Best and Worst – 2020

I thought I read a lot of stinkers this year, so I was surprised to find I gave 22 books a 5 star rating.

I started the year with Gabriel Bergmoser’s brilliant roller coaster ride of thrills and scares The Hunted and Graeme Simsion’s hilarious and sweet The Rosie Project.

I tackled the Vorkosigan Saga series by Lois McMaster Bujold; a total of 20 books (there are 21 books, but I did skip one) and I am sure I will re-read some, if not all, of the books again one day. I also am now interested in tackling her other series. I ended up giving 9 of the books a 5 star rating! Shards of Honor and Barrayar were re-reads. Plus Mountains of Mourning which is a novella, The Vor Game, Mirror Dance, Memory, Komarr, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance and A Civil Campaign. Those last two are included in my top 5 reads of the year.

Another in my top five is Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I was unsure about this one. It lived up to the hype though. I loved it. I listened via audible with a full cast and I highly recommend this format.

Talking of hype. I read two Liane Moriaty titles. Little Big Lies and What Alice Forgot. Both were easily 5 star reads and I plan to read a couple more of Moriaty’s in 2021.

I read a few sequels which became 5 star ratings. Chris Hammer’s sequel to Scrublands, Silver was great. Elly Griffiths’s Ruth Galloway series never disappoints – The Lantern Men became an instant favourite and I’m looking forward to the new 2021 released book. Michael Robotham also never disappoints and I loved the second book in his Cyrus Haven series When She Was Good. And Dervla McTiernan is also proving to be consistently good. I loved her new Cormac Reilly book A Good Turn.

Last year Beth O’Leary and Christian White’s debuts made my list. This year they proved second books can be great. O’Leary’s The Switch and White’s The Wife and the Widow were winners.

Although she’s hugely popular, one new to me author was Lionel Shriver. I will need to read some of her other titles sooner rather than later because The Motion of the Body Through Space also got 5 stars from me.

Next year, I’ve set myself the challenge of reading at least 5 classics. I hadn’t thought any of those five would be by Dickens but now I’m thinking I might have to include him after finishing the year with rating A Christmas Carol 5 stars.

Now for the bad…

All of the below I rated 1 or 1 1/2 stars out of 5

The Kissing Game was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Ack. Think it wins the award for the worst book I read this year. Although there was also The Love Square which had very similar problems. Ack.

There were a couple of big name books I added to my DNF shelf and gave one star to: Peripheral by William Gibson and Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. Both pretentious and boring.

Strike two for me with Ingrid Alexandra with Across the Water.

Other big name books I finished but found awful were Robyn Davidson’s Tracks (I can’t even) and Fiona McIntosh’s A Beautiful Death (oh, Lords, I’ve heard she’s going to write another in this series).

There were a couple of horrendous Mills & Boon (Harlequin) titles but the worst was #1 Boss

I actually remember some others without fondness but somehow I gave them [perhaps generous] 2 star ratings at least.

Last year I finished my wrap up with saying I hoped it was a happier new year for everyone, especially those fighting fires in Australia. I guess that didn’t work out too well but surely things can only get better. This year, my reading choices were obviously (like everyone else) affected by Covid. There was an entire period around April where the mood due to the pandemic influenced me a lot. I’m lucky to live in Australia were we’ve had very low numbers of infections and even luckier to live in Far North Queensland where we’ve got even lower numbers than the rest of Australia, so I was able to snap out of my covid reading rut to some extent. It’s obvious the world will be crazy again in 2021, but I will again hope we have a happier year.

A Christmas Carol

Book Review: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

We all know the plot to A Christmas Carol. The book has been adapted and borrowed from so many times, it would be impossible to not know about Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim etc. I had, therefore, never really been tempted to read the book. However, when Audible gifted its members a version narrated by Hugh Grant, I gave it a go. After all, Hugh Grant…

We all know Dickens is considered a literary great and even without taking any of his other books into account, it’s easy to discern why from A Christmas Carol.

