Tag: bookblogging

Book Reviews

Book review – The Rest of Their Lives by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

I very much enjoyed the characters. They just seemed so genuine that I could picture them so clearly in my mind… In fact, I’m sure my brain at some points forgot that they are not real people

TW: Book contains many themes involving/speaking about death.

Intro

Hello there, and welcome to another of my book reviews! It has been almost a month since my last book review, mainly due to exams… But exams are now (hopefully!) out of the way for good! *Cheers internally* Which I am quite pleased about, as I have had a couple book reviews in my head ready to type out, but haven’t had the time to do so, and I can finally get it out of my head and over to you!

So, let’s get into it! But first, a quick trigger warning. Death is one of the central themes of the book, and this post will speak a bit about that, so please skip this post if it might be upsetting to you – you have my permission to stop reading!

About the book

The book switches between the perspective of Manelle and Ambroise. Let’s start with Manelle. She is a home help carer for the elderly in a small French town, so she gets to see quite a wide-range of people which, inevitably, includes some very bizarre personalities, but also some very friendly personalities with the ability to charm warmth into anyone’s heart. One of the latter kinds of people will change Manelle’s life forever when he makes a request she feels she cannot possibly accept.

Next is Ambroise, an embalmer (this is basically dealing with a dead body so it is presentable for the funeral, but might also include a theme to symbolise a person’s personality or life to give the person as good as send-off as possible). While he himself takes a lot of pride in what he does, unfortunately it is something which seems to put a lot of people off, or makes people act a little weird around him, so much so that he appears to have given up on a love life. It even seems to put his Father off of him, and the two no longer speak. Also featuring in the story in Ambrose’s Grandmother, with whom he lives.

Through a series of events, Ambroise ends up in contact with an elderly person who has made a request… The same request that Manelle could not possibly accept. And this is the point where the story of Manelle and the story of Ambrose (and his Grandmother) starts to come together, as we see these characters go on a journey, and it seems that nothing will be the same for any of them, ever again.

I… Thought it was ok

I must admit that, at times, I found this book very difficult to read, not because of the book itself, but because of the common theme of death (including scenes describing the embalming process). Like many people, the thought of it is something that terrifies me, and I sometimes felt myself getting a little nervous when reading certain scenes, especially the embalming scenes. Because of this, I made sure that I only read the book during the day… Never at night. I made that mistake once, and that was enough for me not to repeat the same mistake. However, I have tried to ignore this when reviewing the book, because it seems unfair to give it a worse review just because I couldn’t read it at night.

I should also say that this was not, at all, a bad book. In fact, there were some things about the book that I very much enjoyed. However, there were some things I wasn’t so keen about which were true throughout most of the book which meant that, while I didn’t dislike the book, it just wasn’t that interesting a lot of the time. But because there were some very good and some things I didn’t enjoy, I think it is best to go through both individually!

What I enjoyed

Firstly, I very much enjoyed the characters. They just seemed so genuine that I could picture them so clearly in my mind… In fact, I’m sure my brain at some points through the book forgot that they are not real people (as far as we know!). I think this is much more difficult than people think. It involves a deep understanding of your characters, and knowing how they would react if you were to put them into any situation. Sometimes, the actions of people seem random, impossible to predict, and sometimes completely irrational. So, for the writer to get a good grasp of how his/her characters might react in certain situations is actually very difficult – so I very much appreciate writers who are able to write characters in a way that their actions seem to make sense from what we know about them. And this is one of those examples.

The story also has some moments that will raise a range of emotions in the reader, and those moments usually lead to some great quotes – most of which are very deep, meaningful, but also quite clever and very well said… Well, very well worded, unless you listen to the audiobook, in which case it depends on whoever is reading the book to you, I guess…

What I didn’t enjoy

Thinking about it, there is only really one issue… But for me, it was a big one which caused a lot of smaller issues. That issue was the lack of conflict.

Pretty much every story will have one big dramatic question (in fact, I can’t think of any story that doesn’t have one) that the story will centre around, and one of the writer’s jobs is to make sure that the reader is constantly focussed on that very question, so that the answer to that dramatic question will be on the balance through the story, and may swing between two different answers to make things interesting. That usually means that there will be some sort of conflict, otherwise it would just be one answer winning out quite clearly.

But conflict seemed very rare in this story, despite there being many opportunities where conflict could have arisen – It seemed to me that there could have been many different tweaks in different places that could have made the story a lot more interesting. And there were moments where it seemed that there would be a conflict. In fact, one moment seemed perfect for conflict, which did arise… And then went very quickly and anti-climactically.

Because there was very little conflict, the story seemed very predictable. While a predictable ending is not necessarily a bad thing (i.e. the superhero almost always wins), the fact that much of the story itself was quite predictable meant it lost a lot of that excitement that usually makes you want to keep reading (it is this sort of story that makes you say “Just one more chapter” until it is 2am and you have finished the book).

