This is the fourth harkaway book I've read so I was prepared for some strangeness but this was on another level. It's significantly more sense than the others and alot more complicated. It will require a 2nd read to fully understand what happened, even in the acknowledgements Harkaway mentions the editors pointing out threads he had forgotten about. The writing is beautiful as always and the characters brilliant. For me it's a littlebit like a better version of cloud atlas, the story structure is similar but but with s more connective plot and a lot more trademark harkaway oddness. It's probably my least favourite of the 4 I've read but still great. There's a high chance this rating will go up as well on subsequent reading. He is definitely my current top author and I can't wait to pick up more of his work which I will soon exhaust. 

Having visited both Vietnam and Nepal in recent years and living the countries I realised I knew very little of buddism or eastern religions in general. Upon coming across this book in my goto used book store it looked like it would be interesting. It's more niche than a general introduction to buddism and explores a specific approach making it probably more suited to someone with some basic knowledge, all the same it was very interesting. The approach to the practising and the reasoning behind the methods are well explained and it is tempting to take some on board. There's some repetition which I always find to be a common occurrence but this is not the worst offender by a long way. I will happily read more on the subject in the future so this book can be considered an evangelical success. 

This was my first P G Woodhouse novel and it was a fun, commical, easy to read book. Having watched the Fry and Laurie T. V adaptation I knew I could read the series somewhat out of order since I already knew the characters. The plot of the book feels like classic jeeves and wooster, it does sometimes feel quite predictable but the odd twist helps to keep it fresh. The characters are generally a little one dimensional and you never feel any emotional attachement to any of them, however the style of this book doesn't really call for it. Can't really give it more than 3.5 stars based on my historical readings of other books but if you want a fun light comedy to read it's a good choice and I'll happily read more of the series. 

This is an incredibly well written book, and I'd recommend it to people who love reading. However it is a very depressing story and the ending definitely leaves one feeling unsatisfied. The story of a family over 3 generations told from each perspective jumps through time but eventually culminates in the present with all the stories coming together, this is done fluidly and never feels jarring. It's also a story of mental illness, homelessness and the links bwteen the two, and in this vein it's clearly well researched. Top marks for writing for sure, but a bit lower for plot. I always prefer stories with a more closed ending and found I was lacking some resolution for the characters. There was also points where characters developed during time jumps which I though could be more involved. I'll read more McCann in the future with great enthusiasm but I doubt I'll  re-read this book, despite how good it was. 

Rarely does a sequel live up to the original, but in this case it surpassed it quite significantly. I've read a few Pohl novels now and they're always good, but this is a great one. The amount of plot crammed into this relatively short book is immense yet it still doesn't feel rushed. The journey of Tenny is an epic roller-coaster of emotions, built in a dystopian world, peppered with comedy throughout. Part of why this sequel manages to be better than the original when many don't its because it's not a sequel with the same characters, just the same world, and it's more of a retelling of the original but worth improvements. The characters and the plot are more engaging than the first and I can't wait to pick up another Pohl novel. The only reason it's not 5 stars is I wanted more, once I was truely invested it ended too quickly, it's a good negative to have though. I have his "The world at the end of time" 4.5 stars and I can't rate this higher so it sits at 4.5. For context I gave the original space merchants 3.5 starts. 

This has been one of the strangest books I've read in some time. It was actually my first John Fowles novel and based on other comments appears to be an odd place to start. I found this book to be a very enjoyable read, the writing style and plot definitely dicked me in and I was always happy to pick it up. The conclusion is perhaps a little too open for me. I tend to prefer fixed ends but that's a personal preference. The prologue and epilogue were great, alot of the time these can be quite boring but in this case they really helped to understand the book. I'll try some more Fowles in the future I'm sure, probably some of his more well known work. 

I actually really enjoyed this book and was hovering between 3.5 and 4 stars, in the end I went with the lower. Primarily because the mystery part of the book isn't particularly mysterious. From the first few chapters the general outline of the reveal is easily known and all that remains are the details.

What is done well though is the writing of the protagonist and her step daughter, and the progession of their relationship throughout. The character writing in this book is great, converting a potentially poor book in terms of plot into an enjoyable read. I'll be happy to try more from Laura Dave in the future. 

If you go into this book looking for something like the Tom Thorne series then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. The idea is quite nice, but the execution a little lacking. The entire story being told from one perspective unfortunately made all the characters except the narrator feel quite flat and uninteresting. 

The gradual breakdown of the narrator is done very well though, and they're definite positives when reading this. It's very light and can be quite a page turner at times, however it lacks the gradual piecing together of the mystery found in others of the same genre and instead is a bit over reliant on red herrings.

I find Mark Billingham a bit hot and miss as an author and unfortunately this one is just off the mark for me

This is such a classic book and its influence in popular culture after 75 years is so vast it's hard to understate its importance. Inspired by Zamyatins We Orwell surpassed it in many ways. The writing is so easy to read and the whole book is gripping. The only section which takes a little effort to read is the book within a book in the 2nd act,but this works well as a literary device so it's fine. There's a great variety of characters which mirrors their variety of skill in doublethink. This is also one of the only books where I've read the appendix with as much veracity as the book itself.

Told in 3 acts they boil down to despair, hope and acceptance, which follow the themes of love as well, those being no feelings of love, deep love, and the loss of that love. There's no happy ending for Winston, but one feels there's still hope, the hope that Winston had until he was broken, though maybe that's just because we haven't been through room 101

I was really looking forward to this book, having not read anything by the author, and being a massive Sci fi fan I figured I was into a winner, however I struggled to get into it. Starting with the positives, which are very positive, the world, premise, plot and to some extent the characters, are brilliant. The problem I have is with the writing itself, which I'm sure is my problem more than others given the reviews. Dropping pronouns or adjectives in sentances just makes it harder to read and feels clunky in the third person. "Knew it was bad as soon as she got there" rather than "She knew..." made me mentally re read the sentance with the omitted words in my head. Other problems I found was assuming the reader had as good a memory as the author, parts where characters would have a whole conversation without ever stating who the characters were meant I had to go back and re read bits later when it was reveleaed who was speaking. I don't want books to be simple in plot or subtext, but I really want to know who's speaking at the start of a chapter. Assume I've put the book down for 3 days maybe read some other book and picked it back up, will I know who's chatting at the start of the chapter? If not, tell me, don't wait 4 pages. I've seen there's a TV series of this and I'm going to watch it today, everything I love about this book would be amazing in a TV series so hoping it's good. If it is this will be one of the rare occasions I'll be waiting for subsequent TV adaptations before reading the subsequent books, which I might read, but probably only if the TV series is cancelled.