I guess some parts of the plot were disappointing, but it’s not Dickens’s fault. It was just because it is too well known. There were no shocks or twists and I knew Scrooge would see the light and find a heart and lose his bah humbug ways. But if I had looked at the plot alone with complete innocence, it’s really very clever. It’s got touches of a thriller, with ghosts rattling their chains, I imagine in 1843 it might have almost been a little scary. It has humour, my favourite part being Scrooge wondering if those same ghosts were caused by indigestion. It covers a plethora of themes, the importance of family and love, forgiveness and redemption, and of course, social inequality. It’s also got a bit of tension towards the end, with Scrooge not sure as to whether or not he can change the course of his future. You’ve got to admit, that’s a lot to pack into a mere 112 pages.

Then there is the characterisation in 112 pages. We get Scrooge’s impatience and miserly ways within a couple of paragraphs. He and the other characters, even his already dead partner Marlowe, jump from the page and are so easy to imagine immediately (enough to even eclipse the various movie versions which might be stuck in your head).

Dickens’s prose is obviously also very good. His descriptive passages are a marvel. I could have read (listened, anyway) to some of them over and over. I also found it surprising how easy Dickens’s writing was to read. Usually reading something from 1843, you might expect some turns of phrases etc to be confusing, but I never had to pause and wonder what he meant at any stage.
Obviously this is another sign of Dickens’s literary skill.

As for Hugh’s narration? Let me just put it this way – I’m off to check if he’s narrated any other books, so that’s a big ‘yes’ from me (and maybe a little ‘guh’ and ‘yeah, bb’).

Obviously, 5 out of 5

His Christmas Pride

Book Review: His Christmas Pride by Renee Dahlia (Rainbow Cove Christmas #6)

I feel like a cracked record with my reviews of this series.

Again, the book has little to do with Christmas. Actually, there’s probably the least mention of it out of all the books. Dahlia has author notes that she included the Sydney Mardi Gras as it’s just like Christmas for the LGBT community. Mmm… I’ll just whisper ‘false advertising’ and move on.

Again, there is no chemistry between the leads. They are physically attracted to each other. They tell this to each other all the time. They think it all the time. As for evidence? Not so much. There is a lot of evidence, however, of both characters being rude and annoying on occasion and I’m mystified as to what either saw in each other. (Oh, that powerful physical attraction though! *rolls eyes*)

Again, like the other authors of this series, Dahlia had good intentions by featuring modern themes and issues but, again, she didn’t execute her ideas well at all. I have heard before the shocking statistics of gay men being victims of domestic abuse but Dahlia didn’t manage to move me with her leading man’s, Mick, story.

Again, things felt forced. The plot doesn’t move along organically. Instead it’s idea after idea that Dahlia uses but never fully fleshes out before jumping onto the next. For example, Mick meets the other lead, Sam, while gaming online. They had even met previously [in book #4 which featured Sam and Sam’s brother’s romance] without realising. The fact that they are both living in the same town (and maybe even that they are both gay) should have been dragged out for a lot longer. If Dahlia had used this idea to better effect, it would have been a cute romcom feeling. Instead, it was all just boring mentions of online gaming and Dahlia’s insistence that online friends are as real as IRL friends and just get off the soapbox and write a romance plot…

*sigh*

Again, I’m probably being generous with my rating – 2 1/2 out of 5

The Martian

Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

Thanks to Hollywood, everyone is now familiar with this book. I loved the movie and managed to pick up the audio version of the book a while back. I’m happy to say I enjoyed it in this format too.

For anyone who’s avoided spoilers, Mark Watney is an astronaut who is thought to have been killed and, as such, is left behind by his crewmates when they depart Mars. Obviously, he isn’t dead but with limited supplies and no way of leaving the planet, Watney, the chief engineer and botanist aboard the Mars mission, has to use every last bit of his intelligence and logic to survive.

The humour is what makes the book great. Watney’s one-liners are great. His observations are poignant and intellectual now and then but, for the most, they’re just hilarious. I literally laughed out loud several times while reading/listening to the book. (I particularly loved his jokes about 70s tv shows but I was thinking they might go over the heads of younger readers!)

Although science fiction, there’s a lot that felt true to life about the storyline. I especially liked the way the public and the media became obsessed with Watney and his fate. I mean, here in Aus Stuart Diver is a household name, so I could picture all the frenzy surrounding Watney’s rescue so easily.

