aztlan's Reviews (238)

Throughout the course of The Secret Lives of Colour, St. Clair tells us the history of some of our most wellknown pigments and colours, as well as some that you may well not have heard of, but have in fact encountered throughout your life. 
The Secret Lives of Colour is easy to read and interesting. St. Clair discusses how many of these pigments were discovered, the reasons why they were popular or unpopular, and the reasons they either lasted to this day, or faded into obscurity. Often pigments were either bright, colourfast and stable, but highly toxic, or they were pigments that didn't work well in oils or faded quickly in light. These drawbacks led to artists preferring pigments such as lead white and a bright, deep green made with arsenic, to safer, but less exciting compounds. 
I really enjoyed reading this book, and found it quite easy to read a few pages every day, quickly making my way through it. I would highly recommend it for anyone with an interest in art, especially art history.

This book served as a good introduction to the world of Roshar. Technically half a book (due to being a split edition), this was never really intended to stand alone, and Sanderson says as much in an afterword at the end of the edition. This means that the course of the story reaches an unsatisfying conclusion, but that isn't something that it could be faulted for. I really enjoyed reading this, it was somewhat slow to read but nonetheless really well written. I'll write a proper review of the whole story once I read Part 2 but I enjoyed this, especially the parts from Kaladin's POV, and I'm looking forward to continuing reading in Part 2

Sea of Tranquility follows a series of characters who each encounter, in some way or other, a strange moment which does not make sense with the context of the moments immediately before and after. The book is told in short sections in various times, ranging from 1912 to 2401. 
This book plays with time travel, and the hypothetical repercussions of us inventing it, in an incredibly interesting way. The first three perspectives are of people who encounter the anomaly, and these three perspectives were, frankly, the least interesting to me. I was curious to see how the novel progressed, since I had been told it was really interesting, but the early perspectives did not really draw me in. Once we got to the perspective of Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, I quickly became more interested. I found the time travel, as well as the other changes humanity had gone through, extremely interesting, and I liked learning more about it as Gaspery did. 
I really flew through the second part of this book, and I really enjoyed the final conclusions about the anomaly experienced by these various characters. This was a quick read and one that I enjoyed a lot. I'd especially recommend it if you're intrigued by time travel and the potential implications it could have.

Memoirs aren't something I read a lot about, but this is one my mum had recommended to me ages ago, so I finally decided to pick it up. I recognised both Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson's names, but I knew next to nothing about their writing, or who they were. Portrait of a Marriage is composed of several parts, some of which being written by Vita herself relatively early on in their marriage, and others being written by their son, Nigel Nicolson, after both his parents death. 
I found Vita's parts read almost like a novel. Written when she was quite young, everything was incredibly dramatic, and at times either extremely depressing or extremely whimsical. Her accounts of her youth and her affair with Violet Trefusis are filled with wild proclamations of love and dramatic tales of her escapades. I found Vita very interesting, and I'm curious to try reading one of her novels.
Nigel's parts are more documentary in nature, but no less interesting. He shares additional insight on Vita's life based on letters from her and others, as well as various people's diary entries and news articles from the time. He portrays his parents relationship as a loving and caring, however extremely unconventional, marriage. I additionally really enjoyed hearing more about Harold in his accounts, as most of Vita's writing focuses on Violet, with Harold being a supporting character. In Nigel's accounts, Harold is shown to be a brilliant and caring man who supported Vita despite her many quirks, and meanwhile was instrumental in global politics of the time. 
I also found the latter part of the book, where Nigel discusses their relationship after the affair, fascinating. Their relationship sounds like something to be aspired to, with trust and forgiveness being key in their relationship. Their later life, in their house and gardens filled with beautiful writing and peaceful solitude, sounds lovely.

