Elinor’s Bookshelf

My rating: ★★★★☆ What a hoot – Graeme Simsion nails it again with his third and last instalment in the Rosie series! Don Tillman, our Aspie hero, finds himself with no less than 5 major crises to handle including possibly getting fired and trying to get his son, Hudson, aged 11 and sometimes referred to by his peers as a « grammar nazi », to fit in at school. I hadn’t read one of these in ages and this made me laugh out loud. A lot. This was an entertaining read with just the right balance of good-humour and thought-provocation. View all my reviews

My rating: ★★★☆☆ After having laid out our history and the revolutions that rocked humanity in Homo Sapiens, Harari set himself the ambitious goal of predicting what tomorrow has in store for humankind, and what the next revolution might look like. Homo Deus covers interesting topics like whether animals have feelings, the existence of the soul, the decoupling of intelligence and consciousness, the weaning role of religions and the emergence of new ones like communism, and liberal humanism. That in itself is a provocative stance Harari had already taken in Sapiens, and largely details here. Harari argues we are in a world where the dark forces of yesteryear have taken on different forms – take for instance eugenics in the capitalist world: the richer you are the more likely you are to be able to afford life-enhancing, and even life-saving, treatment. Even if some countries seem impermeable to individualistic creeds, they are also contributing to the emergence of a future where humans

My rating: ★★★★★ When I started reading this book, I was put off by the journal style entries and ‘youngish’ writing-style with deliberate repeats or overuse of certain words. Yet the story swepped me up and I soon found myself awaiting Charlie’s next letter, and the next, and the next - until I’d read the whole book, and said goodbye to all the characters – and particularly to Charlie whom I’d grown rather fond of. I can see how this has become a classic. Incidentally... I’m a bit of a wallflower myself and could really relate to Charlie, the main character, adolescent writer of letters, and discrete DJ animator of soirées. That was me then, always on the sidelines, never eager to show off or get too much attention, and somewhat socially awkward. My guess is this will resonate with anyone who feels/felt different, or a misfit, during their teenage years. View all my reviews

My rating: ★★★★☆ I can’t begin to describe how conflicted I feel about this book. It’s definitely an all out 5+ stars when it comes to pace and momentum. It’s just flat out, and there really was a point when I *had* to know what was going to happen. I got sucked in like a newbie by this teenage romance, written in first person from cover to cover. However, and this is where feeling conflicted comes in, I felt the characters were a little stereotypical, and I simply couldn’t bring myself to like one of the two main characters, because he lies about important things (some would argue with reason, but it didn’t really work for me). This felt like driving a Lamborghini at top speed down a country road: the flowers, the birds and the bees, which would have made that ride extra special, just a faraway blur in the rear-view mirror. It was still exciting though! View all my reviews

My rating: ★★★☆☆ Harry Hole, a Norwegian police officer who never drinks a drop of alcohol, gets sent to Australia to investigate the murder of a Swedish girl. As the murder investigation turns into something much bigger and darker than at first meets the eye, Harry and the police force find themselves desperate to find some decent leads. I had some ideas who the killer was, none of which turned out to be right. So it made for a suspenseful read despite some minor lags. Some of the settings and/or times of day did confuse me, but I enjoyed the references to Australia, the aboriginals, and their stories (and, last but not least, the cricket reference!). This story turned out being quite tragic, and left me feeling sad despite what I felt was meant to be an uplifting end. All in all, The Bat by Jo Nesbø made for a solid police thriller read, and I will be looking out for more of his works, starting with Harry Hole #2. Happy reading everyone. View all my reviews