2022 Catch-up Review: Origins (Book 3 of Heritage of Power)

Origins by Lindsay Buroker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Trip has always wanted to fly. It has been his dream, and he is content to be left alone as long as he can do what he loves. All his life, people have considered him odd, though. Over the course of the series we begin to discover, along with Trip, that he is far more than what he seems and what he believes he is.

Chockfull of Lindsay's usual repertoire of action scenes and banter, this series started out with a five star from me. However, as I've gone into each book after the first, the stars have been steadily decreasing. I enjoy Buroker, but I am beginning to find this storyline rather disturbing. While the main characters are interesting, and the romance between the main couple has a sweet and believable development, the background story of Trip is simply bizarre, and I can't take much more of it.

I'm saying goodbye to this series!

2022 Catch-up Review: Cascade Reviews

Idle Thoughts Of An Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I took my time over this book of essays, and I enjoyed them so much! There is nothing that Jerome writes that one cannot relate to, and he really does help one see the ridiculous in ordinary, everyday topics. I love how he laughs at himself, and there is always such a subtle thread of satire running through his essay, heavily cotton-wooled in fondness. There are, of course, his off-tangent forays into the poetical realm, and I loved them just as much -- perhaps even a little more than all his humour.

I know this is one set of essays I am going to be picking up again and again and again....I have done so, already!

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is heart-warming. The deep, gentle passion that it is written with spoke to me. A professor with his great love for mathematics passed on to a keenly sensitive and perceptive housekeeper and her son known as Root, throughout the novel, appealed to the teacher in me. This book if full of portions I would love to quote, and it opened up a world of mathematics to me that I have never experienced before. It is rare to find a teacher of maths who can bring out the mystery and beauty of number, and Ogawa did it so inspiringly in this novel.

Here, I am going to add a minor spoiler. The relationship between the three characters is so poignant. It took me awhile to understand how the detailed commentary of the baseball-play ranked so much importance along with the rest of the narrative. I believe, even now, I might not have understood it completely except that baseball was a common link between the professor, the housekeeper and Root, and also served as a stark reminder that the professor's memories were from before 1975, and he held none after that time.  

Escape From Java And Other Tales Of Danger by Ruskin Bond
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Stories of ordinary children caught up in real-life traumatic incidents and overcoming odds with valour. Simple yet effective writing.

 

View all my reviews Golden Curse by M. Lynn
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I skimmed through this one very quickly. It started out with a promising enough premise, and the language was fairly decent. But the characterisation fell terribly flat, especially with regard to the main characters, Etta and Alex. There was no consistency in their personalities, and every time they were on the page -- which was most of the time -- it was like going on a see-saw.

The way the details of the plot went forward could have been way better as well. I felt like pieces of the plot were just being dropped out of the middle of nowhere, almost like the writer suddenly remembered, in order to move on to the next incident, a certain piece of information must be known first and so 'pop' here is some random bit of story being thrown at you!

I find I am not interested at all in what happens next.

2022 Catch-up Review: Tales from the Café #2

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm just done with the first story, The Best Friend. I cannot describe what feelings it has left me with. It is something similar to some anime I have watched years ago that have a very mercurial and whimsical feel to them. My experience of Japanese writers (and anime I have watched in the past), though little, has brought me to this conclusion -- they acknowledge a world that exists apart from the physical realm. The spiritual realm plays an active part in the physical, and in acknowledging it they build stories that embrace the strangeness of these two worlds mixing.
Gohtaro wants to meet his best friend from the past, and though there is trembling mention of 'spooks' it is not so strange for them after all.

The sepia tones of the cafe, both in the present and the past, create the sense of the unreal, giving the story a rather dream-like quality. There are long moments of abject silence interrupted with sudden bursts of talk and laughter and energy that can be quite unsettling (not in a bad way).

The story itself (not counting the setting) was warm, full of forgiveness and hope, and the characters were just so...Japanese. I don't mean anything by that last comment except to say I could recognise these characters of few words and in-depth feeling from the quirky anime I have seen before.

I look forward to reading the rest of the stories, and updating this 'review'.

