Milkman is this year's booker prize winner. It's an immensely interesting book.

It is completely unique to me in that I have never read anything like it before. The use of language was fascinating and I found myself re-reading sentences multiple times trying to see how they were formed. It reads as an internal monologue for an 18 year old girl in a divided city. The city is in fact Belfast during 'the troubles' in the 1970s. She appears to be part of a Catholic family and has lost a brother during the political conflict. Also, non of this is explicitly stated. What is strange and brilliant in the way that it's done is that no names are given. There is maybe-boyfriend, there is tablets girl, tablets girls sister, first sister, second sister, Somebody McSomebody, third brother-in-law and first brother-in-law. There is the country 'over the border' and the country 'across the water'. There is 'our religion' and 'their religion'. I would have thought this would have made things confusing and yet it doesn't. It also is more aligned to the general thought process in most people's heads. For instance, when I'm thinking of my brother's girlfriend, I don't think of her name. I think brother's girlfriend.

The monologue has elements of political happenings whilst also being extremely impartial. This is mainly because the narrator has a detached way of thinking/ writing. There are no overly expressed emotions or thoughts about the conflict. Instead it's more stating what is happening. The main feeling that is allowed to permeate to the reader is this feeling of claustrophobic paranoia. Small town politics, exasperated by the political and religious conflict, turn into a big brother experience. Rumours are made up and circulated, the gossip mill doesn't end, townspeople are separated into the ostracised 'beyond the pales' and others. There is a sense of anger, fear and desperation towards this.

Ultimately- I don't know if this will be one of those books I carry with me and remember throughout random moments in life but I would have regretted not giving it a go.

This is awful. It's so bad that I genuinely thought she was writing this for a laugh. I have read my fair share of badly written books and 'badly written' is a generous description for this.

It's worse than 50 Shades of Grey. That should speak volumes.

In this 'dystopia' there's every dystopian stereotype out there exaggerated to comical levels. There is an all-knowing big brother system, organ harvesting, baby blood sucking, lobotomised sex humans, sex robots which come in all shapes and sizes (including Elvis-bots and Marilyn-bots) and more.

The main characters are comically sex-crazed and one-sided. Stan can only think about humping women even in the middle of a potentially deadly mission. Charmaine is so so stupid that she's practically a robot already. The whole plot makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I still don't understand why Phil had to seduce Charmaine and I definitely don't understand why Jocelyn had to sleep with Stan.

Save yourself some time. Skip this.

I don't regularly read things on the Booker longlist and don't give much credence to the prize itself, however, this book looked incredibly interesting so I bought it.

To give a general overview, the reader is looking at a collection of documents which make up the book. The main plot is a triple murder carried out by Roderick Macrae,  a 17 year old from a village called Culduie. The book includes Roderick Macrae's own memoirs written in jail whilst awaiting his trial, several witness testimonials, post-mortem reports for the victims and a criminal psychologist's report on Roderick.

The book is always a "why did the crimes take place" rather than a "whodunnit". In this, I found it rather unusual and interesting but that may be due to my usual aversion to crime fiction. What really makes this book stand out is the background it's woven into. The classism and injustice prevalent in 19th century Scotland at parts made it difficult for me to read the book. The psychiatrist's report is especially difficult as it's obvious he expects physical differences between "learned gentlemen" and those of the "lower ranks". In fact, this form of classism is so commonplace at the time that Roderick is surprised when the psychiatrist wants to visit him in jail. He remarks " 'Have my crimes so elevated me that gentlemen now seek out my company?' ".

