@susurrus : There's a Reply button, but I have no idea exactly what it does :) I don't know if I'm ready to say any words about the ending yet... yow.
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I love books, grew up among, and still live among, teetering piles of To Be Reads. In my dotage here, I admit I have less patience for plots that feel too familiar, and I tend (even more than I always have) toward the strange and surreal. But a beautifully-written and perfectly normal book can also bowl me over.
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ceoln reviewed Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches …
An amazing book; can I have more stars to give it?
5 stars
This is one of those very rare books that reminds me of what books are at some level all about. That makes me want to go about and knock about two stars off of 99% of my prior book ratings, to make room to properly differentiate this one.
It's hard to say too much that's concrete, without giving it away. I was closer to tears at the end of this than I can remember with any book for a long time. Not easy maudlin tears, but deep oh-my-god tears about what a universe this is.
The people are very fully people; the viewpoint character is not a person, but ... well, that would be a spoiler also. But the viewpoint it gives her allows Ishiguro to say some amazing and touching and true and thought-provoking things without coming out and saying them (because nothing he could come out and say …
This is one of those very rare books that reminds me of what books are at some level all about. That makes me want to go about and knock about two stars off of 99% of my prior book ratings, to make room to properly differentiate this one.
It's hard to say too much that's concrete, without giving it away. I was closer to tears at the end of this than I can remember with any book for a long time. Not easy maudlin tears, but deep oh-my-god tears about what a universe this is.
The people are very fully people; the viewpoint character is not a person, but ... well, that would be a spoiler also. But the viewpoint it gives her allows Ishiguro to say some amazing and touching and true and thought-provoking things without coming out and saying them (because nothing he could come out and say would say them so well).
Language cannot express truth, I often say; but what I mean is that it can't explicitly express literal truth. Language, when it's used with this much expertise, can and does express deep and breathtaking truth.
I need to go spend a few weeks processing this now, I think..
If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend that you should,
ceoln finished reading Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behavior of those …
Welcome to Sotheran’s, one of the oldest bookshops in the world, with its weird and …
Perfect
5 stars
Just a wonderful book for anyone who loves books, bookshops, old books, old bookshops, or any combination thereof. Laugh out loud funny in places, touching and thoughtful in places. Possibly slightly fictional here and there, but with very true fiction. Also British!
ceoln finished reading The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Holden Caulfield, knowing he is to be expelled from school, decides to leave early. He …
Haha, no, I did not finish this today; I finished it decades ago. A good book, imaginative, and an archetypal coming-of-age.
ceoln reviewed The Little Book of Mornington Crescent by Barry Cryer
Review of 'The Little Book of Mornington Crescent' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I would have preferred more theoretical and practical discussion of rules and strategies and less "humor" and "culture" and so on, but this book will probably be enjoyable to the more plebian "fans" of the Game.
ceoln reviewed Hotel Bosporus by Esmahan Aykol
Review of 'Hotel Bosporus' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
A fun read, lots of Istanbul atmosphere
I didn't find the murder-mystery aspect all that interesting (and really the fact that the protagonist owns a murder-mystery bookshop wasn't played up at all), but the descriptions of places in Istanbul and the interactions between different kinds of people, different nationalities and strata of society, between the various neighborhoods and areas of the city itself, kept me reading.
Recommended especially if you're in love with Istanbul, Constantinople, and/or the idea of them.
ceoln reviewed Once upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire
Review of 'Once upon a Tome' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Just a wonderful book for anyone who loves books, bookshops, old books, old bookshops, or any combination thereof. Laugh out loud funny in places, touching and thoughtful in places. Possibly slightly fictional here and there, but with very true fiction. Also British!
ceoln rated And Shall Machines Surrender: 4 stars
And Shall Machines Surrender by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
On the dyson sphere Shenzhen, artificial intelligences rule and humans live in luxury, vying to be chosen as host bodies-called …
ceoln reviewed Kalifriki by Roger Zelazny
Review of 'Kalifriki' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Crazy perfect Zelazny
Stories in a unique and unknowable far-future reality; exotic names from the past and exotic science from just now combine with love and hate, greed and desire, in stories of the unchanging human fundamentals couched in the language and frame of millennia to come. Crazy hallucinatory space opera, highly recommended.
ceoln reviewed The mother hunt by Rex Stout
Review of 'The mother hunt' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Good solid Nero Wolfe
The perfect thing to buy for a quarter at the Friends of the Library Used Book Shed, and then spend a lazy day reading and watching the clouds go by.