It is a shame, because if a few things were different, and the story contained more conflict, I could very easily see myself changing my rating from ‘thought it was ok’ to ‘enjoyed’ or even ‘loved’. Because the story seemed to have it all… Other than the thing that adds interest and excitement in the novel. But who knows, perhaps this is something that I need to enjoy a novel, but that other people don’t necessarily need for a novel to be enjoyable – so if you think you might enjoy this novel, don’t let this post put you off!

Conclusion

Sorry for what was probably a little bit of a depressing book review… But let’s hope for a more positive book review next Monday. But for now, keep an eye out for my next ‘Bookish Post’ hopefully coming out on Wednesday. Until then, grab a hot drink and a book, for a lovely Monday evening!

TBT

Bookish Posts

Why I read

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

Hello, and welcome to another of my ‘Bookish Posts’! Just a disclaimer before I get started – I sat an online 4-hour exam this morning, and my brain is currently a big pile of mush… So I am going to try to keep this blog post as coherent as possible. But if anything in this post makes little or no sense… I blame exams.

With my disclaimer (excuse) out of the way, let’s get started! As you can see (well, hopefully you will have read the title), this is about why I read. Well, it is really more about what I get out of reading. If it were simply about why I read, this blog post would be as short and simple as “because I enjoy it”. Thankfully, this will not be a single-sentence blog post (a blog sentence?), but instead I will be going deeper into why I read, and exploring exactly why I enjoy reading, and what I get out of it.

1. Entertainment & relaxation

I thought I would start with the easiest, and probably most obvious one first. This is often the main reason that we read books, watch films, and play games. They provide a source of entertainment. Whether that entertainment is in the form of humour that makes us laugh, or adventure that excites us, or even romance that tugs at our heartstrings (though, my use of a cliche will probably have just the opposite effect for any writers reading this…), it gives us something to enjoy, which is particularly important when coming home after a busy day at work.

I have also included relaxation in this point because, while relaxation, on the face of it, seems like a point of its own, I think the two are actually quite closely linked. Afterall, relaxation doesn’t always have to be in the form of lying down on a bed listening to waves crashing on the beach (another cliche – sorry writers!), and I would consider reading books, watching films, and playing games all to be their own form of relaxation (unless you get angry playing games, in which case it is probably not that relaxing…). I find books particularly relaxing, as you have to focus enough attention on the book which allows you to be transported to a whole other world, which is weirdly therapeutic.

2. They connect us to others

It can sometimes be difficult to put ourselves into someone else’s shoes (cliches all round!), particularly if we do not fully know or understand their circumstances. Books, however, provide a gateway towards stepping into another person’s shoes. When you read the story, you tend to see yourself as the main character (or the person from whose point of view the story is being told), or at least as someone who is very close to this person. You feel their emotions, think their thoughts, feel their pain. In short, books develop our empathy.

While the above is most relevant for fiction books, it can also be true for non-fiction books. The added advantage of non-fiction books is that they can fill in a gap in our knowledge and understanding, which can often be a barrier in the way of empathy. Afterall, it can be difficult to empathise with someone if we don’t even know what we are meant to be empathising with them about.

3. Learning

The opportunities for learning are endless, no matter how much we learn, there is always something else we can choose to learn. Whether this is as part of a new skill we want to learn and develop, or a topic we want to learn more about and gain an understanding of, there will almost always be a book for it, starting from the very basics, to niches and deeper explorations of a topic.

One of the things I have gained from furlough it rediscovering my love for learning, and a large part of this has been reading books on the topics I want to learn (for example, I recently read ‘economics for dummies’, because I realised that my understanding of economics, what certain economic terms mean, and why certain economic steps are taken, was lacking. Now, I feel much more capable of being able to read the news and understand what it means, and try to understand why it has happened, just from reading this book (though of course, I still come across things I have to look up – which is perfectly fine – but it is much better than not knowing where to start!).

Of course, reading a few books won’t make you an expert (I am not going to claim to be an economist – far from it). But at least it is a start! And it provides a starting block from which you can build on. And you may even learn things which help you in your working life!

4. Read to write

I enjoy writing, and have wanted to write a book even when I was a child. In fact, it is still a dream of mine to one day write a book. And of course, an important part of developing your writing is… Well, writing.

However, the second most important part of developing your writing is, I believe (though this may not apply to everyone), reading. Every book is a template on how to (or how not to) do it. If we read something we like in a book, we can try to break down exactly why we like it – what elements work well. If we read a book we do not enjoy, we can try to understand what didn’t work so well. Is it just that the book wasn’t for us, or was the book missing something? If the latter, what was the book missing?

I have heard/read many quotes from authors who have said that their writing-style is basically a mish-mash of many different authors whose books they have enjoyed. This does not surprise me. There is nothing wrong with this – you are not ‘copying’ another author’s style. Rather, you are building your knowledge and this then forms your writing style. In the same way that many argue that we are the sum of our experiences – we are not pretending to be someone else, we are just us.

Conclusion

So there you have it – the reasons behind why I read. Reading is something I have enjoyed for as long as I remember, and it is something that is still very important to me to this day, but I think this is probably the first time that I have actually thought about exactly why I read, other than the fact that I enjoy it.

