Matthew Ted’s books on Goodreads (1,231 books) (original) (raw)

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| ------------------------ | -------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------- | ------------------------- | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | --------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | ------ | | | checkbox | position | cover Notes from an Island | title Notes from an Island | author Jansson, Tove | isbn 1908745940 | isbn13 9781908745941 | asin 1908745940 | num pages 112pp | avg rating 4.07 | num ratings 1,401 | date pub 1996 | date pub edition May 23, 2024 | Matthew Ted's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 101st book of 2024. [image] When we woke up, the whole ocean was full of broken ice. Unbelievable tabernacles floated by, driven by a mild south-we 101st book of 2024. [image] _When we woke up, the whole ocean was full of broken ice. Unbelievable tabernacles floated by, driven by a mild south-west breeze, statuesque, glittering, as big as trolleys, cathedrals, primeval caverns, everything imaginable! And they changed colour whenever they felt like it - ice blue, green, and, in the evenings, orange. Early in the morning they could be pink._[image] ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 11, 2024 | date read Nov 12, 2024 | date added Nov 13, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, #1) | title Assassin's Apprentice(Farseer Trilogy, #1) | author Hobb, Robin * | isbn 000756225X | isbn13 9780007562251 | asin 000756225X | num pages 392pp | avg rating 4.18 | num ratings 348,098 | date pub May 1995 | date pub edition Mar 27, 2014 | Matthew Ted's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review None | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 12, 2024 | date read not set | date added Nov 12, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Stay with Me | title Stay with Me | author Ørstavik, Hanne | isbn 1916751083 | isbn13 9781916751088 | asin 1916751083 | num pages 216pp | avg rating 3.60 | num ratings 112 | date pub 2023 | date pub edition Sep 05, 2024 | Matthew Ted's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 99th book of 2024.I just read Ørstavik's Love and went straight into this one. I'd never heard of her until I read her name in Knausgaard's sixth volu 99th book of 2024.I just read Ørstavik's Love and went straight into this one. I'd never heard of her until I read her name in Knausgaard's sixth volume, where they are photographed together at a book festival. Interestingly, I guess this a Karl Ove mention, in these very pages: 'Knaus describing you in Book Six'. Norwegians mentioning Norwegians. This is about a relationship with a younger man and I found it lesser to the aforementioned book of Ørstavik. Ironically, it explores love more overtly than Love: particularly how we experience love in our childhood affects our experiences of love in adulthood. Those who are victims of violence in childhood are more likely to be violent. It is about the love that is passed down, or the lack of love. It's meandering, plotless, like Love but considering less impressive. It reminds me of other books about affairs, like the recent Booker-winner Kairos, for example. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 2 | votes 11 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 08, 2024 | date read Nov 10, 2024 | date added Nov 10, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Love | title Love | author Ørstavik, Hanne | isbn 1911508725 | isbn13 9781911508724 | asin 1911508725 | num pages 136pp | avg rating 3.63 | num ratings 2,848 | date pub 1997 | date pub edition Nov 07, 2019 | Matthew Ted's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 98th book of 2024.Voted one of Norway's top ten books of the last twenty-five years, Love follows a mother and a son over a single night. Vibeke on he 98th book of 2024.Voted one of Norway's top ten books of the last twenty-five years, Love follows a mother and a son over a single night. Vibeke on her own journey, and little Jon on his. It is the eve of the latter's ninth birthday. Ørstavik has immense control over the narrative which hops from Vibeke to Jon, sometimes sentence by sentence, with little to no overture or indication. The reader must keep themselves orientated for Ørstavik does not waste time holding your hand. There is so much dread throughout the book, but it explores the unconditional love a child can have for their parent. Sometimes that love is misplaced. Technically impressive and poignant. