whippycleric's reviews
175 reviews

Fatherhood: The Truth by Marcus Berkmann

funny informative medium-paced

3.0

I've read a few parenting books now and my biggest recommendation would be to read one published within the last few years. This book was published in 2005 so some of the medicine is a bit of date, and definitely some of the attitudes. I really disliked the first few chapters of this book, the section discussing the different possibilities with regards to getting someone pregnant had a part about wearing a condom and taking it off sneakily... It wasn't necessarily advocating doing this but still seemed pretty bad to have jokes about what would be classed as sexual assault quite so early in the book. I carried on reading though, and once the book moves into post natal topics it improves a lot. Some of it is still a bit out of date but this half was quite funny, had some emotional content, and had some actual good advice particularly from the testimonials of other dads. 

The Gordon Riots: Politics, Culture and Insurrection in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain by Ian Haywood, John Seed

informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

I decided to read some more about the Gordon Riots after reading Barnaby Rudge. It was a major event in British history, yet due to it being overshadowed by the American wa of Independence and the French revolution around the same period it's not really known about or taught except for historians. This looked to be the most recent book written on the topic and looked interesting.

The structure is very nice to this book. Largely chronological, each chapter has a very specific purpose, each is also written by a different author. This has several results; there's very little repetition throughout this book which is a common problem I've found in non fiction books, and each chapter is clearly meticulously researched, and each author clearly has a passion for the specific topic which I imagine is a lot harder when writing the entire book yourself. The downside of this, and I do imagine it's related, is the chapter covering the actual events during the riot is a little light, where's the causes and impacts are extremely well covered. I'm going to read more on this soon hopefully when I exchange this book with my friend for her copy of King Mob

The Other Side Of The Sky by Arthur C. Clarke

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I'm a big Sci fan but hadn't read any of Arthur C Clarke before so a short story collection seemed like a nice option to start with. I do always prefer full length novels than shorts though as I find it a lot harder to engage with the characters in such a short time, that being said I really enjoyed the collection.i rated each individually and the end result was a 4.1 average so I'll put 4 as the rating overall with the following breakdown.

The nine billion names of God: An entertaining idea, if not a bit far fetched for me. 3.5

Refugee: A nice read but doesn't really end anywhere, would be a good start to a novel but not as a standalone. 3.5

The other side of the sky:  less of a fan of the titulator piece. 3

The wall of darkness: this was quite good and bizzare, didn't see where it was going and it felt like a complete story. 4. 5

Security check: very twilight zone esq. 3.5

No morning after: This was surprisingly funny and unexpected. 4

Venture to the moon: Most of the sections of this were very silly with hindsight, but the last entry with staying on the moon longer than 6 months to avoid tax liability was hilarious. 4

Publicity Campaign: a funny little one but nothing groundbreaking. 3.5

All the time in the world: A brilliant little story, very twilight zone. 5

Cosmic cassanova: Quite a silly one really, not a fan of the character generally. 3

The star: A bit dull for me this one, a nice twist at the end did save it though. 3.5

Out of the sun: A very nice bit of philosophical Sci fi on the nature of life. 4

Transience: A little depressing view of the apocalypse through the eyes of a child. 3.5

The songs of distant earth: An unexpected love story to round off the book, was quite beautiful and the characters surprisingly well developed for such a short story. 4.5

How to be a Dad: Pregnancy, birth and dirty nappies for the modern man by Oscar Duke

informative fast-paced

4.5

I've read 4 parenting/pregnancy books now, a couple targeting the father and other more general ones and this is definitely my favourite. I specifically wanted a Dad book which wasn't targeting the stereotypical "Lad" type dad, this one was recommended and did not disappointed. It had all the information I'd come across in other books as well as some additional stuff, both general and for dads which was much appreciated. 

The 3 part structure of each chapter, which aren't particularly long in the first place, make it really easy to read and digest. Having both the medical and personal viewpoints separate was really nice. I would have loved a bit more content, and it's the only reason it's not 5 stars. If your planning on reading any books as a dad I'd recommended putting this at the top of the list

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

This is a really pleasant book to read. I imagine with a deeper knowledge of Sicilian culture and history, or Italy in general, I would have enjoyed it even more, but even without this it's enjoyable.

The book covers what is effectively the last generation of a noble family, whilst there may be future generations of family members this is the last true generation with regards to the traditions, culture and way of life for this family. The protagonist is very likeable and seems to take the downfall in his stride and recognizes the need for change  whilst still trying to retain what he see's as the most valuable aspects of his heritage. The final chapter set towards the end of the lives of the younger members of the family really shows the final shift and end of it all beautifully.