I hope you enjoyed my second ‘Bookish Post’, and if you have your own reasons for reading, I would be very interested in hearing them! But for now, this post is an important reason as to why you should pop the kettle on, get yourself a hot drink, and grab a book to read!

TBT

Bookish Posts

My 5 Favourite Fiction Books

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

Hello there, and welcome to the first of my ‘Bookish Posts’! You would think that creating a new page called ‘Bookish Posts’ would be easy to do… Well, you would be wrong. It was super frustrating and took me a little over an hour (excluding the writing of this post). But I got there eventually, so here we are!

I am glad to have got it sorted, and I am excited to now be able to share my non-review bookish thoughts – the first being my 5 favourite fiction books. This (as you would expect) was very difficult – firstly, because the moment I tried to remember what books I have read, I forgot almost every book I have read (typical!); and secondly, once I was able to remember the books I have read, it was even more difficult to cut the list down to just 5 books.

After much deliberation, however, I did eventually face the challenge, and was able to bring it down to just 5 books. So, let’s get started (not in any particular order)!

1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I was tempted to choose ‘the Complete Sherlock Holmes’… But, that would have been cheating (given that it is several books in one). However, there was no way that I could have a post about my favourite fiction books without mentioning a Sherlock Holmes book. They are some of my favourite books by my favourite author, and while I rarely read a series of books in one go, I very happily read the Complete Sherlock Holmes in one go (not in one sitting, that would be insane!).

But I was still stuck between whether to choose The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, or The Hound of the Baskervilles. In the end, I opted for the former. This is mainly because The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes manages to tell 12 different stories, while making it seem like you have read 12 books by sucking you into each story. I also think being able to come up with what is often a highly bizarre (but believable) story, and include a logical explanation that leaves you thinking “how did I not think of that?”, not once, but TWELVE times is incredible!

2. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

This book is a lot of things. It is heart-breaking, while also being heart-warming. At times it will fill you with anger, and at others it will fill you with pride. But all of it is simply brilliant.

As you can probably tell, this book is full of emotion, but it is so wonderfully well-written, and the story so well told, that the emotion is not overdone (though it is powerful!). It must have been about 3 years since I read this book, but it is one of those that stays in your mind for most (if not all) of your life – it is well worth a read!

3. 1984 by George Orwell

I feel as though this is a book which will be on most people’s lists of favourite fiction books… And for good reason! George Orwell (fun fact – his real name is Eric Arthur Blair) literally creates a whole new world, with a completely different political (well, it is full of thought-control, so not really ‘political’ anymore…) system which is bizarre, terrifying, and… believable. The way that the whole story is put together makes it easy to believe how such a system could exist without people rebelling. I hate to imagine how much time must have gone into just thinking about the system before even beginning to write the book!

I also still remember feeling almost genuine panic at some of the twists in the book – so unexpected that they caught me completely off guard. While I won’t spoil anything – you should (if you haven’t already) read this book to find out the twists for yourself. It is no surprise that this book makes most people’s lists.

4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Here is yet another classic. I still remember being in secondary school, and my English teacher asking if I had read To Kill a Mockingbird. When I said I had heard of it, but neither read, nor knew what it was about, my English teacher got the book from the bookshelf at the back of the classroom, loaned it to me, and told me to read it. And I did.

It has been a long time since I read this book, and it is one I need to re-read again soon, and so there is a lot from the book that I don’t remember… But there is also a lot from the book that I do, and probably always will, remember. I remember that I loved this book and raved to my English teacher about how good the book was the first day that I was in school having finished reading the book.

It is incredibly powerful, and I am pretty sure that almost every aspiring lawyer who read To Kill a Mockingbird immediately felt that they wanted to be like Atticus Finch.

5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

It is this fifth choice that was the most difficult, with several books fighting in my mind to be in the top 5… But in the end, I felt that a list of my top 5 fiction books would be incomplete without a Harry Potter book. I remember that I used to read a lot of books when I was younger, but I don’t really remember what it is that I used to read (other than the books we were required to read). What I do remember, however, is standing in the dinner queue, reading Harry Potter, waiting to be let into the food hall (which others saw as being super weird…).

I will say that I don’t think this is the BEST of the Harry Potter series. But, this one makes it into my favourite fiction books, because this is where it all started – this is the book that creates the whole wizarding world, and brings the characters to life, and that is simply (pardon the pun) magical.

Though I do need to read them again, because I am not faring very well at the Harry Potter sections of Zoom quizzes…

Conclusion

So, there you have it! My 5 favourite fiction books. It is difficult to see any books I read breaking into my top 5, given the quality of these books, but you never know! I am going to keep on reading to find out.

So time to pop on the kettle, and open another book!

TBT

Book Reviews

Book Review – Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

The author (Sayaka Murata) uses the five senses brilliantly, so brilliantly that I am transported to the convenience store, sometimes in just a sentence or two.

