R. F. Kuang: Babel

 Hi everyone

There will be no real review about this one because I did not finish it.
It was a struggle to get through. Too much drama, constant repetition of the same sentiments, boring story.
So about 300 pages in I decided to quit.

"1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?"

Do you finish every book you start?

Happy reading
Helena

Gretchen Rubin: Better Than Before

 Hi everyone

Better Than Before is the third book by Gretchen Rubin I have read so I knew what to expect. I knew it's more anecdotal and personal than scientific.
I read this on my e-reader.

"The author of the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers, The Happiness Project and Happier at Home, tackles the critical question: How do we change?
Gretchen Rubin's answer: through habits. Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life. It takes work to make a habit, but once that habit is set, we can harness the energy of habits to build happier, stronger, more productive lives.
So if habits are a key to change, then what we really need to know is: How do we change our habits?
Better than Before answers that question. It presents a practical, concrete framework to allow readers to understand their habits—and to change them for good. Infused with Rubin’s compelling voice, rigorous research, and easy humor, and packed with vivid stories of lives transformed, Better than Before explains the (sometimes counter-intuitive) core principles of habit formation.
Along the way, Rubin uses herself as guinea pig, tests her theories on family and friends, and answers readers’ most pressing questions—oddly, questions that other writers and researchers tend to ignore:
• Why do I find it tough to create a habit for something I love to do?
• Sometimes I can change a habit overnight, and sometimes I can’t change a habit, no matter how hard I try. Why?
• How quickly can I change a habit?
• What can I do to make sure I stick to a new habit?
• How can I help someone else change a habit?
• Why can I keep habits that benefit others, but can’t make habits that are just for me?
Whether readers want to get more sleep, stop checking their devices, maintain a healthy weight, or finish an important project, habits make change possible. Reading just a few chapters of Better Than Before will make readers eager to start work on their own habits—even before they’ve finished the book."

This was ok. I had hoped for more real research mentioned because it is all very anecdotal. Rubin did the research but then she doesn't talk a lot about this research. Instead she mostly talks about how she implemented this herself or how she talked others into doing what she thinks is best for them. She really is full of herself and this tone is so tiring. 
She has some good tips, ideas and insights into understanding habits so I am glad I read it.

Happy reading!
Helena

Shelby Van Pelt: Remarkably Bright Creatures

 Hi everyone

I've been hearing and reading a lot about this book and the blurb seemed silly but sweet so I wanted to give it a try. I read Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt on my e-reader.

"After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.
Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.
Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late."

It was indeed rather silly and sweet. Nothing special, nothing memorable or remarkable. 
Light, easy to read, feel-good, predictable.

Happy reading.
Helena

Wrap Up: September 2024

 Hi everyone

Another month has flown by! Autumn is really here in Belgium; rain, cold, wind. Perfect weather for reading.

Here's the list of the books I finished in September:

- Stephen King: Pet Sematary

- Yuval Noah Harari: Sapiens

- Lucy Holland: Sistersong 

- N. K. Jemisin: The Killing Moon 

- Richard K. Morgan: Altered Carbon 

- Sequoia Nagamatsu's How High We Go in the Dark

How was your reading month?
Anything you'd like to recommend?

Happy reading in October!
Helena 

Sequoia Nagamatsu: How High We Go in the Dark

 Hi everyone

This is my review for Sequoia Nagamatsu's How High We Go in the Dark. I got my copy from Bol.com and it has this gorgeous cover that totally sucked me in when I saw it online. And then I read the blurb and the book was instantly added to my cart.

"Dr. Cliff Miyashiro arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue his recently deceased daughter's research, only to discover a virus, newly unearthed from melting permafrost. The plague unleashed reshapes life on earth for generations. Yet even while struggling to counter this destructive force, humanity stubbornly persists in myriad moving and ever inventive ways.
Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects-a pig-develops human speech; a man who, after recovering from his own coma, plans a block party for his neighbours who have also woken up to find that they alone have survived their families; and a widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.
From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humanity endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. This is a story of unshakable hope that crosses literary lines to give us a world rebuilding itself through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible."

I loved this book. It's a collection of interlinked stories centered around this plague and how the world and specific people tried to cope with it. It's focused on the people and their lives and not on action, war, crime, ...
It's thoughtful, hopeful, bleak, harrowing and tender.

How High We Go in the Dark is a slow read, the prose is beautiful and elegant, the story flows easily in a dreamy, meditative way. Because of this and the heaviness of the stories I couldn't read it for two hours at a time; I had to take pauses to digest what I had read. To ponder over the characters and the stories. And that's a sign I love a book.

Happy reading!
Helena

 

Richard K. Morgan: Altered Carbon

 Hi everyone

 I've been hearing a lot about Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon so I wanted the find out what the buzz is about. I read this on my e-reader.

"In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person’s consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or “sleeve”) making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.
Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Dispatched one hundred eighty light-years from home, re-sleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco, now with a rusted, dilapidated Golden Gate Bridge), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats “existence” as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning. . . ."

This was ok.
The premise was interesting, sort of 'saving' your consciousness and then downloading it into a different body. That has great potential.
It turned out to be a rather generic detective story with quite a few sidethings going on.

Honestly, I really didn't care for any of it. The story, the characters, the world.
The writing wasn't bad and I can see why people like it. Lots of action, stern action-hero MC, detective work. Just not my thing.

Happy reading
Helena

N. K. Jemisin: The Killing Moon

 Hi everyone

Well this book took me a long time to finish reading. I loved N. K. Jemisin's The Broken Earth series so I was very hopeful for this story but it really fell short.

The Killing Moon is the first book in the Dreamblood duology. I got my copy from Bol.com. 

"In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and among the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers - the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe...and kill those judged corrupt.
But when a conspiracy blooms within Gujaareh's great temple, the Gatherer Ehiru must question everything he knows. Someone, or something, is murdering innocent dreamers in the goddess's name, and Ehiru must now protect the woman he was sent to kill - or watch the city be devoured by war and forbidden magic."

The story was sooooo slow. And not because there was amazing worldbuilding or the characters had wonderful depth. I still had a lot of questions about the magic and the world that were left unanswered. The characters stayed very much the same, I felt like they didn't grow or develop much past the start of the novel. And there wasn't much depth to them to start with.

Because I loved N. K. Jemisin's The Broken Earth series so much I will try something else but it will not be the second book in this duology.

Happy reading
Helena