I liked this book best in the Liveship Traders trilogy and found it to be a thoughtful and well-realized conclusion, with just the right amount of teaI liked this book best in the Liveship Traders trilogy and found it to be a thoughtful and well-realized conclusion, with just the right amount of tease for the Tawny Man series.
The Liveship Traders started off very slowly for me, and throughout the 2,500+ pages of this trilogy I never quite found myself swept away or wowed. But there is no doubt that Robin Hobb is a fantastic writer; she writes so eloquently that the pages fly by. One of my biggest regrets for this series is that the Liveship characters were harder to like than the Farseer characters. Somehow I managed to stay pretty detached from Althea, Brashen, Vivacia, Kennit, Paragon, Malta, Reyn, Ronica, Keffria, Kyle, the serpents, et al, though there was certainly plenty of character development throughout the events of these books. They just didn't make me feel very much.
I liked the pacing of this one much better than the first book, which took 450 pages to really get started. It still didn't suck me in like o3.5 stars
I liked the pacing of this one much better than the first book, which took 450 pages to really get started. It still didn't suck me in like other fantasy books. Some of the characters here are wonderful; some still feel very young, like a YA fantasy.
However, one of the scenes - the one when Kennit and Wintrow visit Others Island - was absolutely stunning in the way it was imagined, written and told. Breathtaking. Masterful. I could feel the rain beating down on me and my heart was in my throat.
I'm not shouting from the rooftops about this series, but I do think Robin Hobb is a wonderful writer and I'm definitely in for Liveship Traders #3 and the end of this trilogy!
A sample of the writing that I loved:
"Everyone thinks that courage is about facing death without flinching. But almost anyone can do that. Almost anyone can hold their breath and not scream for as long as it takes to die. True courage is facing life without flinching. I don't mean the times when the right path is hard, but glorious at the end. I'm talking about enduring the boredom, and the messiness, and the inconvenience of doing what is right." - Althea
"No, you stop. Stop thinking you're the son your father disowned. You're not who he expected you to be; that doesn't mean you aren't somebody. Nor are you perfect. Stop using every mistake you make as an excuse to fail completely." - Althea...more
I just... lost interest completely toward the end, around page 350. I'm sure the end was full of twists, and I skimmed some parts, but wasn't intrigueI just... lost interest completely toward the end, around page 350. I'm sure the end was full of twists, and I skimmed some parts, but wasn't intrigued enough to properly read it. The so-called banter between the Fontes was juvenile and painful to read. This is just too young for me, and it was too long. Emily Thiede, you lost me....more
This is one of the weirdest reading experiences I've had. I went into starting the Liveship Traders series with high hopes, as I was a big fan of the This is one of the weirdest reading experiences I've had. I went into starting the Liveship Traders series with high hopes, as I was a big fan of the Farseer Trilogy (although Book 3 really disappointed me). I hated the first 450 pages of Ship of Magic. Absolutely hated them and thought every time about quitting the book. But something about Robin Hobb's writing just pulls me in, and so I persisted.
The first 450 pages are slow. The characters are not very interesting. It reads more like a YA fantasy book than an adult fantasy. There's none of the characters who are instantly intriguing and with whom you fall in love, like in the Farseer Trilogy. But once the book finally gets going, there are enough threads of interest there that kept me reading, and once I was halfway through the book, I was much more engaged. I wouldn't say the book did an about-face, because I still don't really like the characters, but, what can I say? Robin Hobb is a master.
It definitely wasn't a perfect read, and the world of pirates and ships is not as interesting to me as a classic fantasy like the Farseer Trilogy, but I'm going to continue the series. Already bought book 2!...more
Really enjoyable both in terms of the warm tone, which keeps it fun to read and less pedantic, and the advice, which is dispensed in a very practical Really enjoyable both in terms of the warm tone, which keeps it fun to read and less pedantic, and the advice, which is dispensed in a very practical way.
I'm sure it sounds much easier when Tracy says it than when you have to put it into practice (and make sure your partner is also on board), but she really does give you the confidence that you can figure this out/manage with a new baby, and you can correct mistakes you make in the beginning. Be prepared for furious note-taking/sticker marking....more
Cusk is a wonderful writer. Every time I picked up the book (which I never felt compelled to do), I found myself absorbed totally in its page3.5 stars
Cusk is a wonderful writer. Every time I picked up the book (which I never felt compelled to do), I found myself absorbed totally in its pages. This is a book that lends itself to analysis. For example, the idea of being a visitor in a museum, looking at paintings of things you yearn for on the walls, out of reach, comes up more than once. I'm sure that careful reading would reveal a lot of other interesting connections in these vignettes, beyond the more obvious recurring topics such as the death of a marriage and the start of a new relationship, or the renovation of a home, parenthood, adoption and belonging, and isolation.