Intro

Hello there, and welcome back to Theodore’s Bookish Thoughts! It has been a while, but it feels good to be back. I hope (though, I am making no promises…) to get back to posting regularly. I am also going to be experimenting with some new types of Bookish posts (hence the new tab ‘Bookish Posts’), the first of which I hope to publish on Wednesday evening. How exciting (I hope)!

I will also no longer be giving ‘stars’, but instead saying whether I ‘loved’, ‘enjoyed’, ‘thought it was ok’, or ‘thought it was not for me’. The reason for this is that 1. I don’t like giving low ratings where I think it is a book that someone else might enjoy; and 2. I think this is much easier to interpret than stars (e.g. one person’s 3 stars might not mean the same as another person’s 3 stars).

Anyway, that’s enough of an introduction from me – let’s get into this review!

About the Book

A convenience store (the one in this book, at least) is largely a place of routine. A customer walks in, the bell rings. Customers take items off the shelves, staff re-stock the shelves. Customers come to the counter to pay, the staff member calls “Irasshaimasé” (Welcome/come in, typically used in Japan in a place of business). The staff member thanks the customer, and the customer leaves. And repeat for each customer. This is what attracts Keiko to her job at the convenience store. In fact, it is the only job she feels capable of doing.

Keiko, as she tells the story, tells us about how everyone thought she was a strange child. She would often get in trouble for doing something, at which point she would know that she had done something wrong… But she didn’t understand why what she did was wrong. When she joined the convenience store, however, she found she could get away with copying behaviours from other people.

To Keiko, the convenience store was perfect. Her family, however, were disappointed. They wondered why Keiko had not found someone, or moved on to something other than a convenience store worker. They wondered if Keiko would ever be ‘cured’, and Keiko is determined to ‘cure’ herself.

I… Enjoyed

This is the first book I have reviewed with this new rating system, and I enjoyed it (the book – I am not getting excited about my new rating system, I swear). The book is very much short and sweet at 163 pages, and each page being quite short in itself. Because of its shortness, the book doesn’t have time to hang around and get stuck on details and instead moves from one event, to the next, to the next. In other words, it is quite fast-paced.

I actually quite liked this about the book – I found that because it doesn’t hang around, it is entertaining throughout. But don’t think that, because it has to move quickly, that you won’t have as clear an image in your mind. The author (Sayaka Murata) uses the five senses brilliantly, so brilliantly that I am transported to the convenience store, sometimes in just a sentence or two.

What I enjoyed most

The thing I enjoyed most about the book is how well Keiko’s point of view is told. It must have been difficult to tell a story from the point of view of someone who doesn’t fit in, but doesn’t know why she doesn’t fit in, but finds somewhere that she can fit in.

This, however, is done very well. We see Keiko try to break down, understand, and rationalise the world outside the convenience store, and we see Keiko getting into the flow of things at the convenience store. She knows exactly which items the store should stock more or less of depending on the weather, she knows exactly what to say to customers and when, and she feels calm when she hears the sounds of the convenience store.

Conclusion

While it was difficult to write as much as I would have liked, given how short the book was and the shortage of characters to speak about, I did enjoy the book and found it enjoyable throughout. And that concludes my first book review for a loooooooooooong time. I hope you enjoyed, and keep an eye out for my first non-review ‘Bookish Post’, hopefully coming on Wednesday.

For now, grab a book and a hot drink, and relax for the evening.

TBT

Book Reviews

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

Tagline: ‘Even the chapters where nothing of much importance happens are so wonderfully written, that you will still find yourself hooked’

Hello again, and welcome to another book review! Which, this time, is only a few months late… But I am still trying to keep the reviews coming. It just might not be as often as first intended.

Today’s review is of a book which I have wanted to read for a while, but haven’t felt in the right mood to read (I pick what to read depending on how I feel at the time). In the end, I had put off reading this book for too long, and decided to take the plunge! 

Background

The story begins in the dorm of a few college students in the small town of Santa Lora in California. The town, we are told, has a lot of strange history – a lot of residents even believe that the town itself is cursed. 

On the day in question, a college student falls asleep – after all, who didn’t spend a large part of University life sleeping? But, when the other college students try to wake her up, it becomes obvious that this is more serious than a quick nap.  The college students, no matter how hard they try, cannot wake her. But, she is still breathing, and her heart is still (obviously) beating.

She is taken away to the hospital where she enters into a state of relaxation so extreme that her heart slows down, so much so that her heart eventually comes to a stop. A student killed in her sleep, by her sleep.

The other students don’t get much time to mourn the death of their friend, as other students start to suffer from the same illness – falling asleep, incapable of being woken. But, different students suffer different symptoms – not all of them enter a state of extreme relaxation (as the first student did). Instead, they sleepwalk, suffer nightmares, and more (some of these symptoms being lethal).

We then see how easily a disease like this can spread. The medical staff who treated the first student begin to develop symptoms, and so the staff, and anyone they have been with, are quarantined (the students are also quarantined in their dorm). But, this is not enough, and soon we will see the impact the disease will have on this whole town. 

