thereadingmum's reviews
775 reviews

This was a great book, just not what I would have picked as the Booker prize winner. Admittedly, I have only read one other on the shortlist for 2008, A Fraction of the Whole, but I loved that one more. The White Tiger is not quite as brilliant. 

While I enjoyed Aravind's voice and the techniques he employed, much of the story is already fading in my mind a few weeks after reading it. Perhaps it has to do with not liking the MC or any of the other characters very much. There is very little redemption in this book, which I also don't like. 

This is a conflicted review. On the one hand, I enjoyed the historical part. I can also see what the writer is trying to achieve. However, I didn't really enjoy the modern part. I wanted to like this much more than I actually did.

It started off well and I can sort of empathise. Though I studied Mandarin for 12 years, it is far from fluent. I took a job that required that I peruse the Mandarin newspapers for relevant articles and then summarise them in English. This was when Google Translate was still in its early stages and not as sophisticated. Also, the newspapers often did not publish the digital version in time and I could not copy and paste the text. By the time I took this job it was about 12 years since I had to read the language so it was very rusty. I survived. I surprised myself reading this by being able to read about 85% of the Mandarin and did not resort to an app. 

I really got into the story of the sociopathic Emperor and his minotaurian tale. However, once #badchinese got to China and the whole ghost city used by the Emperor's modern counterpart, Baby Bao, for his own sociopathic fantasies, my interest started waning. I know that this is mainly due to my own personal peeve with modern China and all that it stands for. I also have a thing about not having to pander to one's ancestral roots. Just because I am born a certain race, doesn't mean I love everything about my "people". This doesn't make me an anglophile or xenophobic, I just believe in my own values, regardless of my birth culture. 

So, while I recognise the writerly value of this book and am very grateful for having been gifted a copy by the author himself, I have given it less than 4 stars because I would not classify it as "great". It is almost great but certainly good. 

Fun and often funny mystery story that doesn't take itself seriously. I can see why this was such a hit. Stevenson takes the p out of the whole cozy murder genre, yet still manages to weave a novel that reminds me of the movie Clue with Tim Curry, particularly near the end where Tim Curry's character whirls you through all the possible solutions like a crazy dervish. 

Will definitely be reading his other work. Especially when I need something silly. 

Favourite Foley so far. 

Read this one decades ago but only guessed the murderer about 2/3 of the way in. Which makes it a good mystery? 

Exactly as prescribed - cosy murder mystery with likeable pseudo amateur detectives.

This is one of two romantasy series that I have read and loved. Number one is the Outlander series, which is a lot of other genres as well. The All Souls trilogy was a surprise even for me. Why? Firstly, I'm not a fan of the style of writing. It's very modern American where the dialogue is an awkward not quite realistic but too casual and the prose is also some weird in-between style. However, I was totally into the world that Harkness built and the romance between Diana and Matthew. I do have a penchant for proper vampires (no Twilight fairies for me thanks). 

Hence I was excited and eager to read this new instalment of the series. However, I had forgot that Diana grates on me slightly and her irritating traits were worse here. She just comes across as more of a head strong teenager than a full-grown mother in her late thirties. Then again, Sarah, her aunt is worse so perhaps it's hereditary?

Another negative was the anti-climatic action scenes. The crossroad duel was odd and confusing. The labyrinth scene with Matthew was also a bit weird and lacking in detail to make me fully emotionally invested. 

However, I have enjoyed going back into the world and the new plot turns are intriguing. So I'm looking forwad to the next book. I think I may enjoy this on audio more.

Great full cast audio book with a solid thriller plot and believable psychology. 

This Christie was a bit more convoluted than normal and so listening to the audio I really had to pay attention at the beginning to get all the facts and characters straight, but was transfixed thereafter. 

I followed all the twists and turns only to be slightly disturbed by the ending. I really don't want to give anything away, but I really feel uncomfortable with how one of the female protagonists ends up with her supposed true love and Poirot's condoning it. 

I would have given this four stars if not for that part.

 "He lay there, muscles fluttering, like a fish on a deck, feeling the dry weight of gravity, the hard surprise of everything he already knew."

I usually avoid reading reviews until after I've finished a book. However, for some reason, I decided to check them out for The Riders.

Despite the dire warnings of many reviewers, I decided to press on as I was genuinely enjoying the beginning of the book.

I think what needs to be understood is that this is not a book about real life. Just like a gothic novel, you cannot see these characters as normal people with normal motivations and instincts. In a way, it is a portrait of two people, a man and his daughter, during a very short, very turbulent period of their lives. With any portrait, it captures a single moment, a single look and that intensifies it, sometimes to a painful degree.

Winton has painted a devastating picture of obsession and redemption. It draws inspiration from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I did not enjoy and is the single most depressing book I have ever read and I have read The Bell Jar, Prozac Nation and The Virgin Suicides. 

Scully's single-mindedness to find his wife, who has clearly abandoned them is heartbreaking because she is his Esmerelda and his Notre Dame rolled into one illusive person.

Billie comes across as far older than her seven years. In fact, I would say she reads like a forty-year-old. This isn't weird if you think of her as Scully's sanity, trying desperately to pull him back from the brink. For this reason, and because I don't read this as a general fiction novel, even as a mother myself, I don't feel as outraged at his treatment of Billie as I have of other fictional bad parents. 

When I finished it, I thought this is a book I would totally read again and believe I will gain more from it a second time.

This is my new favourite Winton. I've only read The Turning, a brilliant collection of shorts. I cannot wait to keep working through his oevre.