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Alana (9 KP) rated Reflection in Books

Jun 26, 2019  
Reflection
Reflection
Elizabeth Lim | 2018 | Young Adult (YA)
8
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Well written and planned out (1 more)
Original concept
Missed a plot point which could have further extended the books narrative (0 more)
A true twist on a classic!
Contains spoilers, click to show
A fantastic original concept created using a classic well loved Disney character Mulan.
Title is clever, referring to character growth throughout Mulans journey and a part of the book where she must face the chamber of mirrors in order to complete her challenge and save Shang from moving on before he is ready.
This original concept fits well with character which is not easy to do when using characters who are household names and often remind us of our childhood watching Disney classics but it is a risk that has played off.
There is little to critique but I do however believe that there should have been a chapter written exploring Mulan returning home to her family after the war, seeing if she was correct in the chamber of mirrors about her father and mothers reactions to her running off to war as this could differ greatly from the classic plot, I personally would have loved to see grandmother Fa's reaction to Mulans trip to the underworld or at the very least mushu's reaction- as this would have extended the plot leaving a more well rounded ending.
  
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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2379 KP) rated Dying in a Winter Wonderland in Books

Sep 30, 2020  
Dying in a Winter Wonderland
Dying in a Winter Wonderland
Vicki Delany | 2020 | Mystery
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
After Christmas Murder
Merry Wilkinson has gotten talked into designing the decorations for Luanne Ireland’s wedding. However, on Christmas Eve, Luanne drops the bombshell that she is moving the wedding up from summer to Valentine’s Day, and naturally it causes chaos. Just two days later, Luanne’s fiancé is found murdered, however, and Merry’s brother, Chris, becomes the prime suspect. Luanne and Chris had dated back in high school, but is that enough motive for murder? Merry doesn’t think so, and she sets out to prove him innocent. Can she do it?

No matter when the books in this series are set, they always immediately put me in the Christmas spirit, and this book is no exception. Merry and the rest of the characters are their usual charming selves, and I always enjoy spending some time with them. Okay, so there are a few characters who regularly annoy Merry, but I enjoy those scenes, too, and we got some interesting developments with them in this book. The plot introduced lots of drama before the murder takes place, and that pulled me in from the first chapter. I never wanted to put the book down until I reached the logical conclusion. This latest book is perfect for any time you need a dose of Christmas.
  
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Bethr1986 (305 KP) rated The Dark Cry of Aristid in Books

Jan 26, 2023  
The Dark Cry of Aristid
The Dark Cry of Aristid
William Brian Johnson | 2022 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!


The village of Elta is under the rule of the White Citadel. The villagers must do what they're told or face the serious consequences of their actions, including who they worship. They are forbidden to use magic unless they have permission from the overseer, there are however certain people in the village that are gifted with magic and still believe in the old ways.


I found I liked this book from the start the opening chapter 1 is supposed to ease you in and let you get settled, but I found that straight away it was pulling me in and I wanted to find out more about the characters and the village itself. There are so many avenues this book could go! The way it's finished could leave it open for a series, it's one I would continue to read if the author were to go down that route.


I like the support that the villagers give each other in the hard times they suffer.


It's a book I recommend


** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

 

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
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Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life in Books

Nov 2, 2017  
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
Mark Manson | 2017 | Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences
2
6.5 (10 Ratings)
Book Rating
Sexist, self-absorbed codswallop
This is probably one of the worst books I've read this year unfortunately. It's full of contradictions, too many to go through each and every one. But here are a few.

For one, it claims to be an anti-self-help book but in fact it is, not only that it repeats phrases that other books use often but it reiterates it in a much more uglier fashion by replacing every other word with "f**k".

Secondly, the author is actually incredibly sexist throughout the whole book - revealing that this book is for a privileged white, male audience. He flashes his wealth throughout the book by even saying "I come from a wealthy family" and 'this doesn't apply to an Indian family who need an extra $10'. And then talks about his sexual exploits with women, saying that one of his former goals was to "be with more women" - like women are collective objects. He's boastful about sleeping around throughout, referring to women in a derogatory way.

