Reviews and Comments

Very interesting book. A little confusing, either brilliantly and subtly on purpose, or accidentally, regarding the morality of the narrator. It seems easy to focus on Hannah and overlook Michael's life and actions. Thought provoking. My partner and I read this at the same time and it provoked many interesting conversations about guilt, disability, morality, punishment....

The story's structure is quite amazing. I want to read it again so that I can wander into the philosophical issues it raises—the first time around I had to follow the story. Really good.

Got this one for my youngest son for Christmas. We love ourselves some Sci-fi. I wasn't quite able to get to it before I gave it to him (I got my copy at the library) but I wanted to read it anyway so we could talk about it. It is of course one of those very fun, page-turner type things. I breezed through it. I like all the figuring-out stuff and the character is charming (if a bit thinly developed–where did he come from? who is he really? why is he so disconnected from meaningful peer relationships?) But it was fun and I think my son will like it, so well done, me.

Interesting look at the structure of institutions. I really enjoyed the opening chapters which describe the writers way to this book, a little mini-history of Pierre Bourdieu's life and turn from anthropology to sociology. Of course the book leans heavily on Bourdieu's work, bringing in recent-ish examples of how silo-ization of institutions really hurts risk assessment and progress. I skimmed some of the examples because it is a bit of more of the same, but the author clearly presents it as a series of examples one can read or not depending on one's interest. Sharing information, ideas, people, in the end, is a good. Secrecy and protectionism never ends well, kids.

Entertaining, fun read. Love the protagonist, she came to her no bullshit attitude honestly. The plot turns on one characters obsession with her and that felt a little forced...I never quite bought his anger at her. But overall, very enjoyable I'm-on-vacation read.

I got this for my daughter. I wanted to get her a book written by a Caribbean writer that was not devastatingly bleak (she's had a tough year). The Housing Lark is wonderful. The characters are so endearing, the writing is musical, the story is laugh out loud funny but also poignant...highly recommend.

I gave this to son number 2 instead of The Wild Sheep Chase. He loves food, is half Sicilian (I mean, all my kids are, but he really loves food and cookbooks) and I had just read a book he left at my house accidentally (haha read it before I returned it to him) called Tokyo Gangster which was really interesting post WWII history of Japan and a particular Italian American gangster who rose and fell in several cycles in Tokyo during that fascinating time. Turns out, my son had already read Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil..so that's a bummer. But, if you are interested to know a little more about olive oil, why it is so good, enduring, and corruptible...read this book.

This was what I choose for my oldest son instead (I had purchased it with the idea of giving it to my second son—I have 5 children so this is busy reading time for me since I am committed to reading what I give). An enjoyable, funny book, more wry than funny. The ending was a little unemotional and I am anxious for my son to read it so we can talk about what we think was going on. It had a film noir feel and maybe that genre's surrender to the shittyness of the world interpolated with an occasional good thing was the point...not sure, but I enjoyed the story.