Their visit to the factor was one of the hardest passages I have read which and another example which signifies the injustice of their situation. Roderick and his father visit the factor as they are being bullied by the village constable and acquiring a multitude of fines due to not complying with the regulations. Therefore, they want to see the regulations. The factor responds "Of course, there are regulations, but you cannot see them. The regulations exist because we all accept that they exist and without them there would be anarchy." and goes on to accuse them of "wishing to consult the regulations in order that you might break them with impunity"

Getting back to the motive of the murders one is left with strong sympathy for Roderick. Regardless of why he committed the crime, the environment he grew up in was so unsupportive of his academic prowess and the cruelty he endured under both his father and his neighbour so strong that it's hard to imagine a person becoming the best they can be under the situation. I feel that Roderick would have turned out to be a completely different person had he been raised in a less harsh environment and most likely he would've avoided the psychological trauma which led him to the crimes.

The 'revelation' at the end of the book of an alternative motive didn't do much to add to the story for me. I suppose it was to lead the reader to think that Roderick might indeed have been a criminal at heart instead of just a young boy who wanted to avenge his family. It certainly makes Roderick's account untrustworthy but at this stage the reader had already seen inconsistencies between his account and the post-mortem reports. It made me question Roderick in a harsher light certainly but it couldn't take away for sympathy for him and the others who lived in this incredibly harsh environment.

I feel a strong sense of achievement at finishing this book which perhaps is not surprising considering it took me 2 full months (and various attempts to read it beforehand).

This is not usual of me so I will put it down to the flow of the book. The first two thirds was painfully slow with a high number of POVs and story lines some of which seemed entirely unnecessary. In fact, one POV is Quentyn of Dorne whom we follow throughout his journey from Dorne to Meereen for many chapters in his quest to marry Daenerys. In the end he gets burned. I can't see why GRRM has thought it's a good idea to introduce, write hundreds of pages about and then kill off a character when they do nothing remarkable to add to the story. There are more rather pointless additions to story line which do nothing for it but to make the sense of achievement upon completion even higher. 

I suppose GRRM's fondness for detail and lists has been oft mentioned so I needn't venture into details on that as well. 

The last third has been significantly less painful to read. I suppose this is because the focus has been on a few central characters and the story gets moving again. 

I'm sadly bought in to the story and will probably continue to read the series but the last two books haven't even been close to being good.

Title: The Goldfinch
Author: Donna Tartt
Language: 5/5
Content: 4/5
Overall: 9/10

Imagine a 864 page book centered around a not widely known painting by Fabritius called The Goldfinch (at least I hadn't heard of it which isn't saying much given my general ignorance on all manner of art) and you might not think much of it. The wide assumption would probably be that it's boring and in some ways that's not entirely inaccurate although boring is not the right word for it- slow-moving perhaps. My prejudice for the book stemmed not only from this mistaken expectation but also from my contempt towards any form of award-winning literature. As it happens, The Goldfinch is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2014. I will not get into the general views I hold about this award but this was probably the occasion I have been most delighted about being wrong.

The very heavy book is somehow poetic without being too descriptive. There are passages with extremely detailed description which almost read like a modern twist on classical Russian literature but the tone is mostly straightforward. It's almost a detached, matter-of-fact way of writing which stops the book from being the story of psychological development. This is no Crime and Punishment and even though the subject is a child who loses his mother at a young age under tragic circumstances, there isn't a Raskolnikov-esque internal struggle.

Instead, we watch Theo grow-up in broken environments and make choices as a result of those environments from a far-away camera lens without ever becoming him. If anything, it's a risky way of writing which makes the book stand out.

After losing his mother at a tragic museum bombing, Theo becomes obsessed (if that is the right word) with The Goldfinch but this extreme interest is more about what the painting becomes to him in time rather than a pure intellectual excitement. In a way, this makes the novel an ode to beauty in it's various forms and if I needed a short and sweet four word description that is what I would pick. The Goldfinch to Theo (a very clever and intellectual man) is a childhood memory, a piece of his mother, a widely-celebrated work of art but it's also his destruction and downfall. Towards the end Boris says "..I personally have never drawn such a sharp line between 'good' and 'bad' as you. For me: that line is often false. The two are never disconnected. One can't exist without the other." and that is probably the best summary.

