic, but the setting sets it apart. On a spit of land in rural Alabama are three old Victorian houses. Isolated, surrounded by sand and water, the dunes of the spit are slowly swallowing the houses. The bright, almost bleached landscape, the sense of unending, torpid heat, and the insinuation of sand into everything in and around the houses - flower bulbs, sugar bowls, etc. - and the growing suspicion that the sand, or something in it, is both sentient and malevolent... it's just very creepy.
The only other sand-based horror I've read is The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe - very different from this, but it's making me wonder about sand and horror. There might be an article in it.