Wulf's Book Reviews

2021 on Goodreads by Various My rating: 4 of 5 stars As I look back on reading in 2021 I find another mixed bag: Just like in 2020 , my average rating was a mere 3.5 Goodreads tells me and that feels about right. The year started on a high and hopeful note when Amanda Gorman recited her poem “ The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country ” at Biden’s inauguration. If Gorman’s ideas took hold, we’d really “raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.” The older I get the more difficult I find it to adapt to change. At the same time I realise a lack of adaption inevitably leads to obsolescence - in this case, my own. Thus, I was both challenged and delighted when my personal book of the year 2021, the unforgettable “ Girl, Woman, Other ” by Bernardine Evaristo , stormed against my own perceptions and prejudices and while not blowing them away, changing them. Helping me change. Also highly emotionally moving and absolutely brilliant was the revised and updated colle...

2023 has passed and I’ve read more during that year than usual. Sadly, though, reading-wise 2023 was a very mixed bag - 3.1 was my average rating, Goodreads helpfully informs me and it makes sense. There were some very good books, though, and on those I’m going to focus here: The most lasting reading impression of 2023 was made by something totally unexpected: Saga, a comic . It has magnificent, diverse, colourful characters that struggle in a universe that is so fantastically different from ours and yet so eerily familiar in some aspects. Saga’s wonderful art and, ultimately, its strong and unwavering support for being oneself and acting responsibly - it actually gives me hope. Gale Zoe Garnett’s “ Visible Amazement ” put me in a difficult spot: May I like a novel that has a 42 year old man have a sexual relationship with a 14 year old girl? Considering it’s up here with Saga, the answer I came up with after many discussions is obvious. The longer answer is in ...

I always look back on the previous year of reading at the start of the new one. 2022 turned out to be a rather mediocre reading year - whereas I usually get to an average rating of 3.5, 2022 only made it to 3.3 - and that also feels about right. I like to start a new year on a positive note, though, so I will concentrate on my reading highlights of 2022. Early in the year, I read the final instalment “ The Untold Story ” of Genevieve Cogman ’s “ Invisible Library ” series. It is a brilliant finale to a series about Irene, secret agent of the Invisible Library, permanently caught between the Dragons (Order) and the Fae (Chaos)… A wonderful blend of spy thrillers, fantasy, high stakes adventure with great characters, I’ve loved this series from start to end. » And here in the Library, even if our outer layer is order, we have an inner heart of chaos. We read too much for it to be anything else. « Another highlight came in February by way of the most misunde...