A good straightforward Nero Wolfe murder mystery, as told by Archie Goodwin as always, who is in fine light-noir form. A couple of bloodless murders of people we don't really know, some tense but ultimately collegial interactions with the police, descriptions of amazing meals, the inevitable sexual tension between Archie and any nearby women, and ultimately the perpetrator brought to justice.
It is if anything too straightforward, no real surprises or twists, but that's not really why we come to Wolfe's brownstone, after all.
ceoln reviewed Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Lynesse is the lowly Fourth Daughter of the queen, and always getting in the way. …
Review of 'Elder Race' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A fast, fun, rewarding read.
This kept me reading from the first page to the last. What's happening isn't at all a puzzle, unlike some other books that use the same general concept (some of which I now want to go back and re-read). The way the high-tech protagonist's depression was dealt with was fascinating to me, and not one I've seen before; and having clinical depression myself, I found it plausible and relatable. And the relationship(s) between the high-tech protagonist and the indigenes who see him as a wizard were done well, feeling genuine on both sides.
Very recommended!
Review of 'The power of an open question' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A wonderful, if slightly odd, little book. In short, friendly, and relatable chapters, the author lays out, in terms that are Buddhist but not heavy-handedly so, the idea that the way to go through life is to ask questions, without expecting answers or final conclusions.
This strikes a deep chord in me, because final answers are so often wrong, and being open to the actual always-shifting reality around us is an essential aspect of good practice.
The oddity is that now and then, generally in a footnote, the author writes something surprisingly answer-like, for instance casually describing Tibetan Buddhism, the vajrayana, as "the most developed stage in the evolution of Buddhist practice". Is that so? :)
Relatedly, the author is married to her vajrayana teacher, which is kind of yipes, and perhaps shows a bit in the (relatively small) parts of the book that talk about the teacher-student relationship.
These …
A wonderful, if slightly odd, little book. In short, friendly, and relatable chapters, the author lays out, in terms that are Buddhist but not heavy-handedly so, the idea that the way to go through life is to ask questions, without expecting answers or final conclusions.
This strikes a deep chord in me, because final answers are so often wrong, and being open to the actual always-shifting reality around us is an essential aspect of good practice.
The oddity is that now and then, generally in a footnote, the author writes something surprisingly answer-like, for instance casually describing Tibetan Buddhism, the vajrayana, as "the most developed stage in the evolution of Buddhist practice". Is that so? :)
Relatedly, the author is married to her vajrayana teacher, which is kind of yipes, and perhaps shows a bit in the (relatively small) parts of the book that talk about the teacher-student relationship.
These reservations probably reflect my own assumptions and preconceptions as much as they do the author's, though. All told, this is a short and sweet book that will I think benefit anyone on any path, vajrayana or not, Buddhist or not, by softly stressing the importance of being open and receptive to what happens, to THIS.
ceoln reviewed The girls of slender means by Muriel Spark (New Directions classics)
The Girls of Slender Means is Dame Muriel Spark's tragic portrait of a London ladies' …
Review of 'The girls of slender means' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A dark turn
A witty and poignant novel-of-manners about young women in a boarding house in 1940s London. It takes a dark and tragic turn, which struck me as rather out-of-the-blue, but to a contemporary reader, or just one more familiar with the mindset of postwar England, it would probably have worked better; as the back cover blurb says, the funny giddy bit is "hiding some tragically painful war wounds".
So it's not amusing escapism as the beginning might suggest. But it's good.
ceoln reviewed Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
A work-from-home comedy where WFH meets WTF.
Told entirely through clever and captivating Slack messages, …
Review of 'Several People Are Typing' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Basically brilliant
A modern variation on the epistolary novel. The voices are very authentic, the plot scary and funny and wild. A very quick read, but recommended!