Category: Books

The People in the Trees

Hanya Yanagihara won my heart in her book ‘A Little Life’ which I read last year. That book deserves its own review, because it is one of the best books I have ever read, but recently she released her next book; ‘The People in the Trees’. It was on my list of books to read for a while, and so I was so excited to get stuck in, expecting the same magic as ‘A Little Life’. Maybe that was an unfair assumption to make, because it is a completely different vibe of the book. I started reading it though and thought that this entire storyline was made up because it was so far fetched, and certainly parts of the story are made up (the immortal humans living on a Pacific Island is the main part) but the book was actually based on Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, which I wish I knew before I started, because that does make the story more interesting.

 

On first impressions, this book is a veryyyyyy slow narration about a Scientist’s journey into an untouched island community, discovering its medical mysteries, the fall of that community due to Western intervention, and then the adoption of these children into the Scientist’s family. Without giving much more away, the book delves into the psyche of Gajdusek throughout the whole experience, although I am unsure whether this is his actual thoughts, or just what Yanagihara expects them to be.

 

Without knowing that this is based on a true person, this is just a very tedious, long book, that I had to force myself to keep reading. I think at one point I got a little hooked but about 20 pages later I was bored again. Similar to ‘A Little Life’ there is so much detail in the stories, that it really draws out the story and you feel like you’re not getting anywhere despite having read pages and pages. The difference with its predecessor, though, is that you aren’t invested in the characters. You don’t feel warmly towards any of the characters, or want to see things turn out well for them. Instead you just follow the story of the villain, even though there are attempts to humanise them.

 

Hanya is a beautiful writer, and she can paint a wonderful picture, but without exploring characters that you’re actually invested or interested in, her writing is just a little too slow for my liking. Again, I wish I knew it was based on a real person to begin with but I don’t even think this would have been enough to make me more invested.

I give this book a 3 out of 5, and I hope that her next book hits the mark just like ‘A Little Life’ did.

The Final Empire (Mistborn Book One)

I used to have this old roommate a couple of years ago, and whilst I love him, he is in the best way a big nerd. He used to read these huge fantasy books that were 600 pages long and part of this intricate and complicated world, and I used to pick on him almost daily about this. I have always loved reading but these books just seemed like the epitome of nerdy books and I always thought they weren’t for me. Then all of my friends started reading these books, and swore by how fantastic they were, so eventually I got to the point where I decided I had to see what all the hype was about.

Enter The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. The sheer idea of this book intimidates me, more than 600 pages long and the first in a much longer series. I was sceptical but I started to dig in. By about page 100 I was absolutely hooked and couldn’t put it down. It got to the point where I had a sick day from work (I was actually sick, I swear), and I read about 400 pages and finished the book this day. I did nothing else.

I don’t know what it is about Brandon Sanderson’s writing, but he has a way of building this extremely complex world with so many sub plots and characters, and yet it is easy to read and follow. You find yourself enraptured by the mystery of what’s to come, and whilst some storylines (I won’t be giving away any spoilers) are slightly predictable, the overall story and ending was not at all. It also had a way of exploring real world issues, like class systems, slavery, discrimination and political systems, in a really though provoking way.

I have a pile of books I need to keep on reading, but I must admit I was close to just buying the second book of this series and keep on going right away, because I am now addicted to this storyline. I haven’t been this sucked in by a book series since Harry Potter, and I can assure you, Brandon Sanderson’s world that he is building seems much more complicated than that world.

So I want to thank my friends for introducing me to these books, but at the same time be mad. I can foresee that I am not going to have much of a life for the next few years trying to catch up on all these books. And the other amazing thing about Brandon Sanderson is how quickly he pumps these books out, I am talking multiple 600 page books a year, it’s really impressive.

 

I give The Final Empire 5 out of 5 stars. If you haven’t read it yet, then what are you waiting for? Start now, you won’t regret it (unless you have a very busy life and like sleep, then you might).

The Lost Symbol

Starting full time work again has really slowed down both my reading and my blog writing. Luckily I had some spare time this weekend and I was able to finish the book I have been slowly working on for a few weeks now. I was a little suprised. Normally I get so caught up in Dan Brown books that even if I am busy I somehow devour them quickly, this one was a little different though.

I am a huge Dan Brown fan, and I think Inferno was one of the most fantastic, thought-provoking books I have ever read (the movie butchered it, if you haven’t read the book then do it now). I was excited to jump into another mystery of Robert Langdon, and learn more about the world, art and history on the way. I was a little let down by this book if I am honest. It just didn’t grip me, or make me want to tear into the book. By the last 100 pages I was hooked and ready to finish, but the 400 pages before that were a little slow.