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 2 | votes 16 | # times read 1 | date started not set | date read Nov 08, 2024 | date added Nov 10, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover I Am Legend | title I Am Legend | author Matheson, Richard | isbn | isbn13 | asin B005GQ5IA0 | num pages 175pp | avg rating 4.06 | num ratings 139,179 | date pub Jul 1954 | date pub edition Sep 01, 2011 | Matthew Ted's rating it was ok | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 100th book of 2024.2.5. The main problem is that it feels so dated now. I've never seen the film, but for some reason, I always had it in my mind that 100th book of 2024.2.5. The main problem is that it feels so dated now. I've never seen the film, but for some reason, I always had it in my mind that they were zombies, so I was continually jarred when the vampires spoke, or acted like regular humans in the book. From what I've gathered about the movie (posters and conversation-osmosis) this seems quite different. I wouldn't go as far as saying some bits are laughable, but the horror element certainly hasn't survived the last seventy-years since it was published. Vampires are seen very differently now, of course. The prose was fine, but it was very American: Neville was reminiscent of a Stephen King character, making corny one-liners to himself and saying things like, Hold it together, man! Makes my stomach turn. The ending was, at least, interesting, and even now felt subversive. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 14 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 07, 2024 | date read Nov 11, 2024 | date added Nov 07, 2024 | owned | format Kindle Edition | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Castle of Otranto | title The Castle of Otranto | author Walpole, Horace | isbn 0140437673 | isbn13 9780140437676 | asin 0140437673 | num pages 160pp | avg rating 3.18 | num ratings 37,325 | date pub 1764 | date pub edition Jan 29, 2002 | Matthew Ted's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 97th book of 2024.Shakespearean melodrama with a giant knight to boot. A story of castles, heirs, ghosts and skeletons. Often considered the first got 97th book of 2024.Shakespearean melodrama with a giant knight to boot. A story of castles, heirs, ghosts and skeletons. Often considered the first gothic novel, you can see here all the roots that come later. In that regard, a pivotal novella that changed (invented!) a genre. Walpole supposedly saw a "gigantic hand in armour" in his home, Strawberry Hill House, and thus created The Castle of Otranto. I have always been fascinated with writers who write their dreams and nightmares. Harald Voetmann, the Danish writer, for example, is currently writing a trilogy whose conception came to him all at once in a single nightmare somewhere in Italy. What lies in our subconscious, and what do we do to it when we write it down? Validate it? Release it? Overcome it? Shelley, Poe, du Maurier, Radcliffe, Lewis . . . They all came from here. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 10 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 04, 2024 | date read Nov 06, 2024 | date added Nov 04, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Blue Horses | title Blue Horses | author Oliver, Mary | isbn 147215374X | isbn13 9781472153746 | asin 147215374X | num pages 96pp | avg rating 4.29 | num ratings 10,472 | date pub Oct 14, 2014 | date pub edition Jan 01, 2018 | Matthew Ted's rating did not like it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 95th book of 2024.Not sure I even half-liked a single one of these. Empty words. | notes Notes are private! | comments 1 | votes 7 | # times read 1 | date started not set | date read Oct 31, 2024 | date added Oct 31, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Phantom of the Opera (Penguin Classics) | title The Phantom of the Opera | author Leroux, Gaston | isbn 0141191503 | isbn13 9780141191508 | asin 0141191503 | num pages 368pp | avg rating 3.96 | num ratings 254,396 | date pub 1910 | date pub edition May 29, 2012 | Matthew Ted's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 96th book of 2024.3.5. Surprisingly enjoyable, whimsical, humorous, camp. Very French. I've never seen the stage play. The only thing I knew about it 96th book of 2024.3.5. Surprisingly enjoyable, whimsical, humorous, camp. Very French. I've never seen the stage play. The only thing I knew about it was the falling chandelier (and pleased to see it happens in the book, though, in a different context). The plot kept me engaged and although the final fifty pages were needlessly drawn out, I found the melodramatics and the ridiculousness endearing as opposed to frustrating. Having no idea where it was going to go, it just got further and further from what I imagined it to be. Raoul was hopeless, but a semi-loveable idiot. I liked the new managers best, who were like a strange double-act of comedy struck throughout the novel. A weird mix of campness, humour and, every now and then, Leroux does give us a tiny glimpse of 'horror', though it's hard to take any of it very seriously. An easy to read and plot-driven classic. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 2 | votes 19 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 30, 2024 | date read Nov 03, 2024 | date added Oct 30, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Boys & Murderers: Collected Short Fiction | title Boys & Murderers: Collected Short Fiction | author Ungar, Hermann | isbn 8086264254 | isbn13 9788086264257 | asin 8086264254 | num pages 251pp | avg rating 3.85 | num ratings 163 | date pub 1920 | date pub edition Aug 15, 2006 | Matthew Ted's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 93rd book of 2024.I'd never heard of Ungar, but my colleague just came back from Prague with this book and put it into my hands. I saw the preface was 93rd book of 2024.I'd never heard of Ungar, but my colleague just came back from Prague with this