nitroglycerin's Reviews (952)

My initial review I shared on Storygraph said simply: This book is a warm hug! And truly that’s what it is. 

Carl Kollhoff hand delivers books in his neighbourhood. He is often the only link the people he delivers to have to the outside world. We join Carl as things start going wonky for him - his job in jeopardy and a nine year old girl adopting him as a friend - and his almost friends minor and major dilemmas. We’re with them all to through to the wholesome, if a little saccharine, end. 

For fans of (usually Japanese) “healing fiction” or A Man called Ove. I genuinely think this is one of the sweetest reads I’ve listened to. The characters are pretty well rounded and you want them to succeed in their endeavours. Sometimes you need a happy book to break up the cannibalism and poverty and this did the trick!

Utterly bonkers. A fever dream of mosquitoes, time travel, virtual reality and heat. A scathing review of capitalism. 

Fog is elusive. Hard to grasp. It lacks substance, and sadly I’d have to describe chasing fog in the same terms, even though I enjoyed listening to it. I’ve found much, if not all of the book has gone right out of my head and into the ether. Pashby travels in search of the increasingly elusive fog, but I can’t really remember everywhere she goes. Scotland. The Norfolk boards. Somewhere abroad - maybe Venice? It’s such a shame because this was such a peaceful and lovely book to listen to, but I failed to absorb the information and her experiences. Perhaps one better off in hard copy than audio. 

Argh where do I start? The whole time I was reading Wild Ground I had this unsettled, slightly anxious feeling. The feeling that I’d glimpsed something that could have caught me at one time. I witnessed the fringes of this kind of life, the poverty, the broken families, the drugs, while living with an ex in another northern city that has a poverty issue. And the toxic love that was meant to be the two MCs Great Love was stifling and uncomfortable to read about, and hard to see. The failings of the grown ups who were meant to care for these kids, perpetuating generational trauma were genuinely frustrating. I loved to hate (or hated that I loved) this story. It was compelling yet grim. 

Greater Sins is a brilliant debut. 
Set in both 1905 and 1915, in the Cabrach, Aberdeenshire, we follow the two perspectives of Lizzie and Jonny. Lizzie, married to the wealthy landowner of the area, bucks the trends and expectations of a traditional upper class woman of the age. Jonny a wandering musician and farm labourer has a reputation that isn’t quite true, and a secret to hide. Everything unravels in 1915 when a bog body is found and the small community becomes a victim to superstition and folklore. 
Griffith’s manages to write with such atmosphere and intrigue that you feel the tenseness and claustrophobia of the community yourself as you read. Both Lizzie and Jonny are flawed and likeable enough to root for them while allowing them their human failings. I thoroughly looked forward to reading this each night and if that’s not a compliment then I don’t know what is. 

Not as fun as previous volumes for me.

I did like the conflict in the plot between two characters though, as it shows that as flawed humans who want to do what we think is best, it sometimes isn’t the right thing and people may disagree with us. Falling out with friends is normal and can be worked through. 

Still a very positive overall experience. 

Surfacing is part memoir and part travelogue, taking us on a tour from a Yup’ik village in Alaska, to China, to Westray, Scotland. We explore deep time and our connections to the past via the archeological findings that show us how people lived and survived, and touching on human mortality through Jamie’s account of her father fading and passing away. 
The essays are only loosely connected but that was fine for me, although I saw a few reviews that didn’t like it. I don’t think essay collections have to be super focused on one thing (and if they are, they can get repetitive). I loved Jamie’s writing. It was poetic and visual so you could truly place yourself in her shoes. A truly wonderful collection and it has at least mentally bumped her other books up my tbr. 

Gifted by the publisher 


The Garden is a dystopian story like none I’ve read before. It unfolds slowly, the characters are closed off from the events that have happened in the world, events which are never really explained, but an ecological disaster is hinted at. Evelyn and Lily have been cloistered in their own world for so long that they’re got stuck in their ways, their own routines, their silences. Until a stranger makes it into their garden and upturns everything, bringing the past and present back to them.
I loved this! I loved Evelyn and Lily, I loved the flashbacks, I loved the ending. The reading was compelling. It starts quiet and builds slowly, until before you know it you’re racing to the crescendo before finishing quiet again. I will absolutely read more of what Newman writes in the future. 

Compelling and hard to put down! This one was all over Instagram and it was like everyone and their Nan had to read it. And it is good! But maybe not worth quite the hype that was expressed in my corner of bookstagram. 

Mama (Ruth) and Margot live in the woods where any wanderers may get lost and never be seen again. Ruth has a taste for a specific meat 🥩 and not one you find in the supermarket. Everything changes when Eden finds their cottage, and instead of turning her into dinner, Ruth makes her her lover. Eden seems too good to be true though, and soon her desires sway Ruth’s away from the status quo of Margot’s life so far. 

Things I liked: Margot and her school friends relationship, Margot and the bus drivers relationship, Margot’s determination towards the end. 
Things I disliked: the weird constant mentioning of church dresses and the amount of buttons done up, the short chapters, the pacing in the middle of the book, the ending was not the one I wanted!
Things that should have bothered me more but didn’t: the descriptions of gore, cannibalism etc. 

I originally rated this a 4.5 but reflecting on the writing and the little things that bugged me has been dropping it to a 4. 

Black ghosts was a fascinating account of Noo Saro-Wiwa’s travels in China. As a black (Nigerian) British woman she explores the African  communities living in China, how this diaspora came to be, the relationship between the Chinese and various African nation governments, the implications of the cheap imports of Chinese goods into Africa. She mixes personal observations, and interviews with the people she encounters. These people vary so wildly in their backgrounds and reasons for being. 
Overall this was an interesting read that opened my eyes to perspectives that I hadn’t come across before. I spent a lot of time googling along side reading to visualise places within China or to broaden my knowledge on a historical fact that was mentioned. Exactly what I like from my non-fiction reading 😊