The chapter on false memories and child sexual abuse is shocking, absolutely no disclaimers, just a rookie spouting off information that he clearly had no idea about. He discounts thousands of horrific accounts as if they're something imagined up and to be gotten over with. An extremely precarious viewpoint.

The irony is that the author describes himself perfectly here: "People declare themselves experts, entrepreneurs, inventors, innovators, mavericks, and coaches without any real-life experience. And they do this not because they actually think they are greater than everybody else; they do it because they feel that they need to be great to be accepted in a world that broadcasts only the extraordinary." And this pretty much sums up the book.
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Sarah (7800 KP) rated Normal People in Books

Jan 9, 2019 (Updated Jan 9, 2019)  
Normal People
Normal People
Sally Rooney | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry
8
6.8 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
An adorable yet frustrating love story
I always enjoy reading books that are based around the most banal and ordinary of plots, yet are still hugely entertaining and enthralling. I think it takes a great author to make a plot like this rise above just average and readable, to something you can’t put down. And Sally Rooney really succeeds with this book.

It’s just a normal romance between two teenagers in Ireland, whose stories and family lives aren’t anything exceptional and are no doubt similar to many others, yet Sally Rooney has turned this into an adorable and un-putdownable read. There’s something so sweet and yet bleak and dark about this story that I really struggled to put it down. The central characters of Connell and Marianne are well developed yet flawed, and I’m sure many people could relate to them. I really enjoyed the twists and turns and changes in their relationship as the story progressed. The book itself is for the most part well written. It has a good structure and I liked how each chapter skips ahead a few months. My only issue with the writing is that I dislike how the dialogue hasn’t been separated out from the rest of the narrative. Since when is it acceptable to not separate dialogue and conversation between characters using speech marks etc? It made reading some of the conversation a little difficult at times. I’m not sure why books that tend to win awards and accolades do so by having questionable punctuation and prose... I’m also not too sure about the ending. It was unsatisfying and felt like the characters were never going to change or advance. But despite this, I really did think this was a great book.
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Ivana A. | Diary of Difference (1171 KP) rated Beautiful Demons (The Shadow Demons Saga #1) in Books

Jul 20, 2018  
Beautiful Demons (The Shadow Demons Saga #1)
Beautiful Demons (The Shadow Demons Saga #1)
Sarra Cannon | 2016 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
8
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Nice YA Read
www.diaryofdifference.com

I used to read a lot of Young Adult, Fiction and Fantasy books before. My little sister mentioned to me a few weeks ago that she started reading this genre. I decided that it would be a good thing to join her in this adventure, and to read some of the books she's reading.

I have also asked for recommendations on the bookshelf that I made especially for this, and received so many responses. Thank you to all of you who contributed, and this is the list that we have now - Tea's Wishlist

Beautiful Demons is the first book of the Shadow Demons series.

It is a story about Harper Madison, an orphan, that went from one family to another, causing troubles all her life and on one occasion, unintentionally made fire and burned people to death. With no family willing to take her now, she has to go to Shadowford, a place for troubled orphan girls.

But what if everything happens for a reason? And why is this whole town so mysterious? Why, for the first time, she actually belongs somewhere?

Everyone in this town seems to be hiding something? And that is just the beginning…

Even though this book is quite short, I was actually amused as to how much it was able to cover. I was pulled in from the first chapter, and this kept me going until the last.

We have all seen the new girl, new town, new school, being bullied type of scenario, and the cheerleaders owning the school and dating the jocks. This is the same, except it isn’t. It is spiced up with mystery and magic, and cheerleaders are just a metaphor of all that lies behind it. I will only reveal this much - the moment you get accepted to become a cheerleader, your life changes. But that is also the moment you realise it's only the beginning.