book and put it into my hands. I saw the preface was written by Thomas Mann, who wrote,_I owe the melancholy privilege, the happy duty of introducing this posthumous collection of Hermann Ungar's work to a German audience, to the fact that I was one of the first to recognise and call attention to the extraordinary talent of the deceased._And talented he was. A terrifying blend of Kafka and Dostoyevsky, Ungar's stories are full of such depravity, violence, cruelty, strangeness and horror. Though unconnected, numerous narrators sound similar, demented young men who abuse animals or try to master women with force and cruelty. The first story, closer to a novella, is about a young man in a hospice who becomes infatuated with one of the maids and devotes his life to becoming the 'master' of her after failing as a boy to grope her breasts. In the second story, a young man expresses himself by stretching and drowning animals before finally committing a murder. They are all delirious, superbly written (light, with brevity, but also philosophical depth) and haunting. The collected stories towards the end, closer to four or five pages long, have some disarmingly poignant and wistful stories. "The Brothers" presents us with two brothers returning to their hometown on the train, both wishing they could say something to the other, but never quite managing. A story of suppressed emotion. Another, "A Secret War", is about a boy meeting his childhood tormenter after many years. Disturbing stuff. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 11 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 26, 2024 | date read Oct 27, 2024 | date added Oct 28, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Woman in Black | title The Woman in Black | author Hill, Susan | isbn 0099511649 | isbn13 9780099511649 | asin 0099511649 | num pages 200pp | avg rating 3.75 | num ratings 74,032 | date pub 1983 | date pub edition Nov 06, 2007 | Matthew Ted's rating it was ok | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 94th book of 2024.2.5. Disappointing. A short story, at best, stretched to a novel. A creepy noise is heard, Arthur Kipps is momentarily afraid, but u 94th book of 2024.2.5. Disappointing. A short story, at best, stretched to a novel. A creepy noise is heard, Arthur Kipps is momentarily afraid, but ultimately gets over it before the next instance comes along, and the process is repeated. I couldn't work out whether Hill was trying to be humorous with her Edwardian pastiche, but I couldn't take anything serious with the style, so maybe she was. In the end, everything is discovered easily and within a few pages before a dramatic (and slightly ridiculous) final page. Forgettable. Also, who calls a dog Spider? ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 7 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 26, 2024 | date read Oct 29, 2024 | date added Oct 26, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover At the Mountains of Madness | title At the Mountains of Madness | author Lovecraft, H.P. | isbn 0241341310 | isbn13 9780241341315 | asin 0241341310 | num pages 123pp | avg rating 3.80 | num ratings 57,033 | date pub 1931 | date pub edition Jun 07, 2018 | Matthew Ted's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 92nd book of 2024.Such a complex relationship with this small book: it's stuffy, detached, boring, but has also completely overtaken my mind over the 92nd book of 2024.Such a complex relationship with this small book: it's stuffy, detached, boring, but has also completely overtaken my mind over the days reading it and since finishing it (on Saturday), I've been exploring it in my head. All the negatives above actually aid the book. The stuffiness made it feel real, like I was reading dusty old travelogues of an arctic explorer. Lovecraft's wordiness sometimes got the better of him, but I was also drawn into descriptions, which were startlingly vivid. _Little by little, however, they rose grimly into the western sky; allowing us to distinguish various bare, bleak, blackish summits, and to catch the curious sense of fantasy which they inspired as seen in the reddish antarctic light against the provocative background of iridescent ice-dust clouds. In the whole spectacle there was a persistent, pervasive hint of stupendous secrecy and potential revelation. It was as if these stark, nightmare spires marked the pylons of a frightful gateway into forbidden spheres of dream, and complex gulfs of remote time, space and ultradimensionality. I could not help feeling that they were evil things— mountains of madness whose farther slopes looked out over some accursed ultimate abyss.And reflecting on the horror, I've come to realise that it is a horror of 'exceptional' calibre, for it is so understated. Why were so many passages unnerving me, particularly when the majority of the story was given to describing the icy wastelands of Antarctica and the jagged structures of ancient, uninhabited alien buildings? Because Lovecraft places the alien not on another planet, but on our own, and the empty forgotten cities are marked with a forgotten and terrible history. He somehow created fear by simply describing a desolate black city surrounded by ice and snow. It is the uncanny perfected.The more it has