The Fall of Koli – M.R. Carey – 02.06.21 The Trials of Koli – M.R. Carey – 13.06.21

I read the first book in this trilogy quite some time ago, and I remember liking it, but not being blown away by it. The second book, however, had me really gripped, so much so that I instantly read the third book.

This series is set in a dystopian future where most civilisation had been destroyed by war and the remaining population lived in primitive villages with little communication or social structure between groups of people. Before the collapse there was a lot of advanced technology, but most of it has been lost or fallen into disrepair, and any working tech is guarded as relics by a religious overclass who keep its secrets from the general population. Koli discovers this secret, and manages to wake up a tablet computer with an onboard AI personality and has to run away or face execution when this is discovered.

Travel is made difficult due to waring factions, dormant but deadly military tech and genetically engineered plant and animal life that is all out to kill, eat or lay eggs in you.

Koli meets up with people, forms a questing party and has adventures. It’s fun, I liked it. There are thought provoking issues raised about people, society, technology, artificial intelligence etc and the characters are interesting and likeable and do the whole actual and metaphorical journey thing well.

Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir – (AUDIOBOOK) – 06.06.21

I heard an interview with Andy Weir on the radio just before I listened to this audiobook, so I was a little bit spoiled and knew something of what was going on before the book revealed it, but I don’t think that took too much away from the experience.

Like The Martian (which I loved) this book has a lone man who has to use his intelligence and scientific knowledge to save himself and ultimately all of humanity (and beyond…..!). I like nerdy science stuff, and this book had a lot of that.

At the beginning of the story the hero wakes up in a medical room being cared for by robotic arms and a disembodied voice. He has no memory of who he is or where he is, but uses deduction and experimentation to work things out, and gradually his memory returns piecemeal and we discover with him the enormity of the task before him.

I really enjoyed the book – it had (as I said already) lots of fun science facts, but also a really likeable main characters and enough humour to keep things from ever getting bogged down or boring. It’s hard to say more without giving spoilers, but If you liked The Martian I would absolutely urge you to read (or listen to) this novel – it’s a cracker!

Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart – 29.05.21

This was my book group read for June. One of the reasons I’m so behind on writing up my book reviews at the moment is because I was working full time from the beginning of February until the end of June teaching in a primary school in a really deprived interface area of West Belfast. I was the hardest five months of my life, unlike anything I’ve done before because the children just had so many social, emotional and educational needs – such a concentration of behavioural and learning problems. Each day was exhausting, and although I became very attached to and fond of the children in my class, they were hard work. So in the middle of all that, I read this book. Wow.

It is set in the tenements of Glasgow, which very much like some parts of West Belfast is beset with poverty, sectarianism and deprivation. Told from the point of view of ‘Shuggie’ a child at the beginning of the book who acts as carer for his alcoholic mother the book is not an easy read. It certainly touched a nerve with me, being so close to the situation of many of the children I was working with, and I found it hard to read because I wasn’t in a strong enough emotional state to cope with Shuggie’s tragic situation as well as the other things I was dealing with day to day.

I was so annoyed with the well meaning boyfriend who ultimately caused Shuggie’s mother the most harm. and the so many ways in which people in hardship are trapped and doomed. It’s a well written book, but depressing. I guess I would recommend it, and I might have enjoyed (or appreciated) it more myself if I’d read it when I wasn’t so stressed anyway!).

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses – (AUDIOBOOK) – Kristen O’Neal – 23.05.21

I LOVED this audiobook. It’s narrated by a promising medical student, Priya, who has to drop out of college after getting a really bad case of Lyme Disease which leaves her so weak and fatigued that she’s unable to function normally. She joins an online support group for people suffering from chronic illness, and one of the great strengths of this book is the amazing cast of characters in the group – with diverse conditions and personalities, but offering great empathy and support without judgement for each other. As a long term sufferer of chronic illness myself (inflammatory arthritis) I felt a real connection with the people in the group and an acute understanding of their trials and struggles. It almost made me want to join such a group, but then I remembered what a crushingly private introvert I am and I realised that I could never be part of any such group! But I enjoyed their mutual support vicariously non-the-less. (One of the reasons I love fiction so much is that I can join in with groups like this without anyone actually seeing me, because I’m not actually there…).

Priya bonds especially with another girl in the group, who she discovers lives only an hour’s drive away from her. The Lycanthropy of the title refers to this girls condition, and this brings in the supernatural element of the novel. It is done in a really intelligent, ‘what if this was a real medical condition, how would it play out in real life and what would be the prognosis/treatment recommended’ kind of way that even people who don’t like that kind of thing might find fascinating (I love that kind of thing anyway, so I don’t really know!)

I totally recommend the book – I thought it was really great on lots of levels.