As the disease spreads, we see the best and the worst of humanity. People helping others, despite the increased risks of catching the disease themselves, and people acting out of fear, doing anything to not catch the disease. 

Review – 4.5 out of 5 stars ✯✯✯✯(+1/2)

Admittedly, this book is not what I was expecting. I was expecting a light-hearted book that would make you feel ‘warm’ inside. Instead, it was a dark story which will keep you on the edge of your seat to find out what happens to the characters. And I loved it. 

Quite often, it takes some time before a book gets interesting, as the characters, location, situation etc are being introduced. This is not one of those books. This book was interesting right from the start and only got more and more interesting. First, you are keen to know what is causing this disease, who is going to get infected, and how it is going to affect each person. Later, you wonder what will happen to those who have been affected, and how the remaining ‘survivors’ will act.

Even the chapters where nothing of much importance happens are so wonderfully written, that you will still find yourself hooked – the writing is almost soothing on the mind, in spite of the darkness of the book. This includes the characters, as we see how they develop through the story, some of them acting in ways they never would have done before the disease (for better and for worse). You also find yourself willing the characters to avoid the disease – to survive. 

I hope you enjoyed my review of The Dreamers – if you have read it and would like to share your thoughts, or would like to suggest my next read, then feel free comment down below. If you wish to see more of my reviews in future, please do follow/like/other – my social media pages are available on the ‘Contact & Social Media’ tab at the top of the page.

TBT

Book Reviews

Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

Tagline: ‘If you enjoy sarcastic humour, you will be highly entertained. And with the strange questions asked by customers, there is plenty of opportunity for dry and sarcastic humour’.

Welcome back! This is probably the most consistent posting schedule I have had since I started this blog. Had this post been just a few days earlier (on Wednesday) it would have been near perfect. Which does give me some hope that I will be able to post more regularly than I previously have done – but apologies if at any point I do go a few weeks (hopefully not months) without any blog posts.

Anyway, let’s go into the actual review! This time I will be reviewing Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell, which is the second book of this series. For those of you that didn’t read the first book, The Diary of a Bookseller (just as a sidenote, you should definitely read it), Shaun Bythell is the owner of ‘The Bookshop’, the largest second-hand bookstore in Scotland, which is based in Scotland’s National Book Town – Wigtown.

The store itself also gained some publicity from its social media pages on which you will see posts similar to what you will read in the diaries (customers doing rather extraordinary things – and now in a good way), postcards which customers from across the world send in, and the occasional photo/video which involves the destruction of a Kindle. There are even a few music videos they have put together, with the two most viewed being ‘Reader’s Delight’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2caiU5Bu-k) and ‘The Bookshop, Wigtown’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC-oA4zKZlI).

Having enjoyed the first book, I immediately felt that I had to get this book, and weirdly managed to buy it a day before the supposed release date in Foyles (I considered: 1. Whether I had mixed up what day it was, in which case I would be in a lot of trouble with work for not turning up; or 2. Whether I had stepped into a portal which took me one day into the future. In which case I would again be in trouble with work for not turning up. Neither were true, the Foyles bookstore I went in had just been selling the book early). So, I was looking forward to seeing if this book was as good as the first.

Background
As suggested above, this is a continuation of Shaun Bythell’s previous book ‘The Diary of a Bookseller’, which is exactly what both books are – a diary of his days working at The Bookshop (with the occasional diary entry being when he is away from the store). The diary entries provide an intriguing insight into the customers he encounters – from those who chat too long, to those who are just outright rude – the people he has worked with, and his family and close friends.

I am sure a lot of us have wondered what it would be like to own your own bookstore – working in a place where you will be surrounded by books (what’s not to love!). Well, this book lets you get a glimpse into what it would be like, without having to actually deal with the difficult customers, the admin side of things, and the financial side of things. And the book does not seem to omit any details (the book is, a lot of the time, brutally honest), so you do get a full insight.


Review – 3 and a half stars ✯✯✯(+1/2)
As above, you do get a very thorough insight into what it is like to work in a second-hand bookstore. However, you do also get an insight into the people working at the bookstore, what they are like, and Shaun Bythell’s own thoughts both about work and about life generally. I felt that this allowed you to ‘connect’ with the people who work there, rather than seeing it as just a bookstore with faceless people, and I found that this added a lot of charm to the book.

But, the main thing about this book is its humour. Unfortunately, if you do not enjoy ‘dry’ and often sarcastic humour, you may not find this book as entertaining. But if, like me, you enjoy sarcastic humour, you will be highly entertained. And with the strange questions asked by customers, there is plenty of opportunity for dry and sarcastic humour.

While I admittedly preferred the first book (and in all fairness, given that a lot of days will be quite largely the same, I imagine it must have been difficult to keep finding new things to write about day to day – but he has done a good job of it), I still found this book to be very entertaining on its own merit.