The setting of this book, Washington DC was the perfect choice, and I never realised how much symbology and meaning surrounded the city’s design. It has inspired me to want to go to Washington DC soon.  If the storyline was a little simpler or more accessible, I think the book would be enthralling. I don’t know whether it is because I am less familiar with Masonry or the layout of Washington DC that I couldn’t get sucked in, or whether this storyline was just a little too chaotic for everyone. Maybe it’s because Masonry is not as widespread or important in Australia so it didn’t have as much meaning for me, or maybe there were just too many important characters spiralling into chaos to follow. Maybe the problem was also that I guessed the big plot twist at the end in the first 100 pages. It’s hard to say what the reason was.

What I can say is that it was interesting, and it certainly made me question a lot of what we know accept as commonplace (recognising the fact that Dan Brown’s books are pieces of fiction and not fact). It was still an interesting read, and you can never go wrong with a Dan Brown book, but it certainly wasn’t his best work.

Overall, I have to give it a 3 out of 5. I am hoping his others are much more like Inferno and Da Vinci Code so I can reignite my love of Dan Brown.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

So this book had been on my list for a while, and is one that has been extremely popular in Australia. My order for this was put on back order as they had sold out. I finally got it, though, and it was worth the wait.

This is one of the hardest book reviews I have tried to write so far, because I am struggling to articulate how anything relating to World War II affects me. I have no family that suffered (that I know of) through World War II, but yet I still feel the pain of what happened there. I still feel disgust and dismay at what those people are put through, and I struggle to understand how anything like that could ever happen here in this world. In saying that, I realise that there are parts of the world that still see these horrors every day, but we just don’t see them as much here in the Western world. Whilst travelling through Europe, I visited one of the concentration camps. It is a memory that is seared into my brain. I was there with a friend of Jewish heritage, who lost family during this time, and honestly, it was heartbreaking to see her there in a place where people of her kind were put through conditions no one could ever believe possible.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a true story, about a man who survived Auschwitz, a man who one of the Nazis called ‘a cat’ because he had so many lives. Lale was never meant to survive Auschwitz, but his perseverance and determinedness meant that aganst all odds, he did. The book is bittersweet, as it tells you of a love story in the backdrop of inhumane conditions. It tells you of survival of a Jewish man, who seemingly partners or works with the Nazis in order to survive. It tells you of death without conscience, and acts of humanity throughout it all. It tells of a man who was rescued by the kindness of others, who in turn risks his life many times to save others.

Because of the love story, it is easy at times to imagine that this book is fiction, that all these things didn’t really happen, but then you are told a story of death and inhumane killing or torture, and you are reminded that this world did exist, and we lost so many innocent people because of it. There is no sugar coating in this book, the stories are real and raw, and they have impact.

The writing was good, the story was good, and there was so much emotion weaved throughout this book. I can’t say anymore about it, except that it really touched me and I think books like these are so important for everyone to read, so we can understand the mistakes made before, and hope to never let them happen again.  I am glad that Lale decided to share his story with the world.

I give this book 9 out of 10. I would definitely recommend it to everyone, except maybe those with a weak stomach.

 

Force of Nature

As I have a little time off from work I have really been powering through the books recently and for that reason, also really pumping out the book reviews. I have a Good Reads (Social Media for book lovers) Challenge of 20 books for the year and I am already past a quarter of that challenge and the first month of the year hasn’t even finished! Luckily for me, a couple of my closest friends are also book lovers so I have been able to borrow most of these books, and I am thinking about signing up to a second hand book subscription service so I am able to minimise the financial and environmental impact of my reading.

The latest book that I have powered through is the second instalment in the Aaron Falkes books by Jane Harper. I read the first book quite recently, so the story was still fresh in my mind before reading the sequel. Reading both close together is not necessary at all though, it just provides more character development for the cop Falkes. I think that was what was missing from Force of Nature too, because it was very disconnected from his backstory, it was a very tenuous link as to why he was involved in and investigating the crime in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, a link is made, and the story is good, with all the twists and turns I am starting to expect from Jane Harper, but the link between the narrating and main character Falkes with the victims and suspects isn’t really there like it was in The Dry.

The setting of the Australian country continues to provide the perfect backdrop for this crime fiction story, albeit it a very different type of landscape. The contrast between the dry outback described in Harper’s last novel as compared with the lush and overbearing forest in this story is dramatic. One thing that is rather annoying at the end of the book as well is that we never get an answer to one of the key questions throughout the book. I am unsure whether Harper couldn’t find a way to wrap it up, or whether there will be a follow-up in another book. If it is a follow-up book it will be a move into a different type of crime fiction, with a lot more focus on the finance I would assume.

This absence of finality for part of the storyline doesn’t take away from the story though. It was still a great read, I devoured the book in only a couple of days. The ending was unpredictable, and full of exploration of the relationships in dysfunctional families. The writing captured me, and was good at sucking you in so you wanted more.

Overall, I give Force of Nature 7/10.

