Tag: Review

  • The Stolen White Elephant

    This was the first of Mark Twain that I read. I know – I’m hopeless behind on American Literature, I blame my education which failed to discuss any of it. (Truth be told, we also skipped from Jane Austen right to the WW1 poets because my English teacher couldn’t stand Charles Dickens…) Four little stories… →

  • Roman Holiday

    #TimeTravelTuesday Another short to accompany the main St Mary’s series. While it’s perfectly possibly to follow the series without reading the short stories, I would certainly recommend them as it provides you with some extra adventures and postpones the inevitable moment where you’ll have to return to the normal, non-time traveling world. Expect everything you’ve… →

  • The Death of Ivan Ilyich

    The Death of Ivan Ilyich covers his sickness and ultimately his death in a form of Russian fatalism. The topics is rather heavy and I can’t say I enjoyed reading it, but it was written very well and I liked that. It have read Tolstoy before so I already knew of his talents with words,… →

  • Mrs. Dalloway

    I have been reading some Virginia Woolf this year. It started with Flush, which was included in the Little Black Classics, followed by an essay on reading, and now I just tackled one of her most famous novels: Mrs. Dalloway – because it was recently featured on the Pigeonhole. It follows Mrs. Dalloway during a… →

  • To Be Read at Dusk

    This didn’t really work for me, unfortunately. I often don’t know what to do with the Victorian ghost-stories, since by our standards, they are hardly scary (but I guess they were for their time). In this edition however, were three stories and I felt they could perhaps have been a little longer and the ending… →

  • How To…

    How to … Read This Review? Traditionally one would open the website or perhaps the app and simply read the review I am about to write. But what if you prefer something more unconventional, or maybe you have been staring at screens more than enough lately, but would still like to know what it says.… →

  • Hannibal

    Whenever I read about Troy, I cannot help but root for the Trojans. The same goes with Hannibal – I guess I prefer the underdog. This account is of course not really an objective account as history is written by the victors, and Livy being Roman didn’t help of course. This is just a short… →

  • Invisible Women

    When I was visiting London just before the lockdown, Invisible Women was everywhere! Of course, I had to bring it home. As a scientist, I was extremely pleased with all the research that went into Invisible Women. It is immediately clear that this is very well researched and that Caroline Criado Perez’s claims on (unwilling)… →

  • The Sea Raiders

    A Slip Under The Microscope – another Little Black Classics, was still the only work of H.G. Wells I have read so far. Maybe, I should have read more, considering that I like science fiction a lot. The three stories that were included in the Sea Raiders, with deep-sea creatures taking it out on a… →

  • Death’s End

    I feel bad for taking so long to finish Death’s End. But for me, I consider this no light reading and usually this results in me reading when I have more time to really sit down and read – basically during a vacation. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the series. It is… →

  • The World is Full of Foolish Men

    A collection of moralistic fables from the french author Jean de La Fontaine, which didn’t really work for me. I thought the moralistic part of it was a bit too obvious and I prefer it to be a little bit more subtle. I was also not familiar with these (as I have been with the… →

  • The Dark Forest

    When I read The Three Body Problem some time ago, I was engrossed in the story and was heavily looking forward to The Dark Forest. I really wanted to finish it in 2017* but there were moments where I was not so sure about that. *I managed to finish it December 31! I would not… →

  • The Body Politic

    This is one of these editions that are mostly interesting for the historical importance, in this instance the French revolution. As such, I thought it was interesting to read some of it (just like most of the more political works in the Little Black Classics collection – but I would not pick up a more… →

  • The Thief of Time

    This was my first John Boyne book after The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which is really well-known. His other books are far less popular, but I can’t see why, as John Boyne turned out to be one of my favorite authors. One of the things I like best, besides the style and pacing of… →

  • Lady Susan

    For my Austen I read Pride and Prejudice in school because I had to, and it has left a bad taste, so I never returned to Austen – even though I know everyone loves the books. I wasn’t really looking forward to Lady Susan, but I was actually very pleasantly surprised by this little novella… →

  • A Second Chance

    #TimeTravelTuesday Returning to St Mary’s already feels like a long awaited return home, even as I’m bingereading my way through the series. I’ve seldom had so much fun just with the characters as they really are what make the series stand out. And normally, I’m really not much of a bingereader myself (don’t get me… →

  • Speaking of Siva

    I am sure that a lot was lost here in translation, and on top of that the poetry was very religious in theme. This is something I never really like in the first place, but it also became slightly boring even in this short collection of poems. I think this was not for me. Speaking… →

  • The Three-Body Problem

    A three-body system is chaotic, unpredictable and the tiniest of perturbations can cause massive effects… When I first saw The Three-Body Problem I was immediately intrigued, not just by the synopsis but also Chinese SF. I haven’t really read anything like it. It sounded interesting and I wanted to try it. I’m so glad I… →

  • The Madness of Cambyses

    History has had its shares of crazy kings/rulers, and the Persian king Cambyses most certainly was one of them. Herodotus was a large part of our end-work for Greek in school, so I read quite some of his histories, but in Greek, before. The Madness of Cambyses is not as famous as for examples Croesus… →

  • The House in the Cerulean Sea

    Originally I had put this down for 4.5 stars, but I needed some time to think it over and in the end I felt like 4 stars would suit my opinions better. Nevertheless this was a great read and one of the few I was talking about at work (I need to choose my books… →

  • O Cruel Alexis

    One thing I have learned from the Little Black Classics – Pastoral is not my thing. I can’t stand the naivety and more. This collection of Pastoral poems from Virgil was up against some very bad odds for me to like it. The fragments included were rather random and the poetry didn’t seem that inspired.… →

  • Dorothy Must Die

    A small disclaimer at the start: I am not that familiar with the original Oz stories. I have learned some snippets from the recent movie about Judy Garland and -strangely- You and saw the musical The Wiz during lockdown but I am in no position to catch all the references in this work, so I… →

  • Kansyan from the Beautiful Lands

    I couldn’t help but think these two stories were rather pointless. It felt to me as if the writer was going to make a point or a plot at some point, but it sort of sizzled out before it could be made. Perhaps this was the aim, to show how many events will not have… →

  • Redshirts

    Redshirts was right up my alley. I want to put the spotlights to the side characters, like in Patrick Ness’ The Rest of Us Just Live Here, and the side characters are usually preferred over the mains in almost any series I read/watch. Why didn’t I read Redshirts earlier in that case? Well, I have… →