by Colin Barrett
A story of rival families caught up in small town drug dealing in Ireland. The characters were generally well drawn but it did engage me greatly. 5/10
by Colin Barrett
A story of rival families caught up in small town drug dealing in Ireland. The characters were generally well drawn but it did engage me greatly. 5/10
by Richard Powers
I so enjoy this author. His imagination and cast of characters are Dickensian in scope.
This story is about a couple of friends who meet at school and play a lot of games together but get absorbed by the game of go. One of them goes on to become a tech billionaire, the other does not. There stories intersect and fly apart and along the ways we meet a host of characters, learn about the oceans and AI and climate change and French Polynesia. It is capped off with a fantastic twist in the tale.
The biggest surprise though is how this book did not reach the Booker shortlist. 9/10
by Kate Atkinson
Jackson Brodie is back and he is on good form.
This is a very funny and entertaining book with multiple deaths and multiple reasons in true Agatha Christie style. Brodie stumbles into the mystery almost by accident and meets up with some old friends! It is great larks and written in a way that keeps it the right side of daft. Loved it 9/10
by Samantha Harvey
This is a very short book at just over 100 pages and deals with one day -or I should say 24 hours on board the International space station and the interactions and lives of the astronauts aboard. I did not expect to enjoy it and yet it was strangely absorbing as well as being informative about life in space. 8/10
by Rachel Kushner
A spy story with a difference. Sadie Smith is sent to infiltrate a commune in South West France as well as keep an eye on a low ranking government official. She used to be employed by the FBI but her current employer remains unknown.
The book never really got going for me and although I enjoyed some of her fun one liners to end various sections I was yearning for something to happen. By the time it did happen it all felt too late. 6/10
by Tommy Orange
Another family saga. This time about a twentieth/twenty first native american family in Oakland. A look at life for the underprivileged and discriminated against in modern America. It was well written but left me a bit cold 6/10
by Anne Michaels
This is a book told in fragments over the course of a century, beginning in the first world war when John, a soldier loses his leg in an explosion. From then on we are given fragments of stories as he and his descendants are shown to us fleetingly before we move forward -or back-to the next episode.
The writing is beautiful at times-the author comes from poetry, but I enjoy a book with more plot than this.
If asked whether I enjoyed this book I would probably respond, "Maybe". 6/10