Wulf's Book Reviews

The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh My rating: 3 of 5 stars Once more, a novel that wasn’t bad - but not really good either. The simplistic plot, the huge cast, jumping around in time, many different points of views and the many clichés don’t help either. Let’s start with a plot: A rich guy, Rhys, whose career was on a downward spiral was murdered. Since he created a rich-people settlement in rural Wales, pretty much everyone from the nearby village hated him and two police detectives, Ffion and Leo, investigate the murder. That’s something we’ve read countless times. Nothing about the plot is new. Not a single aspect. As for the cast: We have the afore-mentioned village and every single villager has a reason to hate and kill our victim. From the postwoman up to and including Ffion herself. Then there are the other rich people who also all have pretty good reasons for offing the victim. Many of these people are also rather superficially presented: There’s the sexy social m...

Der Vorleser by Bernhard Schlink My rating: 5 of 5 stars Vor vielleicht einem Jahr kam meine Tochter auf mich zu und fragte, ob wir eine Ausgabe von Schlinks “ Der Vorleser ” besäßen. Sie brauche es für den Deutsch-Leistungskurs in der Schule. Ein Vierteljahrhundert vorher war Schlinks Roman gerade erschienen und machte Furore. Meine damalige Freundin schenkte es mir 1995 zum 20. Geburtstag und ich habe es verschlungen und geliebt. Mir war ein wenig bange, als ich das Buch zurückerhielt und durchaus nicht zu Unrecht, denn für meine Tochter überwog die Kritik. (Und außerdem: Ein Buch, das heute in den Lehrplänen steht? Das ich als junger Mann geliebt hatte? Konnte das heute noch etwas sein?) Ich hingegen hatte einen großartigen Roman über Schuld, Pflicht und Verbundenheit im Hinterkopf. So pirschte ich mich kürzlich mit etwas flauem Gefühl in der Magengegend an eines meiner Lieblingsbücher nach so langer Zeit erneut heran. In Wahrheit allerdings hat die Geschichte mir a...

Eine drollige Gesellschaft by Tove Jansson My rating: 5 of 5 stars Die Mumins kennen wohl die meisten von uns - eine Familie von Mumintrollen, die in einem kleinen Tal leben und diverse Abenteuer erleben. Geradezu ständig wächst die erweiterte Familie - da kommt mal ein Hemul dazu oder die kleine Mü - und die Reaktion der Mumineltern ist schlicht und liebenswert: » Der Muminvater und die Muminmutter hießen alle Neuankömmlinge ruhig und freundlich willkommen, stellten zusätzliche Betten auf und vergrößerten den Esstisch. « Meine frühesten Erinnerungen sind jene, in denen meine Eltern abends an meinem Bett sitzen und mir aus den Mumin-Büchern vorlesen. “Mumins vorlesen” - das war für mich als Kind der Inbegriff der Liebe. Gerade dieser dritte Band hatte es mir damals - und hat es mir noch heute - besonders angetan, denn hier ist die Welt der Mumins friedlich: Die beiden vorherigen Bände, “ Mumins lange Reise ” (erschienen 1945) und “ Komet im Mumintal ” (erschienen 1946) sp...

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa My rating: 5 of 5 stars First and foremost, “ The Travelling Cat Chronicles ” by Hiro Arikawa is a tranquil novel that narrates the tale of Satoru and his feline companion, Nana. While the main plot revolves around Satoru searching among his friends for someone who can care for Nana, we are enlightened through flashbacks about the origins of these friendships. » Yoshimine changed the subject. “What’s your name?” “Satoru Miyawaki. Nice to meet you.” He didn’t have to say anything like Let’s hang out, for by this time they were already friends. « From primary school to university and beyond, the amiable and empathetic Satoru effortlessly forges friendships wherever he ventures. However, it is beyond doubt that the most profound and significant bond in his life is with Nana. They share a mutual trust and affection that transcends words and species. They also support each other through difficult times and enjoy each other’s compan...

König Ottokars Zepter by Hergé My rating: 4 of 5 stars Tim und die Politik - nicht immer eine gelungene Mischung. In diesem Fall aber gilt es zu bedenken, daß “ König Ottokars Zepter ” im Original zwischen dem 8. August 1938 und dem 10. August 1939 erschien. Jetzt greifen wir zurück in diese dunkle Epoche deutscher Geschichte: Der von Hitler-Deutschland sogenannte “ Anschluss Österreichs ” fand am 12./13. März 1938 statt. Am 15. März 1939 ließ Hitler die Tschechoslowakei besetzen . Der mit Hitler verbündete faschistische Diktator Mussolini fiel am 7. April 1939 wiederum mit italienischen Truppen in Albanien ein . Unter den Eindrücken dieser Ereignisse also verfaßt Hergé diesen Band und verbindet Elemente all dieser weltpolitischen Katastrophen zu einer spannenden Geschichte, in der Tim und Struppi eine Staatsstreich und den “Anschluß” des fiktiven Syldavien an das Nachbarland Bordurien verhindern müssen. In zahlreichen Etappen kann Tim seinen Häschern immer wieder: G...