This passage really spoke to me so I'd like to include it here: "And as much as I'd like to believe there's a truth beyond illusion, I've come to believe that there's no truth beyond illusion. Because between 'reality' on the one hand, and the point where the mind strikes reality, there's a middle zone, a rainbow edge where beauty comes into being, where two very different surfaces mingle and blur to provide what life does not: and this is the space where all art exists, and all magic. And-I would argue as well-all love."

*The product artwork I use within this review is taken from Wikipedia in order to identify the subject of the review. It is low enough in resolution such that it could not be used as counterfeit or pirated material.

Title: The Tent
Author: Miral al-Tahawy
Language: 4/5
Content: 4/5
Overall: 8/10

This novel reads like a fairy tale, or a dream. Time seems to play no part and images flow into each other seamlessly. 

This is a story told from the eyes of a Bedouin girl, Fatima, who floats between reality and dreams. Zahwa, her imaginary friend seems to be a counterpart to Fatima- living a parallel life. Fatima's life, as is typical of Bedouin girls, is spent amongst women. There is a depressed and hence absent mother, older sisters and a dominating and cruel grandmother. Her father, often absent, is like a distant, loving memory.

The novel is so beautifully written that the reader feels this incredible sense of suffocation whilst reading the book. It's as if we are in the story spiraling further from reality and into dreams with Fatima. The second overwhelming feeling is femininity. Something from the translator's notes stuck with me as I believe it is probably the single best description of this piece of literature. 

'There is no 'women's n' (nun al-niswa) in English, no feminine plural endings, no feminine nouns and adjectives, and it is hard to recreate the scent of woman that permeates the Arabic original of The Tent.'

Almost definitely not to the extent of the original, but the scent of woman permeates the translated version as well.

*The product artwork I use within this review is taken from Goodreads in order to identify the subject of the review. It is low enough in resolution such that it could not be used as counterfeit or pirated material

Title: Insurgent
Author: Veronica Roth
Language: 3/5
Content: 2/5
Overall: 5/10

Having read and enjoyed Divergent, I decided to give this a go as well. The language is to the same standard as Divergent but the story falls behind. There's a lot of repetition as well as the feeling that the characters are just going around in circles. 

Spoiler: They leave the city, they go back into the city and then leave the city again. Most of their actions seem to have absolutely no cause and the book fails to keep the reader interested. The final 'revelation' at the end of the novel also doesn't make much logical sense. 

All in all, I would give this book a miss- I am curious about the third novel in the trilogy but doubt I'll actually read it.

*The product artwork I use within this review is taken from Goodreads in order to identify the subject of the review. It is low enough in resolution such that it could not be used as counterfeit or pirated material.

Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Language: 3/5
Content: 3/5
Overall: 6/10

I decided to read this book after watching the film which may have influenced my opinion on it. The story is set in a dystopia where there are five sections which have set jobs in the city. These are Abnegation, Amity, Dauntless, Erudite and Candor. Without going into much detail: Abnegation are known for their selflessness and hence they run the government, Amity are peaceful and they work in agriculture, Dauntless are brave and they are the soldiers for the city, Erudite are clever and they work as scientists and teachers and Candor are honest and they run the legal system. In this universe children grow up in their parents section until they are 16 at which point they have an aptitude test telling them which section they would be best suited to. After this aptitude test they take place in the Choosing Ceremony where they can choose any section regardless of whether it is the one they are most suited to. However, once they choose a section they cannot really leave it or choose to do a job from a different section.

The universe reminded me slightly of the Hunger Games. However, I believe it is a successful book regardless. The story is definitely good and it is also extremely captivating. I had many a sleepless night caught up in the flow of the events.

The language is simple but easily readable. It does a good job of not taking away from the story. All in all, I would say that this was a good book and incredibly fun to read.

Title: The Cuckoo's Calling
Author: Robert Galbraith
Language: 3/5
Content: 3/5
Overall: 6/10

This is going to be a fairly short review and I have to start with a disclaimer. This might actually be the first mystery novel I have ever read. I didn't quite know what to expect as I have mixed feelings about J.K Rowling as a writer. I like the Harry Potter series as much as the next person but having also read The Casual Vacancy, I know she is equally capable of producing poorly thought out novels.

