Book reviews

[kangeiko]

With all that's been going on work-wise, I haven't really had much time for reading. So here's the few I did manage to finish:

The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman, p. 289

Comments

[mizzykitty]

Any recs for things that will make me cry? I'm in that sort of mood!

[kangeiko]

Hmm, crying books... you know, I don't know that many. Toni Morrison's Beloved is pretty upsetting, and Ursula Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness was both splendid and heartbreaking...

[alittlebriton]

I loved Night Watch, but I wasn't impressed with her portrayal of her male characters. But I adored Kay so so much. I thought Julia was cold and cruel, grrr.

And I love the Virgin in the Garden! It helps if you read the sequence - I started on Still Life which is the next one and I thought it was so beautiful that I read everything else by her. So try Still Life? It's shorter.

[kangeiko]

I have to say, I've read a few of Byatt's books, and I just don't think I get on with her. I preferred the cover art to Angels and Insects to what was between the covers, and I didn't get on with Possession either. I'm thinking she's one of those authors I'm gonna have to leave on the bookshelf. :(

[jenepel]

I really loved Night Watch. I thought the backwards narrative was really interesting, especially since I didn't realise it was done that way until after I finished the first part. And then I thought it might be flashbacks, and then I kept going and finally realised that what I had known at the start was the end. For me it created a feeling of wanting to know what was next that was much stronger than in a normal linear storyline. She does tend to write lovely twisty and unexpected timelines in all her books, but that was definitely taking it to a new level.

[kangeiko]

This was the first book of hers I'd read, so I wasn't sure what to expect. If her other ones are this stylistically satisfying I shall have to check them out.