sat in my mind, the more I've come to respect it and enjoy it in retrospect. Lovecraft's longwinded descriptions sometimes made me feel impatient, but every time I left the book, I left it a little unsettled. There was a lingering disquiet. At nearly midnight the other night my girlfriend suddenly remarked that she could not see the cathedral spire out the window. We can usually see it. The sky had a strange remote orange tint and a thick fog had fallen. At once we put our shoes on and headed out. A few drunkards were wandering and yelling, but once we reached the cathedral, there was a strange muffled quality. We could hardly see far ahead of us, and the cathedral spire, even up close, disappeared out of sight into the fog. We walked about for half an hour, and I kept thinking, for some reason, of At the Mountains of Madness, and the slow, meditative, even boring, horror that lay within its pages. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 2 | votes 19 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 24, 2024 | date read Oct 26, 2024 | date added Oct 24, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Carmilla | title Carmilla | author Le Fanu, J. Sheridan | isbn 1782275843 | isbn13 9781782275848 | asin 1782275843 | num pages 156pp | avg rating 3.86 | num ratings 136,066 | date pub 1872 | date pub edition Sep 07, 2021 | Matthew Ted's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 91st book of 2024.I've got some Halloween-esque reads for the next few weeks, simply because reading them in, say, July, would be wrong. I've never ce 91st book of 2024.I've got some Halloween-esque reads for the next few weeks, simply because reading them in, say, July, would be wrong. I've never celebrated Halloween in my life as my parents would write it firmly off by calling it 'American nonsense'. Of course, it originated on our side of the pond, but their image of children trick-or-treating was Americanised, and therefore, not wanted for their own children.So I've never cared about it myself, but now is the best time of year to read about monsters and vampires, so here we are. Carmilla predates Dracula. I saw echoes of the latter in this, including the seemingly homosexual undertones. It has several 'unnerving' scenes, which didn't particularly unnerve me all that much, and that's surprising as I am a wimp and refuse to watch any horror movies, or go to the annual horror event at a nearby farm, where you are interrupted drinking pints of lager to be scared by random workers dressed as supernatural characters. I'd rather just sit in peace with my lager than fight off a man dressed as Frankenstein's monster to drink it. I enjoyed the short time spent with Carmilla. Vampire hunters are always far cooler than the vampires themselves. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 11 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 22, 2024 | date read Oct 23, 2024 | date added Oct 23, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Fall of Gondolin (Middle-Earth Universe) | title The Fall of Gondolin | author Tolkien, J.R.R. | isbn 0008302804 | isbn13 9780008302801 | asin 0008302804 | num pages 304pp | avg rating 4.08 | num ratings 15,049 | date pub Aug 30, 2018 | date pub edition Jun 25, 2020 | Matthew Ted's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 90th book of 2024.So ends the three Great Tales. Funnily enough I ended with this one, which, in 1917, on the back of a sheet of military marching mus 90th book of 2024.So ends the three Great Tales. Funnily enough I ended with this one, which, in 1917, on the back of a sheet of military marching music, Tolkien wrote what would later become part of The Fall of Gondolin, and thus put to paper the first thing in his Middle-earth legend. Amazingly, it all began here, with the tale of a beautiful, hidden city being betrayed, unearthed and destroyed by evil. Tolkien made great efforts to rid his work of wartime readings, but it is hard to read the story of this city falling to the hands of Morgoth/Melko and later, in LOTR, the dead marshes, or any of the lands of Mordor, without thinking about the trenches Tolkien must have lived in. As with Beren and Lúthien, The Fall of Gondolin is aided greatly by Christopher's interjections. There are two long form versions included (which I believe are in HOME (History of Middle-earth) anyway) that Tolkien wrote some thirty years apart, and the rest are scraps, notes and ideas, mostly collected by Christopher and expanded upon. To give an idea of the scope here, Christopher has written two extra conclusions after the first, one as 'The Conclusion of the Sketch of the Mythology' and the other as 'The Conclusion of the Quenta Noldorinwa. Most of the evolution of the story is overly detailed, as with the other Great Tales. Of the three The Children of Húrin is the most 'complete' and formed story. Christopher says it is one of his father's biggest tragedies that he never finished The Fall of Gondolin, but he said the same thing in an essay about his father's work on The Fall of Arthur - so the love and dedication he has for his father blinds him (and who wouldn't be blinded? It would be a gift to have all these tales complete). He even explores why this was never finished and his answer is in one particular 