I did not love this book, but I admired it, and I enjoyed it more than Outline....more
A rather disappointing end to this trilogy, seeing as I loved Assassin's Apprentice and Royal Assassin. I'm still giving it 3 stars for the fantastic A rather disappointing end to this trilogy, seeing as I loved Assassin's Apprentice and Royal Assassin. I'm still giving it 3 stars for the fantastic scope of Hobb's imagination, her prose, and the fact that I love this world that she has created, BUT I had high hopes for Assassin's Quest and I felt this book did not do the trilogy justice. I would have much preferred Hobb scrap 90% of the first 400 pages and use those pages to lead us into battle - Elderlings vs Red Ships. The fact that this - the entire point of this trilogy - was tidily summed up in a chapter at the end was absolutely disheartening and disrespectful to the fans who had traversed thousands of pages to reach this point.
We needed more action, more battles, more saving the Six Duchies than Fitz's hideously dull tromp across Farrow to the Blue Lake while disguised as a shepherd (yes, it's as boring as it sounds), following a mountain path on an ancient map (where all the action happened in dreams/Skilling and not while on the road), and the literally chipping away of stone to create a dragon. These repetitive tasks consumed hundreds of pages of this book, not to mention other such activities stirred, shaken, and repeated dozens of times, like Fitz dipping in to Skill-visit Molly, Nettle and Burrich, and Fitz and Nighteyes hunting.
Mostly, though, I missed the characters I had grown to love. For the first 400 pages of the book, Fitz is practically alone. Burrich and Chade make appearances, but not in a satisfactory way. And in the last half of the book, the weariness of their journey and the position they have been put in make beloved characters like The Fool, Kettricken and Verity shadows of themselves.
While there were a few shining moments at the end, mostly I felt robbed of the ending I wanted and which I know Hobb could have brilliantly delivered....more
A magnificent continuation of the series that builds on the intricacies of the Six Duchies' political web while deepening our understanding o4.5 stars
A magnificent continuation of the series that builds on the intricacies of the Six Duchies' political web while deepening our understanding of its main players.
Fitz's relationship with Molly feels like nothing more significant than teenage obsession, but this is obviously leading somewhere and there is no doubt Molly still has a role to play. However, Nighteyes was an excellent new character and Hobb's further exploration of both the Skill and the Wit - and those who wield these gifts - was intriguing.
Skillful plotting and Hobb's willingness to take on the high stakes that have been gambled by the main players (rather than continue to milk them for more books) makes the end superbly thrilling and masterfully executed - it's a spectacular finale to a very satisfying installment in the series....more
I previously read and enjoyed her book The Dinner List, which had its fair share of flaws, but ended up beRebecca Serle does not write perfect books.
I previously read and enjoyed her book The Dinner List, which had its fair share of flaws, but ended up being a fairly emotional and thought-provoking read. It's based on a simple premise - if you could invite any five people to dinner, who would they be? - and then takes off from there into a mix of reality and fantasy.
Similarly, In Five Years has the appearance of being a light read, but digs in much deeper, touching on heavy topics that might have you tearing up. This book, too, starts with a simple premise - where do you think you'll be in five years? - and then proceeds to blow the roof off of what protagonist Dannie Kohan is so certain her future contains.
However.
The execution of this book had me grinding my teeth in frustration. While I admit that I flew through it, helped along by incredibly short chapters (often just 3 pages in an already short book - Serle moves through five years of plot in 250 pages), I found this book to be pretty glaringly upper-middle-class privileged white people of New York material. This doesn't often bother me, and I don't particularly seek out diverse books, but in this book, it did. There is a LOT of materialism in this book, and a lot of it is around food. There is food mentioned on every page. All these people do is eat out and order in, and we hear about every single meal, every item ordered, and all the previous times these characters met and ate in the same place. For God's sake, when her fiance is meeting her in Bryant Park for lunch, we even hear from Dannie about the proximity of two restaurants to the park and why it makes sense that they order from them. There are also ridiculous lines about spending $700 on dinners ("oh well") and buying $3000 wedding dresses within 10 minutes of being in the store (and then fantasizing about ordering a custom Oscar de la Renta wedding dress, no matter the cost). This kind of talk bores me to death. I really don't care where they ate, how much they spent, and how much they earn, how much it cost to renovate their apartment, that their suit was Theory and their boss wore custom Armani, and that they have been sneaking Botox injections behind their fiance's back since the age of 29 (I'm not making any of this up - it's all in the story) - this is all seriously irritating padding. And that padding was a good 15% of the words in this book - that is not an exaggeration.