Here is what's good about it. Unlike The Casual Vacancy, this book flows. In fact, I found myself not being able to drop it at times. There is the odd forced simile that doesn't quite work which I've come to expect of J.K Rowling when she writes books for adults but otherwise, it is easy to read. There is nothing exceptional about the language but it's ok.

The same thing also goes for the content. As I said, I haven't read many mystery novels so I don't have a lot to compare this to but it seemed fairly run-of-the-mill. The mystery and the manner in which it was solved seemed realistic and plausible so that is definitely a point in favour of the novel but on the other hand the plot didn't seem to have anything extra-ordinary.

All in all, The Cuckoo's Calling was fun to read but I can't see it becoming a classic one day. A good beach read.

*P.S. I have finally decided to post regularly on my blog. You can expect a new post every Friday :)

Title: A Death In The Family
Author: Karl Ove Knausgaard
Language: 2/5
Content: 3/5
Overall: 5/10

I believe that a critically acclaimed book has to either use language very successfully or the content has to be strong. With an autobiography, often the focus is on language. This seems to be the case with 'A Death in the Family' but if so it is poorly implemented.

The autobiography at times almost seems like a detailed collection of random memories. It's as if you are reading someone's diary where every day has been written down in incredible detail. So it goes, a collection of memories that seem to have no importance or connection to each other. Other than the fact that every tiny detail is mentioned, the language is unremarkable. It lacks a flow which other books are often acclaimed for. An example is the following paragraph:

'The next morning I dropped by my grandparents', ate fresh rolls with them, then went to town, bought three records and a big bag of sweets, a few music magazines and a paperback, Jean Genet, Journal du Voleur. Had two beers while watching a televised English football match, one more while showering and changing, another while smoking the last cigarette before going out.'

Maybe the tempo was lost in translation and maybe if I had read the book in its original Norwegian I would have understood what all the hype is about but that doesn't really seem to be the case as the English translation also has many positive reviews.

Eventually, in the second half of the book, the writer loses his father. This is an opportunity for the writer to talk about his emotional journey- a change in content for the book. However, this also doesn't happen. We are left to read about his father's death and the funeral arrangements in an incredibly detailed yet non-committal language.

It may be that I have failed to grasp an experiment that the writer is conducting but this is what I know: I have struggled to read through this book and I am miffed that I bought vol. 2 as well as I can't see myself reading it in the near future.

Title: 40 Rules of Love
Author: Elif Safak
Language: 3/5
Content: 4/5
Overall: 7/10


This book is a story of parallels. Two parallel stories set centuries and worlds apart, to be exact. However, the stories and the people taking part in them have more in common that you'd think.

The Forty Rules of Love is, as you might imagine, a story about love in all it's forms. It includes friendship, romantic love and divine love and makes the reader question whether there is actually much of a difference between what we distinguish as different types of love.

On one hand, there is the story of Rumi and his love Shams Tabrizi and on the other hand is Ella, a typical American middle-class housewife. The novel switches between the two timelines allowing the reader to almost flow through the timeline in parallel universes. I personally believe it's a very successful way of setting out the book.

It definitely serves as a good introduction to Sufism and hopefully will cause people to read Rumi's poems. Sufism is incredibly interesting not only from a philosophical standpoint but also from the angle of religious interpretation and a book this popular is a non-negligible tool in raising awareness.

Other than that, I actually found some aspects of the novel childish, cliche even. Especially towards the end I felt like Safak got carried away with trying to form parallels and took the easy way out. She might have meant it to serve as yet another example of one of the Forty Rules: 'While the parts change, the whole remains the same. For every thief who departs this world, a new one is born. And every decent person who passes away is replaced by a new one. In this way not only does nothing remain the same but also nothing every really changes.' If so, not only is this an 'outer reading' of the rule, it is also a misrepresentation of the Sufi belief.