I hope you enjoyed my review of Confessions of a Bookseller – if you have read it and would like to share your thoughts, or would like to suggest my next read, then feel free comment down below. If you wish to see more of my reviews in future, please do follow/like/other – my social media pages are available on the ‘Contact & Social Media’ tab at the top of the page.

TBT

Book Reviews

The Book of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

Tagline: ‘The tension between friends, combined with the suspense of what will happen next, will keep you entertained through the whole book. You will find yourself desperate to find out what happens next’.

Hello there, and welcome to another book review. I said I would try not to leave it so long between blog posts this time, and here we are – two blog posts in two weeks! Sadly, I cannot promise that there will be a blog post every week (as much as I would love to be able to), but I want to try to get as quick a turnaround as possible. Anyway, that is quite enough babbling – now onto the actual blog post.

Today, I will be reviewing The Book of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri (again, hopefully you already know this from the title, and actually know what you are here for). This book has been on my very long list of ‘to be read’ books (who doesn’t have an ever increasing to be read list?) for a while, but it is finally one I can put onto my read list (one book down, only an infinite number of books left to go). So, was it worth it? Let’s find out.

Background
The book starts with ‘the pact’ made between four friends (Art, Mauro, Tony, and Fabio) from Casalfranco, a small town in Southern Italy. The four friends were once very close, however, they all went their separate ways and left Casalfranco (with the exception of Art, who returned). To keep the friendship going, however, they made a pact in which they all agreed to meet at American Pizza, a restaurant is Casalfranco, once a year (because who doesn’t love a good pizza place). Apart from last year (when Fabio decided not to go), they have kept the pact going all these years.

This year, however, Art has not turned up. To people outside their friend group, this might not sound too strange – friendships grow apart all the time and, afterall, Fabio chose not to come last year. Inside this friendship group, however, they knew that there was something amiss. Art was the one who came up with the idea of the pact, and was never one to miss an appointment. Worse still, this is not the first time that Art has gone missing.

It was ten years earlier that Art first went missing for 7 days. There was no trace of him, and the other friends quickly became prime suspects for the kidnapping (and possible murder) of Art. Until Art suddenly came back, claiming that he just needed to find out if he could escape Casalfranco and was pleased when he found out he could. His friends, however, know that this is a nonsense excuse, but Art refused to tell them the real reason for his disappearance. They suspect that something horrible must have happened to Art, something which he cannot even voice, something which changed Art for the rest of his life.

Back to present day, his friends try to find out what happened to Art without getting themselves in so deep that they cannot escape. However, when they find out that Art has been dealing weed, and has been involved with the Sacra Corona Unita (a large local criminal network), they end up in a position that they can either find out what happened to Art, or they can avoid getting themselves in too deep – but they cannot do both. They chose the first option.

The three remaining friends find themselves getting involved with the Sacra Corona Unita, pushing the limits of their own friendships in doing so. In their investigation of Art’s disappearance the friendship group will suffer betrayal, broken hearts, and one of the biggest tests that their friendships have faced. They must risk it all if they are to find out what happened to Art.

Review – 4 and a half stars 4½ Stars ✯✯✯✯(+1/2)
At the start, I asked if this book was worth it… Yes, yes it was worth it.

This book left me hanging off the edge of my seat (usually on the seat of the bus into/from work) for most of the time that I was reading it. The tension between friends, combined with the suspense of what will happen next, will keep you entertained through the whole book. You will find yourself desperate to find out what happens next.

It is difficult for me to provide a full review of what was good about this book without giving any spoilers, but I really enjoyed where they took the story, and how the story ended. And I do not want to give spoilers because I believe that the book is a better read if you don’t know what happened so you can, while reading, come up with your own theories about what you think happened to Art – and this is another thing I enjoyed about the book, as it gave you just enough information to do that.

Another thing is that, while the friends are sufficiently similar to be able to get along (despite their disagreements), they are also largely different, and so I think that different people will like and dislike different members of the friendship group (on a sidenote, that would be a great question for a book club – which friend did you most closely align to, and why). These are the reasons why I give this book four and a half stars.

I hope you enjoyed my review of The Book of Hidden Things– if you have read it and would like to share your thoughts, or would like to suggest my next read, then feel free comment down below. If you wish to see more of my reviews in future, please do follow/like/other – my social media pages are available on the ‘Contact & Social Media’ tab at the top of the page.

TBT

Book Reviews

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

Tagline: ‘This is possibly one of the most quotable books I have read. Maybe not inspiring and motivational quotes, but certainly for quotes which will make you laugh out loud’

Hi all! You were probably thinking you would never see another blog post from me… Well, you were wrong. This blog is still going, I have just been very busy recently. And I will likely stay busy for the foreseeable future, and so I cannot guarantee that there will not be any long delays in future. But, while my enjoyment of reading and blogging continues, so will my blog. And besides, we all need an escape of some sort from the business of everyday life – and mine is reading and blogging.

So, the book I will be reviewing (in case, for whatever reason, you did not read the title and don’t actually know what you are here for) is Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Most of you will probably have heard of Good Omens already (if not, where have you been?), either because of the book, or because of the recently released TV series starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen.

