The highlights since my last post include...
I re-read
Small Gods and
Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett. Wonderful stuff, as always.
Factfulness by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund. I've mentioned this elsewhere, but it's worth mentioning here, too. An excellent non-fiction book that I thoroughly recommend. If ever you're feeling as if the world is in decline, get a reality check by picking up this book: so many things are not as bad as most people believe them to be. If you rather video and audio, the
gapminder site carries a lot of the same information.
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. I was entertained. You can read more comments on the book club thread
here.
A Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket. This was disappointing. I know it's a kids' book, but most offer something for the adult too, but I found little here. 2/5.
Ransom by David Malouf. This, too, I found disappointing, despite having liked the previous works I've read from this author. This seemed like a short story stretched into a novella, and I got lost in the words - but not in a good way. 2/5.
Wake by Maia Sepp. This is the second
End Times story (first was a novella, this is a shortish novel), it was published second but comes first chronologically, although reading order is entirely optional (it seems to me). Think of it as a cosy apocalypse: climate change is bringing the world we know to an end, while the population tries to ignore it. (Sound familiar?) This is an entertaining if light story with the slowly building end of the world as a backdrop. Sepp is an author whose voice I enjoy, it's a shame she has not published more. 4/5. (P.S. I got my copy from Kobo some time ago, but apparently it's gone exclusive to Amazon since then.)