I have conflicting feelings about this book. On the one hand, I read 85% of it in a single day, and stayed up until 1:30am to finish it. On the other hand, I don't know why. There are some things I liked about this book, and some things I really, really, really did not.
I adored most (key word, most) of the characters in this book. More specifically, the side cast. I adored Waylay and Liza J and generally liked the other characters such as Sloane, Chloe and (usually) Nash. Waylay especially was a sweet feminine girl who'd had a very rough start to life, and I really loved seeing her grow and bloom throughout the novel. However, I really didn't care about Naomi, and I have several issues with Knox.
Naomi is your stereotypical 'sunshine girl', bubbly, optimistic and sweet. She also apparently has no personality other than loving coffee, being highly organised, and getting turned on by Knox. She does have a little bit of a spine when it comes to looking out for Waylay, but she generally relies on other people to solve all her problems throughout the book. Overall, she didn't have any qualities I found compelling, and more than a few that were annoying.
Knox is, to be frank, bordering on abusive and controlling. His whole schtick is that he's 'protective' of Naomi, and this manifests in him literally punching up his own brother because Nash dared look sideways at her long before Knox got involved with her, and generally trying to stop Naomi from doing things without his help or approval. Knox being like this is especially shitty because

there's a whole thing about Naomi's ex-fiancée being physically abusive, and yet the emotional abuse is glorified?

He also has some really stereotypical attitudes about women on their periods, with him avoiding his own damn bar when his all-female staff who have synced up are on their periods. 
Now, why did I read so much of this in one day? Not sure. The first 70% or so could have easily been a third of the length and gotten the message across. Maybe if the build of their relationship had not revolved around Knox being controlling, I wouldn't have as many complaints about how much time was spent on it. The last 30% is most of the actual plot of the book, and suddenly became quite high stakes and far more compelling, for exactly 0 reasons related to the romance. I would have rathered the story focus on this plot line about

Tina's mistakes and her relationship to Naomi and Waylay

than on Naomi's romance with Knox.

Molly J. Bragg's sequel to Scatter is a standalone, set in the same fascinating world and with a new and equally exciting cast. We follow Naomi as she discovers and learns about powers she has obtained through her experimental gender confirmation surgery going slightly wrong, and uses these new powers to protect her new girlfriend, Anika, in a family drama of epic proportions. 
Bragg has a talent for creating a lively and entertaining set of characters. By far my favourite was Chance, the AI accidentally created during Naomi's surgery. They are hilarious, snarky and both highly intelligent and somewhat childish, which makes sense given their canonical age. I really enjoyed seeing them grow and change as a person rapidly over the course of the novel, which again makes sense for an AI, as well as seeing how Naomi and Anika respond to having two people living in Naomi's body. All the other characters were good, and have lives and personalities unique to them. I especially was glad to see some of Scatter's characters return and somewhat feature, such as Eurion and Rachel.
I also enjoyed the main conflict of this book. It was an interesting take on the whole heaven/hell, angels and demons trope, and I liked seeing how the heavenly host fit into the modern world (especially Samael).
If Bragg writes a third book in this series, I would absolutely love to see more of Eurion, and especially to see her finally find a wife.

Sugar follows a diabetic 16 year old girl, Persephone, who lives in a small community in the Australian bush. I initially picked it up because I saw the cover at the bookstore and absolutely adored it, and reading the synopsis also sounded like something I'd enjoy.
The first thing I noticed was the uniqueness of the narrator's voice. Persephone makes lists about people, and associates imagery with words (often saying things such as "Search ______: There's me."). Personally, I really loved this, it's something that really helps me feel like I know who a character is, and to connect to them. However, I actually found Persephone very unlikable. She is self-destructive and obstinate, and while I understand why, I didn't really feel like she had any qualities to redeem her for the majority of the book. The novel does follow her as she attempts to reconcile a stranger's death with their life, and in the process is forced to reflect on her own life and attitude. This led her to grow into a character who I think I would like, given more time. 
I liked how this was a mystery around death, but did not focus on the cause of the death, but rather on Persephone's perception that there was another reason why she died. This was a more unique mystery to read, and I liked how the rest of the world was forgotten by Persephone, but not by the author, as she got increasingly absorbed. The rest of the world keeps turning, and Persephone is forced to come to terms with her realities as the book progresses. 
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I thought it was an interesting perspective, and I particularly enjoyed Carly Nugent's writing style.