Review 365: I Served the King of England

I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal
My rating: 2.75 of 5 stars


Likely closer to 2 stars, the book was absurd, and meant to be, but it was difficult reading. I barely continued reading, but went ahead since it was highly rated. The last portion of the book did redeem it. The author is a Czech, written during that time when occupied by the Russians, so there's a lot going on under the surface.

I read a few glowing reviews and I understand their affection, but I found the novel too absurd, gross, pitiful and outrageous. It is a wonder I did continue and finish the book, but this is one of those cases where the last portion makes it all worthwhile. The main character redeems himself slowly but surely.

It is ridiculous and meant to be that way, often where the unbelievable came true.

Review 364: The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard

The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard by David A. Goodman
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This was a fun read.

I did find it hard to "hear" Captain Picard's voice as I knew it from TNG, but as we got into that era it seemed to come out better.

There was a lot of glossing over events later in the book, letting the tv series and movies do the heavy lifting. If you haven't seen Star Trek this book likely wouldn't do much for you.

Review 363: Station Eleven

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked that the horrors of what people had to do at first to survive were left alone, not described, and some characters didn't remember those times. The counting of years was post the major event, the flu that wiped out the mass of population.

This was a book I wanted to read for a long while, happy to have finally gotten to it. Of course, during the recent pandemic I wasn't sure I wanted to explore this fictional world. Happily the real world wasn't nearly as devastating.

With the number of major characters and jumping around in time, it made the book feel there were masses of pages left on the cutting room floor. This easily could have been a much longer work. I kept wondering why the focus was around Arther lealand, the actor who dies of a heartache on stage the day the virus hit? But you need to have an anchor somewhere.

Review 362: Our Little World

Our Little World by Karen Winn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The setting takes place in the 80s, with the narrator looking back. There was a mystery, but the book is more about sisters. A neighbor girl vanished at the lake one day with so many people around, what happened? It's not something that's tried to solve directly, instead we have a junior high narrator. It reminds too well about all the anxiety of that age. oh, the awkwardness of junior high!

The story was just okay.

more tags: Sisters, missing persons, Death in the Family, Middle School, Family