Review 632: Neither Here nor There

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Bryson goes to many different countries across Europe, mostly revisiting places he had been to before with a friend of his several decades earlier.

He tries for humor, it mostly doesn't work with me. The exaggeration for comedic effect was overdone. All that is okay. My main gripe with his writing is how the exaggeration was often done as a way to denigrate the place, or generalize the people. Of course, there is also the suffering of Bryson.

As I was nearing the end of the book I was starting to wonder if I will ever read another of his books. Maybe. The last couple places he visits had tipped in his favor. So often he was describing his everyday experiences, mostly complaining, but with the last couple of places he visited, there is a small amount of history.

These locations were part of the USSR that broke up when the soviet communism collapsed. When Bryson was in Sofia, a city in Bulgaria, the people were struggling; inflation was rampant and there was practically no food to be found, except for the few tourists in the only hotel in the city. This chapter he treated with a bit more humanity than I would have expected based the previous 90% or so of the book. But it did take him a minute to get there. It’s hard to be a comedian when faced with such dire circumstances.

I’m not unhappy I read the book. Bryson visited many countries I visited while on a brief European tour of my own a couple decades ago and this book reminded me of my own experiences, which does improve my impression.

Review 562: There Are Rivers in the Sky

There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
My rating: 4.25 of 5 stars

There are three different story lines in the book. My favorite character is Arthur, named King Arthur of the Sewers and Slums. His name reflects where he was born and grew up, in extreme poverty. Arthur was an unusual boy as he had perfect memory, could even remember his birth, near the River Thames. Arthur’s time line is in the mid-1800s. His chapters are marked as O for oxygen, as the book has water as one of the themes.

The other two main characters are H for hydrogen. There is Zaleekhah, also in London and the most modern timeline in 2018. She is undergoing a change, a recent split with her husband and is a water scientist who just moved onto a houseboat. Then there is Narin, a young girl in Turkey and Iraq in 2014. Narin's story is the most unsettling, as her story is filled with persecution and horrendous treatment by others in her area, particularly ISIS.

All of the characters stories revolve around Mesopotamia, and the epic poem of Gilgamesh. There is only a slight intertwining of the three stories. This was good storytelling and well written. Quite enjoyed this book.

Much of the novel is based in historical fact, which makes it all the more poignant, particularly with the tragedies.

Review 412: Glowrushes

Glowrushes by Roberto Piumini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A strange fairy-tale/fable type book for kids. Very sad actually as the main character, a kid, is dying from an unknown disease. He is allergic to nearly everything and must stay inside his room in the castle. 

Takes place in Turkey but written by an Italian, also old, a classic. 

Review 244: Hotel Bosphorus

Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



"The first Kati Hirschel murder mystery". Yes, but the book seems to focus more on Kati's life than the murder mystery. We get her life as a bookseller of crime fiction in Istanbul, and being part German she is considered a foreigner, despite living her first 7 years of life there, and the last 13. A friend from school calls out of the blue saying she will be visiting while working on a film in the starring role. It is the next day after arrival the director is found dead in his room. And Kati is curious, gets caught up in trying to figure out who did it. Along the way she is nearly shagging every available guy. At one point Kati just about gives up trying to solve the case, much like the Turkish police. Some of this narrative is very odd.

The book was okay, the English translation may have lost some of the language as it felt stiff and awkward.

Not going to continue the series. Not my usual reading, usually don't read series, and the setting just wasn't strong enough to retain interest to continue.