I'm reading a translation, but it's still beautiful prose and I can only imagine it's even better in Italian. I always enjoy reading classics from other countries and find it gives you a nice insight into the history of a place.  It's a high 3.5 to be sure, and could go higher on a re read after gaining some more historical knowledge. 

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

dark inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This was my first foray into Oscar Wildes work and I was very surprised. Like with most of my reading I went into it knowing very little. I knew the publication date so expected something a bit Dickensian but somewhat modernised. For the first few chapters this was what I got, the writing was sublime and I had an idea of where the story would go. During the second half I came to the realization I was completely wrong. The writing remained as good as before but the plot became so much more than I expected.

I really struggled to decide between 4.5 and 5 stars for this one, and I might very well change my mind later, but for now I've gone for 4.5. The only reason for this is that due to the length of the book I never got fully engaged with an individual characters arc.  Whilst we see the entire life of Dorian Gray the central chapter covering decade of his life in a series of beautifully written analogies does not, for me, build the picture as well as it could have done if we just had a few vignettes for those years across several chapters. In addition I think a bit more about Basil and Lord Henry in those intermittent years could have gone a long way to fully rounding the story. 

It's an absolutely brilliant book and I'll read the rest of his work soon I'm sure. Next time I visit his grave I'll have a greater appreciation as well. 

Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed this short book and the writing reminded me of "The Discomfort of Evening". The structure is quite different being a series of vignettes rather than a novel, but the coming of age story of a young girl in a religious and relatively poor background has strong parallels. Each entry was evocative and unique but with some common threads throughout. I can clearly see why this book could have a profound effect on some people, though for me it's not that impacting. This is for obvious reasons, I don't really relate to the protagonist, a young girl in a religious family growing up in communist Poland in the 1980s, myself being a man from a non religious family raise in capitalist 1990s UK. I'm also not a big fan of vignettes / short story collections as opposed to novels but can see the quality in this collection. It's a good book which I enjoyed reading but isn't really for me.

The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde

dark funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.5

Having read the first instalment of the Thursday Next series I immediately sought out more by Jasper Fforde. This is a standalone novel with a very interesting premise, how would the UK react to the sudden amorphization of a collection of animal from various species? Specifically rabbits who have the potential to increase population rapidly. Like is seemingly always the case with this author it's very satirical, self referential, and full of literary jokes. A lot of fun to read, constant suspense, and brilliantly paced, it's just a great book to read. In addition to that it's clearly making a point and taking issues with right wing nationalism that is becoming increasingly common in the political world today. This is very prevalent when this was written in 2020, the chapter titles "The Art of the Deal" being particularly on the nose. I think if you're not left leaning on social issues you'll struggle to enjoy this book, fortunately I am socially left leaning and absolutely loved it. Jasper Fforde is fast becoming one of my favourite authors and I'm very happy I still have a few more on the shelf to read. No regrets in buying all those.

Motorworld by Jeremy Clarkson

adventurous funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

3.5

This book reminded me a bit of Full Circle by Michael Palin, another travel memoir from a presenter during their filming of a specific show with each place having a short entry in the book. In this case, quite  surprisingly, I found Clarkson did it better. The light and humorous style of Jeremy lends itself well to these succinct entries. You get a little snapshot of each place, admittedly through the subjective view of Jeremy Clarkson, focusing specifically on their relationship with cars. I think the narrow focus works well, as even though each entry is only a dozen pages or so you don't feel like you're missing details as oppose to in Full Circle where the broad scope combined with the small entries made it feel like it was missing depth. Overall this was a surprisingly fun read, it's a high 3.5 on my scale and one I'd recommend to anyone after a bit of light non fiction which will only take a few hours to read.

Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens

challenging funny reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

A tricky one to rate as is always the case with collections of short stories or "sketches" in this case. I'd say I really enjoyed about a third of this book, found another third agreeable, and the other third quite a slog. It's a great book to study Dicken's writing style, and as a lesson in how to describe characters it's a masterclass. There're some absolute gems of sentences in this which really made me smile, at the same time there was chunks which took a lot of effort to get through. Looking at how I've rated other books and imparticular Dickens novel, I am going with a high 3. Not one I'd recommend outside of the most ardent Dickens fans or those wanting to learn how to bring characters to life without using plot. It's a very aged writing style but given the nuggets of gold dotted throughout I'm happy to have read it.