Bridge of Clay

I have just finished Marcus Zusak’s new book. It is a monster, nearly 600 pages long. This is the third book by him, and each one varies so differently from the last. Each book that comes out though, my love for Zusak dies a little more. Granted, The Book Thief is an absolute classic, and not much would be able to live up to that reputation, but each book just gets harder and harder to read from him.

It is a book that is hard to really get into. I struggled to push myself to read the first 200 pages before I was actually interested in the storyline. I think this was because of the sequence, with Zusak jumping backwards and forwards in time. But with the number of characters and the different time zones, it was confusing and messy. I get that he was probably trying to do something artistic with it, and there was probably some ‘meaning’ to it, but all it really did for me as a reader was lose interest very quickly.

I pushed on though, because I kept hearing from so many people that it was amazing. I am glad I finished it, but to be honest, it is not something I would recommend others to sit through. I easily get emotionally invested in stories, and I have been known to cry quite easily when I am caught up in a story, for either happy or sad reasons. I did not shed a single tear in this story, and it was meant to be heart breaking. I could see it there, I could see that I was meant to be upset, but I just wasn’t. The characters were not developed well enough, again because of the jumpy nature of the storyline. There was no clear relationship between the reader and the characters.

The best bit about the book, and the most interesting part about it was the ‘suprises’ throughout. The twists and turns that the readers couldn’t see coming (although maybe sort of could see coming).

Normally I am first in line to go out and grab each Marcus Zusak book, but after this one, I am not sure that I will ever do that again. I think I have been lost.

I give this book 3 out of 5.

This will only hurt a little bit

It’s early days of 2019, but I think I am ready to call my #1 book of the year already. Busy Phillip’s autobiography, This Will Only Hurt a Little Bit. I powered through this book in a day, I barely came up for air.

I am not normally one for autobiographies. I enjoy them every now and then, but as a whole I would much prefer a fictional story, or a story telling a fuller story with lots of different perspectives, as opposed to just one person. But this is the exception.

Busy is someone I have seen around a few times but not someone I closely followed, until the #metoo movement when she appeared on Ellen. That’s when I started to hear about her story and get interested. Busy speaks candidly about her life, the good, the bad, the ugly. One thing I loved about her book, and by extension her, is that she is so honest about herself, including her flaws. Calling out when she has done something shitty, or calling out when she regrets doing something a certain way. That’s what makes her story so good, because she is someone who recognises her flaws, and still battles on with life and you root for her, you want her to have all the success in the world.

I don’t want to give anything away, but Busy’s experience as a woman and the different experiences she has had with the men around her are things that resonate with the audience, and they show her bravery, and how far she has come throughout her life. At times I wanted to go back in time and grab a younger Busy and hug her, or praise her.

Another part that I found particularly interesting, especially as an Australian is the role of Heath Ledger in her life, and the lives of those closest to her. As a Heath Ledger fan, that insight into how their lives intertwined was so interesting.

Busy is the first woman to host her own tonight show, and she deserves it. This book was an interesting insight into how she has got there, and also all the challenges she has overcome to become the inspiring woman she is today.

I give it a 5 out of 5.

To Obama

Before I start my first book review, let me preface this by saying I am not an American, and I have never spent more than a week there, so I have a limited view into what life is like in America. With that said, one book I believe that every American should read is ‘To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope’ by Jeanne Marie Laskas.

This book is about the letters that Barack Obama received throughout his presidency, the replies he sent, and the people behind the letters. This is not just about the nice letters he received telling him what a great job he was doing, in fact, not many of the letters were like that at all. Instead it was letters telling him that he was letting his people down, that a lot of his constituents have no faith in him, that their worlds were crumbling and they wanted Obama to fix it.

The foundation of the book is about how during Obama’s presidency, he committed to reading ten letters a day that were received by his office. Quite often he replied to those letters, by hand, responding to the American peoples’ worries, concerns and even once, to their homework. The concept of this book is so deeply intriguing, and gives you an insight into how Americans interact with their politicians and also the heavy burden that is carried by any President.

As someone from outside of America, it also gave me a lot of insight into how their political system interacts with the people, and also how different Presidents throughout time carried out this responsibility. Having long been a big Obama supporter, this book only made me love him more.

In terms of the actual writing though, it was a little disjointed and hard to follow at times. In between blocks of letters there are little narrations of people who wrote letters, or people that worked in the President’s office. There is no flow between these segments, and whilst they do tell individual stories and add colour to some individuals, they could have been better woven into a complete story and the stories didn’t always clearly link to the letters themselves.

Overall, this book was an outstanding read, and I would recommend it to all (not just Americans). It was moving, it was informative, and it made me gain even more respect for Obama. Perhaps the best part though, was the letters and stories that came after Trump was voted in and the continuation of the letters’ importance to Obama’s life post-presidency.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.