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was my Schrödinger’s reading experience : At the same time, this novel was what I expected - and it wasn’t at all. And by simply reading, I influenced the outcome of the experiment! Thankfully, it all went down in a very good way. I smiled, grinned, and giggled my way through Ali Hazelwood's “ The Love Hypothesis ” and even a bit more so with her “ Love on the Brain ”. I almost feverishly waited for “ Love, Theoretically ” and while I found myself smiling at the very first sentence, for quite a bit of the novel, I didn’t really get the same “vibes”. Elsie seemed so naïve (a Goodreads friend of mine put it less favourably as “dumb af”!) and I wasn’t entirely sure about Jack either. And then I started to understand that Hazelwood didn’t seem to aim for the nerdy, uplifting, carefree romance/romcom I was expecting. She actually seemed to take time to build up both protagonists. » Professionally, my life ...

The Maid's Diary by Loreth Anne White My rating: 3 of 5 stars In modern mysteries, there seems to be a tendency to switch perspectives, to have two timelines and sometimes there are jumps in time. Now imagine an author who tries to be so modern that they make their book feature several a) timelines, sometimes colliding with each other, b) chapters from alternating points of view (some unexplained for a long time), c) jumps in time, d) features a non-linear narrative, and, what annoys me the most, e) an unreliable narrator. In the beginning, I was determined to immerse myself in all of it and thought about how fascinating it is that Loreth Anne White commands a broad spectrum of narrative styles. With more time spent “in” the novel, it became too much, though: The constant switching between both narrated time and perspectives became annoying. The jumps in time became increasingly confusing and don’t get me started on the colliding timelines that occur near the end. Ther...

Die Anomalie by Hervé Le Tellier My rating: 2 of 5 stars Die deutschsprachige Wikipedia definiert Glosse folgendermaßen: »Unter einer Glosse (von altgriechisch γλῶσσα glóssa, „Zunge, Sprache“, über lateinisch glossa) wird ein meist kurzer und pointierter, oft satirischer oder polemischer, journalistischer Meinungsbeitrag in einer Zeitung, einer Zeitschrift oder im Fernsehen verstanden.« (Quelle in der Fußnote) Mit “ Die Anomalie ” liefert Hervé Le Tellier ein Werk ab, das mich über weite Teile an eine Glosse erinnerte, aber vom Umfang her dieses Genre “sprengt”. Nun könnte dies ja auch etwas Gutes sein; ein Novum oder, Entschuldigung!, eine Anomalie. Leider aber ist dem hier nicht so, denn “Die Anomalie” ist nur quantitativ eine solche - aber eben keinesfalls qualitativ. Die Prämisse ist interessant: Ein Flugzeug mit über zweihundert Personen an Bord gerät in eine Notlage, übersteht diese, wird aber jedoch durch die titelgebende Anomalie dupliziert. Fortan gibt es alle M...

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch My rating: 2 of 5 stars “ If there was ever a candidate to be patron saint of computers then it would be Alan Turing. Mathematician, war hero and tragic victim of homophobia. ” And the above quotation is pretty much the only redeeming quality of this entire uninspired mess of a book. As seems almost mandatory among “hip” authors these days, we have completely unnecessary jumps in the narrated time between chapters. Why can’t people tell their story linearly?! It’s not that hard and Aaronovitch stops jumping around the middle of the book and nothing of value is lost. So, why do it in the first place? There’s no character development, no furthering any story arc, nothing. Not even the mediocre story of mixing magic, the generally supernatural and technology is fully explored but lacklustrely told and unconvincingly at that. Even worse: Apart from countless allusions to the Hitchhiker’s Guide, “False Value” alludes to other works of Aaronovitc...

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was an amazing and deeply touching read. I was born in 1975 and, being the son of rather politically interested parents, I remember the Soviet-Afghan War and the Mujahideen and their respective roles in Afghanistan since about 1985. I intellectually knew about the atrocities committed during that war, during the in-fighting among the Afghan warlords and, later, by the Taliban. This book, though, tells the very personal story of Mariam, the illegitimate daughter of Jalil Khan, a prosperous business man from Heart, and Nana, one of his servants. While the early parts focus entirely on Mariam who desperately wants to be accepted by her father, we later get to know Laila and her parents (and a few other very memorable characters) as well. Mariam’s and Laila’s ways cross when they both get married to Rasheed, the owner of a small shoe shop in Kabul. When I started reading “A Thousand Splendid Sun...

Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn My rating: 2 of 5 stars So far, this was definitely the weakest instalment in the otherwise amusing Bridgertons series . The story isn’t really that interesting and the narrative dragged on rather uninspired so that I was actually bored at times which isn’t exactly my intention when reading a fluffy easy-to-read romance. What annoyed me the most, though, and made me almost quit this book was Colin Bridgerton himself. So, you know, this series of books is set in the early 19th century and, fortunately, as a society we’ve made a lot of progress - Women’s suffrage, emancipation, feminism, and so on. And I’m really happy about that. Thus, I already have to temporarily suspend a lot of truly heartfelt convictions and disengage large parts of my brain in order to be able to enjoy this kind of book: I have to completely disregard more than 100 years of social, societal and emancipatory advances. I do so and, consequently, tolerate a w...

Frozen Minds by Cheryl Rees-Price My rating: 3 of 5 stars Here we go again… “ Frozen Minds ” is not bad; but, sadly, it’s not good either. It’s a convoluted story in which Rees-Price ventures onto thin ice; to write parts of the story from the explicit point of view, in some cases directly from the mind of a person with mental disabilities is problematic at least. I’m not sure I would call that attempt successful either. But the story itself is already too much: Complicated to the point of implausibility. While the motivations of the perpetrator(s) might hold at least some water, the execution of their plans amounts to trying to hold water with a sieve… Rees-Price undoubtedly means well in all she writes: From DI Winter Meadows who starts to become a team player… » Having transferred from London eighteen months earlier, he’d found it a little too quiet at first. Now he was used to taking cases usually dealt with by uniform, and when his department needed assistance, ...

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez My rating: 2 of 5 stars This one started out so well: Briana and Jacob, two ER doctors start off on the wrong foot but end up falling in love through letters and lunch dates in a closet. And, yes, in the beginning, it’s fun, heart-warming and a very nice read. » I don’t have any tattoos. I’ve always been too afraid to commit to something so permanent. But Jewel is amazing at what she does, so I thought she’d give me something profoundly beautiful, an everlasting imprint that I’d cherish. Something I never knew I needed to carry with me through life. She gave me a tiny lawn mower on my chest next to a small patch of shaved chest hair. « I was congratulating myself on choosing such a great light read and was thinking how nice it is to read about plausible adults (both are in their thirties and “feel” like that) and how easily Jimenez seems to pull that off. » When I knocked at almost eight o’clock, my anxiety was at a low hum. But when she opened...

An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn My rating: 4 of 5 stars It’s summer, the weather is fine, the water in my pool has 34°C (roughly 93F) and I’m exhausted from work. Nevertheless, my holidays are nearing (two weeks from now!) and I’m slowly getting into “Summer Reading Mode”. That means that I prefer easy, quick-to-read novels that simply amuse me and, thus, I was only too happy to take up on “An Offer From a Gentleman” in which Sophie Beckett, a late earl’s daughter - born out of wedlock, though - captures the heart of Benedict Bridgerton - and vice versa. There’s not much to be said about this specific book; it’s more or less a Cinderella story. A fluffy fairy tale in which everyone gets what they deserve. You don’t read this for philosophical depths or “enlightenment”. If you read this book, you do it purely for entertainment; it’s the literary equivalent of candyfloss, a TV romcom or a soap opera. If that’s what you’re in the mood for, you can hardly go wrong w...

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren My rating: 4 of 5 stars “People who believe in soulmates commonly accept that one will feel 'complete' once they have found their soulmate, as it is partially in the perceived definition that two souls are meant to unite.” (Wikipedia contributors. (2023, May 17). Soulmate. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:12, June 8, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?… ) I don’t believe in soulmates. I believe in compatibility; in growing together, in growing in parallel and, yes, in growing apart. In fact, I feel that looking for someone else to “complete” oneself is, in many ways, highly problematic: Is such an expectation of a soulmate even realistic? Is anyone “incomplete” until such a soulmate has somehow materialised? It is important to cultivate a sense of self-worth and fulfilment outside of a romantic relationship, and to recognize that a partner should complement, rather than complete, one's life....

Slaughterhouse -Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. My rating: 1 of 5 stars » Another book, another June Another sunny afternoon Another season, another reason For breakin’ with classics! « (Based on “Makin’ Whoopee”, by Gus Kahn) So, 1969 is still too old for me or maybe it’s just that this rambling, repetitive, dated-feeling, non-linear novel is a true classic in the worst sense of the word! Supposedly, it focuses on the firebombing of Dresden during World War II but in fact, it’s more of an episodic play on war. The protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, is a prisoner of war, an optometrist and a time-traveller (since he suffered a brain trauma and had a major surgery done…) who experiences his life in a non-linear way and tells us about it. Actually, I’m tempted to say he threatens us, because he’s become convinced he’ll live forever, thus troubling us with his terrible anecdotes. Let’s get the most minor annoyance out of the way first: » So it goes. « - that phrase comes up exactly ...