1950 letter to Sir Stanley Unwin, which I may quote in full at the bottom of this review for my own sake as much as anyone else's to keep a record of it. It is a brilliant snapshot. The Fall of Gondolin has several strengths, one of them being the connectedness to the rest of the legend. Legolas Greenleaf appears, albeit briefly, as does a fantastic throwaway scene when Tuor sees but does not interact with Túrin Turambar. There are some scenes that border on the surreal, trippy visions, that do not feel wholly Tolkien-esque. It is a strange mix, and the early version that does detail the fall of the city is as violent and dramatic as Tolkien gets. Indeed, one quote on the back of my edition says, 'Never did Tolkien write a more sustained account of battle. Makes Jackson's souped-up cinema battles look like tabletop games.' A strange quote, and not wholly true, but interesting as a stance. So, lots of positives. I've given it three for the same reason I gave it to_Beren and Lúthien: the tale is incomplete, the structure is frustrating and despite Christopher's best efforts, nothing makes up for the fact that we are hanging onto unfinished tidbits at times. If you are looking to read something beyond LOTR and The Silmarillion, then I would suggest The Children of Húrin as the best starting point of the Great Tales, simply because it is the most coherent and completed tale. I am unsure whether I will delve into HOME. If you are to read HOME, then these are mostly moot, I believe, as all their fragments are buried deep within its hundreds of pages. It is 12 more volumes of fragments, explorations, glossaries, appendices. Maybe one day. Now, for that 1950 letter. I cannot italicise the titles while using the quoting feature on GR. All strangely worded sentences are verbatim, and the inconsistencies with capitalising the 'The' before Silmarillion are as seen. In one of your more recent letters you expressed a desire still to see the MS of my proposed work, The Lord of the Rings, originally expected to be a sequel to The Hobbit? For eighteen months now I have been hoping for the day when I could call it finished. But it was not until after Christmas [1949] that this goal was reached at last. It is finished, if still partly unrevised, and is, I suppose, in a condition which a reader could read, if he did not wilt at the sight of it. As the estimate for typing a fair copy was in the neighbourhood of £100 (which I have not to spare), I was obliged to do nearly all myself. And now I look at it, the magnitude of the disaster is apparent to me. My work has escaped from my control, and I have produced a monster: an immensely long, complex, rather bitter, and very terrifying romance, quite unfit for children (if fit for anybody); and it is not really a sequel to The Hobbit, but to The Silmarillion. My estimate is that it contains, even without certain necessary adjuncts, about 600,000 words. One typist put it even higher. I can see only too clearly how impracticable this is. But I am tired. It is off my chest, and I do not feel that I can do anything more about it, beyond a little revision of inaccuracies. Worse still: I feel that it is tied to the Silmarillion. You may, perhaps, remember that work, a long legendary of imaginary times in a 'high style', and full of Elves (of a sort). It was rejected on the advice of your reader many years ago. As far as my memory goes he allowed it a kind of Celtic beauty intolerable to Anglo-Saxons in large doses. He was probably perfectly right and just. And you commented that it was a work to be drawn upon rather than published. Unfortunately I am not an Anglo-Saxon, and though shelved (until a year ago) the Silmarillion and all that has refused to be suppressed. It has bubbled up, infiltrated, and probably spoiled everything (that even remotely approached 'Faery') which I have tried to write since. It was kept out of Farmer Giles with an effort, but stopped the continuation. Its shadow was deep on the later parts of The Hobbit. It has captured The Lord of the Rings so that that has become simply its continuation and completion, requiring The Silmarillion to be fully intelligible - without a lot of references and explanations that clutter it in one or two places. Ridiculous and tiresome as you may think me, I want to publish them both - The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings - in conjunction or in connexion. 'I want to' - it would be wiser to say 'I should like to', since a little packet of, say, a million words, a matter set out in extenso, that Anglo-Saxons (or the English-speaking public) can only endure in moderation, is not very likely to see the light, even if paper were available at will. All the same that is what I should like. Or I will let it all be. I cannot contemplate any drastic re-writing or compression. Of course being a writer I should like to see my words printed; but there they are. For me the chief thing is that I feel that the whole matter is now 'exorcized', and rides me no more. I can turn now to other things . . . ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 14 | # times read 1 | date started not set | date read Oct 21, 2024 | date added Oct 21, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover My Cousin Rachel | title My Cousin Rachel | author du Maurier, Daphne | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 352pp | avg rating 4.00 | num ratings 62,491 | date pub 1951 | date pub edition May 01, 2003 | Matthew Ted's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 89th book of 2024. 3.5. Enjoyable, more skilful than Rebecca but not as plot-boiler-y. A great unreliable narrator from du Maurier, and our bookclub d 89th book of 2024. 3.5. Enjoyable, more skilful than Rebecca but not as plot-boiler-y. A great unreliable narrator from du Maurier, and our bookclub discussions all centred around what a fool Philip is. It is the sign of a good writer when you blame the character for his actions and not the writer for giving him those actions. I liked the undercurrent of tension all the while maintaining some very mundane scenes. A few scenes reminded me very much of Rebecca, even. The ending left a lot to be discussed, too. A great bookclub book for that reason, so I recommend it for that, if you are in one. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 4 | votes 22 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 10, 2024 | date read Oct 19, 2024 | date added Oct 10, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1) | title A Wizard of Earthsea(Earthsea Cycle, #1) | author Le Guin, Ursula K. | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 239pp | avg rating 4.01 | num ratings 331,387 | date pub Jan 01, 1968 | date pub edition Jun 25, 2019 | Matthew Ted's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review None | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 06, 2024 | date read not set | date added Oct 06, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Death in Midsummer (Penguin Modern Classics) | title Death in Midsummer | author Mishima, Yukio | isbn 0241678943 | isbn13 9780241678947 | asin 0241678943 | num pages 201pp | avg rating 4.02 | num ratings 5,430 | date pub Feb 15, 1953 | date pub edition 2024 | Matthew Ted's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 87th book of 2024.My 12th Mishima book, a 'new' collection of short stories from the Japanese master (New Directions published these back in the 60s, 87th book of 2024.My 12th Mishima book, a 'new' collection of short stories from the Japanese master (New Directions published these back in the 60s, but Penguin are bringing it to life again). A number of stories and a play (which, I must say, is better than I was expecting). The titular story is probably the best, a dark and melancholic story about a woman sleeping in a hotel bedroom as her sister takes her children to the beach. Two of the children are caught in a current and dragged under and the sister has a heart-attack at the sight of it. The mother is woken up in her room and deals with the aftermath. Her husband is on his way to the hotel. Another, "Patriotism" is a difficult read about a man and his wife committing ritual suicide. Like in Mishima's other works, there is a glorification of seppuku, which is hard to stomach around the brutal and detailed description of it taking place in these pages. As Mishima writes about the violent beauty of it and its heroism, you can't help but realise how obsessed he was, for so many years, before he performed it on himself. Some other stories are more playful, but not as memorable. Every book I read by him just cements the fact, over and over, that he is one of the most interesting Japanese writers. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 2 | votes 17 | # times read 1 | date started not set | date read Oct 06, 2024 | date added Oct 06, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Intermezzo | title Intermezzo | author Rooney, Sally * | isbn 0571365469 | isbn13 9780571365463 | asin 0571365469 | num pages 448pp | avg rating 4.09 | num ratings 55,723 | date pub Sep 24, 2024 | date pub edition Sep 24, 2024 | Matthew Ted's rating it was ok | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 88th book of 2024.I read an interview with Rooney the other day in the Bookseller (?) where she said that this book is a kind of homage to Joyce as sh 88th book of 2024.I read an interview with Rooney the other day in the Bookseller (?) where she said that this book is a kind of homage to Joyce as she was reading Ulysses when she first started it so the beats of the sentences, the stream-of-consciousness, it all sort of melted into her own work. Sadly, Rooney isn't Joyce (who is?) so I found the faux-Joyce prose off-putting, sometimes bad. Her sentences lacked rhythm. The thing about Joyce is he is so pleasing to read. The sentences run over each other. There's a whole music. In Finnegans Wake, sure, but even in Ulysses. There's a deep understanding of cadence you get from Joyce. And considering this is her longest yet, the plot was extremely drawn out for the inevitable ending it has. At times it felt like Notting Hill or some other Hugh Grant film. Little coincidences, break-ups and make-ups. I'd actually say this felt like her most immature book yet, though so many reviews are saying the polar opposite, and that this book is Rooney's creative powers coming to a head. I disagree fairly strongly. I saw one headline that claimed this book proves she is the greatest living novelist, and that, I say, is absolute rubbish. (For the record, I was very moved by Beautiful World Where Are You, though I read it at a tricky time in life and it felt like the salve I needed; I am afraid (especially now!) to read it again - and probably won't.) The characters are unlikeable, and fairly unoriginal. The autistic incel chess player and the rich narcissistic lawyer. Come on. Most of the book felt repetitive: the chapter structures seemed to be: couple talk about their age difference and how it won't work followed by a long drawn out sex scene. The following chapter concerns a different relationship with a large age gap. They then discuss how it won't work, but then have sex. Rinse and repeat. Disappointing in style and substance. Lots of platitudes. Too many pages. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 10 | votes 91 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 05, 2024 | date read Oct 10, 2024 | date added Oct 05, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Morning and Evening | title Morning and Evening | author Fosse, Jon | isbn 1804271217 | isbn13 9781804271216 | asin 1804271217 | num pages 104pp | avg rating 3.88 | num ratings 7,621 | date pub 2000 | date pub edition Nov 07, 2024 | Matthew Ted's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 86th book of 2024. 3.5. Like when you read multiple books of any writer, the same themes start showing through. Reading any Fosse puts me straight bac 86th book of 2024. 3.5. Like when you read multiple books of any writer, the same themes start showing through. Reading any Fosse puts me straight back into reading Septology; and if you've read A Shining, you've basically read this, too. Fosse deals with the same premise and ideas but from a slightly different angle. In that way, I knew from the get-go where we were headed. One thing that does keep me going back to Fosse is how unassuming his prose is. The simpleness, the repetitions, at times I want to throw it down and say, This isn't enjoyable to read, but it is enjoyable to read, somehow, it's addictive when you're in its grasp and after reading for an hour in the gardens by my workplace today, I walked back with a luminosity. I use this word because I've used it before in my reviews, perhaps even in a Fosse review. It's a true sensation (luminosity being the word I find most apt, or the closest word I've thought of (so far) to describe it) that strikes me when reading certain writers/books. It of course helps that it was a beautiful autumnal day today, too.(I read this as one of Fitzcarraldo's newest publications (coming in November), but it hasn't made its way onto the edition choices yet, so this Dalkey Archive is standing in.) ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 12 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 03, 2024 | date read Oct 04, 2024 | date added Oct 04, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Member of the Wedding | title The Member of the Wedding | author McCullers, Carson | isbn | isbn13 | asin B0DLT1NFFK | num pages 179pp | avg rating 3.82 | num ratings 18,862 | date pub 1946 | date pub edition 2018 | Matthew Ted's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 84th book of 2024.3.5. A hypnotic read. We had a rewarding discussion in the book-club about it, almost all of us liked it to some degree, but we deba 84th book of 2024.3.5. A hypnotic read. We had a rewarding discussion in the book-club about it, almost all of us liked it to some degree, but we debated the prevailing theme of the book. "Desire vs reality", the "self vs the imagined-self", "loneliness" and so on. We also debated and disagreed concerning the ending (which I won't spoil); it is left openly, and according to how we saw and thought of Frankie, we thought different things would happen past the story's ending. For a short book it generated lots of discussion, which is always a good sign. This was my first McCullers and I was entranced by certain drawn out scenes that felt Gothic, full of decay and a kind of hopelessness. A very skilled writer. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 18 | # times read 1 | date started not set | date read Sep 28, 2024 | date added Sep 28, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover A Doll's House | title A Doll's House | author Ibsen, Henrik | isbn 1350116785 | isbn13 9781350116788 | asin 1350116785 | num pages 136pp | avg rating 3.76 | num ratings 151,385 | date pub 1879 | date pub edition Jul 09, 2020 | Matthew Ted's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review 82nd book of 2024.4.5. Very good. I see why young Joyce (and old!) was enamored with Ibsen. I've never liked the theatre but even reading this on the 82nd book of 2024.4.5. Very good. I see why young Joyce (and old!) was enamored with Ibsen. I've never liked the theatre but even reading this on the page is an emotional and dramatic experience. And to think this came from the 19th century, and yet feels at most turns so modern. I'll be reading more Ibsen in the coming weeks, there's no doubt about that. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 22 | # times read 1 | date started Sep 18, 2024 | date read Sep 19, 2024 | date added Sep 19, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | |

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