Colin Marks's Blog, page 9

Review: A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill

A Cosmology of Monsters is described as a literary horror novel,, which isn’t a bad description. The plotting is strong, especially for a first novel, but I found the writing style barren and unemotional. I got used to it by the end, but it did feel like I was ready a newspaper account rather than a literary novel.

The book keeps a sense of dread throughout, people keep disappearing, the tension is ratcheted up well. I was hoping for a big ending, which didn’t work for me. I was expecting exp...

Review: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Vanishing Half delves into identity – does colour, or sex, define you? Or is that just the given, and you can identify and become whoever you choose?

The book spans 30-40 years – following the lives of two young twins living in Jim Crow southern states, where being black means you can be killed without retribution. And as the title says, one of those twins decides it’s time to move on.

Well written, with believable characters and good voices, this is an excellent novel.

Book supplie...

Review: The Better Half: On the Genetic Superiority of Women by Sharon Moalem

Men have XY chromosomes, women have two Xs. That extra X gives women a level of redundancy if something bad happens, whether that be dodgy DNA or an infectious disease, the female body can chose between those two Xs and select the stronger. As a result, women live longer healthier lives.

Thats the jist of the Better Half but Sharon goes into various anecdotes and case studies, that though often go a bit too deep into medicine for a lay person, are always interesting. Some of the conclusions...

Review: The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry

I enjoyed The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep just not as much as I hoped I would. Theres a lot to like a large dose of fantasy, interesting characters, some good debate on Dickenss fiction but there was a lot I struggled with to.

The dialogue was too dense and too verbose, a sure sign that its forced and lacking reality. The same conversations were had multiple times, and each one could have been drastically reduced, so combined they became laborious.

Likewise the relationship between the...

I enjoyed The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep just not as ...

I enjoyed The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep just not as much as I hoped I would. Theres a lot to like a large dose of fantasy, interesting characters, some good debate on Dickenss fiction but there was a lot I struggled with to.

The dialogue was too dense and too verbose, a sure sign that its forced and lacking reality. The same conversations were had multiple times, and each one could have been drastically reduced, so combined they became laborious.

Likewise the relationship between the...

Review: Mindful Drinking: How Cutting Down Can Change Your Life by Rosamund Dean

I’ve been meditating now for a couple of years, and have been significantly over-drinking for three decades, so when Kevin Rose (a guy I have a lot of time for) mentioned this book on his podcast I thought I’d give it a try. One key aspect of this book is it’s not about stopping drinking, it’s about reducing your intake. I drink too much, but I like it, and though alcohol is a large part of my life which I have no desire to lose, I am happy to shed a few dozen units a week.

If you’re not into...

Review: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

I must admit this book was a disappointment. I normally love Man Booker shortlisted novels, but this became a slog. Independent (though loosely linked) chapters detail a specific woman – mostly black, mostly non-binary/LGBQT. Each chapter in isolation is well written and interesting. The problem is that with a dozen or so of them, without a running narrative or theme, it’s hard to feel emotion for the women and you end up not particularly caring about them. The book feels like poetry,...

Review: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck

This book is praised everywhere – from Tim Ferriss, Derek Sivers, Seth Godin, the list goes on, so it’s frustrating that I found it a huge struggle. The first half is full of trite, one-paragraph case studies that go along the lines of, “Timmy struggles to adapt, he’s got a fixed mindset”, “Evie likes to learn, she’s got a growth mindset,”, rinse and repeat for a hundred or so pages. The cases shoehorn in the mindset terminology, and were for too repetitive without adding any value. Halfway...

Review: Equal: A Story of Women, Men and Money by Carrie Gracie

This is an interesting book about Carrie Gracie’s battle to get pay equality at the BBC. I’m a strong believer in equality, whether that be religious, ethnicity, gender, or whatever, everyone should be paid on the merit of their output, and not by any other criteria. At the end of the book, Carrie lists some useful tactics that can be implemented by both employers and employees, and these certainly do have value.

My problem with this kind of book, hence the 4 stars and not 5, is that the...

Review: Body Tourists by Jane Rogers

Jane Rogers’ Body Tourists made me think of Kate Mascarenhas’s The Psychology of Time Travel. Both are traditionally male written genres, and the woman’s perspective gives it twists where a male author would be less likely to go. In Kate’s book, she dipped into what time travel would mean to relationships, how would you be paid, or copy with family deaths, interesting ideas. Body Tourists, likewise, explored relationships – what would you do if you could resolve that dispute you had with...