Lonely Planet Russia
Lonely Planet, Simon Richmond, Marc Di Duca and Marc Bennetts
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Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Russia is your passport to...
Lonely Planet Singapore
Lonely Planet and Cristian Bonetto
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Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Singapore is your passport...
Lonely Planet Southern Italy
Lonely Planet, Gregor Clark, Cristian Bonetto and Brendan Sainsbury
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Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Southern Italy is your...
Lonely Planet Sydney
Lonely Planet, Peter Dragicevich and Miriam Raphael
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Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Sydney is your passport to...
The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas
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The concept of the "public intellectual" has a rich and colorful history. It began in the early...
Democracy in Chains
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An explosive exposé of the right’s relentless campaign to eliminate unions, suppress voting,...
History Politics
Kaz (232 KP) rated The Wasp Factory in Books
May 15, 2019
This story is told by Frank, a 16 year old boy, who lives on a remote island in Scotland with his father. This is about Frank, his very dysfunctional family and trying to find his brother, who has escaped from a mental institution.
What I love about this book is the way in which Iain Banks writes characters. Frank is such a complex character that, although in essence he is an evil person, there are flashes of innocence and sensitivity about him, that you can't help but like him. One moment you feel like he is the only reasonable member of his family and then gradually, you realize his true character. Despite that, you feel sorry for Frank and the life that he has grown up in and the next, completely horrified by some of the things he does in the novel. He's not just a bad character, which in turn, makes him all the more believable.
I also liked some of the dark humour in this novel. Some of the more disturbing stories of Frank's family history were told in such a way, as to make them funny. I felt guilty for laughing at times, but I couldn't help it!
Away from the story itself, I liked how the novel comments on human nature's need for power and to overpower others. This idea is relevant in the areas of gender, politics and society.
This novel isn't plot driven, but character driven, so the story was a bit slow at times. However, I was not expecting the twist at the end.
This might not be for everyone, because it is so dark and at times, really intense. However, I thought this was a brilliant first read for 2019.
I would give this 5 starts, but I have to knock a point off, because this book dragged a couple of times.
Bring Up the Bodies
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Read our exclusive interview with Hilary Mantel +++ Read the novel as an ebook Man Booker...
Ali A (82 KP) rated Chaos & Flame in Books
Jun 7, 2023
Written in the alternating points of views of Darling Seabreak and Talon Goldhoard, Chaos & Flame tells the story of the two navigating House politics while also being caught up in the High Prince Regent’s unknown scheme as they tour around the kingdom to the other Houses.
This book took me a while to get into it - it’s slow to start, but by the end of it, I was invested in what was happening with the characters, so I will be picking up the second book in this duology. I'm very curious to see how the authors are planning on bringing out more with the boons and if those will change with what could be happening in the second book.
I was really interested in Caspian’s character and wish I knew more about what was going on in his head since everyone just marked him as “being mad” when in fact, he just had a whole other agenda.
I do wish we had more history of the world. The world building was fantastic but I felt like 100 years isn’t a whole lot to have passed since the last phoenix was alive and that even with that, there should still be people around who were alive back then - wouldn’t they know more and have maybe some insight?
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the insta-love between Darling and Talon, but it is YA and that’s typical YA romance so I’m not complaining all too much to be honest with you.
Overall, it was a slow build up to a good read and that I’m excited to continue reading when the next book in the series comes out (please don’t be too long!).
*Thank you Razorbill and BookishFirst for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
Lonely Planet Portugal
Regis St. Louis, Lonely Planet, Kate Armstrong and Anja Mutic
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Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet Portugal is your passport to...