The audio version was narrated by Wil Wheaton. This is the third book of Wheaton’s I’ve listened to and he’s great. I guess my only whine would be that I thought there should have been a second narrator for the non-Watney point of view scenes. That is, I thought Wheaton should have just narrated Watney’s diary entries and they should have used a different narrator for the rest of the characters. There was often no break or change of tone from Wheaton when switching from Watney to other characters and a few times I was a little confused.

There’s also a lot of technicality to the book which, I must admit, at times, made me a little bored. I did fail science though…

Still, it was a fun and intelligent read. 4 ½ out of 5

His Christmas Escape

Book Review: His Christmas Escape by Shona Husk (Rainbow Cove Christmas #5)

This is book number 5 in the Rainbow Cove Christmas series. Overall, this series has been pretty disappointing and, alas, this book didn’t buck the trend.

His Christmas Escape is the story of Nico and Jade, both in their early 20s and both trying to deal with parental issues. Nico’s stepfather has just finished a stint in gaol, is living on handouts supplemented by criminal activity, and is generally taking advantage of Nico to such an extent that Nico’s life has become pretty unbearable. Jade, meanwhile, has religious nutters for parents who believe she’s headed off to hell because she’s admitted to being bisexual.

I know Husk had good intentions and was trying to encourage acceptance and diversity etc by including the bisexual character but I’m not sure if it worked 100%. Perhaps it felt a little too forced. (It might be because I just finished reading the Vorkosigan Saga and Lois McMaster Bujold includes diversity in such a flawless manner that any other author’s attempts were always going to seem clunky at the moment.)

There were a few great ideas in the book but Husk never really executed her ideas exactly right for my liking. (For example, the use of photos instead of text should have been the centre of the whole book, in my opinion, and instead it was just a tacked-on idea.)

The leads lacked chemistry. I really wasn’t particularly worried one way or another whether they got together in the end. I assume this wasn’t Husk’s intention… And I’m not sure if either resolution with their parents gave any thoughtful or helpful suggestions for anyone in a similar situation IRL.

I also felt bored by a lot of the book’s scenes. It really felt like I was reading real conversations from a couple in their early 20s at times (which I guess is good when it comes to realism). However, their convo was not worth the hassle of eavesdropping; nothing exciting going on.

As for the Christmas theme… It’s only the same Christmas dinner which has appeared in all the other books and that’s about it.

Again, like the others in the series, it would have been a much better read if the book only had a few more tweaks. 2 ½ out of 5

The Girl in Kellers Way

Book Review: The Girl in Kellers Way by Megan Goldin

Aussie Megan Goldin has found a fair bit of popularity with her later books, The Escape Room and The Night Swim, but I found The Girl in Keller’s Way to be a pretty solid debut.

Okay, it’s not perfect. It follows too many of the ‘rules’ of this genre for my liking. That is, we get two different narrators, possible victim/suspect Julie West and detective Mel Carter; one of the narrators may or may not be reliable; and one of the narrators is obsessed with sex. (Is there anyone in real life who truly thinks the only indicator of a happy marriage is constant wild sex? Ack!)

My other big beef is the title. Why, oh why, do publishers insist on copying each other’s titles (and covers) ad nauseam. We do not need any more ‘girls’ in titles. Neither Mel or Julie are girls. Nor is the victim found in Keller’s Way.

But I should get onto the good points. Goldin’s writing style was excellent. The whole book was really easy to read and the narrative flowed well. Everything made some sort of sense and there was no overkill when it came to flashbacks or other corny techniques. The leads were not carbon copies of each other either, which can often be an issue when multiple narrators are used. And there are enough twists, turns and cliffhangers along the way to keep the reader turning pages.

Even though Goldin is Australian, she set the book in the US. I was torn on this point. I wasn’t sure why she didn’t just set it in Aus, apart from our strict gun control. The setting, in the end, didn’t influence the story much at all.

Although it didn’t have the Gone Girl type bombshell, I quite enjoyed the ending. It was unexpected and made me pause and question some plot conflicts and their resolutions. Oh, and Goldin never had to resort to my most-loathed book fail – the info dump at the end. So, bonus points for that!

Overall, I would recommend the book, especially for fans of the genre. It’s just as good, if not better, than a lot of the most popular books in the domestic noir/psychological thriller arena. It certainly never put me off Goldin and I will definitely pick up her other two titles soon.

