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ClareR (5874 KP) rated The Startup Wife in Books

Mar 20, 2022

I really enjoyed this satirical story of love and marriage in the setting of an app startup. It’s a book of two halves, really: a love story, and how you set an app is set up and start a business.

Computer scientist Asha, meets up with her high school crush, Cyrus, they fall in love and get married. Along with Cyrus’ friend Jules, Asha develops an app based on Cyrus’ beliefs. And the app really takes off - which is where the second part of the book kicks in.

Cyrus goes from reluctant participant in the venture, to being a guru who enthrals thousands of subscribers each day with his motivational webcasts. He IS the face of WAI, and Asha’s role is almost forgotten. Even when it becomes something of a phenomenon, Asha’s development and programming expertise is pushed aside to make way for her clearly more charismatic husband. The problem is, and this is what really started to put me off his character, Cyrus buys into his own charisma. He thinks he and the app are capable of doing far more than they realistically can do, and disaster awaits. If only they’d listened to Asha.

Asha is the loyal wife, but faced with being constantly undermined at work, and not being supported by Cyrus, things are bound to come to a head. And they certainly do! Everything that can go wrong, does!

I really liked the way that the author looked at how social media and apps should have a responsibility towards their users. People get carried away online, thinking that anything is possible, and social media can reinforce this.

I also think that the way that Asha was pushed out and her role trivialised was representative of many women in the workplace. In particular, the way that their investor ignored Asha in meetings, directing technical questions (her job) to the male partners.

Parts of this book really made me laugh, other parts showed the online world as trivial and shallow. It portrayed the dangers of trusting a programme with no human perception of situations. It’s a great book which not only entertained me, but really got me thinking.

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Sarah (7800 KP) rated The Passengers in Books

Apr 16, 2019

The Passengers

John Marrs | 2019 | Contemporary, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Thriller

9.3

(7 Ratings)

Book Rating

A highly entertaining, twist filled read

When I first started this book i was a little concerned. The plot about 8 hijacked driverless cars seemed a little thin to be able to stretch over such a long 400+ page book, hug as soon as I started reading it had me hooked.

The 400+ pages flew past in record speed, I just couldn't put this book down. What seemed a fairly similar plot was filled with intriguing and well developed character, as well as some fantastic twists and reveals that I never saw coming. It also features quite a serious commentary on social media and bias and even racism, and despite being set in a society slightly more technologically advanced than our own, you can see the truth in the issues highlighted here. You can also imagine our societies becoming similar to this one in the very near future, which is a very sobering thought. This really is a highly entertaining read, and it's not often I get so enthralled in a story to not see the twists coming!

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ClareR (5874 KP) rated Spring in Books

Apr 28, 2019

Spring

Ali Smith | 2019 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry

10.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

This is Britain now.

This book describes what it is to live in Britain in 2019. The previous two books in the seasonal quartet looked at the Brexit vote, Trump’s election, and this one seems to have a central theme of borders and immigration (although you could argue that immigration seems to have been an overarching theme so far).
There is so much going on beneath the surface in these books if you want to research and find out, but it is just a fascinating and exciting book to read just for the joy of reading it.
I loved the “What we want”, “Any time at all. Here take it. Take my face”, and “Now for 140 seconds of cutting edge realism” chapters. They reflect society today so well: how people hide behind social media and the internet to say whatever they want to without fear of any repercussions, and the violence behind what they say (both obvious and insidious).
Ali Smith is just so clever, and I love her books. I can’t wait to see what Summer will hold for us.

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Kaz (232 KP) May 26, 2019

I've been thinking about reading some of Ali Smith's work for a while now. I might give this book a go. Great review!

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ClareR (5874 KP) May 26, 2019

Thanks @Kaz ! She’s one of my favourite authors - and I haven’t been disappointed with any of her books yet!?

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Elli H Burton (1288 KP) rated Listening to the Animals - becoming the Supervet in Books

Jun 15, 2019

How honest Dr. Fitzpatrick is (0 more)

Nothing (0 more)

This man is amazing

Many of you will have seen The Supervet on TV. Perhaps not a full episode maybe just a clip on youtube or social media. If you are a lover of animals then this is the man for you. I'm not just recommending his book, I'm recommending watching his show also. I absolutely fell in love with this book and couldn't put it down, I felt as though Dr. Fitzpatrick himself was reading it to me. One of the few books that has actually made me laugh out loud and cry uncontrollably. I'm not a big biography fan however when I had my daughter my husband asked me what I wanted for a 'Mummy' present - I asked for this. We preordered it which I haven't actually done before with a book and I genuinely couldn't wait for it to come.
This is something I would whole heartedly recommend to anyone, it shows just how remarkable Noel Fitzpatrick is and how lucky the world is to have him.