I liked Harper's character, and how she was presented. Sometimes she was too naïve and vulnerable for her own good, sometimes a bit too reckless when she didn't have enough information and clues. She was though, a nice young girl example of making brave decisions, but also a bad example of making stupid decisions…

The plot twist in the end was amazing, and I could never see that coming.
I think the purpose of this book was to make a nice scene building for the next books in the series, and to raise our curiosity. A lot of questions were raised, and not many were answered, which proves my point.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this series, and will definitely be reading the next books.
  
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graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated What's a Ghoul to Do? (Ghost Hunter Mystery, #1) in Books

Feb 15, 2019  
WA
What's a Ghoul to Do? (Ghost Hunter Mystery, #1)
Victoria Laurie | 2007
4
6.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was really excited to read this book because I love the Psychic Eye Mysteries Victoria Laurie also writes. I'm not a picky reader, but I'm sorry, this didn't quite do it for me and I ended up very disappointed.

I was hoping they'd be different from the P. E. Mysteries, but still have similar elements of style. Even though I like romance, this book was supposed to be a mystery, hence A Ghost Hunter Mystery on the cover, but the mystery is thrown in around the rather awkwardly written romance between M. J. and Steven. I did think the first chapter was good because I thought M. J. would be different than Abby and more antisocial and a bit cranky (at least that's what I got from the first chapter), but then she ended up giggling throughout the whole book (seriously). What I like about the P. E. Mysteries are that they are fresh, fun, very well written, and the characters are (for the most part) believable. Not to mention, I got extremely tired of reading Steven's choppy English ('what do you say...?', 'Yes, that too', etc.), which made the dialogue even choppier and flatter than it already was, not to mention irritating as all get out. I don't know why V. L. couldn't have made him more fluent in English, especially since he was so well educated, it would only have been a small tweak in the plot. But I've noticed Ms. Laurie has a bit of a redundancy problem in her books, even if I do love Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye, which has the 'liar, liar, pants on fire' repetition, where when someone lies, Abby's 'inborn lie detector' goes off with that chant.

Overall, the dialogue was choppy, the plot and mystery were subpar, the characters were clichés and unbelievable (Doc was a nice addition though), and the whole book badly needed editing. I would not recommend this, although I'm sure many (as seen in the numerous four and five star ratings) would like this as it's not completely horrible; it's just not very fresh even if the subject is interesting. I haven't quite made up my mind if I'll pick up the next in the series.
  
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Janeeny (200 KP) rated A History of the World in 100 Objects in Books

Jun 10, 2019  
A History of the World in 100 Objects
A History of the World in 100 Objects
Neil MacGregor | 2012 | History & Politics
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Well formatted, brief chapters (0 more)
When I first read this I didn’t realise that this was a book to accompany a very successful radio show on BBC Radio 4, which is thankfully still available to listen to.
I’ve had this for 6 years and have been reluctant to read this as I have to be in the right frame of mind for certain non-fiction books. Especially ones that seem like they are going to be a stream of facts with not a lot of context, so “A History of the world . . “ pleasantly surprised me. This book isn’t weighed down with facts and history, the author doesn’t go into too much uneccesary detail or waffle on too much. He provides just enough information to peak your interest.

Each object has its own chapter, and each chapter is reassuringly only a few pages long and nicely segmented. Its a bite-size history of the era in which the object was made, the story of the finding the object, and a couple of ‘expert’ opinions on the objects impact on the world.

When I read Non-fiction I like to come away from the experience with a ‘Party fact’ (you know, that bit of useless trivia you tell people at social gatherings to either fill a silence or sound interesting) and I certainly got my fair share with this book.

My party fact would be the flood tablet, the story on the tablet tells the tale of a man who was told by his god to build a boat and load it with his family and animals because a deluge is about to wipe humanity from earth. The thing that made this stick in my mind was that it pre-dated the Noah story by about 400 years.

Of course, since reading I’ve looked into this and found out that there are many flood stories that pre-date Noah, but at the time I was thinking “How does the world not know about this?” “Does Richard Dawkins know about this?” A little research has prevented me from a social faux pas, but still it’s all intriguing.

The History of the world in 100 objects, does exactly what it says on the tin!
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