I had, of course, heard a lot about Good Omens – mostly positive. And the negative comments I had heard were mainly about the ‘religious cult themes’ of the book which had angered some people, mainly in the massively religious areas of America. It was, therefore, a book which I was looking forward to reading (because of the positive stuff, not because it angered some very religious people).

Background
The story revolves around the end of the world which will be brought about by a child, to be followed by the biggest war of all time – the war between Heaven and Hell. This is what Heaven and Hell have both been working towards since creation, and they are both ready. Well, almost all of Heaven and Hell.

Aziraphale the angel who strives for good, and Crowley who strives to make peoples’ lives… Hell (sorry but also not sorry about the pun) have both been together since the beginning. Which seems like a strange pairing given their differences, but the two have a pact which allows them both to carry out their minor deeds of good and bad, pleasing their respective command (Heaven and Hell). And they both share their uncertainty for the plan which would spell the end of the world, and the start of the Great War, and try to prevent it happening.

Meanwhile, Anathema, a witch, is trying to make sense of ‘The Nife and Accurate Prophefies of Agnes Nutter’ which predicted what would happen in the build up to what will be the end of the world. Anathema is having to make sense of it because it has been written in an almost entirely nonsensical way. And Newt, who has recently taken on the role of Witchfinder, goes hunting for witches (as you would expect a Witchfinder to do).

Review – 4½ Stars ✯✯✯✯(+1/2)
So, is this book worth the hype? Absolutely, yes.

This is possibly one of the most quotable book I have read. Maybe not inspiring and motivational quotes, but certainly for quotes which will make you laugh out loud (although, the joke about Crowley having created the Welsh Language hurt a bit – Damn you Gaiman! But then again, there are very few people who aren’t joked about, so I will let it slide).

The story and the language used was uncomplicated, making it an easy read (in a good, relaxing way) while also being interesting, and keeping the reader (in this case, me!) engaged – particularly with the level of creativity in both the story and the humour. Had I not had a lot going on, this would have been a book which I would have got through very quickly.

I also liked (though I do not know whether this is in all versions of the book) the inclusion of the sections on ‘What it was like to write with Terry Pratchett’ and ‘What it was like to write with Neil Gaiman’ (even these sections made me laugh), and ‘Good Omens, the facts’ which goes into more detail about how the ideas came about, how they wrote the book together, and how they found the experience. This gave the kind of insight which I am sure devoted readers and writers will have loved reading – I certainly did!

And now I feel ready to watch the TV Series (I prefer to read the book first, to then see if the characters and events are as I imagined them)!

I hope you enjoyed my review of Good Omens – if you have read it and would like to share your thoughts, or would like to suggest my next read, then feel free comment down below. If you wish to see more of my reviews in future, please do follow/like/other – my social media pages are available on the ‘Contact & Social Media’ tab at the top of the page.

TBT

Book Reviews

Audiobook Review – In Your Defence by Sarah Langford (Narrated by Catherine Bailey)

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

4 out of 5 stars ✯✯✯✯

Hello there! This is a very different kind of blog post – firstly, it is my first non-fiction book review. Secondly, it is my first Audiobook review.

With my Legal Practice Course (LPC) starting back, my schedule has become a lot busier and I have a lot less time for my Book Blog as a result. I am also spending a lot more time reading textbooks, rather than novels (and I don’t think any of you want me to review my Property Law and Practice textbook).

But I have loved having my book blog to turn to – an excuse (not that one is needed) to read more and different books, and to share my bookish thoughts with others. So I knew that I wanted to keep it going. To make things a little bit easier, therefore, I have turned to the use of Audiobooks which I can listen to while doing my walks and runs. This will allow me to get through more books, and therefore more reviews, while I slowly try to get through my paper books in between my LPC work.

I am also on my second day of no caffeinated drinks (I am drinking decaf coffee – as I love the taste too much to go without coffee altogether). So, if anything I write makes no sense, blame it on the lack of caffeine and the withdrawal symptoms.

About the book
Somewhat ironically, my first Audiobook review is a legal one (but don’t worry – this is an exciting legal book, not a textbook). This book is written by Barrister, Sarah Langford, who retells the stories of the legal cases she has been involved with, the Clients she has represented, and her own mindset for each case.

These involve cases in the criminal courts, from burglary to the most serious of offences, and in the family courts, where divorced parents fight for custody of the child (sometimes using the child in an attempt to win one over the other parent). Each chapter represents a different story and goes into detail about the offence, the Clients she is representing, the other parties involved, and her own internal thoughts.

So, if you enjoy Crime and Courtroom dramas (however unrealistic they may be), this could be the Audiobook (or book) for you!

My thoughts on the books – 4 out of 5 stars ✯✯✯✯
While this was a non-fiction Audiobook, it was just as easy to review as a fiction book because, just as a fiction book tells a story, this was Sarah Langford retelling her stories. And this is what I enjoy reading books for – great stories which are well-told. And this story was certainly well-told.

