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Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea in Books

Nov 15, 2017 (Updated Nov 15, 2017)

Unflinching tales from North Korea

The Accusation shines a light on the dark half of the Korean peninsula with stories that are as readable as they are important. Written by a North Korean dissident still living in the country, the book is extremely unique - the manuscript having been smuggled out of the country by a fleeing relative.

Bandi, (not his real name) focuses on the period between 1989 and 1995 when Kim il-Sung and Kim Jong-il were in power. Seven short stories, each pointing an accusing finger at the ruling regime, shine a light on North Korea's truly fathomless darkness. While most of the stories are fictional, they are based on real events, but names have been changed to protect identities. It is almost Orwellian in nature, it's unbelievable that there is a place in the world where 1984 is a reality.

The seven stories aptly convey the hardships and constant trauma that people face in a country cut off from the rest of the world. Written with deep emotion and elegance. A sensational read.

Kudos

Sobolev Spaces, Their Generalizations and Elliptic Problems in Smooth and Lipschitz Domains

Mikhail S. Agranovich and Olga Sipacheva

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

This book, which is based on several courses of lectures given by the author at the Independent...

Neurogenetics

Christine Klein, Carolyn M. Sue, Alexander Munchau and Kishore R. Kumar

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Book

Aims To some, the field of neurogenetics appears perplexing and indecipherable. In this volume, we...

LilyLovesIndie (123 KP) rated The Trust Casefiles in Books

Nov 5, 2018

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author in return for an honest review, and I am pleased to say I very much enjoyed it.

It is, what reads like, a collection of stories which are based on a 'Trust' who protect the humans by destroying vampires and other supernatural beings. There are lots of different types of vampires mentioned, as well as lots of different 'agents' for the Trust.

The book has many positive aspects which make it a very good read, however there are a couple of areas that, with minimal work, could make this book much better and easier to read. Firstly, it's necessary to point out that it's not, in my opinion at least, an easy read. The snippets don't always seem to flow on from each other, and this can make it quite confusing as a reader. In addition, I feel there are too many characters to keep up with and the major characters could just do with a little more development earlier on in the book to encourage the reader to engage and invest more emotion in them from the early pages.

That being said, there are many positive aspects that are a credit to Cushing. Perhaps the best of these is the variety of vampires covered in this book. The imagination necessary to create not only one unique brand of vampires for a book, but to create a huge variety, and making out that they are as diverse as humans is a novel concept that I've not encountered in such detail before. The fact that Cushing also dabbles into other supernatural beings as well makes this book a must read for those interested in traditional stereotypes of supernatural creatures.

In addition, I feel huge credit has to be given for the plot in this book. Although not entirely easy to follow throughout, the amount of twists and turns that Cushing has included is admirable. Each chapter delivers something new and very fresh to the story, and that's something few books manage. Personally, it needs to be just a bit more careful in the plot structure, and a few more signposts are needed to really help the reader find their way through the book a little easier, but it is immensely enjoyable to read.

In conclusion, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes traditional vampire tales with a twist. It's a fast paced book with plenty of action and a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a few hours!

Kudos

Sarah (7800 KP) rated Goodreads: Book Reviews in Apps

Nov 3, 2017

Goodreads: Book Reviews

Book, Social Networking

8.8

(453 Ratings)

App Rating

Fantastic for book worms

For anyone who loves to read, this app is a must. It has a very friendly user interface that lets you keep track of the books you read and also those of your friends, as well as quick and easy ratings and reviews.

I love that it gives you the option to choose books to add to your "to read" list and it does well in tracking the ones you're currently reading and the dates when you start and finish. Very helpfully, it also gives you the option to create your own shelves and I use this to keep track of the books I own - very useful!

Other features too work well, like reading suggestions, groups and even the Goodreads book awards. My favourite feature those is the Goodreads book challenge. It's such a fun thing to set yourself a reading challenge for the year and it easily tracks your books to make sure you're on track.

The app works really well, especially on Android, although my only criticism is that sometimes the search functionality doesn't bring back the results you'd immediately expect based on your criteria.