Reviews and Comments

Flauschbuch

Flauschbuch@bookrastinating.com

Joined 2 years, 2 months ago

So many books, so little time (and space)...

The original plan was to work through the piles of unread books in my flat, not to mention the e-books I have and the audiobooks I bookmarked on Spotify/lismio. But somehow, those keep growing. Also, I re-discovered the library. ;)

I mostly read Sci-fi, Fantasy and historical fiction. Also non-fiction (mostly history of one kind or another). I read in English and German and occasionally French.

Posts in English and German

flauschtext@mastodon.de on Mastodon

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Binti (EBook, 2015, Tor.com) 4 stars

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to …

Didnt't work for me

3 stars

I listened to the audiobook and needed what felt like ages to finish it - which is weird because it's a rather short story. I expected a different story than what we get. This is another contender for the "well, that escalated quickly" category. There were some interesting aspects, especially the maths angle to it all. But overall, it felt a little thin to me, somehow.

Käsebier erobert den Kurfürstendamm (Paperback, german language, 2017, btb) No rating

Berlin im Winter 1929: Ein Zeitungsreporter entdeckt in einem billigen Varieté den Volkssänger Käsebier. Um …

The Deep Sky (2023, Flatiron Books) 4 stars

Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky is an enthralling sci fi thriller debut about a mission …

Captivating with interesting themes

4 stars

There are several topics and themes taken from our times (the billionaire with a space obsession, digital escapism among others) that really resonated with me. I also liked the observation how the preparation to be "humanity's last hope" makes the participants in the program less and less human in a way. The basic plot of the book is a trusted sci-fi staple but is done here in a slightly different way. Recommended for all sci-fi fans!

Headshot (2024, Penguin Publishing Group) 2 stars

Overrated

2 stars

There's a lot of praise for this book, including from a feminist perspective. I don't get that at all. The book is written in an annoying style where a lot of sentences start with the full name of the girl. It gets very tiring after a while. Their backstories are mostly told via flashbacks they're having while in the ring, up to hallucinating people from their past (also during a boxing match). Their inner monologue makes them come off as very pretentious (I mean, I was a pretentious teen but I got nothing on them) or just weird. There's also a kind of mean streak throughout this book - even though the boxing tournament is supposed to be an important one, there's no audience, the venue is run-down, the referees and the trainers are uninterested. It doesn't reflect my (short-lived) experience with boxing more thant 20 years ago at all, …