My Goodreads reviews
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Heart of Darkness (British Classics Series): Including Author’s Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Kim
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves:
review:
A stunningly clever book – Amitav Ghosh meets JK Rowling
It’s hard to explain how clever this book is. The intermingling of realism and magic is made possible by a narrative weaved perfectly into colonial history, with each character playing their parts and making it more plausible than the reality of the times the story describes. It will stay with me for a long time.
Fire
Earth
Water
author: John Boyne
name: Kim
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves:
review:
Boyne at his haunting best
A story of hurt, despair, betrayal and the most horrible abuse, well told and entirely plausible. Boyne is brave to tell the story from the point of view of a woman. A couple of times I wondered if a woman “would do that” or “wouldn’t she be more guarded?” But overall he pulls it off with his straightforward prose, teasing out the story step by step as only few writers can do so well. A novella of more weight and poignancy than most novels three times as long.
Orbital
author: Samantha Harvey
name: Kim
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
review:
Short on story, long on listicles
My expectations were high after all the accolades, but although I enjoyed learning lots of what being on a space station is like, and many of Harvey’s reflections on life and the universe were poignant, I was left disappointed. I found the author’s relentless use of listicles to describe everything from brushing teeth to the deepest emotions and the most stunning vistas in space too repetitive and a bit boring in the end. Still, an original book worth reading.
Makten og æren
The Night in Lisbon
Sea of Poppies
Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Kim
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/10
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves:
review:
A clever story well told
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most clever, and this one works a treat. It’s mostly believable, told with much wit and insight, but stretched a bit beyond the plausible towards the end.
The Butterfly Man
author: Heather Rose
name: Kim
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/28
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves:
review:
Beautiful, gut wrenching, unexpected
Heather Rose is a superb writer, and this is such a well crafted book. It made me wonder, it made me laugh and it made me cry. Just read it…