4 out of 5

A Promise for Christmas

Book Review: A Promise for Christmas by Linda Carroll-Bradd (Spinster Mail Order Brides #29)

Who can resist the mail order bride? I totally blame Glenn Close and Christopher Walken for my [slight] obsession with this trope.

Fiona is working as a governess when she is suddenly dismissed by her employers. While staying with a friend until she finds a new position, Fiona is convinced to answer the advertisement for a mail order bride. Fiona’s potential husband is Anson, a hardware store owner of German heritage, who is looking for a bride due to his loneliness. There’s nothing horrid about either lead but I must admit Anson’s penny pinching ways did my head in occasionally.

As usual, there is a distinct lack of anything to do with Christmas. The last chapter is dedicated to the holiday and features gift giving, but that’s about it.

There probably could have been more descriptive passages in the book but overall there was nothing particularly offensive about Carroll-Bradd’s writing. The romance is clean with only the slightest hint of religion which shouldn’t worry those with or without faith.

I did feel like the book suffered a little due to its short length. There was so much more detail Carroll-Bradd could have gone into with the plot and characters.

I would definitely pick up something written by Carroll-Bradd again and I wouldn’t rule out picking up another from this series of books either. Recommend A Promise for Christmas if you can pick it up at a reasonable price considering its brevity. 3 1/2 out of 5

Cryoburn

Book Review: Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga)

I started reading this Vorkosigan saga book with trepidation. My friend who got me into the books disliked it and even went as far as saying I shouldn’t bother at all. But, luckily, I really enjoyed it.

The book introduces a new planet and society to the Vor universe and I quite liked this idea. I probably wouldn’t have coped with another visit to Cetaganda. With the locals of the new planet being unaware of Miles’s status and wealth, it gave LMB the chance to include lots of comedy and it’s worth the read for that aspect alone. His batman-cum-bodyguard, Roic, makes a great straight man for all the jokes. I even wondered if LMB named Roic to deliberately rhyme with stoic (although, I guess I’m probably pronouncing Roic incorrectly).

There are a couple of new characters, my favourite being Consul Vorlynkin, who was usually the only one other than Roic understanding Miles’s clout and inside jokes. There’s also two children who, again, added some great comic relief, especially when their menagerie of animals came into it. The only established characters used, other than Roic, were Miles’s brother Mark and his partner, Kareen. I’m still not a huge fan of Mark and LMB doesn’t do too much to make him more sympathetic here either (although I appreciate she tries to explain his issues).

The plot surrounds the political, ethical and monetary dilemmas involved when a person seeks to extend their mortality. The planet’s peoples become so obsessed with the process of cryo freeze and revival that the cyro corporations become big business. The system, of course, is rife for corruption, which is why Miles starts investigating.

I thought the first few chapters of the book were brilliant. Miles was lost in what is basically a cavern of frozen bodies. Not only did I find this incredibly creepy, his subsequent need to survive alone on the streets of the unfamiliar made great reading.

The ‘we all must die’ theme pretty much runs throughout the whole book. It’s an ironic argument a lot of the time as Miles has, of course, already gone through a cryofreeze and revival. I think it has probably been done better in scifi but LMB still gets the reader thinking. I imagine LMB was also taking aim at the big pharmaceutical and insurance companies and their monopoly in the US in particular.

I do get why other readers didn’t enjoy this book as much as the others. There’s not as much action as some would probably prefer and when there was some tension added, it was wrapped up pretty quickly. I’m one of the few who like ‘Lord Auditor’ Miles more than ‘Admiral Naismith’ though. I did, however, shave off half a star as the cryo corporations and their internal politics and machinations were a little confusing at times.

Despite its content, I loved the ending of the book. I thought it was really well done and loved that LMB wrote it in drabble form. Of course I did shed a tear but, ultimately, Gregor’s reaction especially made me feel uplifted in a way, instead of depressed.

4 1/2 out of 5

PS I think it makes a nice ending for the series and will give Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen a miss after inadvertently reading a couple of spoilers that make it sound more like bad fanfic than a homage to my favourite characters. I’ve read 20 books in the series this year, with most of them being 4 ½ or 5 star reads and can highly recommend it. My favs were Shards of Honor, Barrayar, A Civil Campaign, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Komarr, and Memory and I intend to re-read them all some time.