Tomorrow – Damian Dibben – (AUDIOBOOK) – 09.05.21

Tomorrow Audiobook | Damian Dibben | Audible.co.uk

I really wanted to like this book – I thought it would be like The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (which I loved!) with a fun twist of being narrated by a dog. Well, in a sense it was, like Addie LaRue, the dog narrator (named Tomorrow) was immortal – not from making a pact with a supernatural being, but because his owner was an alchemist who had discovered the elixir of life and used it on himself and the dog. Tomorrow had become separated from his owner, and the first half of the book was a looooooooong and tedious repetition of dog waiting for a long time, dog ‘snouting’ (the word over used to mean sniffing, I guess) and thinking he caught a whiff of nice master smell, following the smell for a looooooong time, only to discover it wasn’t his master after all. Again. At least it is believable that a dog would obsess over finding his lost master – dogs do that, but sadly that is where Tomorrow’s believability as a dog ends. Other works of fiction have managed to anthropomorphosise animals much better – so they are fully sentient and able to communicate and yet keep the essence of their animal nature. For example the cat in Adam Robert’s fabulous book Bete, which is deliciously cat like in it’s dark uncaring sarcastic cynicism, and the dog in the Disney Pixar movie, Up which speaks but is so dog like. Tomorrow is far too un dog like. He talks like a well educated gentleman person, and has no dog attributes whatsoever (except for really wanting to find his master). Also, I found the narrator really dull – very monotonous tone and flat delivery – he would do well on those podcasts that are designed to send insomniacs off to sleep.

The book takes place over a couple of hundred years (it felt like it) from about 1600 to the mid eighteen hundreds in Europe, so of you are a history buff, you might enjoy all he battles and political stuff (I’m not, and didn’t).

Obviously some people liked it, because it got a lot of good reviews on Amazon. There you go. It takes all sorts.

The Diet Compass – Bas Kast – 01.05.21

When a slim fit 40 year old collapsed with chest pains, he realised that he could no longer get away with his unhealthy junk food diet, and went all out researching the science behind what constitutes a truly healthy diet.

I don’t read many non fiction books, less still ‘self-help’ type books because I’m annoyed by people who get obsessed by fads and pseudoscience nonsense, but what I liked about this book was that the author also hated all the bunkum out there and actually looked at the wealth of peer reviewed and properly tested scientific papers and weighed up their findings to put together a well informed guide.

A lot of his findings just agreed with the conclusions I’ve already come to about healthy eating and lifestyle (who doesn’t like being told they are right, right?!) but my one major takeaway, funnily enough was to switch to filter coffee over French press or capsules as he points out papers showing the benefits of drinking coffee when made using this method as the filter removes harmful chemicals but leaves the ones that are actually good for you.

Fun book. My husband got annoyed at me for constantly telling him nuggets of information I’d just read!

Another Time, Another Place (Chronicles of St. Mary’s Book 12) – Jodi Taylor – 29.04.21

Although I love Jodi Taylor’s books, somehow this one didn’t excite me as much as most – I just felt a little bored by the premise and not so invested as I usually feel in her stories. I thought the twist was kind of obvious, and I missed some of the regular characters who were absent for this one. Still a good book though.

The Unconsoled – Kazuo Ishiguro – 26.04.21

Man, this book was a real slog to read. My first thought, when I finally finished it, was ‘thank goodness that’s over’ and my second thought was that I wanted to go online and read up other people’s interpretations of it because it was still swirling through my mind.

Spoiler alert – I’m going to discuss the whole book so if you don’t want to be spoiled you should look away now.

The premise of the book is that a world renowned concert pianist, Mr Ryder, arrives at an unnamed European town with a vague idea that he is giving a performance, but also a sort of important keynote speech at an event a couple of days later.

The whole book reads like a surreal anxiety dream, with impossible twists and turns, like the characters travel a long distance but end up where they started, or that one minute characters have never met, and the next they are sharing reminiscences from several mutual experiences. Mr Ryder is in a constant state of confusion and never seems to be sure where he should be and what he should be doing and anyway wherever he goes he is met with obstacles and set backs and new calls on his attention. He meets many characters who could all represent aspects of his own psyche or life experience – a small boy who feels protective of his mother and ignored by his father, a young man whose budding musical career is belittled by his parents, an old man who stoically works hard even thought it is costing him his health, as well as cases of unrequited love, love lost over time or love in danger of being lost due to lack of communication.

All through the book I was trying to work out what was really happening – was the whole thing a dream? Is Mr Ryder a patient in a mental health institute, or suffering from dementia? I even wondered if the town was actually purgatory and Mr Ryder had to atone from the sins of his life before passing on.

Well, the book ends and we are never told.

Did I like it? No! yes? I don’t know. Was it genius or pretentious drivel…? Hmmm, probably the former, I guess, although I don’t really think it’s a book I enjoyed reading. But, saying that, I’m quite enjoying thinking about and analysing the experience now that it’s over…..

Everyday Magic: The Adventures of Alfie Blackstack – Jess Kidd and Beatriz Castro – 9.04.21

Everyday Magic: The Adventures of Alfie Blackstack eBook: Kidd, Jess, Castro, Beatriz: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

I think Jess Kidd is a fabulous writer and I have loved everything I have read/listened to by her so far. Her other books (that I am aware of) have been for adults, all with some supernatural or magical realism element (my fav!) and written with dark wit but also real human feeling and depth of characterisation as well as interesting and well rounded plots. When I heard she had a kids book coming out, I went ahead and preordered it, even though I’m 51!

Well, I loved it! With elements of Roald Dahl and Diana Wynne Jones (and JK Rowling, because of the magic and all that…). A young boy loses both his parents to independent and equally gruesome accidental deaths and goes to live with his estranged aunts, who turn out to be practising witches and he discovers his magical heritage. Jess Kidd, I think manages to strike the perfect balance of humour/pathos/peril and heartwarming ‘ah’ moments as we get to know the characters and thankfully the book ended with an opening to a sequel/series, which I would definitely be buying and reading if it did come out!