On a brighter note, I thought the language was flowing and devoid of forced sentences. It wasn't anything to write home about but it wasn't bad either.

There are however, also sophisticated pleasant details in the book such as every chapter starting with the letter B as it is in the Mathnawi.

All in all, I believe it was an enjoyable book to read which gave a reader-friendly introduction to a very important poet and his beliefs. At this point, I should say that I put off reading this book for years because I was hesitant about Elif Safak as a writer. I had read 'The Bastard of Istanbul' which I had loved but thought she wrote books on topics she knew would be popular. I also happened to read this book at a time in my life where I made a couple of major decisions. I am not sure if that also affected by views but I can easily say I very much enjoyed the book and am looking forward to reading a few of Safak's other books (starting with re-reading The Bastard of Istanbul)

I have finally decided to come up with a logical rating system. Something different to: if I like it it's a 7, if I reeaaally like it, it's an 8.5.

So I will use two different systems for films and books.

For films:

Cinematography and Acting (out of 5)
Content (out of 5)
Overall (out of 10)

For books:

Language (out of 5)
Content (out of 5)
Overall (out of 10)


In general:

1-Terrible. So bad I have struggled to read/watch the book/film. There is basically nothing good about it.
2-It's pretty bad but still readable/watchable. I didn't necessarily want to jump into the book/film and beat the characters up.
3-I liked some parts of it. Average.
4-Pretty good overall. Could've been great if not for some problems.
5-Awesome. There wasn't a single thing that was not perfect.


PS. There is a sneak peak of upcoming reviews.

Title: Black Sky, Black Sea
Author: Izzet Celasin
Score: 3/10

I was aimlessly wandering down the aisles of a Waterstones when I saw this book in the translated books section and after a quick inspection I was intrigued. It seemed to have something to do with the student protests in Turkey in the 70s and 80s (a subject the European world seems to be sadly ignorant of) and I hoped against all hope that it would feature the Black Sea region, fascinating for both it's natural beauty and the complex cultural history of its inhabitants.

I was incredibly disappointed. Not because there seemed to be no interest on the writer's part to give a cultural overview of the various minorities and regions in Turkey but because it didn't even give a thorough understanding of the political situation which forms the background to this story. Someone completely ignorant of the historical aspects of the setting can read this book and believe that the 'leftist' students were divided in two: the Maoists and the Soviet supporters. This is not only a pathetic simplification of the various groups that had formed throughout the decade but it is also disrespectful to the thousands imprisoned, tortured and executed (mostly under false charges) for having left-wing ideals.

The main character, Baris (meaning peace in Turkish) is annoyingly ignorant of the events around him and seems to not have an opinion at all. You might believe this is the writer's way of trying to be objective but this is also not the case. Not a single 'fascist' character features in the book either. Pimps and prostitutes do, but a single member of a right-wing group does not. The main and only connection to the politics of the time Baris has is through a girl he falls in love with. Zuhal, despite being a member of an armed guerrilla group, also doesn't seem to know what she believes in or what she is fighting against shattering the only political standing the book would have had.

The black sea region exists only as a backdrop to a poor re-enactment of one of the bloodiest massacres of the time, known as the Kizildere operation.

I realise that you might think the book will have adequate insight into a section of Turkey's history due to it winning some awards for best political novel but you would be wrong. I find it incredibly sad that due to the lack of books translated into English on this topic, books such as this can be given 'best political novel' awards. There are some very in depth novels and non-fiction books written on the topic in Turkish and the lack of English translations is absolutely appalling.

This brings me to my main point: if you want to read a book about a romantic teenager's relationship with various girlfriends, go for it. This book is probably what you're looking for. If instead you would like to gain some historical knowledge, skip it.

Title: And the Mountains Echoed
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Score: 8.5/10

I have read all three of Khaled Hosseini's books and as much as I loved The Kite Runner, I was as disappointed by A Thousand Splendid Suns. I felt like he used a formula to get as many readers as possible by churning out the same emotions and settings over and over again. To be completely honest, I expected this book to be similar.

