andrewspink's reviews
498 reviews

Flora van België, het Groothertogdom Luxemburg, Noord-Frankrijk en de aangrenzende gebieden : (Pteridofyten en Spermatofyten) by Filip Verloove, Fabienne van Rossum
Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.

This is a reference book, not for reading every page.
An excellent flora. I tried several of they keya and they worked fine, mostly with usable characteristics. Nice that it includes surrounding areas like the Eifel, as well as Belgium. 

The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I was in 'Das Kriminalhaus' in Hillersheim (Germany) which has a huge collection of second-hand detectives. They are of course mostly in German, which I can't read, but with a scattering of English books amongst the collection. I was surprised to come across this book as I didn't know that Irus Murdoch had written a detective. An indeed this turns out to be a far from conventional detective; the murder is not what you think, the police are not involved and the plot is subservient to the characters. Nevertheless, unlike some Iris Murdoch books, there is a substantial plot, which carries you along whilst you enjoy the weird set of characters and the language.
It is not always easy to read. She writes paragraphs in Latin and French without even a footnote to explain what they are about. She uses words like "rebarbative" (which means ugly, seeing you ask), which I had to look up. I suppose that is to be expected from a philosophy professor writing in 1968.
There is one odd mistake. There is seaweed growing in the cave completely in the dark. Seaweed can grow in low light intensities, but it is a plant, it needs light. Seeing she happily bands about Latin names of garden plants, I would have thought she would have known that.
Although written in 1968, in some ways it feels much older. People have servants; cooks and cleaners and drivers. All the main characters are upper class, or at last upper-middle class; working people are just the supporting cast. I guess that was her world.
Despite being so dated (which even gave it a certain charm), the book was still an enjoyable read and also the mystery element was quite fun. 

De wateraap by Mariken Heitman

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

What a strange book. The aquatic ape hypothesis is one that only a few people ever too seriously, I think not including any evolutionary biologists, and in recent years (recent decades), interest in it and support for it has died away. But ok, no problem with using an obscure idea that no one believes in as a theme for a novel. It is a book in which little happens externally, but an awful lot is going on inside the protagonist's mind. I must confess that sometimes I found that a bit hard to follow in places. 
It is beautifully written with phrases like 'I was ten, the ages when cuddly toys begin to die' and 'all trees in parks are lonely'. Some phrases are incomprehensible, 'feet, toes never grow up, being perhaps the only part of the body that keep their innocence'. 
Strangely, she describes Spanish Moss as a moss, and in a conversation between two biologists. Although its common name suggests otherwise, it is not a moss but a bromeliad. Was that mistake on purpose or careless?
The book is worth reading for its style and also its strange ideas are interestingly thought provoking.

James by Percival Everett

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I hadn't read Huckleberry Finn in over 30 years, so I was a bit concerned if I could follow James without re-reading that first. I needn't have worried, that was no problem. The plot is a bit jerky ('and then something unexpectedly happened out of the blue'), and that clearly came from following Mark Twains's plot, but aside from that it is a real page-turner.
Of course, the big difference is that it is written from the point of view of Jim, the runaway slave ('James') and that inevitably means that is all about slavery. Percival Everett vividly and portrays the horrific life of the American slave at the time of the start of the civil war (1860s) and that is what makes the book so special and also so painful to read. I expect that lots of school boards in Texas and Florida will be banning this book, it is full of uncomfortable truths. 
One of the difficulties that I remember having with the original book was its use of dialect, which was not easy to read. I thought that what Everett did with that was very clever and not only made it easier for the modern (and not American) reader, but made an interesting point whilst he was doing it.
The book had a special resonance for me as I lived for a couple of years in Illinois, not so far from Hannibal (where the book starts) and spent the majority of my working hours out on the Illinois river (a major tributary of the Mississippi), including when it was in flood. An unexpected bonus was that the protagonist turned out to have detailed knowledge of local mid-Western plants (I worked as a botanist in Illinois).
This book is both a gripping adventure story and a book bringing an important aspect of American history to life.

The Narrows by Ann Petry

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

We are reading this book in our book club because it has been recently translated in Duch. When Isaw that it was a book originally written in the 50s, I did wonder if it might not be a little dull and old-fashioned. I could not have been more wrong! 
The book is very well written, with interesting, complex characters and a tense plot. The plot is not surprising, it moves with a sort of dreadful inevitability towards its end, but that is done in such a compelling way that the reader is carried along. The book is long, but certainly not too long.
How relevant is it still today? It is clear that America is still gripped by racism, so even if the details are different, that is still a very powerfuil theme. What was also interesting was the central role that the media takes in the story. Although the media landscape is very different today, the book shows every so clearly how presenting certain 'facts' in a particular way can manipulate the way that people think about an issue. 
In the end, it is the vividness of the writing, especially describing the characters that makes it so good. 

