Reviews and Comments

Ben - and son (James)

Ben2read@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 7 months ago

We read together.

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David Walliams: Bad dad (2017) 3 stars

Dads come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There are fat ones and thin …

For an 11 year old...

3 stars

Father: Not too bad, but I'm not so impressed. James: Quite good, I'll give it a 4.

I do think James needs to remember more about how much he loved The Hobbit, giving that 5 stars - this fodder isn't too bad so I'd give it a 3.

The WORST aspect of the book is the way COVER reveals a huge turn to the STORY before you read it... taking away the surprise of one of the biggest developments.

Fredrik Backman: A Man Called Ove (Hardcover, 2014, Atria Books) 4 stars

TW : Suicidal thoughts & actions

A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world …

Amazing

5 stars

After having spent months reading through a very long series, I was finding it hard to pick up and get through another book.

This book cured me. At once it is annoying and compelling - the main character is at once understandable, relatable and a little strange to us.

It's a great story which will stick with you... and after reading it, you can search out other material (there's one great movie, and another not so great version).

Applebaum  Kirsty: Troofriend (Paperback, 2020, NOSY) 5 stars

Children's variation on I-Robot with an AI Android which has more than was bargained for.

TrooFriend

5 stars

Childrens book - James is 11.

He said to rate this 5 stars (though I think The Hobbit is much better)... I would give it a 3-4 star rating (I want him to rate 'enjoyed this' books around 3 stars).

However, it's an easy read. It's a fairly basic children's story based very loosely on the I, Robot idea.

The main thing which James found he had to read on for was the fact that the main character developed traits which made it clear that it was not simply Artificial... so it was very thought provoking. The reader is also the AI narrator too.

The writing is okay, not stellar. At first it appears that many 'interesting' vocabulary is italicised, but that's done inconsistently... so I'd definitely rate it as adequate, but not high quality for language.

There are also some 'holes' in the story (for me, not for James) …