The food/spending comments are just an indication of the type of people we are talking about. The ones who fly to Paris for a weekend on a whim, and buy apartments in Manhattan while in their 20s. I'm not saying that they do not have substance, because - even if they are a bit cliched - the characters are fine. I just hate that their lives revolve around these cliche New Yorker activities. But then again, maybe they are just that shallow.
I really loved the premise of the book, but unfortunately it didn't live up to its promise. I'm a sucker for Sliding Doors-type stories about alternative paths in life, and this one had a great moment when Dannie wakes up, five years into the future, in a place and with a man she doesn't recognize at all. This part was really well done. It was getting to that point in time, five years down the road, that was full of Hamptons summers and endless lunches/dinners that drained the excitement from the story. Dannie is dreading this December 15th date so much that she'll tell you all about the tip they left at the Greek diner on West 29th Street rather than actually put her feet forward and get there.
Once she does get there, the ending wasn't what I was expecting. I don't think Serle got it wrong, but it was much less romantic than I thought it would be. ...more
While I must applaud Yuval Noah Harari for his clarity of thought, his curious mind, and his deep thinking about Big Issues, personally I found this tWhile I must applaud Yuval Noah Harari for his clarity of thought, his curious mind, and his deep thinking about Big Issues, personally I found this to be a little boring. The parts on Power, Justice and particularly Immigration were excellent. Some of the other chapters fell short for me, specifically the last chapter - Meaning - during which Harari uses The Lion King film as the example upon which to base much of the message. I found there to be a lot of repetition throughout, and not in a good way. The same ideas and language continued to echo through many of the chapters....more
This was a little bit too sincere and earnest for me. No snappy banter, no comedy. The "oh dear"-ness of it became tiresome very early on. T 1.5 stars
This was a little bit too sincere and earnest for me. No snappy banter, no comedy. The "oh dear"-ness of it became tiresome very early on. The protagonist is one of those timid, guilt-ridden, hand-wringing types who can't speak up for herself - this is not the kind of person you really want to follow through 400 pages.
Also, like with most romantic dramas, the book has to start off with a bang. This one manages to achieve a trifecta - someone getting hit by a bus, someone going into a long-term coma, and a wedding day jilting by the corseted up bride - all within 30 minutes. It was just too cliché, and the rest of the book never took off.
I read the first 200 pages and skimmed to the end just to see if the conclusion was as obvious as it was set up to be (it was). This one goes nowhere. There's nothing horribly wrong with the writing, but I would not recommend it....more
I'm a little conflicted about this memoir. Overall, this book is very well-written. Dani is a very sophisticated writer and her words are a pleasure tI'm a little conflicted about this memoir. Overall, this book is very well-written. Dani is a very sophisticated writer and her words are a pleasure to read. But these other elements, described below, prevented me from being able to fully enjoy the book.
Inheritance was very compelling in places - but only when Dani was moving forward in her journey to uncover her paternity. The sections in which Dani ruminates on her internal conflicts and her past were much weaker for me.
While self-reflection is a critical element of this story, and of this situation, I felt that these sections became repetitive. Dani seemed to waver on her position, but not in an understandable way, because she was still weighing things, but in a conflicting way using very decisive language. Her conclusions about paternity and her position on her father's family conflict in multiple sections throughout the book so that, now that I've finished it, I still don't know where she stands.
All memoirs are self-centered, but Dani was either trying to pad the pages to reach 250 or she's a little more self-consumed than most. It wasn't interesting, for example, that she took a personality test and she thinks her half-sister might register as having the same results. It's not like her half-sister takes this test and they both, miraculously, have the same result. She wonders if personality is comprised of inherited traits (well, yeah). And she likes to stress that only 1% of people have this personality diagnosis. She talks a lot about herself in a way in which you can see she views herself as someone very unique and special - whether it's her name (apparently she is the only person in the Social Security registry with this name - ever) or her upbringing in which she was "a girl who could have gotten food from the Nazis" in a family of darker, Orthodox Jews. This is a repeated theme throughout and seems to form the basis of Dani's identity - I am different. With her newfound paternity, she has to rearrange this conception of herself, but she still does it in a way that keeps her categorized an "outsider", "unique", that "1%".
There are also a lot of weird, out-of-context references to Dani's career and her previous books - that was a little pushy. She is clearly writing this memoir for herself, to understand her own journey, to redirect her own narrative, but it's unclear why some of these bits made it past the editor's pen and remained in the book when they only served to turn off and/or bore the reader.
