Karl’s Book Nook
I used to have ~400 books. When it came time to move back from the UK, I donated them all to a local school library. It’s surprisingly expensive to lug so many books from country to country. Sometimes I regret it, but then I realize it’s better not to have too much stuff slowing me down.
Now that I’ve been back for a little while, I find myself accumulating more and more. I go through phases where I decide to stick with ebooks only. I love my Kobo. I occasionally get the urge to feel real paper though, hence the picture above.
Unsolicited quick reviews by yours truly
I feel like ranting about some of my recent reads. So without further ado:
The Suffering, David Sodergren
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Wtf. The only thing that saved this from one star is the author noting old Italian nunsploitation horror as his motivation. In that respect, he was successful. Otherwise, I thought this was terrible.
A wounded girl is found near a convent just before they are cut off from the world by a brutal winter. With her arrival comes a disgusting evil that quickly spreads through the nuns.
It wasn’t the gratuitous gore, body horror, or “shock value” nun sex acts. It was the formulaic and predictable plot, mediocre prose, and unbelievably convenient stupidity of the protagonists. I just couldn’t take it seriously. Granted, I'm not sure we're supposed to, but still, it just wasn't enjoyable. I don’t think I’ll give this author another chance.
Train Dreams, Denis Johnson
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Proper lit, but boring. The conciseness and austere beauty of the prose is admirable, but I struggled to keep my eyes open. I refuse to be like the BookTok folks who wax intellectual about so-called high literature. Pulitzer finalist or not, I just didn’t feel much of anything.
However, I did appreciate the author’s intent. He captured the confusion and melancholy of a man in a rapidly changing America.
Terms of Enlistment, Marko Kloos
Rating: ★★★★☆
Military sci-fi at its finest. The social commentary isn’t as well done as something like Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, but that’s just an observation, not a critique. As a former soldier, the author injects the right amount of day-to-day realism. The banter, the grind, the bureaucracy – he nailed it.
The story follows a young “welfare rat” who manages to score a coveted spot in the military. It’s pretty much the only way out of a life of poverty in the ghetto. Anything more than that would be a spoiler, but needless to say, a lot happens over the course of eight books.
As an old grunt, I’m a sucker for well-written military “slice of life”. Call it nostalgia. I also love sci-fi, and while this isn’t hard sci-fi by any means, those elements are treated with care.
Incarnations, Susan Barker
Rating: ★★★★★
Set in Beijing just before the 2008 Olympics, it follows Wang Jun, a taxi driver who receives mysterious letters from a person claiming to be his soulmate. The letters detail their shared past lives across 1,000 years of Chinese history.
This might be my book of the year. Flashbacks and vignettes are the core narrative engine here. It’s hard to do that well, but Barker killed it. Every “life story” is incredible and engaging. The concept of reincarnation is expertly handled, resulting in multiple threads that come together in a brilliant and satisfying manner. The windows into Chinese history are fascinating and were clearly well-researched.
The Gone World, Tom Sweterlitsch
Rating: ★★★★★
This sci-fi thriller follows Shannon Moss, a secret NCIS agent in 1997 investigating a brutal family murder linked to deep-time space travel, multiverses, and an apocalyptic event known as the Terminus.
Gritty noir police procedural combined with existential horror? Count me in. This is a close second for my book of the year. Let’s be honest, time travel stories can get stupid, but this never crosses those lines. I couldn’t put this one down. I think the ending was technically well done, but I really wanted something different. The fact that I cared so much is testament to the strength of the narrative.
Go forth and read! It’s one of life’s simple pleasures.