The Hell Of It All
This is the third volume of Brooker's collected Guardian columns.
I'm very much a fan of his sense of humour and I thoroughly enjoy his work.
I was already familiar with about a quarter of the book as I'd read the columns as they appeared on The Guardian's website.
A couple of the pieces in this book are among the best things he's ever written, and yet, it also has some of the bleakest which can be disquieting among his firework displays of invective.
I'm happy to recommend this (and Brooker's other collections, particularly if you come from a vaguely lefty, media obsessed and net savvy background.
The Emigrants
The Emigrants tells the stories of four exiled German Jews. These four stories are loosely linked together by an unnamed narrator.
These four tales add up to tell the story of the narrator, another exiled German, obviously based on Sebald himself.
These tales are simply slices of ordinary lives told from the perspective of the narrator, or the narrator interpreting the memories or memoirs of others.
All four stories are haunting and linger in the memory. The writing is beautiful, economic and graceful.
I came to this book by recommendation from the James Yorkston book I read last. It was a recommendation well deserved and I think I will delve further into Sebald's work.
It seems that there is only a small back catalogue as sadly Sebald was killed in a car accident at age 57.
Among Others
This wonderful book somehow gets right to the heart of what it feels like to grow up as misfit teen, with only the comfort of libraries and their science fiction & fantasy books to keep you company. It really reminded of why I decided to become a librarian...
The plot is that fifteen year old Mori finds herself farmed off to a girls boarding school after running away from her Mother and being placed in the care of a Father she doesn't know. She's too smart for her own good, walks with a cane after an accident and speaks with a Welsh accent so she definitely doesn't fit in at her new, posh English, school.
The book follows her as she makes her first steps in getting to know her father, come to terms with her past and her introduction to fandom.
Among Others comes with my highest recommendation. Please read this book - you may not love it as much as I do, but I guarantee that you won't regret it.
Passage
If this book had just been shorter, or quicker paced it would have received a much higher mark from me.
The book follows Doctors researching into Near Death Experiences based in a General Hospital somewhere in the USA. One of them develops a way to safely replicate NDEs under lab conditions in volunteers and the other has been recording the testimony of real life NDE patients.
Essentially what should be a snappy medical mystery/science fiction novel gets bogged down in the detail of Near Death Experiences and generally makes you think "this is going nowhere, do something to advance the story"
It's extremely well written and some of the characters are great (especially the ultra pragmatic, disaster obsessed, pre-teen heart patient Maisie), and generally what happens is quite satisfying - I just felt it took too long to get there.
I think I'm going to take a break from Willis' books - I've been struggling with the audiobook of Blackout for months now and lost the will to listen to it anymore!
A Princess of Roumania
This alternate world fantasy novel came to me highly recommended by a friend.
While I certainly found it contained some very original twists on familiar fantasy tropes and I enjoyed reading the book, I just can't see myself reading any further in the series.
I'm not motivated to find out what happens next.
As a side note I described the plot and a couple of the characters from the story to a Romanian friend of mine and he found it hilarious...
So, in summary, it's well-written and has some fresh ideas but somehow lacking that magic ingredient that keeps you wanting to learn more.
The Book of Basketball
Huge, revealing book about the game of professional basketball, it's stars and teams.
Books Read in 2010
- The History Of Love by Nicole Krauss, rated A
- The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett, rated A
- The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A Heinlein, rated B+
- July, July by Tim O'Brien, rated B
- Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, rated A
- Mockingbird by Walter Tevis, rated A
- The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett, rated B+
- The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan, rated A+
- Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda, rated B+
- Giraffe by JM Ledgard, rated B+
- The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, rated A
- My Boring-Ass Life by Kevin Smith, rated B
- The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, rated A-
- Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie, rated A
- Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie, rated A
- Jelleyman's Thrown A Wobbly by Jeff Stelling, rated B
- Kiss Me Like A Stranger by Gene Wilder, rated A-
- Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore, rated B+
- Chuck Klosterman IV by Chuck Klosterman, rated B-
- Generation A by Douglas Coupland, rated B+
- The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross, rated A
- Time's Eye by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C Clarke, rated B
- The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross, rated A
- Tickling The English by Dara O Briain, rated B+
- The Magicians by Lev Grossman, rated A
- The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland, rated B+
- Good Morning Nantwich by Phill Jupitus, rated B
- Cosmonaut Keep by Ken Macleod, rated A
- Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie, rated A-
- Falling and Laughing by Grace Maxwell, rated A
- Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi, rated A-
- Whip It by Shauna Cross, rated B+
- Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett, rated B+
- I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett, rated A
- Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett, rated B+
- Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom, rated B
- My Shit Life So Far by Frankie Boyle, rated B+
- Mercury Falls by Robert Kroese, rated B-
Mercury Falls
Satiric apocalyptic fantasy. A pleasant enough read but absolutely nothing extraordinary.
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