Sarah Langford has a marvelous mastery of the English Language that you would expect from a Barrister, with the ability to tell a story which flows well. This, together with her explanations of the law and the legal process, makes it very easy to follow even if you have little or no knowledge about the workings of the Criminal and/or Family Courts. And the stories she tells are very intriguing – interesting stories which raise questions we may not have considered before.

Sarah Langford also seems to have developed a great writer’s instinct of knowing how people are feeling in certain situations, how they are likely to react, but most importantly, why they feel and react in this way. In doing so, she also shows excellent self-awareness by providing us with a glimpse into her own thoughts and feelings, and the prejudices she didn’t even know she had – and she tackles her own thoughts and feelings openly and honestly, even if they risk painting her in a less favourable light.

The narrator, Catherine Bailey, was also a perfect fit for this Audiobook. Her voice – calm, clear, and professional, sounds exactly as you would expect a Barrister to sound. You might not necessarily think of the narrator as being an important part of the story – but I found that the use of Catherine Bailey as the narrator made a big difference, and I found myself able to paint a picture of Sarah Langford standing in court, making her arguments in front of the judge, with the voice of Catherine Bailey.

I hope you enjoyed my review of In Your Defence – if you have read it and would like to share your thoughts, or would like to suggest my next read, then feel free comment down below. If you wish to see more of my reviews in future, please do follow/like/other – my social media pages are available on the ‘Contact & Social Media’ tab at the top of the page.


Thank you very much for joining my for my review – and I hope to have another book review up shortly!

TBT

Book Reviews

A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better – Benjamin Wood (Book Review)

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

3 out of 5 Stars ✯✯✯

This is another book I picked up from my local library, along with The Number One Chinese Restaurant which I reviewed last week (https://tbt.art.blog/2019/08/18/number-one-chinese-restaurant-by-lillian-li-book-review/), and the Welsh version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harri Potter a Maen yr Athronydd – yes, even his name is spelt differently in the Welsh version).

This is one thing I have gained from my Book Blog – an added incentive to pick up books from different sources (book shops, libraries, charity shops etc), which I may not have done otherwise. And more books read can only be a good thing!

About the book
The story is told from the perspective of Daniel who begins by telling us about his Father, Fran Hardesty, and how Daniel would often defend his Father against criticism, despite his faults, and always believed that one day his Father would one-day prove himself to everyone. His Mother, Kath, however, did not.

Kath would constantly remind Fran of all his faults, using him as a verbal punching bag – especially after he had cheated on her. She also saw him as a sleazebag of a father, always letting people – including Daniel – down. He was not always like this, however. He once showed great potential for set design and, when he landed a job on the set of ITV’s The Artifex, he had finally found a job he could enjoy and feel content with.

This job also gave him an opportunity to bond with Daniel who had a keen interest in The Artifex. And this sets up the main plot of the book, as Fran Hardesty has promised to take Daniel on the long journey to Leeds to show him around the set of The Artifex. Daniel is excited at the prospect of meeting his hero, Maxine Laidlaw, who plays the main character of The Artifex.

During this journey, Daniel will learn about his Father’s past. How he got to where he is now, and about the different sides to his Father’s personality – his humour, his charisma which makes people immediately drawn to him, but also his anger which knows no bounds. Daniel will see a side to his Father which he has never seen before and, after the trip, he will never be able to see his Father in the same light.

My thoughts on the book – 3 out of 5 Stars ✯✯✯
I was a bit disappointed in the story. When I read the blurb, and started the book, I was expecting a story full of tension which would keep me at the edge of my seat throughout. When the story got going, I really was on the edge of my seat and I could feel the tension in the pit of my stomach – which is when you know the story is getting really good. I felt, however, that the story took a long time to get going, and then the suspense didn’t last as long as I would have liked.

And so it was only for a few chapters in the middle of the book that I could feel that tension I was looking for, while nothing much seemed to happen for the rest of the book. This is a shame, as the moments of suspense were written in so brilliantly – I felt the anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach getting deeper as I kept reading to find out what would happen. And I wish I could have experienced this for a while longer.

I did, however, greatly appreciate Benjamin Wood’s quality of writing which enabled me to keep reading, even when nothing much was happening. It flowed so smoothly, felt easy to read, and the way he told the story from the perspective of 12 year old Daniel was brilliantly executed.

Conclusion
While I felt a bit disappointed with the story itself, I felt no disappointment with the actual writing – and Benjamin Wood is clearly a highly talented Writer. Therefore, while the story itself was not for me (except for that middle, very exciting, part of the book), I was still able to enjoy the book due to the quality of writing which allowed me to appreciate the book.

It is for these reasons that I have awarded the book 3 out of 5 stars.

I hope you enjoyed my review of A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better – if you have read it and would like to share your thoughts, or would like to suggest my next read, then feel free comment down below. If you wish to see more of my reviews in future, please do follow/like/other – my social media pages are available on the ‘Contact & Social Media’ tab at the top of the page.


Thank you very much for joining my for my review – and I hope to have another book review up shortly!


TBT