UPDATE: I read through this slowly -- story by story. This book was just special and nostalgic in a way. I loved these characters. They were so quiet and yet so real. 

I've got the first book in my cart right now. Looking forward to reading that one as well! It will give me a more wholesome view of the recurring characters in this book, and I look forward to re-discovering them backwards!! That should make for an interesting experience.

2022 Catch-up Review: Stella Riley Cascade Reviews

The Parfit Knight by Stella Riley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This popped up as a recommendation and the cover drew me to check it out a little closely. As someone who has enjoyed hours and hours within the pages of Georgette Heyer's Regency romances, my interest was piqued with it looked like this book might turn out to be written much along the same lines.

It has been enjoyable.

I might try out one or two more at a later date!




The Wicked Cousin by Stella Riley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It was disappointing. After the first one I had read, that I found so reminiscent of Georgette Heyer, I was expecting much of the same. However, it turned out...otherwise.

Riley writes well. But I discovered, on reading this book, that she really is not my cup of tea.

2022 Catch-up Review: Nonfiction Cascade Reviews

Memory How to Develop, Train, and Use It by William Walker Atkinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While I hadn't gone actively looking for a book on developing memory, I had been thinking of ways in which I could improve mine. I was a little worried that my mind was getting to be a bit fuzzy, and that I wasn't able to remember details from my day. This book was a happenstance.

I happened across it when looking for something to listen to from librivox. So, naturally, I took it up to listen during my car rides to and from work.

These minutes, while listening to Atkinson's treatise, have turned out to have been productively used! I have been gradually employing some of the 'natural' suggestions given, and I have begun to see a difference.

My key take-aways are:
Interest
Attention
Impressions
Review and / or Repetition

Reviewing my day, recalling what I've eaten, worn, said, people I've met and exchanged important words with, make my brain feel a little sharper. I have my own set of 'interests' I am looking into and have begun working on. Now, I only have to stick to this like glue!

A full five because this really was not a waste of time at all!

The Choice: The Christ-Centered Pursuit of Kingdom Outcomes by Gary G. Hoag
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book has been very insightful. I am eager to read it again piece-meal, and study it along with it's study questions at the back of the book.

My biggest take-aways from the perspective of deeper insight into a couple of things in the Bible, were the passages that dealt with our Lord's three temptations in the wilderness, and the rocks that brought forth water while Moses lead the Israelites.

Apart from these, there is much about true Christian leadership that gave better understanding about much.

2022 Catch-up Review: A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't really know what to say at the moment. I think I'm still processing what I've read. I like that the book takes up big ideas and tries to simplify them into something understandable through this story. How effective it can be, I am not entirely sure. Did it move me? No, not really. But it had me interested...very much so. I believe the major underlying theme of this book is that nothing is what it seems. The sense of 'sight' and the power of words appear to be detriments in the philosophy of the story -- detriments to true or complete understanding. It would have been nice if some of these ideas had been explored further. However, there is no getting away from the fact that this is a book meant for children, and perhaps this much is a great deal in itself.

The characters were not wholesome. Each of them was created to play a role, including the protagonist, Meg, and that is that. While this might have bothered me, it did not do so much as I was a lot more invested in trying to understand where the writer was going with all these ideas. I am not able to lay them all out here, though. My thoughts will not translate to words. Words do not seem enough and might end up only complicating what appears to be so simple in my mind -- much like one of the book's themes!

2022 Catch-up Review: The Admirable Crichton

The Admirable Crichton by J.M. Barrie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The title character is a butler in the household of an English Earl. He is the epitome of butler-hood and, very 'properly', believes in the hierarchy of society even into the servants' quarters of the Earl's estate. He serves his superiors with sincerity and aplomb. But Mary, the oldest daughter of the household, is keen and sharp, and fears that Crichton's beliefs might be foreboding, for, as he keeps saying, 'nature' brings about class in a society. And the rest of this play takes us through the unfolding of how this belief works. We are introduced to role-reversals and are given much food for thought through all the humour in this play. 

I first read this play back in senior high school and enjoyed it then, but with a recent re-read I found that so much I did not understand back as a teenager, makes so much more sense now -- and I enjoyed it again!

Definitely worth a read!