Review: Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As an avid reader, it is of some embarrassment to me that along the way, I missed reading anything by Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters. When I Facebook-confessed this, I was led to this book. It was a fun read. I found myself staying up late to find out what would happen in certain chapters, and laughing out loud at times. Like the experience of watching Downton Abbey, I found this to be more relatable than I expected, and the characters more complex than I gave them credit for at first blush. While I'm not sure I'd subsist on a diet exclusively of old English literature, I will certainly pick up another Austin (or Bronte) in the future.

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Review: The House of the Spirits

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a truly amazing book. Every time I read something by Allende, I'm reminded not to be intimidated, rather to feel invited, for she is such a gifted writer. This book is a saga about a family who is touched by the supernatural, but in the magical realism way that great Latin American authors seem able to introduce without distraction. The patriarch is a large landowner who provides both a great and terrible life for those who serve him. He marries a women whom he loves his entire life, though she can't forgive him for certain things during their marriage. Their daughter and granddaughter are equally enthralling characters, and introduce modernity into the family, ultimately making revolutionary changes to its structure, and to the world around them. What a great read!

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Review: The Buried Giant

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was a very strange book, and I have a hard time giving it a star rating. It starts with an older couple, living in England - sort of - in a fairyland time, but amongst some historical figures. There is a mysterious mist that removes people's memories, and they have only a hazy sense that they had a son, and no real memory of how or where to find him. Nevertheless they set off to his village, encountering soldiers, goats, mountains, dragons, and descendants of King Arthur's Court on their journey. The story was quaint at times, and horrifying at other times, and some reviews I read said it was not just an adult fairy tale, but a meditation on memory and loss. Sorry, I didn't get there with it - I found the book a bit of a slog and was unsurprised at some of the most important plot turns.

Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize for Literature while I was reading this, so I'm willing to bet I missed the point of this book, not that it was bad, but as a reader I can't say I enjoyed reading it.

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Review: Dark Matter

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was good, and not what I expected. It starts when a man goes out one evening to meet a friend for a quick drink, and soon after, wakes up in a lab, being told that he has succeeded in a bold quantum physics experiment. He doesn't know what to believe - which life is his "real" life, and risks everything to get back to his happy life with his beloved wife and son.

This book played on traditional sci-fi themes around multi-verses and alternate realities, but did it while portraying a character who was flawed, relatable, and emotional. There were ways in which it reminded me of The Hike, although this was less surreal and more traditionally science fiction. The ending will also stay with me for a long time.

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