Smashbomb

A story that drops you right in to the action. The world building is believable and the characters are diverse. Considering that this was first published in 1988, there are characters of colour. gay and women in positions of unquestioned authority. None of this seems forced, the gay relationship isn't contrived, the leading female character, Rally, isn't over-bearing as so many strong female characters are often written in the past, and she is very competent and highly thought of by other characters in the book.
How this has slipped through the net, I will never understand. This deserves to be more widely known, and it is such a shame that the author didn't publish anything else that I know of or have been able to find. If she did, I would find it, read it and no doubt recommend it!
I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Bloomsbury Caravel, for my copy of the book and the opportunity to read and review it!

Kudos

Sarah (7800 KP) rated Going Postal in Books

Jul 25, 2017

Going Postal

Terry Pratchett | 2005 | Fiction & Poetry

9.2

(5 Ratings)

Book Rating

Sheer brilliance

I tried reading the first Discworld book (The Colour of Magic) years ago & I couldn't get into it. Skip forward to this year & a conversation with some of my learned Pratchett reading colleagues who advised that starting at Book 1 wasn't advisable & instead offered a few alternative starting points - Going Postal being the favourite.

All I can say is that I will be forever thankful for this book. Not only was it a fantastic way of getting into the Discworld series, but it is now among my favourite ever books of all time.

It's beautifully written - full of humour and wit. It's also a great alternative take on industrialisation and the introduction of the postal service. Moist Von Lipwig is a brilliant character, flawed but still loveable, and the supporting characters too all have their charms. Mr Pump especially raised quite a few laughs.

This is Pratchett at his best and if youre ever thinking about tackling the mammoth Discworld series, this is the place to start.

Kudos

Irene M (130 KP) rated The Really Quite Good British Cookbook: The Food We Love from 100 of Our Best Chefs, Cooks, Bakers and Local Heroes in Books

Dec 7, 2018

This is a good looking cookbook.

Sectioned into the usual courses, Breakfast, starters, fish, meat, pasta, and baking/desserts, each recipe has a crisp, clear looking instructions page and a full page colour image so you know what your finished dish should at least look like. A short description or tips from the chef is included, along with the standard prep/cook times and what skill level you might need (although most are easy to moderate)

A great mixture of chefs and bakers are included, may well known like Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson, many others will be known if you have watched programs like Masterchef and The Great British Menu and Great British Bake Off. Others I had never hear of before but I will go looking for them now.

Recipes of note included “black sesame seed ice cream” by Jordan Bourke … I have to admit I took a double take at the picture as it looked like a greyscale image. Grey ice-cream sounds most intriguing.