Lastly, I have to say I was ultimately very confused by her reaction to her Jewishness. Dani's mother was still her mother - she's genetically 52% Ashkenazi Jew. And as every Jewish person knows, being Jewish is carried through the matrilineal line. So even if Dani's father is not her biological father, she is still Jewish and still considered to be fully Jewish. Every rabbi with whom she consults confirms this. Yet this is only mentioned once in 250 pages and her newfound paternity seems to throw all of this out the window as she spends the 249 other pages soul-searching and seeming to question whether she is still Jewish or if everything she learned, from the Hebrew prayers to the synagogue Saturdays, was a "lie". Why would it have been a lie? Suddenly she is baking Christmas cookies. Suddenly the people on her wall, her ancestors - Orthodox Jews from Poland who she has looked up to all her life - are "alien" to her. I just really do not understand this. Why does this new reality throw her into a religious crisis and make her question everything about the way she grew up if she is still Jewish and these people still accept her, including her religious leaders and her father's family members? ...more
2.5 stars - I thought that for the most part this book was quite boring. There is almost no sense of urgency, no sense of mystery, and the telling is 2.5 stars - I thought that for the most part this book was quite boring. There is almost no sense of urgency, no sense of mystery, and the telling is very "clinical" for the first 3/4 of the story. Towards the end, I found myself more wanting to get it over with than come to any understanding about Alicia Berenson (the author actually managed to make me not care about why she kept silent).
However, the end did keep me thinking for a good half-hour after I finished the book, hence the round-up to 3 stars. I wasn't blown away, but I did appreciate afterwards how the author put this complex end together. There are still a lot of questions in my mind (for example, (view spoiler)[why weren't Theo's fingerprints on the gun? (hide spoiler)]) and I think some of the threads in the story were totally extraneous (the weed smoking), but what's most puzzling about this book is the totally insane number of reviews and the stellar rating. I found this to be very average as far as modern-day thrillers go, not more or less impressive than the average offering and very typical of the British mystery style of writing....more
I finished this book 4 days ago and can't stop thinking about it. Throughout the reading, I felt disgusted and put off by the smarmy tone of the narraI finished this book 4 days ago and can't stop thinking about it. Throughout the reading, I felt disgusted and put off by the smarmy tone of the narrator with his obsequious tone. The conceit of Changez, the narrator, telling his background to a random American in a Pakistani cafe became grating, especially as the hours advance and his story becomes stranger and more extreme. I really didn't like the book and I thought I'd give it 2 stars.
I'm dying to talk about it with someone - Americans (many of whom I think will feel as uncomfortable with this book as I did) and non-Americans. There is so much to unpack here. How Changez, who is Pakistani and was accepted to Princeton on a full scholarship, rejected the America that embraced him. How he did that only after 9/11. How not only America's attitude toward him changed, but also how he changed his attitude toward America before America changed its attitude - so were his colleagues' reactions to him due to his reaction to his colleagues? Or was his colleagues' shift a generalized reaction towards all Muslims?
All of this is mirrored in his relationship with Erica (who someone pointed out is cleverly AMErica). This part of the story really intrigued me, much more than the "we Asians were once kings", "we were sipping tea while you were a collection of pathetic colonies", "Americans are rude and disrespectful" rhetoric. I found it so hypocritical - he waxes on about the glories of his nation and then sharply criticizes America for putting out flags after 9/11 as if we had just won WWII, feeling as if he's traveled back in time. It was also unbearably cruel after he had been so utterly embraced by classmates and colleagues alike, living the golden life in complete privilege. He had been gifted the silver spoon by a country that wasn't his own, through his hard work and merit, yes, but also through generosity and a welcoming spirit, and rejected it outright.
And that ending... it just leaves things wide open. What do you think happened? How much is it based on your own prejudice? I like that it's open to interpretation and speculation - this is the best part of the whole novel. Was Changez about to be detained by the American security agent he'd been talking to all evening, who was obviously sent by the US gov't to track him due to his anti-American protest activities, as Changez voices he fears during his narrative? OR... did Changez, aware that the US gov't would send an agent to track him, latch onto the American man, lure him into the cafe where he had back-up (the waiter, who might not even be a waiter) and then did Changez and his back-up then pull a gun on/kidnap/beat up the American man?
In the end, does it even matter? Whatever happened - America detained another Pakistani muckraker, or the Pakistanis lured and assaulted US forces - this is just another back-alley occurrence in a dangerous city somewhere in Asia with a strong Muslim influence, and this happens all the time. Every hour of every day. It is not even remarkable. You will never hear about it in the news. And maybe that is the point of the ambiguous ending. It's not even worth mentioning because it's all too common.
Read it back when it was first published and a group of friends in Tel Aviv were passing it around based on the effusive recommendation of a Scotsman Read it back when it was first published and a group of friends in Tel Aviv were passing it around based on the effusive recommendation of a Scotsman named Matthew. It is definitely not in my usual reading wheelhouse, but I remember enjoying it quite a lot. Highly-intelligent, fun and different....more
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