I was wrong. Even though the back cover of the book more or less states that it's a story about two siblings whose lives are changed, this novel actually consists of many stories- all very loosely related. Understandably, the paths of the siblings and their family cross with many people, some of which have been explained and investigated thoroughly. The first-person narrative switches between these characters making the book very dynamic.

However, the best thing about this book was just seeing how mature of a writer Khaled Hosseini has become. There are no black and white characters. All personalities are extremely grey and human. On one hand there is Idris (who I believe is a character based on the author himself) whose willingness to help slowly disintegrates as he finds himself struggling with the usual problems at work and at home. He was one of my favourite characters because I found him to be a very honest description of many people. There are always more of us that want to help than ones that actually do help. Forgoing the stability and predictability we work our entire lives to acquire can't be easy.

Then there is Nila Wahdati, a woman overcome with the desire to be complete, without knowing what she actually needs or wants.

The relationships are as human and grey as the characters. A boy and his struggling relationship with his mother, the touching friendship of two men who live together for more than half a century, the yearning to find a long-lost sibling...

Another thing that really contrasted with the author's previous books and something that I believe is an improvement is that people from different cultural backgrounds feature into the story, adding wealth. The doctor from Greece, the many friends from France and the American neighbours all helped to enrich the book with their own little stories.

I HIGHLY recommend this book. The stories will be relatable to most readers and if not, everyone will recognise something of somebody in them. In this context, that is what makes this book a success.

Title: Damned
Author: Chuck Palahniuk
Score: 7/10

Damned is the story of 13 year old Madison who dies of a marijuana overdose (I know what you're thinking but there is an explanation in the book) and ends up in hell. Most of the book covers a very detailed, stomach-turning and ingenious description of hell. This description includes the geography of hell, of course, but also the social ladder. As we all might guess, hell is very crowded.

Where to begin? Chuck Palahniuk is one of my favourite authors. Invisible Monsters was literally like a punch in the face and I've come to the conclusion that there are two sides to every one of his books: the 'weird' side and the 'punch in your face social reality' side.

I will have to say that this book was more the latter than the former. The reality of children born into privileged families and spending their lives in boarding schools on different continents without the support of their caring and yet seemingly too busy and incapable parents is covered. But how could we forget details such as the Steaming Dog Pile Mountains and the Swamp of Rancid Perspiration?

Madison shows a remarkable degree of self-awareness and creates herself a new life in this new world, making friends along the way whilst slowly revealing her innermost thoughts and feelings which she initially hides behind a façade of teenager angst.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this book although it is very much an 'adult' book and is not for the weak hearted or those prone to involuntarily losing their lunch.

Title: Z: a Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
Author: Therese Anne Fowler
Score: 8/10

I absolutely loved this book! Having gone through a period of obsession with Gertrude Stein's 'Lost Generation', I had read a few books (Hemingway's 'A Moveable Feast' and Paula McLain's 'The Paris Wife') which made a few mentions of Zelda Fitzgerald which were not always flattering and I was intrigued by this 'crazy' woman.

Zelda Fitzgerald was a dancer, an artist, a writer and one of the few women at the time who refused to be in the shadow of their husband. Oh and also, she happened to be married to Scott Fizgerald.

The entire novel is an almost painful portrayal of the deterioration of their relationship, alongside some very raw depictions of Zelda's individual troubles: her desire to be known independently from her husband as well as her impatience and anger towards her husband's alcohol dependency.

Not many women will suddenly decide to become a ballet dancer at the age of 28 at the cost of practising 8-9 hours a day and not many women will succeed enough to get an offer from a professional company. This alone causes me to have the utmost respect for this most extra-ordinary woman and the novel that depicts her in a way she deserves to be depicted.

*The product artwork I use within this review is taken from Goodreads in order to identify the subject of the review. It is low enough in resolution such that it could not be used as counterfeit or pirated material.