His Christmas Pearl

Book Review: His Christmas Pearl by Renee Dahlia (Rainbow Cove Christmas #4)

There’s a couple of things that annoy me with romances. One is that the hero or heroine, or both, can be absolute assholes but all is forgiven because they’re good looking. Ugh. It’s actually quite a common romance trope and I’ll never understand it. If a guy constantly treated me like a piece of dirt under his shoe, I’d hardly going to be thinking I still want to get him into bed, no matter how wide his shoulders were. Ugh. And that’s the crux of it with this book.

Our hero, Kiet, is described as grumpy. I’d call him downright rude. He’s got a chip on his shoulder and he is not only verbally but, a couple of times, physically intimidating. But our heroine, Zoe, thinks he’s hot, so all good. *rolls eyes*

There is an attempt to add diversity into the book: Kiet’s heritage and Zoe’s sister’s sexuality. It’s another one of those ‘good intentions’ by the author that adds nothing to the plot really.

The extent of Christmas is the attendance of one party which could have been a celebration for any reason. The rest is the heroine investigating who has been stealing from Kiet’s business. This wouldn’t have been so bad but for the unrealistic dramatic turn it all takes towards the end. And the fact that Dahlia wraps it all up with an info dump.

The ending actually could have been okay if not for this info dump and summary of ‘what happened’. Dahlia would have been better off actually writing the scenes instead of recapping them. If the word count had gotten the better of her, there were lots of ‘he’s so hot’ and ‘her breasts are fantastic’ thinky thoughts she could have cut.

It wasn’t all bad but it’s another book which could have worked if an editor was involved.

2 ½ out of 5

Tracks

Book Review: Tracks by Robyn Davidson

This book, although written in the 80s, gained new popularity when it was adapted into a movie starring Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver. I thought it sounded great — an Aussie woman, trekking with only her camels and dog from Alice Springs to the Western Australian coast, via the harsh Aussie desert. And it probably would have been great, if not for Robyn Davidson.

Davidson is completely and utterly unlikeable. She’s contrary, selfish, judgmental, egotistical and opinionated. I spent most of the book pretty much just being cranky with her. Examples, you ask?

She expects everything for free. She’s going to get wild camels and train them so she doesn’t have to pay. She’s mad when the local caravan park want to charge her for a site. She’s mad when the pub wants to take meals and board out of her wages. She’s mad when the camel guy won’t teach her all about camels for free. The list goes on. Meanwhile, she sells her story to National Geographic.

Davidson doesn’t like many people. She claims everyone in Australia (other than her, obviously) is racist. All men are drunks, sexist and want to rape her (wtf). On that last point, there’s a couple of incidents early in the book that make zero sense. I seriously think she imagined half the stuff she apparently endured when it came to the local men.

Her most loathed group of peoples on earth, however, are tourists. Not just the couple of bad apples, all of them. She doesn’t want to let them take photos of her or her camels. She doesn’t even want talk to them. Ever. They’re ruining Australia. They have no affinity with the land like she has. Yes, she is doing wonders for Australia by grabbing a couple of feral camels and going for a walk and raising money for charity and… Wait a minute.

Davidson didn’t go on the trip to raise money. She didn’t go on the trip because she lost someone close to her and it was their suggestion. She didn’t go on the trip because she wanted to photograph or map the land. She didn’t even go on the trip to highlight any particular cause. No, she went on the trip because she took some drugs one night and whilst hallucinating, she kept thinking the word ‘desert’ over and over again. Isn’t this how we all make our major life choices?

If I ignore Davidson’s personality, the book doesn’t even offer me much. There’s no real messages which made me look at life differently. The descriptions of the Australian landscape are nothing special (pretty much just lots of mentions of mulga and spinifex and cockatoos). Actually, the one thing I will take away from this book is how mistreated camels are. I’ll probably never look at a camel train again and not imagine them being hobbled and beaten and having holes shoved in their faces to run a rope through.

I did finish the book; probably because it’s quite short. I can see that it might have made a good movie (no, I haven’t seen it). I’m sure they might have changed a few things. At least offered us some sort of purpose for the trip. I wouldn’t recommend this book, however. 1 ½ out of 5