The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This was classic space opera. A huge canvas, great imagination, big themes. It has the classic plot of a loner on a quest, helped and hindered by various aliens. The aliens, as usual, different morphology but human personalities. Large time scales are invoked. 
It also felt rather dated. The women were minor, flatter, characters. War is something to be trivialised. 
Nevertheless it was fun to read and i was through its nearly 700 pages in no time.

You Are Here by David Nicholls

emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This must be the most English book ever. Walking across the moors. Difficulty expressing emotions. Grotty pubs. Rain. Nice pubs and B&Bs (though I've never seen one with complimentary shortbread). The North - South divide. All very nostalgic.

The book is very funny in parts. There are lots of great lines like, 'Marnie had not attended an orgy though she had copy-edited many'. It reminded me of One man and his bog by Barry Pilton about walking the Pennine Way in the 80s. It was surprisingly literary, with all sorts of references to famous books, and even some which I didn't have to look up, and also using words like petrichor without feeling the need to explain. 

For a lot of the book, they are walking through places that I know (or knew) well, like the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales. Northallerton gets several mentions; I lived there until age nine.  And I love Wainwright's books. That all certainly added an extra dimension. 

There was one rather strange aspect. The central characters are about 40 years old and they are repeatedly referred to as old. I was astonished to see that the author is about my age (born in 1966). Does he feel ancient? I'm sure that when I was 40, I didn't think that I was old. Was this humour?

Bottom line, a great read. A pity it was so short. Recommended.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

White Teeth is a famous book which I had been wanting to read for ages. I was not disappointed. It is amazing for a debut novel, richly layered, interesting insights into London's multi-cultural society, thoughts about the interaction of family, personal and country history. She also portrays how young men can get radicalised and at the same time rather ridicules the process in an amusing way. In general she pokes gentle fun at religions. Methodists (my background) even get several mentions. The plot is intricately intertwined and I'm sure I missed a lot of subtleties on a first read. 
It is nicely written. The book is long, over 500 pages, but it was such fun reading that it was no problem to read to the end. Normally, when authors try to put dialect into print, it is horrible and difficult to read. Zadie Smith did a nice job portraying Jamaican accents. 

Als het zaterdag wordt by Nicci French

adventurous emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Quite a chunk of the book is taken up with characters from a previous book, up to something which makes little sense if you haven't read those books. Which isn't much fun. But aside from that, I enjoyed reading it. 

De uitvinder van de natuur: het avontuurlijke leven van Alexander von Humboldt by Andrea Wulf

adventurous informative slow-paced

3.5

In the beginning, the book was a bit heavy going, but after a while the narrative took over and I read it with pleasure. Humbolt was clearly an interesting and important man and having worked as a field ecologist, I could certainly relate to a lot of his exploits. In parts the book verges on an hagiography, with a stream of superlatives about how wonderful he was, and that was a sometimes a bit much. But, to be fair, Andrea Wulf also points out some of his shortcomings, like being disorganised and liking the sound of his own voice too much. 
She is at pains to point to his active opposition to slavery (which was by no means normal at that time) but rather skates over the effect that he and his fellow naturalists had on preparing the ground for colonial exploitation. The treatment of Native Americans (bizarrely called 'Indiaanen' in my version, the Dutch translation) is condemned, but Wulf still presents it as obviously within the colonists' rights to conquer their land. 
There are a huge number of footnotes, but (fortunately or otherwise) they are missing in my e-book. Also the publisher has not taken care that the photos are properly presented in the e-book, they are so small as to be almost useless, which is a pity. 
I was not so sure about the last two chapters. It is good to see that he also influenced people after his death, but I did get the impression that it was wandering off topic and the relationship between e.g. Walden and Humbolt was perhaps less direct than Wulf implies. The book is very long, it might have been better to have stopped with Humbolt's death. 
When I was a student, studying botany and ecology, I think Humbolt might have been mentioned in passing, but no more than that. This book does a great job in showing what a contribution he made and how it important it is to remember that. In many ways he was a very modern thinker and Wulf has done us a favour by reminding us of his life and work.